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The general ledger itself — where transactions land, how they get classified, and how the local tax return comes out the other end. In Quebec the deciding constraint is usually gst+qst · 0.14975% combined, administered by Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) — so that is what every product below is judged against first.
Showing Quebec, Canada — CAD, GST/HST, YYYY-MM-DD.
Search, sort, and filter the matrix. Every value is a word, not a tick — so nothing depends on colour to be understood.
Showing 13 of 13 criteria.
| Criterion | Built for this market | Built for this market | Available here | Available here | Available here |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local tax return from the ledgerWhether the periodic indirect-tax return is built from posted transactions, or has to be assembled somewhere else. | GST/HST return from the ledger — Fully supported | GST/HST return prepared — Fully supported | GST/HST reports — Supported with a caveat | Manual tax rates only — Limited | GST/HST reports — Supported with a caveat |
| Bank feedsHow transactions get in: a live connection to the bank, or a file you download and upload. | Big five plus credit unions — Fully supported | Big five plus credit unions — Fully supported | Major banks — Supported with a caveat | Paid tier — Supported with a caveat | Available — Supported with a caveat |
| AI categorisationWhether transactions, bills, and receipts are classified by a model or by hand-written rules. | Included on every plan — Fully supported | Learned rules — Supported with a caveat | Bank rules and suggestions — Supported with a caveat | Basic rules — Limited | Rules-based — Limited |
| Multiple entitiesWhether a second legal entity fits in the same subscription or needs a second one. | Included — Fully supported | One company per subscription — Not supported | One organisation per subscription — Not supported | Multiple businesses per login — Supported with a caveat | Separate subscription per business — Limited |
| Accountant accessWhether your advisor gets a login, and whether that login costs a seat. | Free, unlimited — Fully supported | Free accountant seat — Fully supported | Free advisor seat — Fully supported | Invite a collaborator — Supported with a caveat | Accountant access — Supported with a caveat |
| Pricing modelHow the bill scales — per user, per company, per module, or per transaction volume. | Per organisation — Fully supported | Per company, seat-limited tiers — Limited | Per organisation, tiered limits — Limited | Free tier available — Fully supported | Tiered per business — Supported with a caveat |
| InventoryStock tracking depth, and whether it costs extra. | Included — Fully supported | Higher tiers only — Supported with a caveat | Basic; deeper via apps — Supported with a caveat | Not available — Not supported | Higher tiers — Supported with a caveat |
| Migration inHow much work it is to bring existing books across. | Assisted, included — Fully supported | Import tools and partner services — Supported with a caveat | Conversion tools and partners — Supported with a caveat | CSV import — Limited | Migration tooling — Supported with a caveat |
| Local supportSupport in local hours, in local languages, by people who know the local rules. | ET business hours — Fully supported | Canadian support — Fully supported | Smaller Canadian advisor network — Supported with a caveat | Email and chat — Limited | Canadian support — Supported with a caveat |
| Integrations and APIMarketplace breadth and whether there is an open API. | Open REST API + webhooks — Fully supported | Large app marketplace — Fully supported | Large app marketplace — Fully supported | Limited — Limited | Moderate — Supported with a caveat |
| Multi-currencyForeign-currency invoicing and revaluation, and which tier it starts at. | Included — Fully supported | Higher tiers only — Supported with a caveat | Top tier only — Supported with a caveat | Limited — Limited | Higher tiers — Supported with a caveat |
| Mobile appWhat you can actually finish on a phone, not just view. | iOS and Android — Fully supported | iOS and Android — Fully supported | iOS and Android — Fully supported | Invoicing and receipts — Supported with a caveat | Core tasks — Supported with a caveat |
| Works offlineWhether the product is usable without a connection. | Cloud only — Limited | Cloud only — Not supported | Cloud only — Not supported | Cloud only — Not supported | Desktop line is offline — Supported with a caveat |
Local tax return from the ledger
Whether the periodic indirect-tax return is built from posted transactions, or has to be assembled somewhere else.
Bank feeds
How transactions get in: a live connection to the bank, or a file you download and upload.
AI categorisation
Whether transactions, bills, and receipts are classified by a model or by hand-written rules.
Multiple entities
Whether a second legal entity fits in the same subscription or needs a second one.
Accountant access
Whether your advisor gets a login, and whether that login costs a seat.
Pricing model
How the bill scales — per user, per company, per module, or per transaction volume.
Inventory
Stock tracking depth, and whether it costs extra.
Migration in
How much work it is to bring existing books across.
Local support
Support in local hours, in local languages, by people who know the local rules.
Integrations and API
Marketplace breadth and whether there is an open API.
Multi-currency
Foreign-currency invoicing and revaluation, and which tier it starts at.
Mobile app
What you can actually finish on a phone, not just view.
