Clear Books
Key Info:
Clear Books is UK online accounting software for invoicing, banking, VAT and Making Tax Digital, expenses, bills, reporting and payroll workflows.
Details
Accounting scope
Clear Books is browser-based accounting software for UK sole traders, small businesses and accountants. Its current product tour covers dashboards, invoicing, banking, bills, expenses, VAT and Making Tax Digital, reports, payroll and collaboration. Buyers should compare the available plans against the exact legal entity, transaction volume and compliance work they need, because not every feature is included in every package.
Evaluation scenario
Set up a test organisation with a realistic chart of accounts, tax settings, opening balances, customers, suppliers and bank accounts. Raise an invoice, record a bill and an expense, import or connect bank activity, explain and reconcile transactions, then produce profit-and-loss, balance-sheet, cash-flow and VAT reports. Include a partial payment, a refund, an incorrect tax code and a duplicated bank line to test corrections and auditability.
Daily processing
Ask the person who will maintain the books to test document capture, recurring invoices, payment collection, overdue balances and bank matching. Review how the dashboard directs attention to cash, sales, bills and reporting tasks. Confirm that rules and suggestions remain understandable when exceptions appear, and that bulk work does not hide individual transactions requiring evidence or approval.
Controls and collaboration
Test user roles with an owner, operational user and external accountant. Verify who can create, approve, edit, delete and export records, and how changes can be traced. If payroll is required, evaluate employee setup, pay runs, corrections and statutory submissions separately. Agree a monthly close checklist that reconciles bank balances, receivables, payables, tax and management reports before results are shared.
Migration and integrations
Import a controlled sample of contacts, opening balances, unpaid invoices and unpaid bills, then reconcile the result to the source system. Map payment services, bank feeds, receipt capture, payroll and any connected applications. For each integration, identify the owner, exchanged data, failure alerts and revocation process. Confirm how attachments and historical records are exported if the organisation changes systems.
Decision checkpoint
Measure processing time, reconciliation accuracy, correction effort, report consistency and support demand. Verify current plan limits, Making Tax Digital coverage, payroll availability, retention terms and data-export options against official Clear Books documentation. Proceed when the finance team can reproduce key balances, explain exceptions, restrict access appropriately and complete its period-end and tax workflow without uncontrolled spreadsheets.