⚡ Quick Verdict:
- Pricing: AutoEntry starts at $12/month. Puzzle IO has a free plan, then jumps to $42.50/month.
- Best for: Puzzle IO suits startup founders who want a general ledger. AutoEntry suits bookkeepers drowning in paperwork.
- Key difference: Puzzle IO replaces your accounting software. AutoEntry feeds documents into the accounting software you already use.
- Our pick: AutoEntry, for the wider audience. It costs less and works with Sage, Xero and QuickBooks.
Puzzle IO and AutoEntry both promise less manual data entry.
That is where the similarity stops.
Puzzle IO is a general ledger that wants to be your books.
AutoEntry is a data extraction layer that feeds your existing books.
Pick wrong and you either pay twice or lose half your workflow.
Overview
This Puzzle IO vs AutoEntry comparison covers pricing, features and ease of use.
Our writers spent hands-on time with both platforms.
Those notes sit in the “What Our Team Noticed” sections below.
Everything else comes from published specs, documentation and user reviews.
By the end you will know which one fits your finances.
⚠️ Recent news: On September 2, 2026, Accrual announced an agreement to buy Puzzle’s accounting-firm business, including its AI ledger and close products. Founder Sasha Orloff joins Accrual. Puzzle says the direct product for startups and small businesses keeps running on its own. Watch this before you commit to a long plan.
What is Puzzle IO?
Puzzle IO is an AI powered general ledger built for startups and small businesses.
Sasha Orloff and John Cwikla started the company in 2019.
Orloff is the CEO and co founder.
The platform connects to your bank accounts, cards and other tools.
It then sorts transactions on its own and keeps your financials up to date.
Unlike QuickBooks, it was designed for non accountants.
Puzzle IO
Built by founders for founders. It automates 85-95% of repetitive bookkeeping. You get a drafted financial position daily instead of waiting for month-end close.
Puzzle IO Pricing
Four plans. The free tier covers companies spending under $5k a month.
| Plan | Price | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Accounting basics | $0/month | Pre-revenue companies under $5k monthly spending |
| Accounting plus Insights | $42.50/month | Early stage teams that need clear insights |
| Advanced Automation | $85/month | Revenue recognition and accrual work |
| Accounting plus Scale | $255/month | Funded startups reporting to investors |
Pricing verified September 2026.
Free trial: No card needed. The free plan runs indefinitely while you stay under the spending cap.
Money-back guarantee: None published. You can downgrade to the free plan instead.
📌 Note: The jump from free to $42.50/month is steep. Most early stage companies cross the $5k spending line within a quarter of raising money.
⚠️ Warning: Human bookkeeping service is a separate line item. The subscription price above buys software access only.
Key Benefits of Puzzle IO
Here is what makes Puzzle IO worth a look:
- Automated bookkeeping: It handles 85-95% of repetitive tedious tasks so founders can focus elsewhere. Expense categorization runs at up to 95% accuracy.
- Real time insights: Cash flow, burn rate and key metrics like MRR update daily. No waiting weeks for a month-end report.
- Accrual automation: Revenue recognition, prepaid expenses and fixed assets are handled in-app. That removes a stack of spreadsheets.
- Modern integrations: Stripe, Brex, Ramp and Gusto connect directly. Less manual data entry across the stack.
- Easy setup: Self-guided onboarding means you do not need a finance expert on day one.
- One financial picture: All financial data sits in one dashboard. You see the current state of the business whenever you want.
Those benefits show up clearly on the dashboard.
What Our Team Noticed
Our writer signed up for Puzzle IO and ran a live company file through it for several weeks. Here is what stood out:
Puzzle IO Pros & Cons
✅ Pros
- Free plan for companies under $5k in monthly expenses
- Cleaner and more intuitive than QuickBooks for non accountants
- Daily drafted financials instead of a slow month-end close
- Built-in accrual automation for revenue recognition and fixed assets
❌ Cons
- Some users worry about leaning on AI for transaction categorization
- A few reviewers report frustrating support and onboarding experiences
- Not accepted everywhere the way QuickBooks is
What is AutoEntry?
