What is AI bookkeeping?

AI bookkeeping uses artificial intelligence to automate daily bookkeeping tasks like categorizing expenses, processing receipts, reconciling bank transactions, and generating financial reports. Instant Books reads your documents, learns your business patterns, and keeps your books up to date automatically.

How much does Instant Books cost?

Instant Books starts at $20.99/month for small businesses. We offer a free trial so you can experience AI-powered bookkeeping before committing. Pricing scales based on transaction volume and features needed.

Does Instant Books integrate with QuickBooks?

Yes, Instant Books integrates seamlessly with QuickBooks Online. Our AI processes your documents and transactions, then syncs everything directly to your QuickBooks account, keeping your books accurate and up to date.

Is my financial data secure with Instant Books?

Absolutely. We use bank-level 256-bit encryption for all data transmission and storage. Your financial information is protected with the same security standards used by major financial institutions.

Instant Books | AI Bookkeeping Software for Small Businesses

Today

Receipts scattered everywhere
Hours spent recording expenses
Scramble at tax season

Spreadsheet before Instant Books with manual data entry

→

With Instant Books

Receipts organized, never miss a receipt
Expense report auto-generated
Relaxed with audit-ready reports

How it works

You provide receipts Just snap a photo, scan a receipt, or email it in

Instant Books extracts We pull vendor, amount, date, category, sales tax, and customer/project automatically

Organized & ready Receipts sorted by month & category, expense reports generated in real time

How does Instant Books compare?

Expensify Hubdoc Instant Books

●○○ Basic ●●○ Moderate ●●● Advanced

Expensify

Hubdoc

Instant Books

Document support

●●○ Images & PDF

●●○ Images, PDF

●●● Multi-format & multi-language ▼

11+ document types: bills, invoices, credits, statements Paper receipts, handwritten notes, emails, cheques Multi-language support for international documents

Extraction accuracy

●●○ Works on standard receipts ▼

Extracts merchant, date, amount, currency Works well for standard printed receipts Struggles with handwritten or unusual formats

●●○ OCR + human review ▼

Extracts date, amount, supplier, invoice number Processing can take up to 24 hours May fail on blurry, crumpled, or faded receipts

●●● High accuracy on any format ▼

Extracts all fields: date, amount, supplier, document number, sales tax Handles handwritten, faded, crumpled receipts Fast processing with high accuracy

Customer/Project tracking

●○○ Manual tagging ▼

Import customers/projects from accounting software Manually tag each expense as billable Filter and sort by customer tags

●○○ Not available ▼

Document capture tool only No native customer or project tracking Relies entirely on accounting software

●●● Automated ▼

Auto-detected from receipts Available as an add-on.

Receipt organization

●●○ By expense report ▼

Receipts attached to individual expenses You create and organize expense reports

●●● Auto-sorted by supplier ▼

Auto-sorts into customizable folders by vendor Searchable document archive

●●● By month & category ▼

Auto-organized by month & category. Receipts linked in expense reports.

Grows with your business

●○○ Expense tool only ▼

Not an accounting system Need separate software for full accounting

●●● Seamless to Xero ▼

Owned by Xero, integrates with Xero naturally Documents flow directly into Xero accounting Separate subscription required for Xero

●●● Seamless upgrade path ▼

Start with expense tracking on Essential plan Upgrade to Growth for bank transactions and full accounting All your data stays with you as you grow

See a demo → See comparison → Try Instant Books Receipts

Small business owners spend 7 hours/week average on sorting transactions, matching bill and invoice payments.
We take that off your plate.

How?

Your Bookkeeping

80%

From Your Documents

Bills
Receipts
Statements
Invoices

10%

Business-specific Rules

10%

Require Your Judgment

→

Understands & Extracts

Your Documents

Captures

Your Business Rules

Automatically Sort

90% Bank Transactions Every Day

• Match bills & invoices

• Handle exact, partial, over & split payments

• Sort with smart rules

• Categorize based on system or custom rules

See a demo → See detailed comparison → Try Instant Books Growth

Not ready to leave QuickBooks? Try Instant Books Receipts with free QuickBooks Sync →

How does Instant Books compare?

QuickBooks Xero Instant Books

●○○ Basic ●●○ Moderate ●●● Advanced

QuickBooks

Xero

Instant Books

Bill entry

●○○ Manual with OCR ▼

Basic receipt capture, still requires manual review and entry

●●○ Receipt scanning ▼

Receipt and invoice scanning with data extraction, manual review needed

●●● Fully automated ▼

Automatic bill entry, smart invoice entry Auto match bank transactions to bills/invoices

Categorization

●○○ AI guesses ▼

AI categorization with limited user control

●●○ Learns patterns ▼

Learns from your history and anonymized transactions across Xero

●●● AI + your rules ▼

AI categorization based on transaction description and related documents Full customization at your desire

Bank reconciliation

●○○ Exact match only ▼

Basic matching on exact amounts only

●●○ 80% auto ▼

Xero aims for 80%+ automatic reconciliation Learns from your history

●●● Smart matching, 90% auto ▼

Support: • Exact amount • Multi-bill/invoice split • Partial or overpaid payments • Internal transfer • Date/name variance

Invoicing

●○○ Manual + recurring ▼

Manual creation with templates and recurring invoices

●○○ Manual + recurring ▼

Manual creation with templates and recurring invoices

●●● Smart creation ▼

Smart invoice creation from emails, timesheet, conversations, hand-written notes, billable expenses

Document scanning

●○○ Receipts only ▼

Basic receipt support only

●●○ Receipts + invoices ▼

Receipt and invoice scanning with Hubdoc integration

●●● 11+ document types ▼

Support: • Bills, Invoices, Supplier credits • Supplier statements, Bank statements • Paper & hand-written receipts • Cheques, Emails, Order confirmations • Payment receipts

Billable expenses

●○○ Manual marking ▼

You find and mark each billable expense

●○○ Manual marking ▼

Manual marking with project tracking features

●●● Auto-detected ▼

We extract customer/project data from receipts and bills Auto create billable expenses

Sales tax

●○○ Manual input ▼

You enter tax amounts yourself

●○○ Some auto-detect ▼

Basic tax detection with manual review

●●● Auto-extracted ▼

We extract sales tax from your bills/receipts with high accuracy No matter what tax situation

Bookkeeping effort

●○○ Regular upkeep ▼

Fall behind if you don't do it regularly

●●○ Regular upkeep ▼

Saves ~4 hours/week on reconciliation, still needs regular attention

●●● Minimum, hands-off ▼

Bookkeeping done daily and in real time Minimum effort required from you

AI architecture

●○○ AI bolted on ▼

Older system with AI features added later

●●○ AI modernizing ▼

Legacy system with AI being added, improving over time

●●● AI-native ▼

AI-native from the ground up Built for time saving and high accuracy You stay in control

90% less manual work.
100% human control.