Alternatives

Honest comparisons with the other ways to get a profit and loss statement — bookkeeping software, bookkeeping services, and bank statement converters. Each page says who should keep using the other product before it says who should not.

This product does one narrow thing: it reads bank statements you already have and produces a Profit & Loss for months that have already happened. That is the wrong shape for plenty of people, and these pages say so plainly rather than pretending every comparison ends here.

• A QuickBooks alternative when you only need the statement

  QuickBooks is bookkeeping software you keep running. If you only need a Profit & Loss for a lender or a tax preparer, and you have bank statements but no books, there is a shorter path.

• A Bench alternative when you are behind and the deadline is close

  Bench sells catch-up bookkeeping as a service with people doing the work. If you need one Profit & Loss from bank statements by a date, rather than a rebuilt set of books, the job is smaller than that.

• Bank statement converters give you a spreadsheet. A lender asked for a statement

  Converters turn a PDF bank statement into rows of transactions in Excel, CSV, or a file for accounting software. That is the first half of the job. This produces the finished Profit & Loss.

• A Wave alternative when the months already went by

  Wave gives small businesses free accounting software and paid tiers on top. It works from the day you start using it. If the months you need are already behind you, that is the wrong direction.

• A Xero alternative when there is no file to keep

  Xero is accounting software built around keeping a file your accountant can work in. If you have no file, no accountant on it, and a Profit & Loss due, that is a different job.

• A FreshBooks alternative when the money did not arrive as invoices

  FreshBooks is built around billing clients — invoices out, payments in, reports off the back of it. If your revenue arrives as card settlements and deposits, its picture starts incomplete.

• A Pilot alternative when you need a document, not a finance function

  Pilot runs bookkeeping, tax and CFO work as an ongoing service for companies that need clean books every month. If you need one Profit & Loss by a date, onboarding alone outlasts the deadline.

• A 1-800Accountant alternative when the P&L is not really a tax question

  1-800Accountant sells tax-forward accounting packages with a dedicated accountant, billed annually. If what you need is one Profit & Loss for a lender, that is a year-long commitment for a one-day job.