CRMs for accounting firms, side by side
Eight ways to win and onboard clients: four accounting practice suites, one proposal tool, two general CRMs, and Firmary, which publishes this site. They share six columns, in alphabetical order, with a numbered source on every cell, checked on 10 Nov 2026. Firmary doesn’t offer a prospect pipeline today, and it doesn’t integrate with QuickBooks, Xero or tax software.1,2
HubSpot and Zoho CRM are described only from their own pages. Where a cell says “not listed”, we read the named page and the feature wasn’t on it.
Firmary publishes this site and makes Firmary, one of the products below. It’s labeled “Ours” wherever it appears.
| Product | Price | How it’s priced | CRM and pipeline | Proposals and engagement letters | Invoicing and payments | Automation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canopy | $74 per user per month on Standard and $109 on Plus, with annual billing, on 10 Nov 2026.3 | Per user, with per-client add-ons such as Tax Workflow Automation.4 | CRM for client relationships, cases and records on every plan.5 | Branded proposals and engagement letters with e-signature; a signed engagement can create tasks and invoices. Auto-renewals marked coming soon.6 | Recurring and group billing. Cards 3.30% + $0.20; ACH 1%, up to $10.7 | Recurring task workflows on Standard; advanced workflows listed on Premium, which is marked coming soon.8 |
| Financial Cents | $49 per user per month on Team and $69 on Scale, billed annually; Solo is $19 a month for one user. Checked 10 Nov 2026.9 | Per user; the Month-End Close add-on is $5 per client per month.10 | Client CRM and database with a password vault per client, built around recurring work rather than a sales pipeline.11 | Proposals and engagement letters on every plan, Solo included; packages and upsells on Scale.12 | Saved payment methods for automatic billing, retainers, and card or ACH payments; the vendor’s pricing and billing pages give no processing rates.13 | Basic automations on every plan; auto-create work and task dependencies on Scale.14 |
| Firmary OursWaitlist | Not published.15 | Clients pay invoices through Stripe, and payment status stays on the client record.19 | ||||
| HubSpot | Per seat per month on paid Sales Hub tiers, with HubSpot Credits for AI features included.24 | Up to 15 pipelines on Sales Hub Starter, 100 on Professional and 350 on Enterprise.25 | Quotes the buyer reviews, e-signs and pays on one branded page, with Revenue Hub Professional and Enterprise.26 | HubSpot payments: 2.9% for cards and 0.8% for ACH (max $10), plus a platform fee that is free for a year, then 0.5%.27 | Up to 50 workflows with restricted triggers on Starter; 300 fully customizable on Professional.28 | |
| Ignition | Core $99, Pro $229 and Pro+ $399 a month, billed annually, with 3, 15 and 20 users and 50, 350 and 600 active clients included. Checked 10 Nov 2026.29 | A flat monthly plan per firm with set users and active clients (clients with signed agreements), plus a charge per extra client.30 | Deals pipeline with custom stages, linked to proposals: a paid add-on on Solo, Core and Pro, included on Pro+.31 | Branded proposals with engagement letters or contract terms and client e-signature.32 | Connects to Karbon, Financial Cents, FYI, Xero Practice Manager and Onvio Firm Management, for example creating a Financial Cents project when a proposal is accepted.35 | |
| Karbon | $59 per user per month on Team and $89 on Business, billed annually ($79 and $99 monthly), on 10 Nov 2026.36 | Priced per user; the price doesn’t move with the number of clients.37 | Shared contact profiles and activity timelines. A sales pipeline isn’t listed among plan features; integrates with HubSpot, Pipedrive and Ignition.38 | Karbon Engagements on all plans: service templates, branded engagement letters and upfront payment collection.39 | Recurring billing and auto-payments; standard cards at 2.6% + $0.30 and ACH at 1% + $0.30, up to $5.40 | Task automation and automatic client reminders on Business and Enterprise.41 |
| TaxDome | $1,500 a year minimum, covering 150 active clients and 20 seats, billed annually. Checked 10 Nov 2026.42 | Per active client, not per seat; contacts with no activity in 12 months cost nothing.43 | CRM with unlimited contacts and custom client fields, plus intake forms for onboarding.44 | Engagement letters and proposals in which the client picks one of up to three package tiers.45 | Jobs move on triggers or conditions, and rules act on client answers or approvals.48 | |
