Features
Expense ReportsSign-OffCheck PrintingVendors & W-9sBank ImportsReconciliationAI AssistanceBudgets & AmendmentsTeam ManagementReports990 & 1099 FilingAudit KitTreasurer TransitionSecurity & RolesSupport
Who We Serve
PTAsPTOsBooster ClubsASB & Schools
Compare
QuickBooksXeroMoneyMindermyPTEZSpreadsheetsPaper & Checkbook
PricingSign In
Comparison

BeeKeeper vs. Xero

Clean, modern, and still a business accounting package.
Start free trialSee all comparisons
The short version
Xero is designed for small businesses and the accountants who serve them — invoicing, quotes, inventory, multi-currency — and it is built around people who work at the company and have a login of their own.

A school group is a different shape. The people spending the money are parents with no login. Two officers have to approve a payment before it goes out. A council wants a report in a format nobody outside PTA has heard of. And in July a new treasurer inherits all of it. That is the gap, and it is not in the ledger.

Side by side

23 things a school group actually needs
Capability
BeeKeeper
Xero
Double-entry accounting
Two real ledgers. This is not where the difference is.
Yes
Yes
Automatic bank feeds and reconciliation
Yes
Yes
Everyone on the board can have access
A genuine strength of theirs, and one we match: nobody you add costs extra here.
Yes
Included on their plans at the time of writing
A volunteer submits a reimbursement with no account
Yes
Expense claims are designed around people who have a login
Two-signature board approval, kept permanently
Sign-Off emails each officer a private link. No account, and the decision stays attached to the item.
Yes
Approval features are built around staff roles rather than a board
Chart of accounts mapped to IRS Form 990
Yes
Reporting is built around business tax returns
PTA-format annual financial report
Yes
You would build and maintain it as a custom report
Numbered budget amendments carrying their reason
Yes
Budgets, yes. The amendment trail is yours to keep.
Treasurer transition package
Yes
Business ledgers do not model annual turnover
W-9 collection portal for vendors
Yes
1099 tracking exists; chasing the W-9 is usually still yours
Check printing with a full register
Yes
Available in their US edition
Councils and districts understood as a structure
Yes
Each entity is its own subscription
Invoicing, quotes, inventory, projects, multi-currency
Genuinely good, and a PTA touches almost none of it.
No
Yes
A marketplace of hundreds of add-ons
If you need something we do not do, they probably have a partner for it. That is a real advantage.
No
Yes
Support staffed only by people who work with school groups
Yes
Support for every kind of business
Who it was built for
A parent who inherited the books
A bookkeeper or an accountant
Treasurer's report for the board meeting
The one-page summary a board votes to accept.
Yes
No
Receipts read by AI, not retyped
Yes
Yes
Imported bank transactions coded by AI, with a confidence score
Yes
Yes
A bank row that duplicates an entry you already made, caught before it posts
Yes
Ask how theirs compares a bank row against entries you keyed in
Volunteer expense submissions read and checked against what they typed
Yes
No
Connect your own AI assistant to your books, read-only
BeeKeeper runs an MCP server, so you can ask Claude or ChatGPT about your ledger.
Yes
Compare their current feature list
Price for a school group
Booster clubs and ASBs have plans of their own, billed once a year the same way.
$299.40/year for a PTA or PTO
Business tiers billed monthly — see their pricing
Built inNot available

The ledger is the part you were never worried about

The people spending the money have no logins

A business ledger is designed around people who work there. The parent who bought the carnival supplies is not one of them, so her receipt arrives as a text message at 9pm and you type it in yourself.

Your bylaws are not a setting

Two signatures on a disbursement. A budget the membership votes on. An amendment that needs a motion. A business ledger has an owner who decides, and nothing in it is waiting to be told what your bylaws say.

The board turns over every year

Xero assumes the same person keeps the books next year. You know that is not true. In July someone new inherits the login, the bank, and whatever notes were left behind.

PTA accounting that runs itself

Built for school groups. Free for 30 days, no credit card required.

Start free trial
Don't wait for July
The instinct is to switch at the start of a fiscal year, because that is when the books are clean. You do not need to. We import your chart of accounts, your budget, your vendors and your history, and we handle the awkward parts — opening balances, checks written but not yet cleared, months you have already reconciled. Mid-year is a normal week for us.

The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is today.

Moving from Xero

Most moves take about thirty minutes. You run three exports, we take it from there, and our support team is with you while it happens. They do this every week for school groups, so there is very little they have not already seen go sideways.
  1. 1
    Export three things

    Chart of accounts, contacts, and a transaction report. We will tell you exactly which ones and how to set the dates.

  2. 2
    We import it with you

    Accounts, vendors, budget and history come across. Opening balances and checks that have not cleared are handled deliberately, which is why mid-year is a normal time to move.

  3. 3
    Close your first month here

    Connect the bank, reconcile, print the treasurer's report for the next meeting. If a number looks wrong, support gets into the books with you.

Keep your books where school groups keep theirs

Accounting built for PTAs, PTOs, booster clubs and ASBs. Free for 30 days, no credit card, cancel anytime.
Start free trialSee a live demo