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Xero
From $32/moBest for: most Australian small businesses and the accountants who work with them.
Xero remains the default choice for most Australian small businesses and their accountants. Its AI financial agent, JAX, automates bank reconciliation and keeps GST and BAS current, built directly into the platform rather than bolted on.
| Plan | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $32/mo | Core invoicing and reconciliation |
| Standard | $62/mo | Unlimited invoices and bills |
| Premium | $79/mo | Multi-currency support |
MYOB
From $50/moBest for: businesses with complex payroll needs, or already using MYOB's ecosystem.
MYOB has introduced AI-powered transaction coding and bank feed intelligence, learning from historical coding patterns to automatically categorise routine transactions. A strong fit for retail, hospitality and trades businesses with high transaction volumes.
| Plan | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Business Lite | $50/mo | Core accounting |
| Business Pro | $70-90/mo | Full payroll and inventory |
Dext
Contact for pricingBest for: practices drowning in supplier bills and receipts needing accurate, automated data capture.
Dext uses AI-powered OCR to capture receipts and invoices with claimed 99.9% accuracy, extracting and categorising data before syncing directly to Xero, QuickBooks or MYOB. Won Xero's small business app of the year in both the UK and US.
Visit Dext →QuickBooks
Contact for pricingBest for: businesses wanting strong GST tracking with direct ATO submission.
QuickBooks' AI categorises transactions automatically and flags anomalies for review, improving accuracy over time from your corrections. Includes GST tracking with electronic BAS lodgement direct to the ATO.
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What actually matters when comparing accounting tools
AI handles the ledger, not the pre-ledger workflow
Most platforms' AI is strongest at bank feed categorisation. The manual work in invoice coding, validating and approving supplier bills before they even reach the ledger, is where fewer tools have actually invested.
Check your accountant's preferred platform first
More Australian accountants and bookkeepers work in Xero than any other platform, this makes collaboration easier if you're not doing your own books.
"AI-powered" isn't always new
Some tools relabel basic automation (like matching invoices by amount and date) as AI. That functionality has existed since well before generative AI, check what's actually new versus rebranded.
Add-on tools stack up in cost
Dext, analytics add-ons, and payroll modules all cost extra on top of the core platform. Budget the full stack, not just the base subscription price.
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