If you're evaluating AutoEntry for your accounting firm, understanding the credit-based pricing model is critical before committing. AutoEntry charges 3 credits per bank statement page, with plans ranging from $12-$450/month depending on your credit allocation. But what happens when you exceed your limit? What about overage fees? And how do costs scale as your firm grows?
This comprehensive breakdown compares AutoEntry's credit system to Zera Books' unlimited $79/month model, showing real ROI calculations at 50, 200, 500, and 1,000 pages per month—the volumes typical accounting firms actually process.
How AutoEntry's Credit System Works
AutoEntry uses credits as its in-product currency for document processing. The number of credits consumed depends on the document type you upload:
Single invoice, bill, or receipt (no line items)
Invoice or receipt with line item extraction
Single page of bank statements
Critical Cost Factor
Bank statements are the most expensive document type to process in AutoEntry at 3 credits per page. A typical 10-page bank statement consumes 30 credits. Process 20 clients with 10-page statements monthly? That's 600 credits per month—before invoices or receipts.
According to AutoEntry's help documentation, base credit costs start at £0.24 per invoice (1 credit), which translates to approximately $0.54 per bank statement page based on competitor pricing comparisons. Learn more about the drawbacks of credit-based pricing models.
AutoEntry vs Zera Books: Pricing Comparison
AutoEntry offers 6 pricing tiers ranging from $12-$450/month, each with a different monthly credit allocation. Here's how the costs break down compared to Zera Books' unlimited model:
| Plan | Monthly Cost | Credits Included | Bank Statement Pages | Cost Per Page |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AutoEntry Starter | $12 | ~50 credits | ~16 pages | $0.72/page |
| AutoEntry Small | $50 | ~200 credits | ~66 pages | $0.75/page |
| AutoEntry Medium | $150 | ~600 credits | ~200 pages | $0.75/page |
| AutoEntry Large | $300 | ~1,200 credits | ~400 pages | $0.75/page |
| AutoEntry Enterprise | $450 | ~1,800 credits | ~600 pages | $0.75/page |
| Zera Books Unlimited | $79 | Unlimited | Unlimited | $0.00/page |
Notice how AutoEntry's per-page cost remains consistent at $0.72-$0.75 across all tiers. You're not getting better rates at higher volumes—just more credits. Compare this to Zera Books' flat $79/month pricing with no per-page fees regardless of volume.
ROI Calculator: Real Costs at Different Volumes
Let's calculate actual monthly costs for accounting firms processing different volumes of bank statement pages. These scenarios assume you're ONLY processing bank statements (3 credits per page), not including invoices or receipts which would consume additional credits.
50 Pages/Month
AutoEntry Credits Needed
150 credits
AutoEntry Monthly Cost
$50-$150
Requires Small plan minimum
Zera Books Cost
$79/month
Process 50 or 5,000 pages—same price
200 Pages/Month
AutoEntry Credits Needed
600 credits
AutoEntry Monthly Cost
$150
Medium plan required
Zera Books Cost
$79/month
Save $71/month ($852/year)
500 Pages/Month
AutoEntry Credits Needed
1,500 credits
AutoEntry Monthly Cost
$375+
Requires 2 plans or overage fees
Zera Books Cost
$79/month
Save $296/month ($3,552/year)
1,000 Pages/Month
AutoEntry Credits Needed
3,000 credits
AutoEntry Monthly Cost
$750+
Requires multiple subscriptions + overage
Zera Books Cost
$79/month
Save $671/month ($8,052/year)
The Scaling Problem
Notice how AutoEntry costs scale linearly with volume while Zera Books remains flat at $79/month. At 1,000 pages monthly (typical for mid-size accounting firms), you're paying nearly 10x more with AutoEntry. For firms processing high volumes during tax season, the cost difference becomes dramatic.
90-Day Credit Expiration: Use Them or Lose Them
AutoEntry credits expire after 90 days, even for paused subscriptions. According to their policy changes in July 2025, credits now expire within 3 months regardless of subscription status—a change from the previous indefinite rollover policy.
AutoEntry: Credit Expiration
- Credits expire after 90 days
- Expiration applies even during paused subscriptions
- Must track credit balance constantly
- "Use it or lose it" creates processing pressure
- Light-volume months waste paid credits
Zera Books: No Limits
- Unlimited conversions every month
- No tracking required
- Process 10 pages or 10,000 pages—same price
- No expiration or rollover concerns
- Predictable flat monthly cost
The 90-day expiration creates a psychological pressure to "use up" your credits before they disappear. This leads to inefficient workflows where you're batch-processing documents to avoid waste rather than processing them as needed. With unlimited conversions, you process documents on your schedule—not the platform's expiration timeline.
