AI bookkeeping — clean books, magically on autopilot.
ac-co watches your bank feed and receipts and does the bookkeeping as money moves — every transaction categorised, every receipt matched, every account reconciled. Your books stay closing-ready all year, so every VAT, Self Assessment and Corporation Tax return is already prepared.
From connected to filed, in four moves.
Everything this plan files, keeps and tells you.
Files for you
Books is the ledger the filings on this site read from.
- Nothing, on its ownBooks feeds every filing on this site — it doesn't submit anything by itself.
Keeps for you
The numbers behind every figure, reconciled as they land.
- Every bank transaction, categorisedThe right nominal code and VAT rate the moment it lands.
- Every receipt, matched to its paymentMatched against the bank line it settles, on its own payments layer above the ledger — not just filed alongside it.
- The VAT treatment on every line
- A daily reconciliation against your bank balance
Tells you
What would hold up a filing, before quarter-end.
- What's still uncategorisedEvery unreviewed transaction in one queue, not buried inside the ledger — nothing files until it's cleared.
- What would hold up a filingA missing receipt or an unreconciled line, flagged before quarter-end.
The ledger, against the ledgers you already know.
Rows on whether the plan actually files your return — not just keeps your books.
| Row | Xero Ignite | QuickBooks Essentials | FreeAgent | ac-coIncluded in Sole trader |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £/month (ex VAT) | £18/mo [xero.com/uk/pricing, 2026-09-13] | £38/mo [quickbooks.intuit.com/uk/pricing, 2026-09-13] | £33/mo [freeagent.com/pricing, 2026-09-13] | From £14/mo |
| Bank feed + receipt matching | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Auto-categorises and learns your rules | Bank rules, not learned | Bank rules, not learned | Yes | Yes |
| Files your Self Assessment from the same plan | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Files VAT and CT600 from the same plan | Add-on | VAT only | On the Ltd plan | Yes |
Competitor prices dated 2026-09-13 — check their own pricing pages, which change.
What moves across, and what it costs.
From Xero
- ✓Bank feed history
- ✓Chart of accounts
- ✓Contacts
- ✓Open invoices and bills
From QuickBooks
- ✓Bank feed history
- ✓Chart of accounts
- ✓Contacts
From Spreadsheet
- ✓Nothing to import
Ready when you are.
Do I need bookkeeping if I only want a tax return?
Yes, in effect — every ac-co filing is built from the same ledger, so keeping it clean is what makes SA100, VAT and CT600 fill themselves in rather than starting from a blank form each time.
Can I import from Xero or QuickBooks?
Yes — bank feed history, chart of accounts and open invoices move across at no charge, usually the same day. You can also keep syncing two-way with either while you decide whether to stay.
Who owns the data?
You do. Export your full ledger at any time, and it stays yours if you leave — nothing about ac-co locks your records in.
Is the categorisation actually trustworthy?
Every line shows the rule or pattern that categorised it, and you can correct any of them in a tap — corrections are learned, not just overridden once. Anything ac-co isn't confident about is flagged for review rather than guessed silently.
What if my bank isn't supported?
Open Banking covers the large majority of UK banks and building societies read-only. If yours genuinely isn't connected yet, tell us — it's usually a matter of weeks, not a permanent gap.
Want a seat in the beta?
Leave your email and we'll open a seat on Books on autopilot for you in the next batch.