Financial Cents vs Client Hub: Which Is Better?
Affordable practice management tools for small accounting firms compared.
Tom Bradley
2026-02-27
Financial Cents and Client Hub are both purpose-built for accounting and bookkeeping firms, covering the same core ground—client portals, workflow management, and document collection—but they diverge in depth of bookkeeping-specific tooling and how they price their plans.
| Financial Cents | Client Hub | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Bookkeeping/CPA firms wanting all-in-one practice management | Firms doing cloud bookkeeping who want deep QBO/Xero workflows |
| Starting price | Solo plan (single user) | $49/user/month (solo) |
| Team pricing | Per-user, tiered plans | $59–$79/user/month |
| Free trial | 14 days, no credit card | Free trial available |
| QBO integration | Yes | Deep (month-end close, uncategorized transactions) |
| AI features | Limited | Extensive (Magic Workflow, Magic Emails, Magic Books Review) |
| Engagement letters/proposals | Yes | Via Anchor integration |
| Billing/payments | Built-in | Via Anchor integration |
| Mobile app | Not prominently featured | Yes |
Financial Cents
Financial Cents is a full practice management platform used by over 10,000 accountants, bookkeepers, and CPAs. Its pitch is consolidating the patchwork of apps firms typically run—project tracking, client communication, document collection, billing—into a single system.
Work management is the core of the platform. You can standardize recurring bookkeeping and month-end close workflows using templates, track deadlines across all clients from a single dashboard, and assign work to team members with visibility into who's working on what. Workflow automation handles time-consuming admin: recurring project creation, automated client reminders, and team notifications when upstream work is ready.
The client portal is tightly integrated with work management rather than bolted on. Clients receive task requests and can upload documents directly; the system follows up automatically until items are completed. A per-client password vault lets firms store credentials securely. Email sync (Gmail and Outlook) attaches incoming messages to the relevant client or project, creating an audit trail of all communication.
Beyond workflow, Financial Cents includes proposals and engagement letter generation with e-signatures, built-in billing and payments, and a client CRM. The bookkeeping review feature—designed for reviewing and finalizing client books—is an add-on at $5/month per client billed annually.
Pricing breaks into a solo tier (single-user firms, one affordable flat price), plus team plans that scale up with automations, integrations, and advanced security. Monthly billing requires a minimum of five users. A 14-day free trial requires no credit card.
Limitations: The bookkeeping-specific workflow (month-end close, uncategorized transaction resolution) is less native than competitors. AI tooling is less developed. The mobile experience isn't prominently marketed.
Client Hub
Client Hub positions itself as practice management plus bookkeeping workflows—the distinction being that QBO/Xero integrations aren't just connectors but functional tools baked into the product. It's built specifically for cloud accounting and bookkeeping practices doing ongoing client accounting services.
The bookkeeping workflow layer is what separates Client Hub from generic practice management tools. The QuickBooks integration lets you resolve uncategorized transactions directly within Client Hub—clients can answer questions about specific transactions from their portal, and you accept or reclassify without leaving the app. The month-end close review uses AI (Magic Books Review) to find data anomalies in QBO and flag them before close. Financial reports can be published to clients through the platform, and the 1099 manager handles year-end W9 collection. Xero users get uncategorized transaction resolution as well.
AI features are a significant differentiator. Magic Workflow generates checklist steps for any workflow type. Magic Messages drafts client task requests. Magic Emails summarizes threads and drafts replies. This AI layer is built into all paid plans, not sold as an add-on.
The client portal emphasizes a messaging-first experience that feels closer to texting than a formal document vault—multiple reviewers note it keeps clients out of email and produces faster responses. Client tasks, secure file sharing, and a mobile app (for both firm and client users) round out the portal experience.
Pricing (annual billing): - Solopreneur: $49/user/month — all features, single user only - Practice Manager: $59/user/month — full practice management + client portal, no QuickBooks/Xero advanced workflows - Practice Manager + QBO/Xero: $79/user/month — adds month-end close, uncategorized transactions, financial reporting, 1099 Manager
All plans include unlimited clients, unlimited storage, and AI features. Monthly billing is also available at higher rates. Billing and proposals integrate via Anchor rather than being native.
Limitations: Billing and engagement letters require a third-party integration (Anchor) rather than being built-in. The $79/user price point adds up for larger teams. No native proposals or engagement letters.
When to choose Financial Cents
Financial Cents fits firms that want a genuinely all-in-one system—including proposals, e-signatures, and billing—without stitching together separate tools. If your team manages a mix of tax, advisory, and bookkeeping engagements (rather than exclusively cloud bookkeeping), Financial Cents' broader project management approach handles varied service types better. The password vault and email audit trail are also useful for multi-person teams managing sensitive client credentials. It's also the better pick if you want billing and payments native to the platform rather than via integration.
When to choose Client Hub
Client Hub is the stronger choice for firms whose core service is ongoing cloud bookkeeping and month-end close. If you're spending significant time resolving uncategorized QBO transactions, manually publishing financials, or chasing clients for transaction clarification, the deep QuickBooks integration pays for itself quickly. The AI tooling—particularly Magic Books Review and Magic Emails—is meaningfully more advanced than what Financial Cents currently offers. Solo bookkeepers who want a capable all-in-one at a flat $49/month will also find it competitive.
Bottom line
These are close competitors, and most accounting firms would function well on either. The deciding factor is usually workflow depth: Financial Cents wins on breadth—native billing, proposals, and a more mature CRM make it a true all-in-one for diverse firm types. Client Hub wins on depth for cloud bookkeeping specifically—its QBO/Xero integrations, AI-powered month-end close, and transaction resolution workflows are more sophisticated. If you spend most of your time closing books in QuickBooks, Client Hub's $79/user/month tier is worth the premium. If you need proposals, billing, and engagement letters without integrations, Financial Cents is the more self-contained option.