Finance AI Index
September 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index › Accounting and close › September 2026 Edition

Accounting software

Asked as “accounting software”, and as “general ledger software”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 48 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Sage Intacct
Contested
40% of first choices, contested.
ShowinginAll 41 categories in the September 2026 Edition →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.
Small businessQuickBooks Online51%Clear leaderStanding →Mid-marketSage Intacct40%ContestedThis pageEnterpriseOracle NetSuite35%ContestedStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Sage Intacct40%3%36endorsed leader
02Wave21%19%27accepted challenger
03Oracle NetSuite15%15%40accepted challenger
04Zoho Books8%11%27accepted challenger
05Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central8%6%18accepted challenger
Show the five products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
09QuickBooks Online0%46%35criticized challenger
10QuickBooks0%43%14criticized challenger
06Xero0%19%43accepted challenger
07FreshBooks0%8%24accepted challenger
08Acumatica0%0%16accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.
Head to head
Sage Intacct vs WaveSage Intacct vs Oracle NetSuiteWave vs Oracle NetSuite

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01Sage Intacct40%
02Wave21%
03Oracle NetSuite15%
04Zoho Books8%
05Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central8%
06Xero0%
07FreshBooks0%
08Acumatica0%
09QuickBooks Online0%
10QuickBooks0%

02What they warned about

Seven of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, Mistral Small, Llama 4 Maverick, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
QuickBooks Online
46%
16 of 35 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“QuickBooks Online (Intuit) – Highest Caution (Risk Score: 54/100)... Avoid if: You need reliable support or stable pricing” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
QuickBooks
43%
6 of 14 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“criticizing QuickBooks for being unreliable, buggy, and having poor customer support. Some users recommend avoiding it” Mistral Small, negative prompt
Wave
19%
5 of 27 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“the main ones to be cautious about are **QuickBooks Self-Employed**, **Wave** for growing or inventory-heavy businesses” Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt
Oracle NetSuite
15%
6 of 40 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“For a freelancer or a startup, they are overkill... often leads to wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars and project failure.” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: twelve of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

62 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 666 links across 215 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

learn.g2.com
19 answers · 19 citations · 7 models
thecfoclub.com
15 answers · 17 citations · 10 models
ramp.com
vendor site · Ramp15 answers · 16 citations · 9 models
worldmetrics.org
14 answers · 23 citations · 9 models
capterra.com
13 answers · 22 citations · 7 models
pcmag.com
13 answers · 13 citations · 8 models
softwareconnect.com
12 answers · 13 citations · 8 models
forbes.com
11 answers · 13 citations · 8 models
dualentry.com
vendor site · DualEntry11 answers · 11 citations · 9 models
softwareadvice.com
10 answers · 10 citations · 6 models
reddit.com
9 answers · 20 citations · 7 models
finstackk.com
vendor site · FinStackk9 answers · 10 citations · 5 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

learn.g2.com/best-accounting-software
16 answers · 7 models
pcmag.com/picks/the-best-small-business-accounting-software
12 answers · 8 models
forbes.com/advisor/business/software/best-accounting-software
10 answers · 8 models
dualentry.com/blog/best-general-ledger-software
9 answers · 9 models
guideflow.com/blog/general-ledger-software
9 answers · 9 models
softwarefinder.com/resources/general-ledger-software
9 answers · 9 models
worldmetrics.org/best/mid-market-accounting-software
9 answers · 9 models
cnbc.com/select/best-accounting-software-for-small-businesses
8 answers · 7 models
ramp.com/blog/general-ledger-software
8 answers · 8 models
worldmetrics.org/best/b2b-accounting-software
8 answers · 7 models

