Is QuickFile really free?
Yes, with a specific threshold. QuickFile is free while your nominal ledger entry count over a rolling twelve months stays under 1,000 — the XS band up to 200 entries, S from 201 to 500 and M from 501 to 1,000 are all free, with unlimited users, 2FA, MTD-compatible VAT returns, invoicing, a branded client portal, multi-currency, reporting, API access and automated backups included. It is one of the most generous free tiers in UK accounting software.
When does QuickFile start charging?
At the Large band — 1,001 to 4,000 nominal ledger entries in a rolling twelve months — the Power User Subscription becomes mandatory at £60 + VAT a year. It rose from £45 + VAT on 1 November 2022, the first increase since 2016. Above 40,000 entries you need an enterprise plan on custom quotation. Note the threshold is ledger entries, not turnover, so a low-revenue business with high transaction volume can hit it sooner than expected.
Can I file MTD for Income Tax on the free QuickFile plan?
No, and this is the most important detail on this page. QuickFile's own guide states the MTD for Income Tax module requires a Power User subscription. MTD for Income Tax was mandated from 6 April 2026 for sole traders and landlords above the threshold, so if that applies to you, QuickFile is £60 + VAT a year rather than free. The module itself is well built — quarterly updates from invoice and expense data, a year-end final declaration, and 3-line accounts for turnover under £90,000, with QuickFile having supported the HMRC pilot since April 2025.
Does HelloBooks file MTD for Income Tax?
HelloBooks is MTD-ready for VAT. We are not claiming MTD for Income Tax quarterly submission as a shipped feature. If MTD ITSA filing is your requirement for 2026/27, QuickFile genuinely ships it today and we would rather tell you that than have you discover it after switching. Talk to our sales team if you want the current UK roadmap position in writing.
What does HelloBooks cost in the UK?
Free forever with no entry threshold — 2,500 AI credits per month, up to two users, unlimited invoices, bills, quotes and purchase orders, AP and AR aging, P&L, balance sheet and cash flow, and the full mobile app. Pro is £7.99/month or £79.99/year with unlimited users, unlimited bank connections, multi-entity, API access, inventory, three-way matching and multi-currency. Business is £31.99/month or £319.99/year.
Are QuickFile bank feeds free?
No. Automated bank feeds across 50+ UK banking institutions via Open Banking are a £15 + VAT per year add-on. This is a recurring complaint in Capterra reviews — one reviewer said feeds "could be packaged with the software rather than an added extra". HelloBooks includes bank connectivity in the plan, with UK bank feeds, Plaid across 11,000+ US banks and cards, and PDF statement upload with AI reconciliation as a universal fallback.
How does QuickFile's AI receipt analysis compare?
QuickFile's own support documentation describes it as a beta feature. It extracts supplier, date and VAT from receipts and invoices and pre-populates tagging using your historical patterns, priced pay-as-you-go from a credit balance at 4p per scan with Power User or 10p without. Power User is not required, just cheaper. HelloBooks includes OCR with AI line-item extraction and auto-categorization at 95%+ accuracy from one credit wallet — 2,500 credits a month even on the Free plan, with no per-scan charge.
What else does HelloBooks AI do?
Beyond capture: auto-categorization at 95%+ accuracy, 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. There is also a public read-only MCP server at agents.hellobooks.ai/mcp.
Which gives more users?
QuickFile, on the free tier. It offers unlimited users with 2FA on every plan including free, which is unusually generous. HelloBooks Free supports two users, with unlimited users and role-based permissions on Pro and Business. If you need five people in the books at zero cost, QuickFile does that and we do not.
Does QuickFile do inventory?
Not as a published capability — QuickFile is bookkeeping rather than an operations platform. HelloBooks includes item master, bill of materials, FIFO, LIFO and weighted-average valuation, goods-receipt notes, low-stock alerts and forecasting from Pro, plus a warehouse module with receiving, put-away, wave picking and cycle counting, POS, restaurant and manufacturing with MRP and job costing — with every movement posting to valuation and the general ledger in the same transaction.
What are the common criticisms of QuickFile?
From Capterra: it is "so complicated for the average user who doesn't have a financial degree", in-depth entries and reports are hard to grasp, bank reconciliation being a paid extra is resented, and reviewers want more integrations. Structurally, the free tier silently becomes paid once you cross 1,000 ledger entries, and MTD for Income Tax sits behind the paywall. The Capterra review base is small at 14 reviews, so weigh it accordingly.
How do I get my data out of QuickFile?
The documented routes are a weekly or monthly back-up under Account Settings, which emails a full data file, and the Document Manager under Account Settings > Tools for downloading uploaded files individually. The exact export file formats and completeness are not spelled out in QuickFile's official documentation — most of the guidance is community-sourced — so run a test export before you commit to a migration date.
How do I migrate to HelloBooks?
Export your chart of accounts, customers, suppliers, items, invoices and bills to CSV, then import them into HelloBooks. The chart-of-accounts import uses AI to read your existing structure, retain nominal codes and map intelligently, so your team is not re-learning account numbers. The flow at /migrate includes a dry-run preview and one-click rollback so you can test the cutover before committing, and CSV and Excel import work throughout.
Is HelloBooks a UK product?
It is a global platform with live UK support rather than a UK-only product. UK coverage includes GBP invoicing, MTD-ready VAT, UK bank feeds and UK-specific content. Filing automation is live in India, the US, the UK, Australia and the UAE, with tax vocabulary and rate cards across 187 countries. QuickFile is UK-specific and goes deeper on UK-only integrations such as Companies House and HMRC.
Is HelloBooks secure?
HelloBooks is SOC 2 Type II certified, with the report available under NDA through the Trust Center; ISO 27001 is on the compliance roadmap and we do not describe it as certified. Data is encrypted with AES-256 at rest and TLS 1.2+ in transit, MFA is available, hosting is AWS with 99.9% uptime and daily encrypted backups, and bank connections are read-only. HelloBooks is GDPR-aligned; sub-processors and residency detail are at /trust-center.
Should a UK sole trader just stay on QuickFile?
If you are under 1,000 ledger entries a year, have no stock, no team and no non-UK trading, then honestly yes — free is free, and QuickFile does the job. The case for moving is when one of those changes: you cross the threshold, you start carrying stock, you need AI doing the categorisation, you add people, or you start trading outside the UK. Our Free plan has no threshold, so you can run both in parallel for a month and decide on evidence rather than argument.