AutoEntry is a cloud data extraction tool for accountants and businesses.
Sage acquired it in September 2019 and still owns it.
It captures invoices, receipts, bank statements and other financial documents.
Optical character recognition and machine learning pull the numbers out.
The extracted data then lands in Sage, Xero or QuickBooks.
It does not replace your books. It fills them.
🏆 Winner: AutoEntry
Up to 99% accurate capture, backed by Sage. Credits roll over for 90 days and the plan is rolling monthly. Cancel whenever you want.
AutoEntry Pricing
AutoEntry pricing runs on credits. Every plan comes with a monthly credit allowance.
| Plan | Price | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Bronze | $12/month | Sole traders with light paperwork |
| Silver | $23/month | Small businesses filing regular invoices |
| Gold | $44/month | Growing companies with steady receipts |
| Platinum | $98/month | Busy bookkeeping practices |
| Diamond | $285/month | Multi-client accounting firms |
| Sapphire | $450/month | High-volume document processing |
Pricing verified September 2026.
Free trial: Yes. New accounts get trial credits so you can process a batch before paying.
Money-back guarantee: No refund policy published. The rolling monthly subscription cancels at any time instead.
📌 Note: Unused credits stay live for 90 days. You can pause or downgrade the plan whenever volume drops, and custom packages exist for high-volume clients.
⚠️ Pricing conflict: Some published figures quote 50 credits at $17/month and 100 credits at $23/month. Our data lists Bronze at $12 and Silver at $23. Credit bundles and regional currency both shift the number, so confirm on the signup page before you buy.
Key Benefits of AutoEntry
Here is where AutoEntry earns its keep:
- High accuracy capture: Up to 99% accurate thanks to proprietary optical character recognition. That cuts errors on every purchase invoice you upload.
- Line items, not just totals: It pulls detailed line items out of invoices. Your general ledger gets real category data.
- Bank statement conversion: Scanned statements become CSV or accounting-ready files. Roughly 80% of bank statement data clears in about four hours.
- Learns your rules: The system remembers nominal codes and tax rules per supplier, then offers auto publish to your accounting software.
- Capture from anywhere: Snap receipts on a mobile phone, forward by email, or drag files from the desktop.
- Flexible pricing: Credits roll over, plans include unlimited users, and the rolling contract means no lock-in.
The dashboard keeps every uploaded document in one queue.
What Our Team Noticed
Our writer processed a real month of supplier paperwork through AutoEntry. Here is what came out of that:
The walkthrough below shows the same workflow end to end.
AutoEntry Pros & Cons
✅ Pros
- Cheaper than Dext Prepare for a similar feature set
- Works with Sage, Xero and QuickBooks out of the box
- Converts PDF bank statements straight to Excel or CSV
- Reported time savings of up to 90% against manual entry
❌ Cons
- Large batches can lag for several hours at peak times
- Support feedback is split, with slow replies reported by some
- Extraction rules take a learning curve to set up
Feature Comparison
These two tools overlap in one place only: getting data out of documents and into your books. Everything past that point splits. Here are ten areas that decide which one belongs in your stack.
| Feature | Puzzle IO | AutoEntry |
|---|---|---|
| Starting Price | $0, then $42.50/month | $12/month |
| Free Plan | ✅ Under $5k spending | ❌ Trial credits only |
| General Ledger | ✅ | ❌ |
| Document Capture (OCR) | ❌ | ✅ |
| Real Time Insights | ✅ | ❌ |
| Accrual Automation | ✅ | ❌ |
| Bank Statement to CSV | ❌ | ✅ |
| QuickBooks Integration | ❌ Replaces it | ✅ Publishes to it |
| Unlimited Users | ❌ Plan dependent | ✅ |
| Best For | Startup founders running their own books | Bookkeepers clearing paperwork |
1. Data Entry and Document Capture
Puzzle IO: Data arrives through bank feeds and app connections rather than paper. Transactions flow in from your bank accounts and get sorted by AI. There is no receipt scanner here, so paper documents still need a home elsewhere.
