Accounting software for writers — and the multi-currency trap

If you are paid by publications in more than one country — and most working writers eventually are — there is one line in the pricing tables that matters more than the monthly cost, and almost no comparison article mentions it.

Multi-currency support sits behind the expensive tier on every major platform.

That is the finding. Here is the evidence, read off each vendor's own US pricing page on 6 September 2026.

The promo trap, in the vendors' own words

Xero's pricing page currently opens with this banner:

"Get 90% off your plan for your first 6 months when you buy by 30 September 2026."

So every Xero price you will see quoted in a comparison article this month is a six-month introductory rate. The real number is ten times higher.

Anyone quoting "Xero from $2.50" is not lying, and is not telling you what you will pay in month seven either. Always read the small print under the number.

What each tier actually gives a writer

Xero Early — $25/month after the promo

• 20 invoices and 5 bills a month
• Bank reconciliation, real-time reports
• W-9 and 1099 management
• 30-day cash flow forecast

Twenty invoices a month is plenty for most freelance writers. The cap is not the problem.

Xero Growing — $55/month

Unlimited invoices, automated bill entry, auto-reconciliation, 60-day forecast, performance dashboards.

Xero Established — $90/month

Everything above plus multiple currencies, project time and cost tracking, KPI analysis, 180-day forecast, international bill payments.

Note where multi-currency landed. If you are a UK writer paid in USD by an American magazine, or a Canadian writer paid in GBP, the feature you need is on the $90/month tier — $1,080 a year.

Zoho Books — the free tier is unusually good

Zoho Books, read from its own US pricing page the same day:

The free plan includes invoices, quotes, expenses and journals, receipt autoscans, bank reconciliation, recurring invoices, online payments, a customer portal, automated payment reminders, W-9 management, 1099 contractor tracking and 1099 filing, plus profit-and-loss, balance sheet and 50+ reports.

For a solo writer that is a complete set of books at no cost. The 1099 handling matters specifically to US writers, who receive 1099-NEC forms from publishers and need to reconcile them.

Multi-currency on Zoho sits on Professional — $50/month, or $40 billed annually. Still a paywall, but roughly half Xero's.

The comparison that matters

Wave, covered in the invoicing guide, is free for unlimited invoicing and bookkeeping but does not solve multi-currency accounting.

Do you actually need multi-currency accounting?

Be honest about this before paying $480–1,080 a year for it.

You probably do not if your publications pay you in your own currency, or if you are paid in one foreign currency occasionally and can record each payment at the rate you actually received. Recording the amount that landed in your account, in your own currency, is legitimate bookkeeping for most sole traders.

You probably do if you are invoicing in several currencies regularly, need to show unpaid foreign invoices on your books, or your accountant asks for it.

For most working writers the honest answer is the free tier plus a spreadsheet for the two or three foreign payments a year. The gap between $0 and $1,080 buys a lot of accountant time.

What writers get wrong here

Buying accounting software before you have accounts worth keeping. If you earned £900 from writing last year, the software is not the bottleneck. Use the free tier.

Confusing invoicing with accounting. Zoho Invoice (free) and Zoho Books (free tier) are different products. You may only need the first.

Forgetting the conversion loss is the real cost. A UK magazine paying £150 into a foreign account can lose more to the bank's exchange spread than a year of Zoho Standard costs. That is a banking problem, not an accounting one — and it is where the money actually goes.

Not checking the renewal price. See the Xero banner above. Set a calendar reminder for month six.

Before you subscribe

• I loaded the pricing page from my own country
• I know what the price becomes after any introductory period
• I checked which tier has multi-currency, if I need it
• I have confirmed the free tier genuinely does not cover me
• The annual cost is small next to what I actually earn — check with the rate calculator

Xero and Zoho Books pricing read from those companies' own US pricing pages on 6 September 2026. Prices vary by country and change often; Xero's current discount is explicitly time-limited. BRYME has not run these tools as a paying customer and has no affiliate relationship with any of them. This is general information, not accounting advice — consult a qualified accountant about your own books.