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

AI accounting assistants

Asked as “AI bookkeeping tool”, and as “AI agent for accounting tasks”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 44 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Sage Intacct
Contested
25% 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 Online40%ContestedStanding →Mid-marketSage Intacct25%ContestedThis pageEnterpriseVic.ai12%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 Intacct25%0%17accepted challenger
02Zoho Books18%0%13accepted challenger
03Ramp9%7%15accepted challenger
04Vic.ai7%6%34accepted challenger
05Xero7%7%30accepted challenger
06Numeric7%0%17accepted challenger
07FreshBooks2%0%14accepted challenger
08Docyt2%0%11accepted challenger
09BILL2%10%10accepted challenger
Show the five products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
13Claude0%100%10criticized challenger
14ChatGPT0%92%12criticized challenger
12Zeni0%33%12criticized challenger
10QuickBooks Online0%22%36accepted challenger
11FloQast0%0%14accepted 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 Zoho BooksSage Intacct vs RampZoho Books vs Ramp

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
11
12
13
14
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01Sage Intacct25%
02Zoho Books18%
03Ramp9%
04Vic.ai7%
05Xero7%
06Numeric7%
07FreshBooks2%
08Docyt2%
09BILL2%
10QuickBooks Online0%
11FloQast0%
12Zeni0%
13Claude0%
14ChatGPT0%

02What they warned about

One of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, 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.
ChatGPT
92%
11 of 12 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 7 hard negative
“You should **never** use public-facing consumer AI models (such as standard free tiers of ChatGPT, Bard, or generic LLM interfaces) to process your actual client ledgers” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
Claude
100%
10 of 10 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“public, non-enterprise AI chatbots should **never** be used to run your books or research complex tax regulations” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
Gemini
100%
5 of 5 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“never** use public-facing consumer AI models (such as standard free tiers of ChatGPT, Bard, or generic LLM interfaces) to process your actual client ledgers” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
QuickBooks Online
22%
8 of 36 labels negative · 5 of 12 models
“Unlike small businesses that can run their entire ledger on simple, automated tools like QuickBooks Online, Zeni, or Inkle” Gemini 3.5 Flash, direct 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

66 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. 5 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 780 links across 261 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

intuit.com
26 answers · 26 citations · 9 models
dualentry.com
vendor site · DualEntry25 answers · 29 citations · 10 models
gotofu.com
22 answers · 23 citations · 10 models
numeric.io
vendor site · Numeric18 answers · 19 citations · 10 models
articsledge.com
17 answers · 24 citations · 6 models
layer3labs.io
17 answers · 17 citations · 9 models
techcapitalhub.com
17 answers · 17 citations · 9 models
bestaiaccounting.com
14 answers · 19 citations · 7 models
aibuzz.blog
14 answers · 16 citations · 6 models
aimultiple.com
12 answers · 12 citations · 10 models
unite.ai
11 answers · 11 citations · 7 models
fast.io
10 answers · 10 citations · 9 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.