04How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ModelDirect“What is the best accounting software for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which general ledger software would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top accounting platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best accounting software for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating an accounting software. What should we look at?”Negative“Which accounting platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5DualEntry, Sage Intacct
Two alternativesOracle NetSuite, Xero
Sage IntacctChanged
Three alternativesAcumatica, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Xero
QuickBooks Online
Six alternativesFreshBooks, Oracle NetSuite, Sage Intacct, Wave, Xero, Zoho Books
Wave
Six alternativesFreshBooks, Manager.io, QuickBooks Online, Xero, ZipBooks, Zoho Books
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniSage Intacct
Two alternativesIntuit Enterprise Suite, Sage X3
Sage IntacctHeld
One alternativeSage X3
against: Microsoft Dynamics GP, Oracle Fusion Cloud ERPQuickBooks Online
Four alternativesFreshBooks, Oracle NetSuite, Sage Intacct, Xero
Zoho Books
One alternativeWave
against: QuickBooks Onlineno first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashSage Intacct
Four alternativesAcumatica, Intuit Enterprise Suite, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Oracle NetSuite
Sage IntacctHeld
Four alternativesAcumatica, Intuit Enterprise Suite, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Oracle NetSuite
against: QuickBooks Online, SAP S/4HANA, XeroQuickBooks Online
Six alternativesFreshBooks, Oracle NetSuite, Sage Intacct, Wave, Xero, Zoho Books
Wave, Zoho Books
Four alternativesQuicken Business & Personal, Sage Accounting, Xero, ZipBooks
against: QuickBooks OnlineSage Intacct
Three alternativesAcumatica, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Oracle NetSuite
against: QuickBooks Online, SAP S/4HANA, Xeroagainst: Excel or Google Sheets, FreshBooks, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Oracle NetSuite, QuickBooks Desktop, QuickBooks Solopreneur, SAP, Sage 50, Wave
Perplexity SonarSage Intacct
Two alternativesMicrosoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Oracle NetSuite
against: QuickBooks OnlineSage IntacctHeld
Three alternativesAcumatica, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance, Oracle NetSuite
QuickBooks Online
Six alternativesFreshBooks, Oracle NetSuite, Sage Intacct, Wave, Xero, Zoho Books
Zoho Books
Three alternativesSage Start, Wave, Xero
no first choiceagainst: QuickBooks, QuickBooks Solopreneur, Wave, Xero, Zoho Books
Grok 4.1 FastSage Intacct
Two alternativesMicrosoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Oracle NetSuite
against: XeroSage IntacctHeld
Two alternativesMicrosoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Oracle NetSuite
against: QuickBooks Online, XeroQuickBooks Online
Four alternativesFreshBooks, Wave, Xero, Zoho Books
against: Oracle NetSuite, Sage IntacctWave
Three alternativesFreshBooks, Xero, Zoho Books
against: QuickBooks OnlineOracle NetSuite
Three alternativesAcumatica, Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP, Sage Intacct
against: QuickBooks, QuickBooks Onlineagainst: FreshBooks, QuickBooks Online, Wave, Xero, Zoho Books
Mistral SmallMicrosoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Sage Intacct
Two alternativesInfor Syteline, KashFlow
Oracle NetSuite, Sage IntacctChanged
One alternativeDualEntry
QuickBooks Online
Seven alternativesFreshBooks, Odoo, Oracle NetSuite, Sage Intacct, Wave, Xero, Zoho Books
Wave
Two alternativesHelcim, Zoho Invoice
no first choiceagainst: QuickBooks
DeepSeek V4 FlashSage Intacct
Two alternativesMicrosoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Oracle NetSuite
against: QuickBooks, XeroSage IntacctHeld
Four alternativesAcumatica, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Odoo, Oracle NetSuite
QuickBooks Online, Xero
Five alternativesFreshBooks, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Oracle NetSuite, Sage Intacct, Zoho Books
Wave
Four alternativesFreshBooks, Patriot Software, Xero, Zoho Books
against: GnuCashno first choiceagainst: Oracle NetSuite, QuickBooks Online, Sage
Llama 4 MaverickMicrosoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
One alternativeKashFlow
DualEntryChanged
Two alternativesOracle NetSuite, Sage Intacct
QuickBooks
Four alternativesFreshBooks, Wave, Xero, Zoho Books
GnuCash, Wave
Two alternativesQuickBooks Online, Xero
no first choiceagainst: QuickBooks, Wave
Qwen 3.7 FlashOracle NetSuite
Three alternativesAcumatica, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Sage Intacct
Oracle NetSuiteHeld
Three alternativesAcumatica, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Sage Intacct
against: QuickBooks OnlineQuickBooks Online
Four alternativesFreshBooks, Wave, Xero, Zoho Books
against: Oracle NetSuiteWave
Two alternativesFreshBooks, Zoho Books
Oracle NetSuite
Three alternativesAcumatica, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Sage X3
against: Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP, QuickBooks Online, SAP, Xeroagainst: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Oracle JD Edwards, Oracle NetSuite, Pastel Accounting, QuickBooks, SAP Business One, Sage 50, Zoho Books
Kimi K2Sage Intacct
Two alternativesMicrosoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Oracle NetSuite
Sage IntacctHeld
Four alternativesAccounting Seed, DualEntry, Oracle NetSuite, SoftLedger
against: QuickBooks OnlineQuickBooks Online
Six alternativesFreshBooks, Oracle NetSuite, Sage Intacct, Wave, Xero, Zoho Books
Wave
Three alternativesFreshBooks, QuickBooks Solopreneur, Zoho Books
Microsoft Dynamics 365, Oracle NetSuite
One alternativeSage Intacct
against: QuickBooks Online, Ramp, Sage Accounting, Wave
GLM 4.7 FlashXMicrosoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
Five alternativesAcumatica, Oracle NetSuite, QuickBooks Online, Sage Intacct, Xero
Sage IntacctChanged
One alternativeOracle NetSuite
QuickBooks Online, Xero
Five alternativesFreshBooks, Oracle NetSuite, QuickBooks, Wave, Zoho Books
Wave
Six alternativesFinFlow Track, FreshBooks, ProfitBooks, QuickBooks, Xero, Zoho Books
Sage Intacct