| Zoho CRM | Per user per month, paid monthly or yearly with no contract.51 | Free edition: contact management, follow-up reminders and workflow automation. Standard adds multiple pipelines, lead-capture web forms and forecasting.52 | Professional includes CPQ quote management with price rules.53 | Invoices and sales orders through inventory management, on Professional.53 | Workflow automation from the free edition up.52 |
Each tool in brief
Financial Cents
Firmary Ours
- Best for
- Firms that need proposals and the engagement they start kept with the client record, and have no need for a pipeline.18
HubSpot
Ignition
Karbon
TaxDome
- Best for
- Firms that want proposal tiers and intake forms in the same plan as their client work, priced by client.43–45
- Watch out for
- TaxDome counts a client as active after any activity in the past 12 months, such as a login or an invoice, so ask whether a prospect who gets a proposal but never signs counts.43
Zoho CRM
- Watch out for
- The QuickBooks integration is listed among Enterprise edition features.59
When another tool is a better fit than Firmary
Canopy
You want a signed engagement to set up the work and the bill without anyone retyping it. Canopy can create tasks and invoices automatically when an engagement is signed.6
Financial Cents
You’re a one-person firm that wants to send proposals this week. Financial Cents includes proposals and engagement letters on its $19-a-month Solo plan and has a 14-day free trial with no card required.9,12,60 Firmary is waitlist only.16
HubSpot
More than one person works leads and you want every deal visible by stage. HubSpot’s paid tiers allow up to 15 pipelines on Starter and 100 on Professional, with workflows to move deals along, and its free tools cover 2 users at $0.22,25,28 Firmary doesn’t offer a pipeline today.1
Ignition
Your proposals are priced packages and you want payment set up when they’re signed. Ignition sends branded proposals with engagement terms and e-signature, automates payment collection, links to QuickBooks Online and Xero, and lists ProConnect, UltraTax CS, CCH Axcess and Practice CS integrations for importing clients and sending tax engagement proposals.32,33,61,62 Firmary has no ledger or tax-software integration.2
Karbon
You already run a sales CRM and want practice software that connects to it. Karbon integrates with HubSpot, Pipedrive and Ignition, and Karbon Engagements collects payment upfront.38,39
TaxDome
You want clients to pick a tier of service in the proposal. TaxDome proposals offer up to three service-package tiers, and its intake forms handle onboarding questions.44,45
Zoho CRM
You want lead-capture forms and several pipelines for little money. Zoho CRM Standard adds web forms, multiple pipelines and forecasting at US$14 per user per month, billed annually.50,52 Firmary doesn’t offer lead capture or a pipeline today.1
How we compared them
The six columns follow a prospect from first contact to first invoice: what you pay, how the price scales, the pipeline, the proposal or engagement letter, getting paid, and what happens automatically afterwards. Client apps, document requests and messaging are left to the client management site. Facts come from each vendor’s own pricing, product or integrations pages, read on 10 Nov 2026 and linked in the numbered notes. Where HubSpot’s page shows two prices without saying which billing period each belongs to, we give both. Firmary’s row uses only what Firmary publishes on firmary.app. To report an error, email support@firmary.app.
What each column means
- Price
- The public list price, the unit it’s charged on, and how it’s billed. Read from the vendor’s own pricing page on the date shown. If no price is published, we say so.
- How it’s priced
- Per user (seat), per active client, per connected client, or per firm. From the vendor’s pricing page.
- CRM and pipeline
- Tracking prospects and contacts, a sales pipeline, and turning a won lead into a client. From the vendor’s product or pricing pages.
- Proposals and engagement letters
- Sending a priced proposal or engagement letter the client signs, ideally starting billing. From the vendor’s product or pricing pages.
- Invoicing and payments
- Invoices, card and ACH payments, autopay and recurring billing, and the stated processing fees. From the vendor’s pricing or payments pages.