intuit.com/blog/innovative-thinking/best-ai-accounting-software-tools
26 answers · 9 models
dualentry.com/blog/best-ai-accounting-software
24 answers · 10 models
gotofu.com/blog/best-ai-bookkeeping-software
19 answers · 10 models
techcapitalhub.com/top-ai-accounting-software
17 answers · 9 models
layer3labs.io/comparisons/best-ai-tools-for-accounting-firms
15 answers · 9 models
aibuzz.blog/best-ai-accounting-software
14 answers · 6 models
aimultiple.com/accounting-ai-agent
12 answers · 10 models
numeric.io/blog/ai-accounting-tools
12 answers · 9 models
articsledge.com/post/ai-accounting-tools
11 answers · 5 models
unite.ai/best-ai-accounting-tools
11 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 AI bookkeeping tool for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which AI agent for accounting tasks would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top AI accounting tools and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best AI bookkeeping tool for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating an AI bookkeeping tool. What should we look at?”Negative“Which AI accounting tools should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Vic.ai
Four alternativesBooke AI, DualEntry, Integra Balance AI, Sage Intacct
RampChanged
Two alternativesDocyt, Vic.ai
DualEntry
Eight alternativesAnrok, Fathom, QuickBooks Online, Trullion, Vic.ai, Xero, Zeni, Zone & Co
Zoho Books
Three alternativesBookeeping.ai, Kick, LayerNext
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniSage Intacct
Four alternativesFloQast, Hyperbots A/P Suite, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Oracle NetSuite
against: QuickBooks Online, XeroBILLChanged
Three alternativesIntuit Enterprise Suite, Payhawk, Sage Intacct
no first choiceXero
One alternativeQuickBooks Online
against: Booke AIno first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashLedge, Numeric
Three alternativesRamp, Tabs, Vic.ai
against: Inkle, QuickBooks Online, ZeniNumericChanged
Four alternativesLedge, Oracle NetSuite, Sage Intacct, Vic.ai
QuickBooks Online, Xero
Nine alternativesBILL, Booke AI, Brex, Numeric, Ramp, Truewind, Trullion, Vic.ai, Zeni
Kick
Four alternativesBookeeping.ai, HelloBooks.ai, Xero, Zoho Books
against: Pilot, Wave, Zenino first choiceagainst: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini
Perplexity SonarSage Intacct
Three alternativesDualEntry, Numeric, Vic.ai
RampChanged
Four alternativesFloQast, Numeric, QuickBooks Online, Vic.ai
no first choice
Twelve alternativesAnrok, BILL, Dext, FloQast, MindBridge, Numeric, QuickBooks Online, Ramp, Tabs, Trullion, Vic.ai, Xero
Wave, Xero
One alternativeZoho Books
against: QuickBooks Onlineno first choiceagainst: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini
Grok 4.1 FastSage Intacct
Four alternativesDocyt, Oracle NetSuite, QuickBooks Online, Xero
against: QuickBooks OnlineSage IntacctHeld
Two alternativesFloQast, Vic.ai
against: QuickBooks Online, XeroQuickBooks Online, Xero
Five alternativesDigits, Docyt, Ramp, Vic.ai, Zeni
Zoho Books
Two alternativesWave, Xero
against: QuickBooks Onlineno first choice
Four alternativesBotkeeper, Netgain, QuickBooks Online, Xero
against: Air AI, Booke AI, ChatGPT, Claude, Digits, Grok, QuickBooks Online, Sage Copilot, Stampli, Vic.ai
Mistral SmallSage Intacct
Two alternativesTruewind, Vic.ai
Vic.aiChanged
Two alternativesFloQast, Sage Copilot
no first choiceagainst: ChatGPT, ClaudeZoho Books
Three alternativesBookeeping.ai, FreshBooks, QuickBooks Online
no first choiceagainst: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini
DeepSeek V4 FlashRho, Sage Intacct
Three alternativesOracle NetSuite, Vic.ai, Zeni
RampChanged
Five alternativesFloQast, Numeric, Oracle NetSuite, Sage Copilot, Vic.ai
against: BILLQuickBooks Online, Xero
Eight alternativesBILL, DOKKA, Dext, Docyt, FloQast, Karbon, Numeric, Vic.ai
against: ChatGPT, Claude, Microsoft CopilotZoho Books
Five alternativesBookeeping.ai, Puzzle, QuickBooks Online, Wave, Xero
against: Bench, Truewind, Zenino first choice
Three alternativesNumeric, Trullion, Vic.ai
against: Basis, Bench, Booke AI, Digits, Pilot, Puzzle, Truewind, Zeniagainst: Bench, Botkeeper, ChatGPT, DeepSeek, Meta AI, Ramp, Sage Copilot
Llama 4 MaverickSage Intacct
Two alternativesTruewind, Vic.ai
no first choiceChangedno first choiceZoho Books
Three alternativesBookeeping.ai, FreshBooks, QuickBooks Online
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashDualEntry
Two alternativesSage Intacct, Vic.ai
Sage IntacctChanged
Three alternativesFloQast, Ramp, Vic.ai
QuickBooks Online
Five alternativesBotkeeper, Dext, FloQast, Numeric, Xero
against: ChatGPT, Claude, Vic.aiWave, Zoho Books
One alternativeXero
no first choiceagainst: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini
Kimi K2Sage Intacct
Three alternativesDualEntry, Numeric, Vic.ai
against: TruewindNumericChanged
Four alternativesFloQast, Pilot, Sage Intacct, Vic.ai
QuickBooks Online
Five alternativesDext, Fathom, FloQast, FreshBooks, Xero
Wave, Zoho Books
Two alternativesBookeeping.ai, QuickBooks Online
against: Benchno first choiceagainst: ChatGPT, Claude
GLM 4.7 FlashXSage Intacct
Two alternativesDocyt, Zeni
against: QuickBooks OnlineDocyt, Vic.aiChanged
Two alternativesBILL, Ramp
QuickBooks Online
Nine alternativesDext, Fathom, FloQast, Numeric, Ramp, Tabs, Trullion, Vic.ai, Xero
Kick, Zoho Books
Four alternativesFreshBooks, Puzzle, QuickBooks Online, Xero
no first choiceagainst: ChatGPT, Claude, DeepSeek, Gemini, Grok, Meta AI
MiniMax M2.5Sage Intacct
Three alternativesDualEntry, Truewind, Vic.ai
Ledge, RampChanged
