QuickBooks Live bookkeeping: what it costs now, and a cheaper alternative

Clarity Books AI and QuickBooks Experts at a glance

What QuickBooks Live became

Intuit used to sell this service as QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping. Today quickbooks.intuit.com/live/ redirects to quickbooks.intuit.com/experts/, and that page is titled QuickBooks Experts. Some of Intuit's help articles still use the QuickBooks Live name, which is why both names show up in search.

Under the QuickBooks Experts name, Intuit lists three ways to get help.

Expert Full Service Bookkeeping: a dedicated bookkeeper manages your books. Intuit lists it as starting at $300 a month, after an initial cleanup fee.

Expert Assisted: QuickBooks-certified bookkeepers coach you on your books, taxes and cash flow, while you still do the bookkeeping. It is free for 30 days and $59 a month after that.

Expert Cleanup: a one-time cleanup of past books, priced from as low as $600. Intuit says the price depends on how many months need cleaning up.

What Full Service Bookkeeping really costs

The $300 is a starting price. Intuit's help center says that after the first month, the price is based on your company's average expenses in QuickBooks, and that it re-checks your average expenses and pricing tier every three months. So if your spending grows, your price can change. Intuit does not publish the tiers on its Experts pages, so ask for a quote before you sign up.

The first month adds a cleanup and setup fee if you already have at least two months of data in QuickBooks. Intuit calls it a flat fee but does not list the amount on these pages.

Your bookkeeper works inside QuickBooks Online. Intuit lists QuickBooks Online plans on its pricing page, starting at $38 a month at the regular price for Simple Start. Ask Intuit whether your quote covers the QuickBooks plan or whether it is billed on top.

Clarity Books AI is $149 a month or $1,490 a year. There is one plan, it has every feature, and transactions are unlimited, so the price does not move as your business gets busier.

What you get for the money

With Full Service, a person does the work. Your bookkeeper sets up your chart of accounts, connects your banks, categorizes transactions and reconciles your accounts each month. They can close your books, prepare a trial balance and send you reports such as a profit and loss statement and a balance sheet.

With Clarity, AI does the daily work and you keep the final say. Clarity connects to your bank and card accounts read-only through Plaid, categorizes each transaction and learns your vendors as it goes. Once a week you get a check-in, by push notification and in the app, with the few transactions it is not sure of. You answer those, and you can override any category whenever you like.

Clarity also has tools for jobs Intuit says Full Service does not handle, such as sending invoices, which you can do from Clarity with online payment. You also get 1099 contractor tracking, a mileage log, sales tax tracking, reconciliation, a monthly profit and loss, a year-end packet sent to your CPA, access for your accountant, and more than one business under one login.

What Clarity does not do: payroll, bill pay, inventory, a balance sheet or tax filing, and no human bookkeeper is assigned to you. Clarity keeps cash-basis books.

Cleanup fees versus importing from January 1

QuickBooks Experts starts by cleaning up what is already in QuickBooks, and it charges for that: a cleanup and setup fee in the first month of Full Service, or Expert Cleanup from $600 on its own. Intuit says Full Service cleans up to 20 months of past books, and that a typical cleanup is done within 30 days after it receives all the documents it needs.

Clarity starts from your bank instead. When you connect your accounts, it imports your transactions back to January 1 of the current year and categorizes them the same way it handles new ones. Anything it is not sure about, it asks you during setup; anything you skip comes back in your weekly check-in.

If you need earlier years, for example to catch up on an older tax year, email brayden@claritybooksai.com and we will help you bring that history in. If your existing QuickBooks file needs fixing and you want to stay in QuickBooks, Expert Cleanup is built for that job.

When QuickBooks Experts is the better choice

• You want a named person. Full Service gives you a dedicated bookkeeper who knows your business. Clarity has no human bookkeeper: the AI does the work and you answer its questions each week.
• You already run your business in QuickBooks Online and want to stay there. Your bookkeeper works inside the QuickBooks file you already have, and Expert Cleanup can fix its history.
• You have employees and want payroll in the same system as your books. Intuit sells payroll for QuickBooks at an additional cost. Clarity does not run payroll.
• You need a balance sheet or accrual-basis books. Full Service bookkeepers can send a balance sheet and prepare a trial balance. Clarity keeps cash-basis books and has no balance sheet. For full accrual or GAAP accounting, Intuit says its experts do not give guidance on that either, so talk to a CPA or a QuickBooks ProAdvisor.
• You need more than this year's books cleaned up. Full Service covers up to 20 months of past books; Clarity imports from January 1 of the current year, and older periods take an email to us.
• You want the lowest price and are happy to do the books yourself. A do-it-yourself bookkeeping app can cost less than either service, and Intuit's Expert Assisted adds coaching for $59 a month while you keep doing the work.

Questions people ask

Sources

Prices checked October 2026. Prices and plans change, so confirm on each company's site before you buy.

• Intuit, QuickBooks Experts overview (quickbooks.intuit.com/live/ redirects here) and what the experts do not cover
• Intuit, Expert Full Service Bookkeeping: price, up to 20 months of past books cleaned, what is and is not part of the service, bookkeeper hours, cleanup timing
• Intuit help center: how bookkeeping service pricing works (first-month cleanup fee, average expenses, three-month review)
• Intuit, Expert Assisted: 30-day free trial, then $59 a month
• Intuit, Expert Cleanup: as low as $600, varies by months to clean up
• Intuit, QuickBooks Online pricing: Simple Start regular price
• Clarity Books AI pricing

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