Accounting Firm Software Cost in 2026: Per-User Prices and a 10-Person CPA Firm Example

Most accounting firms know what they pay for tax software, because it arrives as one large invoice each season. Fewer know what the whole stack costs: practice management, client portal, document storage, e-signature, tax preparation, bookkeeping and payments, each billed by a different vendor, usually per user, sometimes per return or per transaction, and often with add-ons that only appear on the invoice.

This post adds it up using the prices vendors publish. All prices are as listed on each vendor's own pricing page on October 26, 2026, in US dollars and before tax. They change often, tax software prices change every season, and negotiated pricing can differ. Where a vendor doesn't publish a price, or we couldn't load its page, we say so rather than guess.

How much does accounting firm software cost per user?

At published prices, practice management software for accountants runs from about $59 to $149 per user per month on annual billing. Add a client portal, tax software and bookkeeping, and a firm should expect roughly $115 to $180 per person per month, based on the worked example below.

That figure excludes payment processing and per-return fees, which move with your volume. It also excludes anything on a quote-only tier. Tax software is the hardest category to compare, because it is sold by the season, by the return and by the user rather than as a simple monthly seat.

What the published prices are

Four things the table doesn't show:

• Every hire adds a line to several invoices. Practice management, the portal and document storage all charge per user. A firm that grows from 10 to 14 people pays 40% more across all three.
• Annual billing is cheaper, and it's a commitment. Karbon's annual plans save $10 to $20 per user per month, Canopy says annual billing saves 20%, and SmartVault saves $20 to $25. We covered that trade-off in month-to-month software vs annual contracts.
• The headline price is the lowest tier. Karbon's $59 is Team; Enterprise is quoted. Canopy's $74 is Standard, with automation and reporting depth on higher tiers.
• Tax software promos expire. Drake's discount ends November 30. Intuit's ProConnect bundle discount is limited to new customers and a purchase window, and User Access fees are exempt from discounts. Price the retail number.

The fees outside the subscription

Per-return charges. Drake's capped packages charge $49.99 for each additional individual return and $74.99 for each additional business return. ProConnect's pay-per-return list prices are $109.95 and $129.95, with upfront blocks of 200 or more listed from $42.95 (individual) and $46.95 (business), and the page shows a second, lower set of figures without labeling them. Lacerte's page mentions pay-per-return but publishes no amounts.

Per-user tax fees. ProConnect requires at least one $210 User Access license, and the page says one is needed to e-file and print. Ten or more users move to a $2,100 flat fee. Lacerte's multi-user and hosting options are mostly not published; ask what each additional preparer costs.

Card and ACH processing. Canopy publishes 3.30% plus 20¢ for cards and 1% capped at $10 for ACH. Karbon's pricing page lists no processing rates. Processing is billed on what your clients pay, not on seats, so it can exceed the subscription. Ask for rates in writing.

Usage add-ons. Canopy's add-ons include Tax Resolution at $50 per user per month, Close Automation at $10 per connected client per month (first five included), tax workflow automation from $34 per client credit, and identity checks at $1.25 per credit. Liscio sells organizer and delivery bundles at $5 each, $4.50 from 500 and $4 from 1,000, or $7 each without a bundle, and KBA at $2 per signer. Its pricing page lists e-signature as an add-on but gives no price.

Migration and implementation. Karbon and Canopy do not publish onboarding fees on the pages we read. Liscio says its Platform plan includes onboarding. Get every one-time cost, including data migration from your current system, in writing before signing.

A worked example: a 10-person CPA firm (illustrative)

Consider a hypothetical firm with six CPAs and preparers and four staff, 10 users in all. It runs:

• Karbon Business on annual billing for everyone.
• Liscio Platform on annual billing for everyone, for the client portal and organizers.
• Drake Tax Pro with unlimited returns at the $3,295 retail price.
• One QuickBooks Online Plus subscription for the firm's own books.

That's about $21,500 a year. On monthly billing, Karbon Business would be $990 a month instead of $890.

The same firm on Canopy Standard at 10 × $74 = $740 a month might drop Liscio if Canopy's built-in client portal meets its needs, which it should confirm in a demo. With Drake and QuickBooks unchanged, the subtotal is $1,154.58, or $115.46 per person, about $13,900 a year. These are different products, and the cheaper subtotal says nothing about which fits your workflow better.

