Botkeeper vs. SmartBooks
We've compiled a few key differences between two automated accounting solutions: Botkeeper and SmartBooks. Choosing the right automated bookkeeping solution is critical, and we want you to have the best information possible to do so. Ready to see the power of Botkeeper? Click below to book a live presentation.
Overview
Don’t settle for incomplete platforms.
A true automation-based bookkeeping platform will help you operate your end-to-end bookkeeping programs. While there are many bookkeeping solutions available today that can help streamline bookkeeping tasks, not all solutions are built the same. This page will help you understand the differences between Botkeeper and SmartBooks so you can decide which is the right bookkeeping solution for your business or firm.
Here’s a snapshot of how Botkeeper and SmartBooks stack up.
Botkeeper
Botkeeper combines artificial intelligence and machine learning technology with high-quality, skilled accountants to deliver a full-suite bookkeeping and pre-accounting solution to accounting firms and their clients. You and your client base will receive 24/7 accounting and support as well as incredible insight into financials with beautiful dashboards and unlimited reporting.
SmartBooks
SmartBooks manages the finance departments for small businesses. Whether you need outsourced bookkeeping, accounting, CFO services, tax, payroll or HR help, SmartBooks has a solution to support your small business. They work with clients across the US and across a range of industries.
Bookkeeping Services
Investing in an automated bookkeeping solution can transform your business. As the bookkeeping decision-maker, it's important to choose the right combination of tools and services that can deliver power and flexibility and are easy and delightful for your team to use every day.
To truly transform your bookkeeping, you need an integrated set of tools that help you drive accuracy, efficiency, security, and ultimately tie all your bookkeeping efforts back to ROI.
With SmartBooks you get outsource accounting and bookkeeping. They provide accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll postings, bank reconciliations, employee expense reports, sales tax filing and payment, fixed asset accounting, and monthly financial statements. They also offer access to experienced CFOs, certified CPAs, HR and payroll execs.
With Botkeeper, all of this functionality is built directly into the platform, offering your firm a comprehensive solution. Using machine learning, artificial intelligence, and robotic process automation in conjunction with the expertise of senior accountants, we augment the manual and time-consuming tasks, creating lightning-fast and hyper-efficient bookkeeping (data entry, reconciliations, classifications, etc.).
Botkeeper is able to fully automate your bookkeeping department with human-assisted AI. And you can benefit from avoiding increases in headcount and overhead costs, see and trust the health of company results due to noticeably less manual human error, and get superior reporting and real-time, 24/7 data entry.
In addition, Botkeeper provides you with comprehensive support from your own Botkeeper accounting team. From onboarding forward, we will ensure a customized experience for your firm. Plus, we offer 24/7 support, so we are always plugged in for you and your firm.
Technology & Features
Finding the right automated accounting solution for all your bookkeeping needs can become the foundation of your practice and the differentiator you need to grow. As a result, it’s important to seek out technology and features that fit your firm, staff, AND client base. This is why we’ve made Botkeeper with our CPA partners AND business owners in mind — we can grow and adapt our platform with your organization’s wants and needs. As a CPA, this means exponential value for you and your clients.
SmartBooks Genie claims to bring a whole new level of efficiency to Client Accounting Services (CAS). By integrating with QuickBooks, accountants will be able to enhance the client experience with minimal additional work on their part. No machine learning or artificial intelligence is being leveraged as they are offering an outsourced bookkeeping service.
Botkeeper has built a full suite of tools, letting CPA firms and/or business owners pick the tools that work best for them. Botkeeper uses automation to combine various data sources while applying rules, processes, and calculations so you get the most insightful custom reporting and dashboards. This eliminates costly and error-prone manual accounting.
For firms looking for more, Botkeeper leverages machine learning technology to handle labor-intensive bookkeeping tasks by processing and categorizing transactions at an incredibly high accuracy level. The technology also learns more about your firm, and accuracy continues to improve. We extract data from receipts, process payroll, pay bills, send invoices, reconcile accounts, and generate beautiful reports.
With Botkeeper's Partner Platform, you have the ability to onboard and manage all of your clients through a custom white-labeled portal. Stay up to date on what is happening in all of your clients' Financial Hubs with your clickable activity feed, communicate directly with the Botkeeper accountants on what they need from you, and receive direct access to any open conversations you’re having within the tool.
The Botkeeper Client Portal is where the business owner would find financials, download statements, build custom reports, and chat with your Botkeeper team as desired. Your clients receive a central platform to connect their financial and non-financial accounts, ensuring that their data is automated, compiled, and organized. Your clients get fast, accurate, seamless bookkeeping each month while getting the personal touch, and top-notch advisory services only you can provide.
The best part is that the platforms tie together into a comprehensive ecosystem so CPAs, their business owner clients, and Botkeeper operate in a centralized hub.
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Average accuracy on transaction categorized by Botkeeper
Number of new clients you can bring on daily with Botkeeper
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Average time saved by clients with Botkeeper
Support and Success
Because having the right support is imperative for success, finding exceptional customer service is critical when evaluating an automated accounting solution. The best customer support enables fluid, real-time conversations to help troubleshoot issues and answer questions as they arise. They get back to you quickly to provide updates or solutions. They offer you multiple means of contacting them including email, chat, and direct message within the platform for your convenience. Choose an automated accounting solution that understands the value of being there when you need it.
