Best accounting software for iPhone

QuickBooks Online

The default answer for small-business accounting in the US, and by a wide margin the most-reviewed iPhone app in this comparison: Intuit's app has more App Store ratings than every other app here put together. From the phone you can send invoices, capture receipts, track mileage by GPS and read your reports, and Intuit has been pushing camera-driven document capture, letting you create an invoice or receipt by pointing the camera at a financial document. The catch is cost and scope: the entry Simple Start plan is a single user with access for two accountants, and the price climbs steeply as you add users, bill payment and inventory.

Xero

The main global rival to QuickBooks, and the one accountants and bookkeepers tend to push when a business wants room to grow without per-seat fees: Xero charges no per-user license fees, so the whole team and your accountant can be in the books on the same plan. The iPhone app is a companion to the web product rather than a full replacement, but it does the day-to-day work well: cash flow and invoices at a glance, bills created by photographing a document with the details extracted for you, contactless card payments taken on the phone itself, and a built-in assistant called JAX. Two things to know before choosing it: the US app has a far smaller review base than QuickBooks', and Xero's US site currently leads with a six-month discount rather than the free trial, which now lives in the offer terms.

FreshBooks

Invoicing-first accounting aimed at people who bill clients for their time: the app leads with sending invoices and chasing payment, then adds receipt photo capture, automatic mileage tracking that sorts business trips for tax time, time tracking that flows onto an invoice, and double-entry books underneath. It is the most mobile-native feeling product of the traditional platforms here. Two limits worth knowing: the entry Lite plan only lets you invoice five clients and extra team members are billed per person, and the iPhone app now requires a newer version of iOS than anything else in this table, so an older phone is left out.

Zoho Books

The highest-rated iPhone app in this comparison, and the most generous entry point: Zoho keeps a permanent free plan for very small businesses (available indefinitely as long as your revenue for the year stays under $50K), and the first paid tier already includes several users rather than one. Reviewers consistently note that the mobile app feels more complete than rivals at the same price, covering invoices, bills, expenses, reports and bank reconciliation, and it can take contactless payments on the phone through Stripe. The trade-off is gravitational pull: Zoho Books is one app in a very large Zoho suite, and things like extra users, document scanning and multiple locations are priced as add-ons.

Wave

The one genuinely free option among the well-known names: Wave's Starter plan costs nothing and still lets you create unlimited invoices, estimates, bills and bookkeeping records, which is why it is the usual recommendation for a brand-new or very small business that cannot justify a subscription. Paying moves you to Pro, which adds automatic bank-transaction import, receipt scanning and discounted card processing. Two caveats: the phone app is more limited than Wave's web version and its rating is the lowest of the mainstream products here, and Wave only serves businesses in the US and Canada.

Kashoo

A small, deliberately simple double-entry accounting product for sole proprietors and one-person businesses, with one flat price and, unusually, unlimited users at no extra cost so your accountant and bookkeeper can share the file for free. It connects to bank feeds through Plaid, auto-categorizes transactions, handles invoices and payments through Square and Stripe, and produces the standard reports. It is the underdog here in every sense: the iPhone app has a tiny review base compared with the big platforms, and it still targets a very old version of iOS, which suggests it has not been rebuilt in a long time.

Hurdlr

Built for one-person businesses rather than for companies with staff, and the most phone-native product in this table because its core feature only works on a phone: automatic GPS mileage capture that runs in the background, alongside bank-linked expense import and a live estimate of the tax you owe. The free version is unusually capable, tracking unlimited mileage where rival trackers cap you. It is not a full ledger out of the box, though. Invoicing, bank reconciliation and the core financial statements sit in the higher Pro tier, so a business that needs a balance sheet from day one is better served elsewhere.

Bonsai

Less a ledger than the whole back office for a freelancer: proposals, contracts, a client CRM, project and time tracking, invoicing, payments and expense and income tracking in one place, which is why creative and consulting freelancers pick it over a pure accounting tool. Zoom acquired Bonsai in late 2025 and the iPhone app is now listed as Bonsai by Zoom, though the product still runs under its own brand. Two things to weigh: it is priced per user rather than per business, so a small team costs more than the headline suggests, and the free trial is only a week, the shortest here.