What Hubdoc Does for Accounting Firms
Hubdoc is a document capture platform owned by Xero, designed to help accounting professionals digitize receipts, invoices, and financial documents. For accounting firms, Hubdoc provides:
Document Capture
Upload via mobile app, email, scan, or direct upload from your desktop
Xero Integration
Native integration with Xero (Hubdoc is owned by Xero)
Receipt Processing
OCR extraction for receipts and vendor invoices
Client Storage
Store documents per client with basic organization
For bank statements specifically, Hubdoc processes PDFs and creates CSV exports for Xero. However, this is where accounting firms managing multiple clients start hitting significant limitations.
Where Hubdoc Falls Short for Multi-Client Firms
Per-Client Pricing Scales Poorly
Hubdoc charges $20/month per client as a base price. While volume discounts exist ($10.20 for 75-299 clients, $9.60 for 300-999 clients), the per-client model creates predictable cost escalation:
Hubdoc Cost Breakdown
Additional limitation: Limited storage capacity requires extra fees as document volume grows
Bank Statement Processing Accuracy Issues
User reviews consistently highlight accuracy problems with Hubdoc's bank statement processing:
"Sometimes the AI is off significantly on the data extraction... the need to review documents is still necessary."
— User review on Capterra, 2026
Specific issues include:
- OCR struggles with scanned statements (requires manual verification)
- No multi-account auto-detection (can only process one account per upload)
- Requires review of ALL extracted data before import
For accounting firms processing 20-50 bank statements monthly, this manual review requirement eliminates much of the automation benefit. Learn more about Hubdoc's bank statement accuracy issues.
Workflow Bottlenecks
Beyond accuracy issues, users report significant workflow friction:
"Unintuitive, clunky & has too many steps to be time saving... so time consuming they spend time trying to navigate Hubdoc that should be spent generating income."
— User review on Software Advice, 2026
- Slow processing: Users report "slow processing images and can fail which is annoying"
- Constant authentication: "Have to login and switch screens to the authenticator app every time"
- Limited customization: Rigid workflow with few options for firm-specific processes
These friction points compound across multiple clients. See how Hubdoc's batch upload limits further slow down high-volume firms.
Xero Integration Limitations
Despite being owned by Xero, Hubdoc's integration has notable gaps for bank statement workflows:
- No bank rules support: Can't apply Xero bank rules during import
- Can't change account codes: Unable to modify categorization during reconciliation
- Duplicate transactions: Users report "multiple duplications for absolutely no reason"
- Syncing errors: "Bank connection reliability and limited support for certain banks"
For more details on these integration challenges, see our guide on Hubdoc Xero categorization limitations.
Why Accounting Firms Are Switching to Zera Books
Unlimited Multi-Client Processing
$79/month
Unlimited clients, unlimited conversions
No per-client fees. No volume tiers. No storage limits. Process 10 clients or 1,000 clients for the same flat rate.
Zera Books includes:
- Client management dashboard: Organize all clients in one platform
- Conversion history: Track every statement processed per client
- Unlimited storage: No additional fees as document volume grows
Learn more about client bookkeeping workflows with Zera Books.
Bank Statement Specialization
Unlike Hubdoc's general document capture, Zera Books specializes in bank statement automation with proprietary AI:
Extraction accuracy with Zera AI trained on 2.8M+ bank statements
Template training required - handles any bank format dynamically
- Multi-account auto-detection: Automatically separates checking, savings, and credit cards in a single PDF
- Scanned PDF handling: Zera OCR optimized for financial documents (95%+ accuracy on poor quality scans)
- Dynamic format handling: Adapts automatically when banks change statement layouts
Explore bank statement automation capabilities in detail.
AI Transaction Categorization
This is where Zera Books creates the biggest time savings for accounting firms:
Time Savings Per Client
- Auto-categorizes for QuickBooks/Xero: Maps transactions to your chart of accounts
- GAAP-trained categories: Built-in understanding of standard accounting categories
- Learns from your patterns: Gets smarter as you use it
See how AI transaction categorization works in practice.