- Automation
- Rules that move work along without a person: status changes, client reminders, job creation, triggers and actions. From the vendor’s product or pricing pages; plan limits noted.
Join the Firmary waitlist
Firms join the Firmary waitlist and are emailed when they can join.
Sources
Each product fact on this page links to a numbered source. Quotes are copied as the page’s text reads on the date shown, spacing included.
- 1
Firmary Ours
Firmary covers client requests and documents, forms, tasks, secure messaging, automations, proposals, e-signing, invoices and payments, and time tracking, with PocketFirm as the client side.
- 2
Firmary Ours
Firmary doesn’t integrate with accounting software (such as QuickBooks or Xero) or tax software.
- 3
Canopy
Standard $74 user/month ... Plus $109 user/month
- 4
Canopy
Starting at $34 credit/client annual billing; volume discounts available ... $10 connected client/month annual billing; first 5 connections included
- 5
Canopy
A centralized system to manage all your client relationships, cases, and records in one place.
- 6
Canopy
Auto-generate tasks and invoices when engagements are signed or completed to reduce manual work.
- 7
Canopy
Standard Cards 3.30% + $0.20 ... ACH Payments 1% (cap $10)
- 8
Canopy
ALL PLUS FEATURES + ... Advanced workflows and automation
- 9
Financial Cents
Solo ($19/mo annual) – Best for single-user firms. Team ($49/mo annual, $69/mo monthly) ... Scale ($69/mo annual, $89/mo monthly)
- 10
Financial Cents
Financial Cents pricing is per user. ... Month-End close, our tool for managing uncategorized transactions, is an add-on for $5/month per client, billed annually.
- 11
Financial Cents
It is built around delivering recurring client work, not just tracking sales.
- 12
Financial Cents
Proposals & engagement letters
- 13
Financial Cents
clients can pay however they prefer, thanks to our flexible payment options, including card and ACH payments.
- 14
Financial Cents
Everything in Team Plan, plus Auto-follow ups for client tasks Customize client task emails Task dependencies Auto-send email updates Auto-create work
- 15
Firmary Ours
Firmary’s pricing isn’t published.
- 16
Firmary Ours
Firmary is pre-launch: firms join a waitlist and are emailed when they can join. There is no self-serve sign-up.
- 17
Firmary Ours
Firms keep client fields and tags, and reusable forms, emails and engagement-letter templates.
- 18
Firmary Ours
Firms define their services, send a proposal, and keep the accepted agreement with the engagement it starts.
- 19
Firmary Ours
Invoice details and payment status stay with the client record, with outstanding balances across clients. Clients pay invoices through Stripe.
- 20
Firmary Ours
Firmary automations: choose a trigger, define the actions and assign responsibility, then review each run in the run history.
- 21
Firmary Ours
When a client submits a form, Firmary can assign the review: the firm chooses who reviews it and when it’s due, and the task links to the client and can include the form’s answers.
- 22
HubSpot
Free for up to 2 users. No credit card required.
- 23
HubSpot
Starts at $90/mo/seat $100/mo/seat Billing period Pay Monthly Commit annually Pay Annually ... *Cost shown does not include the required, one-time Professional Onboarding for a fee of $1,500.
- 24
HubSpot
HubSpot has powerful AI agents and features that do work for you. You can take advantage of these features with HubSpot Credits.
- 25
HubSpot
Up to 15 total pipelines per account across object types. | Up to 100 total pipelines per account across object types. | Up to 350 total pipelines per account across object types.
- 26
HubSpot
HubSpot’s quote software is available with Professional and Enterprise editions of Revenue Hub.
- 27
HubSpot
FREE For 1 year, then 0.5% per transaction, ACH capped at $10 … Credit/debit processing fees 2.9%No additional fees ACH processing fees 0.8%Max of **$10** per transaction
- 28
HubSpot
Up to 50 workflows with restricted triggers and actions. | Up to 300 fully customizable workflows.
