Write Up Software for Accountants: Client Write Up Software and CPA Write Up Software Compared on Price

What client write up software actually does

After-the-fact write-up is the oldest recurring service in a small CPA practice. The client hands over bank statements, a check register and a shoebox, or a login to a bank feed, and the firm posts the month, reconciles the accounts, books the adjustments and hands back a set of statements. Write-up software is the product built for that cycle: fast heads-down entry across many client files, bank and credit card reconciliation, a working trial balance, and usually client payroll plus 1099, W-2 and 94x forms because the same firms do that work too.

The statements are where the engagement becomes visible to the client. Every suite prints a balance sheet and an income statement from its ledger, and most let you customize the layout. What they print is a report of the ledger. The cash flow statement is often thin or missing, commentary is not part of the product, and a partner still rebuilds the pack in Excel or Word before it goes out under the firm's name.

That is the split this page is about. Buy write-up software for the ledger, payroll and forms. Judge it separately on how long it takes to go from a closed month to a pack the client actually reads, because that is the part your client pays for and the part your staff hours disappear into.

CPA write up software prices, read from the vendors

Prices in this category are unusually hard to pin down, because directory sites repeat figures that are years old. Every number below was read from the vendor's own page on 27 September 2026. Where a vendor publishes nothing, we say so rather than quote a directory estimate.

Drake Accounting is the cheapest published full write-up product. Drake's sales page lists the 2027 Professional edition at $795 a year, with an early price of $695 through 30 November, and the Forms edition at $395 a year. Professional covers bookkeeping, live and after-the-fact payroll, AP and AR, bank reconciliation and financial reports; Forms is only the federal and state payroll forms and e-filing. Both include unlimited clients, payrolls and installs per site. It is Windows desktop software and it exports straight into Drake Tax, which is why most of its buyers are Drake Tax shops. The full breakdown is in Drake Accounting pricing.

Dillner's Full Contact Accounting publishes a fee sheet: the Write Up module is a one-time $1,400 setup and training fee plus $265 a month for updates and support, with a $20 monthly forms fee. Write Up plus Payroll is $2,200 setup and $360 a month. Every package includes unlimited clients and staff users. It runs on a local network with Crystal-based report customization.

Intuit EasyACCT is sold as an annual license and exports to Lacerte and ProSeries. Intuit blocks automated reads of its pages, so check the current figure on the ProConnect site before you budget. Thomson Reuters Accounting CS publishes no price at all; our Accounting CS pricing write-up explains how the quote is built. AccountantsWorld Accounting Power, the cloud write-up product, shows no price on its current product page either. QuickBooks Online Accountant costs the firm nothing, but each client pays for its own QuickBooks Online subscription.

Accounting write up software vs a statement tool: which one do you need?

If the client has no books at all and your firm is the bookkeeper, you need a ledger. That means one of the write-up suites above, or a QuickBooks Online file you manage for the client. AIStatements is not a ledger. It does not post transactions, reconcile a bank account, run payroll or e-file a W-2, and a firm that expects it to will be disappointed.

If the books already exist, because the client keeps QuickBooks or Xero or because your staff finished the write-up in Drake or Dillner's, the remaining job is the deliverable. That is where AIStatements fits. Export the general ledger or the adjusted trial balance, upload it, and the tool builds the profit and loss statement, the balance sheet and the statement of cash flows, checks that they tie, writes the plain-English analysis and exports a PDF and an Excel workbook.

Most small firms end up with both. The write-up suite stays for payroll and forms, which it does well and cheaply, and the statement pack moves to a tool built for it. The cost math is simple: if a senior spends two hours per client each month formatting statements and writing the cover letter, 25 clients is 50 hours a month, and our Firm plan is $289 a month billed yearly.

How the monthly write-up pack works in AIStatements

Close the month where you already do the write-up. Export the trial balance or general ledger detail from Drake Accounting, Accounting CS, QuickBooks Desktop, QuickBooks Online, Xero or any system that writes a CSV. Upload it to the client's workspace.

AIStatements maps the accounts to statement lines, builds the three statements, and checks the ties: net income flows into retained earnings and ending cash on the cash flow statement matches cash on the balance sheet. It computes margins, current ratio, days sales outstanding, burn and runway where they apply, and flags lines that look wrong before anyone signs.

On the Firm plan every client has its own workspace, a reviewer approves the pack before it can be exported, and the PDF goes out under your firm's name with a client share link. The trial balance route is covered step by step on trial balance to financial statements, and the compilation side on financial statement compilation software.

Who buys this, and who should not

The firm that gets the most out of it is a US practice of one to twenty people doing monthly or quarterly write-up for small business clients, issuing management-use statements or SSARS compilations, and charging a fixed monthly fee that the statement prep is quietly eating. The same holds for a bookkeeping firm whose clients already run QuickBooks Online and who wants to sell a proper monthly report on top.

It is the wrong purchase if what you actually need is payroll and forms software, or an audit and engagement platform with workpapers and tickmarks. For the first, Drake Accounting Forms at $395 a year is hard to beat. For the second, see audit software for CPA firms. And if Thomson Reuters is moving you off Accounting CS, the options are laid out on Accounting CS alternative.

Common questions