AutoEntry: This is the whole product. Upload from desktop, email documents in, or photograph receipts on a mobile phone. It handles about 80% of receipts, invoices, vendor statements and bills in roughly two hours.
2. Dashboards and Reporting
Puzzle IO: The dashboard consolidates every source into one view of financial health. You get real time insights on cash flow, burn rate and cash runway. Founders can check the current state of the company quickly instead of waiting for a close.
AutoEntry: Reporting is limited to what moved through the queue. You see documents processed, credits spent and items pending review. Actual financial reporting happens in whatever accounting software receives the data.
3. Integrations and Other Tools
Puzzle IO: It links to Stripe, Brex, Ramp and Gusto to kill manual data entry. A partner network of bookkeeping firms sits alongside the software. It does not connect to QuickBooks because it aims to replace it.
AutoEntry: It plugs into Sage, Xero and QuickBooks plus a long list of other tools. Being Sage-owned makes the Sage path especially tight. If you already have accounting software, this slots in without changing it.
4. Invoices, Bills and Expenses
Puzzle IO: Expenses are categorized automatically at up to 95% accuracy. The AI checks its own work and improves over time. Bill approval workflows are thinner than a dedicated accounts payable tool.
AutoEntry: Every purchase invoice is broken into line items rather than a single total. It also matches invoices against monthly supplier statements, which saves hours of cross-checking. Uploaded expenses can be assigned to specific users.
5. Automation and Publishing
Puzzle IO: Automation covers 85-95% of repetitive bookkeeping. Transaction categorization, rule generation and error checks all run without you. The books update themselves as money moves.
AutoEntry: Auto publish sends approved documents into your ledger with no clicks. Machine learning remembers nominal codes and tax rules per supplier. Batch processing and quick review save time, keeping time spent per document low.
6. Accrual Accounting and Revenue Recognition
Puzzle IO: Built-in accrual automation handles revenue recognition, prepaid expenses and fixed assets. That work usually lives in spreadsheets at early stage companies. Removing it is the strongest argument for the paid plan.
AutoEntry: No accrual engine, because it is not a ledger. Smart analysis flags odd values before they reach your books. Accruals stay the accountant’s job in Sage, Xero or QuickBooks.
7. Bank Statements and Reconciliation
Puzzle IO: Live bank feeds mean reconciliation happens continuously. There is no need to convert a PDF because the data arrives clean. Historic statements from a closed account are harder to bring in.
AutoEntry: Scanned bank statements convert to CSV or accounting-ready formats, and reconciliation is automated from there. Around 80% of bank statement data clears in about four hours. Users rate that PDF-to-Excel path highly.
⚠️ Warning: Invoice processing normally takes 10 to 120 minutes. Large batches can stretch to 24 hours, so do not upload a year of paperwork the night before a filing date.
8. Tax Compliance and Trial Balance
Puzzle IO: Income and expenses are tracked accurately through the year, so tax time is less painful. Tax compliance rests on the ledger being right rather than on filing tools. You still hand off to an accountant to file.
AutoEntry: Data is categorized using VAT codes pulled from your accounting software. You can prepare, adjust and output a trial balance for unlimited clients. That makes it a natural fit for digital tax filing regimes.
9. Onboarding and Ease of Use
Puzzle IO: Self-guided onboarding means easy setup without a finance expert on call. Reviewers repeatedly call the interface clean and intuitive. That is the main reason people leave QuickBooks for it.
AutoEntry: The core upload flow is simple and the mobile app gets strong marks. Extraction rules are where the learning curve sits. Expect a week before the system stops needing corrections.