Two alternativesOracle NetSuite, QuickBooks Online
against: BUSY Accounting, QuickBooks Online, SAP, Sage 300 ERP
MiniMax M2.5Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
Three alternativesKashFlow, Odoo, Xero
against: Oracle NetSuiteOracle NetSuiteChanged
Two alternativesDualEntry, Ramp
QuickBooks Online
Five alternativesFreshBooks, Oracle NetSuite, Wave, Xero, Zoho Books
Wave, Zoho Books
Two alternativesFreshBooks, Xero
against: QuickBooks Onlineno first choiceagainst: Bench Accounting, Brex, Ramp
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 17:33yes99 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 17:35yes35 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 17:43yes1729 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 17:43yes205 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 17:35yes148 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 17:30yes54 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 17:31yes1517 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 17:33yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 17:48yes520 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 17:30yes1027 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 17:41yes2471 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 17:37yes1048 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 17:28yes108 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 17:33yes34 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 17:29yes922 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 17:30yes206 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 17:36yes148 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 17:36yes53 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 17:53yes2020 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 17:53yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 17:28no027 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 17:36yes1236 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 17:41yes1585 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 17:44yes59 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 17:27yes99 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 17:44yes58 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 17:29yes1824 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 17:36yes209 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 17:48yes1510 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 17:46yes56 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 17:46yes1516 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 17:43yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 17:42no029 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 17:35yes515 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 17:34yes2057 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 17:45yes1026 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 17:39no04 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 17:44yes37 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 17:49yes1115 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 17:43yes206 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 17:35yes148 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 17:36yes86 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 17:32yes912 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 17:38yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 17:41yes521 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 17:46yes1527 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 17:39yes1027 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 17:28yes530 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 17:32no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 17:33no07 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 17:30yes1526 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 17:30yes207 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 17:44yes1511 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 17:33no07 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 17:28yes1417 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 17:26yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 17:29no028 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 17:36yes930 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 17:44yes2049 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 17:34yes526 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 17:34no04 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 17:47no05 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 17:35yes1518 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 17:38yes207 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 17:28yes3517 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 17:32yes54 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 17:34yes1918 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 17:46yes52 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 17:38no037 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 17:39yes3039 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 17:30yes1535 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 17:44yes1740 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings
Dynamics 365 Business Central read as Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
Intacct read as Sage Intacct
Intuit QuickBooks read as QuickBooks
NetSuite read as Oracle NetSuite
NetSuite (Oracle ERP) read as Oracle NetSuite
NetSuite (Oracle) read as Oracle NetSuite
Oracle Cloud ERP read as Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP
Oracle ERP read as Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP
Oracle ERP Cloud read as Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP
Patriot Software Accounting read as Patriot Software
QuickBooks Online Simple Start read as QuickBooks Online
Sage Business Cloud Accounting read as Sage Accounting
Wave Accounting read as Wave
Unresolved, counted raw
BUSY Accounting
CustomBooks
FinFlow Track
Infor Syteline
Pastel Accounting
Sage 300 ERP
Sage Start
SoftLedger
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in accounting and close

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
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