Direct Accounting Software Integration
Zera Books connects directly to your accounting software with pre-mapped fields and categorization:
QuickBooks
- • QuickBooks Online (direct API)
- • QuickBooks Desktop (QBO/IIF export)
- • Pre-categorized transactions
Xero
- • Direct API integration
- • Pre-mapped field formats
- • Duplicate handling built-in
Other Platforms
- • Sage (formatted CSV)
- • Wave (formatted CSV)
- • Zoho Books (formatted CSV)
Benefits
- • No manual column mapping
- • Error-free imports
- • One-click export
Compare with Hubdoc's QuickBooks categorization accuracy.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | Hubdoc | Zera Books |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing Model | $20/month per client ($10-12 with volume) | $79/month unlimited clients |
| 50 Clients Cost | $510-$1,000/month | $79/month |
| Primary Focus | Receipt/invoice capture | Bank statement automation |
| Bank Statement Accuracy | OCR with manual review needed | 99.6% (Zera AI trained on 2.8M+ statements) |
| Multi-Account Detection | No (single account per upload) | Yes (auto-separates checking, savings, credit) |
| AI Categorization | No | Yes (QuickBooks/Xero categories) |
| Batch Processing | Limited | Upload 50+ statements at once |
| Xero Integration | Direct (but no bank rules, frequent duplicates) | Direct API with pre-mapped fields |
| QuickBooks Integration | CSV export only | Direct API + QBO/IIF export |
| Workflow Customization | Limited | Full control over processing rules |
| Client Management | Basic document storage | Dashboard with conversion history |
| Scanned PDF Handling | OCR with accuracy issues | Zera OCR (95%+ accuracy on scans) |
| Setup Required | Bank connections (reliability issues) | Zero setup (dynamic processing) |
ROI Calculation for Accounting Firms
Let's calculate the real cost for a 30-client accounting firm processing one bank statement per client monthly:
Hubdoc Total Cost
Software Cost (30 clients)
$306-$600/month
Manual Review Time
15 min/statement × 30 clients = 7.5 hours/month
At $100/hour billable rate
$750 lost time
Total Monthly Cost
$1,056-$1,350
Zera Books ROI
Software Cost (unlimited clients)
$79/month
AI Categorization Saves Time
30 min/statement × 30 clients = 15 hours/month
At $100/hour
$1,500 recovered time
Net Monthly Benefit vs Hubdoc
+$1,271-$1,421
Annual Savings with Zera Books
$15,252-$17,052
For a 30-client firm compared to Hubdoc
What Hubdoc Does Well (Being Fair)
Hubdoc isn't a bad product - it's just optimized for a different use case than high-volume bank statement processing. Here's what Hubdoc does well:
- Excellent receipt scanning: Mobile app makes capturing receipts on-the-go simple
- Native Xero integration: Owned by Xero, so deep platform integration
- Automatic vendor fetching: Can pull bills directly from vendors
- Document storage: Central repository for client documents
When Hubdoc Makes Sense
- ✓Small firms with <10 clients focused primarily on receipt management
- ✓Already heavily invested in Xero ecosystem (Hubdoc is bundled with some Xero plans)
- ✓Clients need mobile receipt capture more than bank statement automation
When Zera Books Makes Sense
- ✓Firms with 20+ clients processing bank statements monthly
- ✓Need AI categorization to reduce manual data entry work
- ✓High-volume workflows like month-end close or tax season
- ✓Want predictable costs regardless of client count growth
Compare other accounting firm software options to see which fits your workflow best.
Real Workflow Comparison: Month-End Close for 40 Clients
Here's what month-end close looks like with each platform when processing one bank statement per client:
Hubdoc Workflow
- 1.Upload statements per client (manual, one at a time)
- 2.Wait for OCR processing (can be slow with failures)
- 3.Review extracted data for errors (required for all documents)
- 4.Export CSV to Xero per client
- 5.Manually categorize transactions in Xero
- 6.Apply bank rules (not supported - manual work)
- 7.Fix duplicate transactions that appear
Total Time
~45 min/client
30 hours total
Zera Books Workflow
- 1.Batch upload 40+ statements at once
- 2.AI auto-categorizes to chart of accounts
- 3.Multi-account auto-detection separates accounts
- 4.Export to Xero with categories pre-mapped
- 5.Review only flagged discrepancies (not every transaction)
Total Time
~15 min/client
10 hours total
Time Saved with Zera Books
20 hours
66% reduction in processing time
See more details on processing multi-currency statements or handling Xero categorization workflows.