Works offline
Whether the product is usable without a connection.
Criteria are scoped to Canada: rows that would be meaningless here are not shown rather than being padded with "not applicable". Where we have not verified a capability for this market, the cell says "Not documented" rather than claiming a gap.
CAD billing with place-of-supply tax and QST handled natively.
Long-established Canadian edition with GST/HST and QST handling.
Canadian edition with GST/HST support.
Canadian-founded; GST/HST rates are supported but entered manually.
Canadian editions exist, including a long-standing desktop line.
Same in Quebec as everywhere else in Canada — pricing is national, not regional.
Prices are in CAD and exclude GST/HST/QST, which is applied at your place of supply. Per organisation with unlimited users. Verified .
We describe the pricing model rather than reprinting prices. A copied price goes stale without warning; a pricing model does not.
QuickBooks Online
Per company file, tiered by feature, with seat limits per tier.
Current QuickBooks Online pricing (opens on the vendor’s own site) ↗ · model checked
Xero
Per organisation, tiered, with feature limits per tier.
Current Xero pricing (opens on the vendor’s own site) ↗ · model checked
Wave
Free tier plus a paid tier; revenue comes mainly from payment processing.
Current Wave pricing (opens on the vendor’s own site) ↗ · model checked
Sage Accounting
Tiered subscription; desktop line sold separately.
Current Sage Accounting pricing (opens on the vendor’s own site) ↗ · model checked
Each page below goes deeper on one product, written for Quebec.
HelloBooks vs QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks Canada is the default — what does the alternative give me?
Compare for Quebec →
HelloBooks vs Xero
Xero in Canada — is the tax handling good enough?
Compare for Quebec →
HelloBooks vs Wave
Wave is free and Canadian — when do I outgrow it?
Compare for Quebec →
HelloBooks vs Sage Accounting
We are on a Sage product and want to move to cloud.
Compare for Quebec →
| Requirement | What it demands | HelloBooks |
|---|---|---|
| Place-of-supply rulesLegal requirement · CRA ↗ | The applicable tax follows the place of supply, not the seller location, so a national seller applies different rates per customer province. | Covered |
| Small supplier thresholdLegal requirement · CRA ↗ | Registration becomes mandatory once worldwide taxable supplies exceed the small-supplier threshold over four consecutive calendar quarters. | Covered |
| QST registration for QuebecLegal requirement · Revenu Québec ↗ | Supplying into Quebec can require a separate QST registration and filing with Revenu Québec alongside the federal return. | Covered |
| French-language commercial documentsLegal requirement · Office québécois de la langue française ↗ | Invoices, contracts, and customer-facing documents used in Quebec must be available in French. | Partly covered |
| T4A slips for contractor paymentsLegal requirement · CRA ↗ | Certain payments to contractors and service providers must be reported on a T4A information slip. | Partly covered |
Quebec uses the GST+QST model — GST (federal) 0.05% + QST (provincial) 0.09975%, 0.14975% combined. GST and QST are separate taxes with separate registrations, and QST is filed with Revenu Québec.
Region authority: Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) ↗ · Quebec compliance guide
Partly. Quebec uses the GST+QST model — GST (federal) 0.05% + QST (provincial) 0.09975%, 0.14975% combined. GST and QST are separate taxes with separate registrations, and QST is filed with Revenu Québec. The national GST/HST rules are the same wherever you are registered, so the software shortlist barely moves — what moves is the configuration. Anything you choose has to handle gst+qst · 0.14975% combined correctly on every invoice without you remembering to set it per transaction.
Supplies with a place of supply in Quebec are taxed at 0.14975% (GST (federal) 0.05% + QST (provincial) 0.09975%). GST and QST are separate taxes with separate registrations, and QST is filed with Revenu Québec. Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is the authority to check for anything region-specific — see https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/businesses/topics/gst-hst-businesses/gst-hst-account/register-account.html.
Pricing is national, not regional: $20 and $50 per month, billed annually, in CAD, plus a free tier. Prices are in CAD and exclude GST/HST/QST, which is applied at your place of supply. Prices are per organisation with unlimited users, so a business in Quebec pays the same as one anywhere else in Canada.
In practice the shortlist here is usually QuickBooks Online, Xero, Wave — those are the products with the most local install base and the most CPAs who already know them. That familiarity is a genuine cost saving, and it is the main reason to stay put if nothing else is broken.
Yes, and at no extra cost. Advisors get their own login with their own permissions, and the seat is free — so bringing in a Quebec-based CPA does not change your bill. That matters most where the advisor relationship, not the software, is the real switching cost.
Each market has its own tax regime, currency, and shortlist of incumbents. Switch to the one where your business is registered.
Canada comparison hub · All provinces and territories · Canada compliance hub