10. Pricing & Cost
Here is the money side, plan against plan.
| Tier | Puzzle IO | AutoEntry |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Accounting basics — $0/month | ❌ Trial credits only |
| Entry paid | Accounting plus Insights — $42.50/month | Bronze — $12/month |
| Mid | Advanced Automation — $85/month | Gold — $44/month |
| Upper | Accounting plus Scale — $255/month | Platinum — $98/month |
| Top | — | Sapphire — $450/month |
Puzzle IO: The free plan is genuinely useful for pre-revenue startups. After that the entry price is $42.50/month, which buys an entire general ledger rather than a single feature. Compared against QuickBooks plus a bookkeeper, that is still cheaper.
AutoEntry: At $12/month it is an add-on cost, not a platform cost. Credits roll over 90 days so quiet months are not wasted money. Against Dext Prepare it lands lower for a similar job.
💡 Pro Tip: These prices are not really rivals. Puzzle IO at $42.50 replaces your books. AutoEntry at $12 sits on top of books you already pay for. Add your existing subscription before you compare the two numbers.
Different Scenarios
| If You Need… | Choose | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A general ledger from scratch | Puzzle IO | AutoEntry has none |
| Receipt and invoice capture | AutoEntry | Puzzle IO has no OCR |
| The lowest monthly cost | AutoEntry | $12 versus $42.50 |
| Burn rate and runway tracking | Puzzle IO | Live founder metrics |
| To keep QuickBooks or Sage | AutoEntry | Publishes into both |
| To serve many clients | AutoEntry | Unlimited trial balances |
💰 Your Budget
If you are pre-revenue, Puzzle IO’s free tier costs nothing while spending stays under $5k. If you already pay for accounting software, AutoEntry adds $12 a month and nothing else changes.
🔌 Your Tech Stack
Teams running Stripe, Brex, Ramp and Gusto get more from Puzzle IO’s direct connections. Teams committed to Sage or Xero should not rip out a working ledger to chase a cleaner interface.
📄 Your Paperwork Volume
Heavy supplier paperwork tips this to AutoEntry immediately. If almost everything you buy is on a card and shows up in a bank feed, Puzzle IO covers it without any upload step.
🎓 Your Experience Level
Founders with no finance background usually manage better inside Puzzle IO. Trained bookkeepers get more value from AutoEntry because they already know where the data should land.
🆓 Free Trials and Demos
Run one real month through each before you decide. Founders who chose Puzzle IO after a trial usually did so for the reporting, not the automation.
🛟 Support Options
Support feedback is mixed on both sides. Around 82% of AutoEntry users report positive experiences, though slow replies come up often enough to plan around.
Switching Guide
Already on one of them? Here is what changes.
🔄 Switching from Puzzle IO to AutoEntry?
✅ What you’ll gain:
- Real document capture for receipts, invoices and statements
- A lower monthly bill and credits that roll over
- Freedom to keep Sage, Xero or QuickBooks as your ledger
❌ What you’ll lose:
- Your general ledger, so you need a replacement first
- Daily burn rate, runway and MRR views
- Built-in accrual handling for prepaid expenses and fixed assets
📋 How to switch:
- Export your trial balance and transaction history from Puzzle IO
- Set up the ledger you are moving to, then open an AutoEntry account
- Connect AutoEntry to that ledger and upload a test batch before going live
🔄 Switching from AutoEntry to Puzzle IO?
✅ What you’ll gain:
- A full AI ledger, so you can drop your old accounting software
- Live financial insights instead of a document queue
- A free tier while monthly spending stays under $5k
❌ What you’ll lose:
- Optical character recognition for paper and PDF documents
- Line item extraction and supplier statement matching
- Sage ownership and the stability that comes with it
📋 How to switch:
- Publish every pending document in AutoEntry so nothing is stranded
- Open Puzzle IO and connect your bank accounts and payment tools
- Run both in parallel for one close, then cancel the old plan
What Our Review Didn’t Cover
This comparison looked at startups, small businesses and small accounting practices. We did not test multi-entity consolidation, audit trails for regulated industries, or either product’s API. Custom enterprise packages sit outside what we can price. Our notes reflect the September 2026 versions, and the Puzzle acquisition may change the roadmap in future releases.