What the subtotals leave out:

• Organizer and delivery volume. If this firm sends 400 organizers a season through Liscio at $5 each, that is $2,000 a year on top.
• Card processing. At Canopy's published 3.30% plus 20¢, a firm collecting $40,000 a month by card across 80 payments pays about $1,336 a month in fees. Paying the same 80 payments of $500 by ACH at 1% would cost about $400.
• Intuit tax software, if the firm chooses it instead of Drake. ProConnect Plus at its current $5,868 a year, plus the $2,100 flat User Access fee for 10 users, is $7,968 a year, or $664 a month.
• Quote-only tiers, such as Enterprise plans and Lacerte's unpublished options.

The cost that doesn't appear on any invoice

Each tool holds part of the client. The practice management system has the engagement and the tasks, the portal has the documents and the organizer answers, the tax software has the return, QuickBooks has the books, and the payment processor has what was collected. Someone moves information between them: re-keying a new client, matching a signed engagement letter to a job, reconciling payments to invoices, chasing status across screens.

To put a number on it, multiply hours by a loaded hourly cost. As an illustration, if staff spend five hours a week on that re-entry at $40 an hour, that's about $10,400 a year, roughly half the subscription bill above. Our software cost calculator adds those hours to your subscription costs for you.

Per person or per return: which number to use

Vendors quote per user. A firm owner usually thinks per client or per return, because that is what produces revenue. Both are useful, and they answer different questions.

The per-user price tells you what each hire costs. In the example, every new staff member adds $138 a month across Karbon and Liscio alone. The per-return view tells you whether the stack fits the work: a firm with 400 returns and a large bookkeeping book of business has a very different cost per client than one with 1,200 returns and few monthly clients. Seasonal staff matter too, because per-seat pricing charges for the months they are not on the system unless the vendor offers seasonal seats.

When you compare quotes, convert everything to a per-person monthly figure and a cost per client.

Questions to ask each vendor

Published prices only get you so far. Before signing, ask for written answers to these:

• Practice management: Which features in the demo are on the tier you've quoted? Are automation, reporting or tax workflow credits separate? Is there a user minimum?
• Tax software: What is the all-in price for your return count and user count, including User Access, hosting, state returns and e-file? What is the retail price once the promotion ends?
• Payments: What are the card and ACH rates, and who gets the fee: you or the client?
• Portal and documents: Is pricing per user, per organizer or per delivery? What does e-signature cost?
• Every vendor: How long is the term, what notice does renewal require, and how do you export everything if you leave?

How to price your own stack

1. List every tool and every seat. Pull three months of invoices and card statements. Count users on each tool, including seasonal staff.
2. Note how each one bills: per user, per return, per organizer, per payment or per client.
3. Work out your effective processing rate. Divide a month's processing fees by that month's card and ACH volume.
4. Check the terms: annual commitments, renewal dates, user minimums, and how you'd export clients, documents and returns if you left.
5. Add the hours your team spends re-entering client data between tools.

When fewer systems make sense

A sole practitioner or a small firm on one practice management plan, with a portal included and a single tax package, usually doesn't need to change anything. The stack is already close to one system.

Consolidation starts to pay when a firm runs practice management plus a separate portal, document storage, e-signature and payments, when every new hire adds a seat to four or five tools, and when someone is re-entering clients between them. That's the work we build as one platform for accounting firms and other professional services firms: intake, engagements, tasks, time, billing, documents and reporting on one record. If you're comparing it with staying on or moving to Karbon, our Karbon alternative guide sets out when Karbon is the better choice.

Our prices are published too: $497 a month for one location, $1,497 for up to three, and from $2,997 for larger firms, month-to-month, with migration, onboarding and training included. Plans are priced per plan rather than per seat: Starter covers up to 15 users and Growth up to 50, so the 10-person firm above would sit on Starter. See pricing for what each plan covers, and our guide to how much custom software costs for how that compares with one-time builds over three years.

Whatever you choose, collect written quotes that list every fee above and compare them against your own headcount, return count and payment volume. If you'd like a second pair of eyes on the numbers, you can book a 20-minute call.