Why Unlimited Pricing Matters for Accounting Firms
Credit-based pricing creates operational friction that unlimited models eliminate. Here's what changes when you stop tracking usage:
No Processing Anxiety
Stop asking "Should I process this now or wait?" Every document gets processed immediately without mental calculations about credit consumption.
Predictable Budgeting
Finance teams can budget accurately without seasonal spikes. $79 in January, $79 in April during tax season—no surprises.
Scale Without Limits
Add new clients without recalculating software costs. Your per-client software cost decreases as you grow—the opposite of credit-based models.
Unlimited pricing shifts your focus from managing software limits to serving clients. When processing capacity isn't a constraint, you can take on more clients, process historical statements for new engagements, and experiment with multi-account workflows without worrying about burning through credits.
September 2025 Price Increase: What Changed
On September 1, 2025, AutoEntry increased prices across all subscription plans and non-standard/fixed-price agreements. While specific increase percentages weren't disclosed, this marks the latest in a series of price adjustments that have made credit-based pricing increasingly expensive.
What the Price Increase Means for Accounting Firms
Existing customers: Price increases apply to all plans, including those on locked-in rates or custom agreements
Credit expiration policy: Combined with July 2025's 90-day expiration change, you're now paying more for credits that expire faster
No volume discounts: Despite price increases, per-page costs remain flat—you don't get better rates at higher volumes
Compounding costs: Price increases + overage fees + expiration creates a three-way cost pressure on high-volume users
Price increases are particularly painful with credit-based models because they affect both your base subscription AND overage charges. A 10% price increase means 10% more for your monthly plan, 10% more for overage credits, and the same 90-day expiration. Compare this to Zera Books' flat $79/month— transparent pricing with no surprise increases tied to usage. Explore why firms are switching to unlimited models.
The Real Impact on Accounting Firm Profitability
Beyond the direct software costs, credit-based pricing creates operational overhead that reduces firm profitability in ways that aren't immediately obvious:
Time Spent Managing Credits
Someone in your firm is monitoring credit balances, deciding which documents to process now vs later, and managing plan upgrades/downgrades based on seasonal volume. At $50-100/hour for accounting staff time, even 2-3 hours monthly of credit management costs $100-300/month in lost productivity.
"I was spending 30 minutes every week checking our AutoEntry credit balance and planning which client statements to batch together. That's billable time wasted on software logistics." —CPA firm manager
Delayed Document Processing
When you're near your credit limit, documents sit in a queue waiting for the next billing cycle. This delays reconciliations, creates bottlenecks during month-end close, and forces staff to switch between clients inefficiently rather than completing one client's work fully.
Client Onboarding Friction
New client onboarding often requires processing 12+ months of historical bank statements to get caught up. With credit-based pricing, you're calculating whether the credit consumption is worth the client engagement. With unlimited processing, you onboard aggressively without software cost considerations. Learn about client management limitations in AutoEntry.
Unlimited Model: Process-First Operations
With unlimited conversions at $79/month, your workflow changes completely. Documents arrive, you process them immediately. New client needs historical data? Process all 24 months in one batch. Multi-account statements that used to consume 90+ credits? Process without hesitation. Your software cost per client decreases as you grow, making each new client more profitable.
Zera Books: Built for Accounting Firms That Scale
Zera Books eliminates credit anxiety with unlimited bank statement conversions, AI-powered transaction categorization, and direct QuickBooks/Xero integration. Process 4 document types (bank statements, financial statements, invoices, checks) with 99.6% extraction accuracy powered by Zera AI trained on millions of financial documents.
- Unlimited conversions at $79/month
- AI transaction categorization
- Multi-account auto-detection
- Client management dashboard
- Batch processing (50+ statements)
- No per-page fees or overage charges
Bottom Line: Credits vs Unlimited
AutoEntry's credit-based pricing made sense when document processing was a niche use case. But as bank statement conversion becomes standard workflow infrastructure for accounting firms, credit limits create more problems than they solve.
At 50 pages monthly, the cost difference is marginal. At 200+ pages—typical for small to mid-size firms—Zera Books saves $71-671/month compared to AutoEntry's credit plans. More importantly, unlimited conversions remove operational friction, eliminate processing anxiety, and let you scale client services without recalculating software costs.
The question isn't whether credit-based pricing works—it's whether it's optimal for your firm's growth trajectory. If you're processing predictable low volumes and never hitting limits, credits might suffice. But if you're growing, onboarding new clients, or processing variable volumes seasonally, unlimited pricing at $79/month eliminates the overhead of credit management entirely.