SmartBooks works on a team-based approach where you are paired with a SmartBooker who serves as your primary contact and is responsible for executing your work on a day-to-day basis. SmartBooks service plans give you the option of meeting with your SmartBooker monthly, weekly, or more frequently.
All Botkeeper packages include a talented and experienced Account Manager. Their role is intended to help empower accounting firms and assist them through periods of change.
Account Managers are unique to Botkeeper, adding another valuable element to the human-assisted automation we’re so proud to deliver to accounting firms. This team of experienced accounting professionals (even CPAs!) manages relationships with accounting firms of all sizes, including some of the largest and most innovative firms out there. They offer a broad technical and product knowledge to help accounting firms scale. Their whole end game is to ensure impeccable service and insightful guidance on how to get the most out of Botkeeper’s products and services.
We'd love to talk through our innovative approach to client support and success with you, so click below to speak with one of our experts!
MEASURE ROI
Measure the performance of your bookkeeping when you integrate an automated solution, and see what your firm is able to achieve.
SmartBooks allows you to purchase a higher level of skill and a comprehensive array of services and functions, but at a fractional cost. Unlike part-timers who’s available only certain days of the week or month, with SmartBooks, you’re not captive to individuals and their calendars. You get the benefits of a dedicated individual, plus the support of a full team.
Botkeeper goes a bit farther. Our solution allows you to automate bookkeeping and pre-accounting procedures so you can dedicate more time and resources to your client base. Leverage the newly available insights Botkeeper provides and increase the value you can offer your clients. You can also differentiate your brand, help expand your firm, and diversify your service offering. Botkeeper oversees the automation so you can focus on complex accounting, data integrity, and interpretation. We’ll be hard at work extracting data from receipts, processing payroll, paying bills, sending invoices, reconciling accounts, and generating beautiful reports — so you have more time to achieve your firm's goal and focus on what matters most.
Cost of Ownership
Growth Software Without Any of the Administration Headaches
The cost of ownership is a way for you to assess the long-term value of an automated accounting solution to your firm. While the cost of the package is certainly a key component to keep in mind, it's not the only cost that you should take into account.
SmartBooks bases their pricing model for their SmartBooks Genie on the number of modules and users. They offer 4 main modules: Accounting Module, Reporting Module, Quality Assurance Module, Analytics Module, and a Firm Plan. The Accounting Module is $99. The Reporting Module is $49. The Quality Assurance Model is $49. The Analytics Module is $29. The Firm Plan is $49.
Botkeeper's pricing packages are customizable and flexible. Botkeeper has a pricing model meant for accounting firms to choose what their needs are based on a combination of their client's gross expenses, how often they need services, and the services they need from Botkeeper — but we offer the same white-glove service regardless of your package. Pricing starts at $155 per entity per month, and scales based on cadence and average entity expenses.
We know that businesses change over time, and we want to make sure we provide pricing to reflect that. We have a toolset that allows you to estimate your costs with Botkeeper, and we also have a Botkeeper specialist to walk through your needs with you and help determine the best-fit bookkeeping services. The Botkeeper pricing structure is built to grow with your firm, offering a fully customizable option.
SCALABILITY
As the bookkeeping decision-maker, you probably think about your business every day (probably multiple times a day). Finding a bookkeeping solution that works for you today is as important as finding a solution that continues to work for you in the future. Will the solution you pick today be able to grow as you and your clients grow?
SmartBooks works exclusively with small businesses and has designed a service offering with their needs in mind. They generally work with small businesses in the franchise, marketing & advertising, Professional Services, and software space. They compete head-on with accounting firms by offering CFO consulting services.
Botkeeper supports accounting firms of all sizes: small, medium, or large — we’re talking to all of you! We provide bookkeeping solutions for accounting firms that service every industry from restaurants to churches and healthcare providers and construction companies. Our solution was built to scale.
Botkeeper is much more than just software.
Choosing a bookkeeping automation provider is a crucial decision, so it's important to consider not only the software but the support and resources you'll receive, as well. We at Botkeeper are invested in your success.
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Free Training & Education — Botkeeper resources are available to help you and your entire team learn best practices and successfully execute tactics that grow your business. Take a look at the dozens of resources available, and get started today.
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Support Is Available For Your Entire Team — Anytime you have a question, reach out and we'll answer. Our support team is happy to help, whether it's a question about our software or advice on how to best tackle bookkeeping tasks.
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Deployment — When you start using Botkeeper, you'll have a dedicated team to help you get started with the software, technical setup tasks, and execute your first successful dive into the tool. Learn more about Botkeeper Deployment here.
We've built the Botkeeper Platform to be easy for Accounting Professionals and their clients to use. That's why we're happy to share reviews of everyday professionals using Botkeeper to grow better, just like you. Click below to request a demo.
Resources
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Articles from Around the Web
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Botkeeper Client Testimonials
"It’s cheaper, faster, and more accurate than any other bookkeeping company…it’s a no-brainer."
Discover real feedback from real accounting professionals like you. Folks who love Botkeeper, our bookkeeping services, and how they benefited from bringing Botkeeper into their firm or business!
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Accounting Partner Deployment
Technical and strategic guidance on setting up and using the Botkeeper Platform
The beauty of Botkeeper is its ability to scale and adapt to our growing business. After using Botkeeper for only 6 months, we’ve been able to save 30 hours per week on transaction categorizing, 5 hours per week of reconciling deposits, and 10 hours per month on reconciling revenue for just one of our clients! With bookkeeping running seamlessly with Botkeeper, I’m able to focus my time on reviewing output and making recommendations to my clients.