What it costs
A month of books at 100 transactions
$57
a month at 100 transactions, on Bookkeeping, on Xero Early
- Bookkeeping, on Xero Earlycranston.ai$30
- Xero Early$27
- Added up$57
Checked against the maker's own pages, 27 October 2026.
Cranston price and plans
Prices excluding tax, as Cranston publishes them.
Bookkeeping, on QuickBooks Online Simple Start
$30 a month
- Flat fee
- Needs QuickBooks Online Simple Start, $38 a month
Bookkeeping, on Xero Early
$30 a month
- Flat fee
- Needs Xero Early, $27 a month
Pricing page, captured
cranston.ai/pricing, checked
What Cranston costs at your volume
| Transactions a month | Cost | Plan |
|---|---|---|
| 100 transactions | $57 a monthon Bookkeeping, on Xero Early | Bookkeeping, on Xero Early |
| 500 transactions | $57 a monthon Bookkeeping, on Xero Early | Bookkeeping, on Xero Early |
What we checked on Cranston
Cost at 100 transactions a month
$57 a month on Bookkeeping, on Xero Early for 100 transactions. Includes Xero Early at $27 a month, which Bookkeeping, on Xero Early needs.
$30 per client book, per month
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Cost at 500 transactions a month
$57 a month on Bookkeeping, on Xero Early for 500 transactions. Includes Xero Early at $27 a month, which Bookkeeping, on Xero Early needs.
On the page: Bookkeeping plan card, price cell
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Cost for a solo freelancer
One freelancer's books cost a firm $30 a month as a single client book, but the client still needs a QuickBooks Online or Xero subscription and Cranston sells to the firm rather than to the freelancer.
One client entity's books, connected through QuickBooks or Xero. Each connected book is $30 per month. A client with two entities is two books.
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Promotion and regular price
none — the two published rates are presented as the complete price list, with no introductory period, no discounted first months and no platform or onboarding charge named anywhere on the pricing page.
The two rates on this page are the full price list. You do not need a quote.
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Ledger included
The $30 book fee buys the AI work only: the client's ledger stays QuickBooks Online or Xero, whose own subscription the firm or client pays separately, and Cranston states it does not replace that system.
No. QuickBooks Online stays the client's accounting system. Cranston reads from it and prepares work for your firm's review.
What the price is based on
Billing is flat per unit of work: $30 each month per connected client book, plus a one-time $40 for each prepared return, with no per-seat, hourly or per-form element.
No per-form add-ons No hourly billing No per-seat charges No surprise charges
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Users included
Staff seats are not metered: the pricing page rules out per-seat charges, and firm staff are instead managed by role as owner, admin or member with team-scoped access.
No per-seat charges
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Past your plan’s limits
No transaction or account allowance is published for a book, so nothing is said about passing one; the only stated threshold is return volume, where past 2,000 returns a season the price is agreed with the vendor.
Every figure is the two rates multiplied by your counts. There is nothing else on the bill. Past 2,000 returns a season, we price the volume together.
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Setup or onboarding fee
The vendor states there is no onboarding or platform charge at all, so a firm pays only the recurring book fee and the per-return fee as returns are prepared.
Bookkeeping is the only recurring line. There are no platform fees or onboarding charges.
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Catching up past months
Cleanup of messy prior months is offered as a project in which Cranston recategorizes and reconciles until the firm has a signable baseline; the pages put no separate price on that work.
Yes. Point it at the messy books. It recategorizes, reconciles, and flags what needs a human call until there is a baseline your firm will sign.
What the AI does
The AI reads client document packages, keys a first-pass return into the firm's tax software, classifies and reconciles ledger activity, works close checklists and answers tax questions with primary-source citations.
Cranston works with QuickBooks, Drake, CCH Axcess, and the rest of your stack. AI prepares the work. Your reviewers make the calls.
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What the AI costs
included — the AI is the product itself and is covered by the two flat rates; the vendor states explicitly that nothing is metered in credits or tokens.
Pay per client book and per prepared return. Flat rates, no credits or tokens.
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Categorizes transactions
Transactions sync from the ledger and are classified every day under the firm's own rules; a treatment decided once becomes a standing instruction that applies each month rather than needing re-teaching.
Transactions sync from QuickBooks and are classified daily under your firm's rules. Set a treatment once and it holds every month.
Reconciles your accounts
Bank and credit-card accounts are matched to statements, unmatched differences become reconciling items, and preparer and reviewer sign-off is recorded on each reconciliation for the firm.
Bank and credit-card accounts reconcile against statements, with preparer and reviewer sign-off recorded on each one. Approval always belongs to your…
Accrual books and reports
Cranston works each client's close checklist and generates the financial statements when the period closes, publishing them within days of month end; the pages do not name cash or accrual basis or list a cash-flow statement.
When a period closes, statements are generated within days of month end.
People check the books
Checking is the buying firm's own staff work by design: Cranston queues exceptions and findings, and nothing posts to a ledger, files or reaches a client until a firm reviewer approves it.
Your team does. Cranston prepares the work, links it to source documents, and queues exceptions for review. Nothing posts, files, or goes out to a…
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When the month is closed
The vendor commits to month-end output in the week the month ends, with reconciliations already run and only exceptions left for the firm's staff to clear before publication.
When the period closes, financials are generated and published to the client the same week the month ends.