- 29
Ignition
$229/month(billed annually) Save % (billed annually) Save 18% [Start free trial](https://go.ignitionapp.com/sign-up) Clients Active clients with signed agreements 350 Cost per additional active client (over plan inclusion) +$3 Users User accounts 15
- 30
Ignition
Cost per additional active client (over plan inclusion)
- 31
Ignition
Create and track leads, send proposals, and close deals - all in one place.
- 32
Ignition
Branded online proposals Unlimited E-signatures per proposal Single … Engagement letters Automated engagement letters or contract terms Industry standard engagement terms template Customized engagement terms
- 33
Ignition
Automated invoice creation via ledger integration Import unpaid invoices from accounting software Flexible billing options Manual or automated billing Bill for out of scope work Send one-off invoices
- 34
Ignition
ACH Payments An additional fee of 0.3% applies to payments above $3,000 … | 1% + $0.30 ($5.00 max) |
- 35
Ignition
Create projects in Financial Cents when Ignition proposals are accepted to streamline project management and stay organized.
- 36
Karbon
Team$59/month, per user, paid annually Or $79/month per user, paid monthly ... Business$89/month, per user, paid annually Or $99/month per user, paid monthly
- 37
Karbon
Karbon is priced per user. ... Your client count and document volume do not determine the subscription price.
- 38
Karbon
Shared contact profiles, activity timelines, and automated client requests.
- 39
Karbon
Team includes core workflow, email, collaboration, time and budgets, billing, payments, and Engagements.
- 40
Karbon
Standard Cards Most standard Visa/Mastercard credit and debit cards 2.6% + $0.30 ... ACH Direct Debit 1% + $0.30 (max $5.00)
- 41
Karbon
Includes everything in Team, plus: Automatic Client Reminders Task Automation Industry Integrations
- 42
TaxDome
Pricing starts at 150 active clients, which is $1,500 a year, or about $0.83 per client a month. That minimum applies even if you have fewer than 150 active clients.
- 43
TaxDome
An active client is a client with any activity in the past 12 months, such as logging in, uploading documents, sending messages, or receiving an invoice. Contacts without activity cost nothing.
- 44
TaxDome
One secure, organized CRM for client records.
- 45
TaxDome
Proposals and engagement letters ... Up to 3 tiers for clients to pick from.
- 46
TaxDome
Automatic invoices for ongoing engagements. ... Reduce A/R with a paywall until paid.
- 47
TaxDome (help)
Cards & wallets: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction ... ACH debit: 1% per transaction (maximum $10)
- 48
TaxDome
Move jobs on triggers or conditions. ... Trigger actions from answers or approvals.
- 49
Zoho CRM
Forever free, for 3 users
- 50
Zoho CRM
Standard US$14 US$14/user/month … Professional US$23 US$23/user/month … Enterprise US$40 US$40/user/month
- 51
Zoho CRM
You are not bound by any contracts or commitments. Zoho CRM is a pay-as-you-go service (monthly or yearly), so you can make changes to your plan whenever you need to.
- 52
Zoho CRM
Multiple sales pipelinesTrack multiple sales operations with different stages without any clutter.
- 53
Zoho CRM
Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) Match products to customer requirements and streamline quote management with built-in price rules.
- 54
Canopy
Schedule a demo and talk with a sales representative to set up a trial.
- 55
Financial Cents
All plans are a 12-month agreement. ... Minimum 5 users required for monthly billing.
- 56
HubSpot
*Cost shown does not include the required, one-time Enterprise Onboarding for a fee of $3,500.
- 57
Ignition
Platform Overview Proposals Contracts & Engagement Letters Payments Invoicing Billing WIP Billing AML Compliance New Reporting Integrations AI Price Insights Forms Deals
- 58
Karbon
self-serve free trials are not available
- 59
Zoho CRM
QuickBooks integrationSync QuickBook records with Zoho CRM and create quotes and invoices easily.
- 60
Financial Cents
Financial Cents offers a free 14-day trial with no credit card required.
- 61
Ignition
Streamline your workflow with Ignition + QuickBooks: Turn invoices into proposals and automate invoicing and reconciliation.
- 62
Ignition
Boost efficiency with Ignition + ProConnect: Import clients by return type, send bulk proposals, tailor tax engagements, and automate payments.