Accounting software for sole proprietorships: which one do you really need?

As a sole proprietorship you need less than the market offers you. The question is therefore not which solution can do the most — but which demands the least.

Author: Stefan Bernhard
Published: 23. August 2026
Data as of: August 2026
Reading time: 5 minutes

The essentials

Without employees the heaviest criterion falls away. 9 of the 28 solutions compared cannot handle payroll at all — for a sole proprietorship that is not a shortcoming but often the leaner choice.
If your turnover stays below CHF 500,000, the Code of Obligations requires no double-entry bookkeeping but only a statement of receipts, payments and net assets — the simplified accounts known in Swiss German as «Milchbüechlirechnung».
Below CHF 100,000 of turnover from taxable supplies you are not liable for VAT. That removes the second big criterion.
14 of the 28 solutions suit a sole proprietorship according to our survey, 5 of them have a permanently free tier. As of July 2026.
The real danger is not buying too little but too much: a solution for a five-person business costs a single person not only more money but more learning.

Rather filter for yourself? All 28 solutions with 19 criteria in one table Filter by profile and features, set a budget, read the columns side by side. This article gives the bearings — the table is the tool. To the comparison table

What a sole proprietorship does not need

Three of the criteria that lead every comparison are irrelevant for a sole proprietorship — and they are exactly the ones by which the large solutions justify themselves.

Payroll falls away entirely as long as you employ nobody. That brings the 9 solutions without a payroll function back into play, the ones that fail every other comparison — among them the leanest in the whole survey. An owner’s draw is not a salary in the social insurance sense; you pay AHV as a self-employed person and do not report it through payroll software.

Double-entry bookkeeping falls away as long as turnover stays below CHF 500,000. Article 957 paragraph 2 of the Code of Obligations requires of sole proprietorships and partnerships below that line only a statement of receipts, payments and net assets. Many programs keep double-entry books anyway — that is not a fault, but it is not a reason to pay for it either.

VAT falls away as long as you stay below CHF 100,000 of turnover from taxable supplies. You can register voluntarily, and in some cases it pays off because of the input tax deduction — but it is a choice, not an obligation.

Four criteria that remain

When payroll, double entry and VAT fall away, four questions remain. They are shorter than a comparison’s criteria list and decide everything for a sole proprietorship.

How many documents do you have a month?
That is the figure at which free tiers end — 5 of the suitable solutions have one, and the limit is almost always the number of documents. Estimate high: forty documents a month is 480 a year and above most limits.
Do bank movements arrive by themselves?
Bank reconciliation via the camt format is the function with the biggest time gain for one person doing everything themselves. All 28 solutions compared read bank statements; how well they allocate only shows in the trial account with your own statement.
Do you invoice in the same program?
For a sole proprietorship, separating invoicing from accounting is usually unnecessary work. Whoever keeps both in the same program saves the seam — and then needs none of the interfaces 22 of the 28 solutions offer.
Can you get back out?
The criterion least often checked with a free tier. Your records are subject to ten-year retention, a sole proprietorship’s too. Try the export before you record the first document.

Which solutions suit a sole proprietorship

By the recorded fit for a sole proprietorship, at least 2 out of 3. Alphabetical within the groups and expressly not a ranking.

Fit for a sole proprietorship 14

Recorded fit of at least 2 out of 3. The group follows the fit and not the price — solutions without a published price appear in it too.

Atlanto, Banana Buchhaltung Plus, bexio, CashCtrl, Comatic, Crésus, KLARA, Magic Heidi, Milkee, Pfeffersack, shakehands Kontor, smallinvoice, Swiss21, WinBIZ

With a permanently free tier 7

Limited by volume and not by missing features.

Banana Buchhaltung Plus, CashCtrl, ClubDesk, Magic Heidi, Odoo, smallinvoice, Swiss21

Without payroll 9

For a sole proprietorship no shortcoming. This group holds the leanest solutions in the survey.

blue office, ClubDesk, Magic Heidi, Milkee, Opacc ERP, Pfeffersack, SAP Business One, shakehands Kontor, smallinvoice

Browser only 12

No installation, no backup, no updates — for one person usually the lesser evil.

Accounto, Atlanto, bexio, CashCtrl, ClubDesk, KLARA, Magic Heidi, Milkee, myfactory, Pfeffersack, smallinvoice, Swiss21

When that changes

Three events shift the requirements, and all three come with warning. The first hire brings payroll along with the electronic filings; from then on the 13 solutions with full payroll capability are the narrower list. Turnover above CHF 100,000 brings VAT, and above CHF 500,000 double-entry bookkeeping.

Converting to a GmbH brings both at once: corporations keep full accounts with a balance sheet and income statement regardless of turnover.

In practice: choose for today and test the export for tomorrow. A solution you can leave in two years is better than one that can do everything and that you will never stretch.

Frequently asked questions

As a sole proprietorship, do I need accounting software at all?

Software is not prescribed, recording is. Below CHF 500,000 of turnover a statement of receipts, payments and net assets suffices — technically in a spreadsheet too. Software pays off where bank reconciliation saves time and retention becomes traceable.

Is a free solution enough?

For a side business often yes: 5 of the solutions suited to sole proprietorships have a permanently free tier. The limit is almost always the number of documents. Whoever is just below it should take the paid tier — a switch mid-year costs more than the difference.

What about the owner’s salary?

As the owner of a sole proprietorship you do not draw a salary in the employment law sense but private withdrawals. You pay AHV contributions as a self-employed person, and that runs through the compensation fund and not through payroll software. That is why the missing payroll function is no shortcoming for you.

Should I register voluntarily for VAT?

It can pay off if you invest heavily or mainly supply VAT-liable customers — you then recover the input tax. But it brings the returns with it. Work it through with your fiduciary; this post is orientation, not tax advice.

Where the information comes from

Legal information: Code of Obligations, Article 957 on the duty to keep accounts and Article 958f on retention; the VAT turnover threshold from the Value Added Tax Act. This post is orientation, not legal advice.
Fit per profile: Our own assessment from 0 to 3, derived from feature scope, target group and operating model. It appears in the comparison table as a row group of its own and is a judgement, not a measurement.
Figures on the survey: Own survey, as of July 2026. Every figure in the text is calculated when the page is built.

Fit per profile appears in the comparison table as a row group of its own — that is where the 28 solutions can be sorted by «sole proprietorship» and crossed with the other 19 criteria.

All 28 providers in the comparison table: Accounting