Final Verdict
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| 💰 Pricing | AutoEntry |
| 📄 Document Capture | AutoEntry |
| 📊 Reporting & Insights | Puzzle IO |
| 🔌 Integrations | AutoEntry |
| 🧮 Accrual & Ledger Depth | Puzzle IO |
| 👶 Ease of Use | Puzzle IO |
| 🏢 Fit for Accounting Firms | AutoEntry |
| 🏆 Overall Winner | AutoEntry |
🏆 WINNER: AUTOENTRY
AutoEntry wins 4 of 7 categories.
Best for: bookkeepers, accounting firms with many clients, and any business keeping its current accounting software
Final thoughts: AutoEntry takes it on breadth. It costs less, it works with the accounting software almost everyone already runs, and it means far less time on the most tedious part of the job. Sage ownership since 2019 also means it is not going anywhere.
Puzzle IO is the better product for one specific person: a startup founder who wants to own financial management without hiring anyone. Its live view of financial data is something AutoEntry cannot offer, and non accountants find it far easier to use.
If you want an accurate picture of your books with the least effort, AutoEntry is the safer buy today. Plenty of teams run both, and that combination works well.
More of Puzzle IO Compared
Here is how Puzzle IO measures up against other ledgers:
Puzzle IO wins on: a friendlier interface for non accountants, daily drafted financials, built-in accrual automation
QuickBooks wins on: universal acceptance by accountants, far deeper feature coverage, a huge third-party app market
Puzzle IO wins on: startup metrics like burn rate out of the box, a free tier for small spenders, AI categorization built into the core
Xero wins on: global payroll and tax support, a mature partner network, multi-currency handling
Puzzle IO wins on: accrual accounting depth, investor-ready reporting, integrations with Stripe and Brex
Wave wins on: free invoicing for freelancers, simpler cash-basis workflow, no spending cap on the free plan
Puzzle IO vs NetSuite
Puzzle IO wins on: setup measured in hours rather than months, transparent published pricing, no setup consultant needed
NetSuite wins on: multi-entity consolidation, inventory and supply chain modules, audit controls for larger companies
More of AutoEntry Compared
And how AutoEntry stacks up against rival capture tools:
AutoEntry wins on: lower cost for comparable features, credits that roll over 90 days, tighter Sage integration
Dext wins on: faster turnaround on large batches, a broader supplier fetch library, more polished practice tools
AutoEntry wins on: line item extraction rather than header totals, bank statement conversion, supplier statement matching
Hubdoc wins on: being bundled free with Xero plans, automatic document fetching from vendors, simpler setup
AutoEntry wins on: supplier invoice and bill processing, trial balance output for clients, credit-based pricing with no per-seat fee
Expensify wins on: employee expense reports, corporate card reconciliation, a stronger mobile experience for staff
AutoEntry wins on: a much lower entry price, Sage backing since 2019, a simpler learning path for small teams
Docyt wins on: end-to-end document management, built-in reconciliation dashboards, industry templates for restaurants and franchises
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the CEO of Puzzle io?
Sasha Orloff is the CEO and co founder. He started the company with John Cwikla in 2019. Orloff is joining Accrual as part of the September 2026 acquisition.
Is AutoEntry owned by Sage?
Yes. Sage acquired AutoEntry in September 2019 and still owns it. The product keeps its own name and continues to work with rival platforms such as Xero and QuickBooks.
How long does AutoEntry take to process?
Most invoices clear in 10 to 120 minutes. About 80% of bank statement data is done in roughly four hours. Very large batches can take up to 24 hours.
How much does Sage AutoEntry cost?
Plans run from $12 per month on Bronze up to $450 on Sapphire. Each tier includes a monthly credit allowance, and custom packages exist for high-volume users.
Does AutoEntry work with QuickBooks?
Yes. It publishes extracted data straight into QuickBooks, and also into Xero and Sage. That is the main reason it suits firms that will not change ledgers.
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