Kashoo vs QuickBooks Online: What Each Does Well, and the Signs It’s Time to Switch

Written & reviewed by Ram Singh, founder, Numerawise Solutions · Last reviewed October 14, 2026

Kashoo is a simple cloud ledger for sole proprietors and small service businesses, with unlimited users on one subscription. QuickBooks Online is the ledger most US bookkeepers and CPAs work in. Stay on Kashoo if you invoice, track expenses and sales tax, and have no US employees and no stock to count. Move to QuickBooks Online when you run US payroll, need inventory quantities and cost of goods sold, or your CPA wants class or location reports. Sources: kashoo.com home, pricing and FAQ sections, and Kashoo Help Center articles on exporting data, the QuickBooks IIF export, payroll, items, cash-basis reporting, businesses and users; Intuit’s “Learn about usage limits” (updated 8/5/2026), “Manage inventory in QuickBooks Online” (updated 8/4/2026) and “Understand the taxes and forms that payroll submits for you” (updated 8/3/2026); all read 14 October 2026.

What each product is, on the vendor’s own pages

Kashoo. Kashoo is based in Vancouver and pitches itself to sole proprietors and the self-employed. Its home page lists unlimited invoices, online payments, expense and bill tracking, sales tax, bank feeds, project tracking, items, multi-currency, unlimited attachments, Square and Stripe connections, a PaymentEvolution payroll integration, unlimited users, two-factor authentication and a double-entry ledger. The same page now promotes TrulySmall, “our newer platform that does the bookkeeping for you”, and the Help Center files the original product’s articles under “Kashoo Classic”. Kashoo offers a 14-day trial with no card, and keeps an unconverted trial account for another 90 days. Each additional business needs its own subscription, though one login can switch between them.

QuickBooks Online. Intuit sells Simple Start, Essentials, Plus and Advanced. Its usage-limits article sets the caps: 1, 3, 5 and 25 billable users, plus two or three free accountant-firm users. Classes and locations are not on Simple Start or Essentials, Plus allows 40 combined, and Advanced is unlimited. The chart of accounts is capped at 250 accounts on every plan except Advanced. If you run more than one company, each one has its own usage limits.

Side by side

Five signs it’s time to move

Check these against your last 12 months, not against a feature list.

1. You hired your first US employee. Kashoo’s US payroll article walks you through creating Federal Withholding, Social Security, Medicare, state and unemployment liability accounts and keying each pay stub as a bill. That works for one person. With three or four, it becomes a monthly reconciliation job that integrated payroll does for you.
2. You carry stock. Kashoo items price your invoices and bills. QuickBooks Online tracks how many units you hold, raises a purchase order when you run low and posts cost of goods sold as you sell. If your counts live in a spreadsheet, the ledger isn’t costing your sales.
3. Your CPA wants class or location reports. Kashoo’s project and client filters work inside Kashoo. Lenders, CPAs and most bookkeeping apps expect QuickBooks classes and locations.
4. You need cash and accrual views of the same year. Kashoo’s own help explains a manual adjustment for cash-basis reporting once you use receivables and payables. If your CPA asks for both every year, that adjustment becomes a recurring chore.
5. You run several businesses and want consolidated numbers. Both products bill each business separately. Kashoo gives you a switcher; it doesn’t consolidate. In QuickBooks Online, see classes or separate companies before you choose a structure.

None of the five? Kashoo is probably doing its job. Two or more is usually the point where a move pays for itself in bookkeeping hours.

What moves from Kashoo, and what doesn’t

Kashoo’s Help Center describes one-click export under Settings, then Export Data, in XLS, XML, CSV or IIF. The file covers unpaid bills and invoices, balance sheet, income statement, trial balance, accounts, customers, vendors, income, expenses, transfers, adjustments and checks. Most list pages and reports also export separately.

• The IIF route is for QuickBooks Desktop. Kashoo’s IIF export carries the chart of accounts, opening balances, customer and vendor names and journal entries. Kashoo tells you to import it into an empty QuickBooks Desktop file. It is not a QuickBooks Online import, and multi-currency businesses can’t use it.
• Moves cleanly to QuickBooks Online: chart of accounts, customers, vendors, open invoices and bills, and the trial balance at your cutover date.
• Needs rework: negative lines on bills or taxes and transfer transactions, which QuickBooks won’t accept as imported. Kashoo’s “minus sales tax” entries are a common source.
• Doesn’t move: invoice templates, bank-rule learning and attachments. Download what you need first. Kashoo’s help says cancelling removes the account fully and you can’t view it afterwards.

Pick a cutover at a month or quarter end, reconcile every bank account in Kashoo to that date, and export after the last reconciliation. Your opening trial balance in QuickBooks should match Kashoo’s exactly.

When to stay on Kashoo

Stay if you’re a service business or sole proprietor with no US employees, no stock and an accountant happy with a year-end export. Unlimited users is a real advantage if several people only need to view or enter data. Switching would add a subscription and a learning curve with nothing to show for it.

Frequently asked questions

Is Kashoo the same as TrulySmall?

No. Kashoo’s home page presents TrulySmall as its newer platform that does the bookkeeping for you, alongside Kashoo. Kashoo’s Help Center files the original product’s articles under Kashoo Classic. Check which one your login opens before you plan an export.

Does Kashoo do US payroll?

Not natively. Kashoo’s help says Canadian payroll runs through its PaymentEvolution integration, and US payroll figures are entered by hand as bills or adjustments to liability accounts you create. QuickBooks Online pairs with Intuit QuickBooks Workforce, which files federal and state payroll forms when tax automation is on.

Can Kashoo export to QuickBooks?

Kashoo exports an IIF file that QuickBooks Desktop can import into an empty company file, with the chart of accounts, opening balances, names and journal entries. Multi-currency businesses can’t use IIF. For QuickBooks Online, the XLS or CSV export is the starting point and the data is rebuilt.

How many users does Kashoo allow?

Unlimited, at no extra charge, with four roles: Admin and Billing, Admin, View/Edit Only and View Only. QuickBooks Online allows 1, 3, 5 or 25 billable users depending on the plan, plus free accountant users.

We are not a CPA firm or tax adviser. Confirm your cutover date, opening balances and payroll setup with your CPA. Ready to move? Our Kashoo to QuickBooks Online conversion explains how your opening trial balance, open invoices and problem transactions are rebuilt and reconciled before go-live. If you need desktop inventory or more than 25 users, see Kashoo to QuickBooks Enterprise.