Is Clear Books really free for MTD Income Tax?
Yes, and it is the strongest free MTD ITSA offer we found. The Sole Trader Free and Property Free plans both include MTD Income Tax quarterly updates and MTD Income Tax year-end tax return filing, free forever. What they exclude is phone and email support (community forum only), automated bank feeds, invoicing and receipt scanning. If ITSA compliance is the whole job and you are happy importing transactions manually, that is a genuinely good deal.
Does HelloBooks handle MTD for Income Tax?
No, and we will not imply otherwise. HelloBooks is MTD-ready for VAT. MTD for Income Tax quarterly submission is not a shipped feature. ITSA became mandatory from 6 April 2026 for sole traders and landlords above the threshold, so if that applies to you, Clear Books does something we do not. Talk to our sales team for the current UK roadmap position in writing rather than relying on a comparison page.
What does Clear Books cost in 2026?
All prices ex VAT, checked 29 July 2026. Sole traders: Free £0; Sole Trader £5 plus VAT a month; Sole Trader + VAT £15 plus VAT a month. Landlords: Property Free £0; Property £5 plus VAT a month, with no VAT tier offered. Business: Small £16.00, Medium £34.00, Large £44.00 a month, all with unlimited users, with 50% off the first three months, 10% off annual billing and 20% off two-year. Payroll is a separate add-on at £5.40 a month for two employees then £2.70 per employee.
What does HelloBooks cost in the UK?
Free forever with 2,500 AI credits a month and up to two users. Pro is £7.99/month or £79.99/year against a list price of £15.99, with unlimited users, unlimited bank connections, MTD-ready VAT, multi-entity, API access, inventory, three-way matching and multi-currency all included. Business is £31.99/month or £319.99/year.
Why is MTD VAT more expensive on Clear Books?
Because of how the tiers are drawn. MTD VAT reporting, the flat-rate scheme and the VAT domestic reverse charge sit on Sole Trader + VAT at £15 plus VAT a month, or on the Medium business plan at £34 a month. On HelloBooks, MTD-ready VAT is included in Pro at £7.99 a month alongside everything else. For a VAT-registered sole trader, that is roughly half the cost for a broader product — though without ITSA filing.
How much AI does Clear Books actually have?
One shipped feature, narrowly scoped: AI account-code suggestion, which takes text, documents or images and suggests account codes. Clear Books states it is available now and powers the experience of thousands of customers. What is explicitly roadmap and not yet available: HMRC self-assessment form box numbers, VAT rates, and customer and supplier data. Do not read "AI-powered" broadly here — only categorisation has shipped, and which plans include it is not published.
What AI does HelloBooks include?
AI auto-categorization at 95%+ accuracy, OCR bill and receipt capture with smart line-item extraction, Munimji — a conversational accounting assistant with 60+ tools — AI payables with approval routing, AI calling for overdue receivables, a CFO agent, Auto-Inbox capture from email and photos, smart error detection, Period Autopilot for automated month-end close and depreciation, and an AI Analysis tab on every standard report, plus a public read-only MCP server. The Free plan includes 2,500 AI credits a month.
Are bank feeds free on Clear Books?
No — and this is the main limitation of its free tiers. Open Banking auto-import of bank transactions starts at the £5 plus VAT sole trader and property plans, and from the Small plan for businesses; the free plans explicitly exclude automated bank feeds. HelloBooks includes bank connectivity on every plan, with UK bank feeds, Plaid across 11,000+ US banks and cards, and PDF statement upload with AI reconciliation as a universal fallback.
Does HelloBooks do UK payroll?
No, and this is a clear reason to keep or add Clear Books. Clear Books payroll is a paid add-on but a proper one: RTI submissions to HMRC at the click of a button, auto-enrolment assessment, pension as a percentage or fixed amount, HMRC-recognised, at £5.40 a month for two employees then £2.70 per employee with no cap. HelloBooks does not ship UK payroll; India payroll runs through our sibling product HelloTime.
Which has better reporting?
HelloBooks on depth, Clear Books on data access. Reporting is the most consistent criticism in Clear Books G2 reviews — presentation and tailoring both flagged as inadequate. HelloBooks produces P&L, balance sheet, cash flow, aged receivables and payables, general ledger, trial balance, financial ratios with industry benchmarks, and 4/12/26-week cash-flow forecasting with base, best and worst scenarios, with an AI Analysis tab on every report. That said, Clear Books' public API exposing the general ledger, trial balance and journals is a real advantage for anyone building their own reporting.
Can I get my data out of Clear Books?
Yes, and unusually well. Its public OAuth 2 REST API, documented at api-docs.clearbooks.co.uk with a downloadable OpenAPI spec, gives programmatic access to the general ledger, trial balance, journals, invoices, bills, payments, bank accounts and transactions, stock items and VAT treatments. API access is gated to the Small plan and above. That makes a complete machine-readable extraction achievable, which is rare at this price point.
What do Clear Books users complain about?
Reporting first — inadequate presentation and limited tailoring, across multiple G2 reviews. Then performance: a Capterra UK reviewer in February 2023 says the software can be slow, causing frustration, and G2 reviewers mention freezing and no auto-save. Cost after the introductory period comes up for budget-conscious small businesses, as does frequent interface churn, difficulty applying credits and funds, and struggling with large volumes of banking transactions. Multi-currency being locked to the top tier is a repeated gripe.
Can I migrate from Clear Books to HelloBooks?
Yes, and more cleanly than from most UK products because of the API. Pull chart of accounts, customers, suppliers, invoices, bills, payments and journals via the REST API or CSV, then import into HelloBooks — the chart-of-accounts import uses AI to read your existing structure, retain nominal codes and map intelligently. The flow at /migrate includes a dry-run preview and one-click rollback so you can test the cutover before committing.
Should I use both?
For a VAT-registered sole trader in 2026/27, that is a reasonable answer. Clear Books Free handles your MTD Income Tax quarterly updates and year-end return at no cost, while HelloBooks Free — also free forever, with 2,500 AI credits a month — lets you test AI categorisation, reporting depth and inventory on the same transactions. Neither has a trial clock, so you lose nothing by running both for a quarter.