Most accounting software is shaped around businesses that buy and sell things. If you sell time and expertise instead, a large share of the product is inventory, stock valuation, and purchase workflows you’ll never open, and the parts you do need, like profitability by engagement, are buried behind them.
This guide compares the six platforms consultants, agencies, and other service businesses shortlist most often: GlassJar, QuickBooks Online, Xero, FreshBooks, Zoho Books, and Wave. We’ll say which one we’d steer a consultancy toward (GlassJar, and we’ll explain why) and be specific about the cases where one of the others is the better fit.
Key Takeaways
- Total revenue tells a consultancy very little. The question that matters is which engagements are worth doing once you count time and pass-through costs, and most software can’t answer it without a spreadsheet.
- Service businesses have tangled contacts. The subcontractor who refers you work and the agency you both invoice and pay should be one record, not two.
- Invoicing needs to handle milestones, retainers, and variable line items, and the payment should land in the books without matching by hand.
- If you subcontract, 1099 tracking belongs where the payments are recorded.
What a consultancy should judge
The first question is whether income and expenses can be tagged by client or engagement and reported that way, because everything else hangs off it. After that: can invoices handle variable amounts, milestones, and retainers, with the payment recorded when it arrives? Do the reports show profit by engagement without an export to Excel? Does the bank feed import and categorize reliably? How many screens does it take someone who isn’t an accountant to record a subcontractor bill? And are contractor payments tracked for 1099s in the same place you record them?
GlassJar for consultants and agencies
GlassJar is cloud accounting software for consultants, agencies, and other service businesses, and a few things about it map well onto service work. Every transaction type is entered from one screen, so a client invoice, a subcontractor bill, and a journal entry are the same short interaction. One contact record can be a customer, a vendor, and a contractor at once, which matters when the people you subcontract to also send you work. And custom tags are built in, so you can cut reporting by client or engagement rather than only in total.
Budgeting and variance reporting come with it, and higher tiers add allocations for splitting shared costs across the work they belong to. The rest is what you’d expect from full double-entry accounting: bank connections and reconciliation, invoicing, bill management, expense tracking, check printing, 1099 contractor management, and user roles so a bookkeeper can work in the books without your login. Each user picks which reports appear on their dashboard.
There are three plans, Foundation, Core, and Advanced, and live chat comes with all of them, as does a 14-day free trial. Early access opens October 1, 2026. Two caveats. It’s new, so there’s no app marketplace yet. And it doesn’t track time, which matters if you bill hourly; decide how tracked hours get onto an invoice before you switch, not after.
How the others compare
QuickBooks Online
The most widely used option, with the largest accountant network and app marketplace, and class and location tracking that a consultancy can use to separate engagements. If your CPA works only in QuickBooks, that’s a real reason to choose it.
Class tracking and project profitability sit on higher tiers, pricing is per user, updates change navigation and report layouts without much warning, and the same company must be entered as both a customer and a vendor. The QuickBooks comparison goes through the differences.
Xero
Unlimited users on every plan, multi-currency for consultants who bill abroad, a clean reconciliation screen, and more than 1,000 app connections, including time and project tools.
The entry plan caps invoices at 20 and bills at 5 per month, expense claims and multi-currency are on higher tiers, project tracking is on the top plan, tracking is limited to two dimensions, and support is email and chat only.
FreshBooks
Built for invoicing hourly work. Time tracking converts to invoice lines, the client portal handles approvals and payment, and reminders and late fees run automatically. If most of your accounting time is invoicing, it is well designed for that.
The accounting half is thinner: double-entry reports and bank reconciliation aren’t on the entry plan, journal entries sit behind an advanced setting, billable clients are capped on lower tiers, and there’s no budgeting. The FreshBooks comparison has the detail.
Zoho Books
Part of the Zoho suite, with automation rules for reminders and recurring invoices, a client portal, and project billing. If you already run Zoho CRM or Zoho Projects, the data flows between them.
Setting up the automation takes real time, the interface has more menus than simpler tools, some reporting is on higher tiers, and several capabilities you might expect in accounting live in other Zoho apps. The Zoho Books comparison covers the difference between built-in custom tags and functionality spread across modules.
Wave
Free invoicing, expense tracking, and basic reports, which makes it a common starting point for a solo consultant.
Bank connections require the paid Pro plan, there’s no project or client-level expense tracking, no budgeting, and no tags, and support on the free tier is self-serve. A consultancy with more than a few clients outgrows it quickly.
Side by side
| What a consultancy needs | GlassJar | QuickBooks Online | Xero | FreshBooks | Zoho Books | Wave |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Profit by client or engagement | Custom tags, every plan | Classes, higher tiers | Two tracking categories | Limited | Projects | ✕No |
| Every transaction from one screen | ✓Yes | ✕No | ✕No | ✕No | ✕No | ✕No |
| One contact for client, vendor, contractor | ✓Yes | ✕No | ✕No | ✕No | ✕No | ✕No |
| Budgets and variance included | ✓Yes | Higher tiers | Basic | ✕No | Higher tiers | ✕No |
| 1099 contractor tracking | ✓Yes | ✓Yes | Report plus partner | Limited | Limited | Limited |
| Built-in time tracking | ✕No | Add-on | Add-on | ✓Yes | ✓Yes | ✕No |
| Live chat on every plan | ✓Yes | Callback | Email and chat | ✓Yes | Varies | Paid only |
Scroll sideways to see all columns.
These plan limits shift every few months. Confirm them on each vendor’s pricing page.
Tracking expenses by client or engagement
It starts with tagging. Each time you record a purchase, a subscription, or a subcontractor payment, you assign it to an engagement. Over a quarter those tagged entries build a picture of what each contract actually cost.
Some platforms do this with classes or department codes on higher tiers. GlassJar does it with custom tags you define, on every plan, and reports filter by them. That’s how you find the client that looks busy but is not profitable once the subcontractor and the pass-through costs are counted.
Choosing
QuickBooks Online is the right answer if your accountant requires it or you want payroll from the same vendor. Xero wins when a large team needs access or you invoice internationally. FreshBooks, if hourly time tracking and the client portal are the center of how you bill. Zoho Books, if you already live in Zoho. And Wave is fine for a solo consultant with a handful of clients and no software budget yet.
GlassJar is for the consultancy whose two unanswered questions are which engagements are actually profitable and why the same company shows up in the books twice. If fewer screens per transaction sounds like the difference between doing the books weekly and doing them at the end of the quarter, that’s the one to trial. Early access opens October 1, 2026. The 14-day trial is free, and current plan details are on the pricing page.
Frequently asked questions
What accounting features do consultants need most?
Tracking by client or engagement, invoicing that handles milestones and retainers with payments recorded in the books, and reports that show profit per engagement without an export.
Can GlassJar handle 1099 contractor reporting?
Yes. Subcontractor payments are assigned to 1099 categories as you record them, history is tracked per contractor, and a 1099 report is exported at year end.
How does GlassJar show profitability by project?
Custom tags mark every invoice, expense, and bill with a client or engagement, and reports filter by those tags to show revenue, costs, and profit for each one.
Does GlassJar track time?
No. If you bill by the hour, track time separately and enter the invoice from the single transaction screen, or test that workflow during the trial before deciding.
Do I need accounting experience to use it?
No. It was built so an owner can keep the books: one screen for every entry, plain reports, and live chat when a question comes up.