Your accountant can sign in
Because the buyer is the accounting firm and seats are not charged for, reviewers and administrators can be added without extra cost, with access scoped by role and by team.
Staff roles: owner, admin, member Access scoped by team Actions logged and reviewable
Accuracy the vendor claims
The vendor claims material errors in fewer than one draft in ten against four in ten for firm-prepared returns, and describes the method, but the figures come from its own internal study.
4 in 10 returns had an error that changed the tax owed. Cranston's software, given the same documents, made that kind of error in fewer than 1 in 10.
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QuickBooks Online
The integrations page lists QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, Xero and Sage Intacct as ledgers Cranston reads, alongside five tax packages
QuickBooks Online Trial balances, ledgers, and statements read from the books
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Xero
The integrations page lists QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, Xero and Sage Intacct as ledgers Cranston reads, alongside five tax packages
On the page: Integrations list, QuickBooks Online entry
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QuickBooks Desktop
The integrations page lists QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, Xero and Sage Intacct as ledgers Cranston reads, alongside five tax packages
On the page: Integrations list, QuickBooks Online entry
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NetSuite
NetSuite appears on no page, and the list is not stated to be complete.
On the page: Integrations list, QuickBooks Online entry
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Bank and card feeds
Daily transaction flow comes through the ledger rather than from the banks: Cranston syncs two-way with QuickBooks Online and pushes results back, and no direct bank or card connection of its own is described.
Yes. Cranston syncs two-way with QuickBooks Online: transactions in, categorization and reconciliation results back. Your client's QBO file stays the…
Platforms
web — the agreement describes a cloud-based platform a firm signs into, and preparation runs in the background rather than on the user's machine; no Windows, Mac, iOS or Android app is named.
Cranston is a cloud-based tax preparation platform that organizes source documents, generates workpapers and review findings
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Files your tax return
Cranston prepares and keys a complete draft federal and state return at $40 per return, but stops short of filing: elections, sign-off and e-filing stay with the firm on its own EFIN.
Your firm, unchanged. Cranston prepares and flags. Elections, judgment calls, sign-off, and filing stay with your reviewers.
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SOC 2 report
There is no SOC 2 report to hand yet: the vendor says a Type II examination is in progress and names the live controls instead, offering a control walk-through with a founder rather than a report.
The SOC 2 Type II examination is in progress. Encryption, role-based access, PII protection, audit logs, and SSO are live across the platform.
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Your data trains AI
The agreement limits the vendor to using submitted taxpayer and financial data only to provide, secure, support and maintain the service, but neither it nor the privacy policy says anything explicit about AI model training or an opt-out.
Provider may use this information only to provide, secure, support, and maintain the Cloud Service and related offerings.
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For accounting firms
The whole product is built for accounting firms, with many client books on one dashboard, firm-wide rules, role and team scoping and pages for solo, growing and multi-office practices; white-labeling is not claimed.
Cranston keeps each client's documents, books, returns, and email together so the next step is always ready.
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Several businesses
One firm account holds as many client books as it connects, and each additional entity is simply another $30 book, so a two-entity client costs $60 a month before its ledger subscriptions.
One client entity's books, connected through QuickBooks or Xero, is one book. A client with two entities is two books.
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Australia
It is sold to US firms: the return list is 1040, 1065, 1120 and 1120-S with federal and state filings, safeguards follow GLBA and IRS Pub. 4557, and no Canadian, UK or Australian filing is named.
1040, 1065, 1120, and 1120-S. If your book leans on trusts, estates, or exempt orgs, ask us where those stand before you buy.
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Free trial or free plan
There is no standing free plan: the Terms cover evaluation, trial or pilot access at no charge, while any paid use needs a signed Order Form, and the public route in is a 30-minute demo on a real return package.
These Terms govern all other access: evaluation, trial, or pilot use of the Product, and use of Cranston's public website.
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Sign up without a sales call
Both rates are public and the vendor says no quote is needed, but buying is not self-serve: paid subscriptions run through a signed Order Form and every call to action books a demo.
Paid subscriptions are not sold under these Terms. Cranston subscriptions are purchased through a signed Order Form governed by the Cranston Cloud…
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Contract and cancelling
The published rates recur monthly per book and per return, but the commitment itself is not public: fees, included volume and payment schedule all sit in the signed Order Form, so cancellation terms cannot be read off the site.
Fees, included volume, the payment schedule, and the payment method are set out in the Order Form and are billed according to the payment process the…
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Support
Paid customers get email support during US business hours with a one-business-day response target; no phone line, live chat or after-hours cover is offered, and hello@cranston.ai handles billing questions.
Provider will provide support by email during normal U.S. business hours and will use commercially reasonable efforts to respond within one business…
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Cranston alternatives
All 9 alternatives6 more alternatives
5 of the 9 publish a price.
- Booke AINo list priceAn AI bookkeeper that works inside QuickBooks Online and Xero to categorize transactions and match documents.
- StampliOn quoteProcure-to-pay workspace for invoices, vendors, payments and card spend, with AI coding and routing.
- PilotNo list priceA bookkeeping and tax service for startups that pairs software-driven dashboards with human financial advisors.
- SimpleAIFrom $79 a monthAI agents that extract, classify and reconcile accounting documents, then publish them into Xero or QuickBooks.
Sources and changes
Last changed
Sources on cranston.ai12
What changed on this page1
- Bookkeeping features, free plan, plan limits, prices, terms
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