Two alternativesDocyt, Vic.ai
QuickBooks Online
Ten alternativesBILL, Dext, Fathom, FreshBooks, Microsoft Copilot for Finance, Numeric, Ramp, Sage Copilot, Trullion, Xero
FreshBooks, Xero
Two alternativesDouble, Zoho Books
no first choiceagainst: Botkeeper
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 19:10yes98 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:35yes26 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 20:16yes1622 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:14yes207 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:40yes3517 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:50yes55 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:53yes2735 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:37yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:59yes1041 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 17:58yes1029 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:12yes2478 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:01yes513 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:52yes179 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:44yes25 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:50yes1319 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:59yes204 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:06yes3115 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:07yes54 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:26yes1921 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:53yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:03yes526 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:30yes920 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:00yes1286 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:37yes513 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:15yes99 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:07yes410 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:16yes1123 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:42yes2014 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:30yes2514 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:49yes56 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:56yes1530 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:38yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:50yes513 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:19yes1020 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:03yes832 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:00yes722 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:31yes97 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:51yes35 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:52yes1721 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:24yes204 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:06yes3315 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:34yes54 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:23yes911 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:14yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:41yes520 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:02yes933 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:51yes1418 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:10yes513 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:04no05 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:18no010 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:46no014 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:17yes2010 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:45yes1812 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:47no011 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:21yes1521 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:01yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:31no030 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:40yes1019 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:55yes15184 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:15no012 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:15yes1910 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:33yes57 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:17yes2164 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:03yes207 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:15yes3217 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:27yes56 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:37yes3023 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:24yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:40yes1449 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:16yes1525 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:27yes1526 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:19yes2543 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
BILL AP/AR read as BILL
Bench Accounting read as Bench
Booke read as Booke AI
Dext Prepare read as Dext
NetSuite read as Oracle NetSuite
NetSuite (Intelligent Close) read as Oracle NetSuite
NetSuite (Oracle) read as Oracle NetSuite
QuickBooks read as QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks (Simple Start) read as QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks Online Simple Start read as QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks Simple Start read as QuickBooks Online
Sage read as Sage Intacct
Unresolved, counted raw
Air AI
Blue J
Blue J/TaxGPT
DataSnipper/AppZen
DeskFerry
Elephas
Hyperbots A/P Suite
Integra Balance AI
Jupid
ZoneCapture
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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