Digits vs. Basis
Which accounting platform is best for modern businesses & firms?
The pace of modern finance doesn't wait for rules, clicks, and month-end marathons.
Digits is an AI-native accounting platform that reconciles to bank statements, runs continuous quality control checks, detects and drafts schedules, and unlocks unlimited collaboration—no rules, no scripts, no seat limits.
What we compare
Where AI actually does the work, who automates quality control and schedules, how teams collaborate, and what you'll really pay.
Digits Core $100/mo vs. Basis (pricing not listed publicly) + the cost of the underlying ledger
Features change—verify on vendor pages.
Built for AI, not before AI
Digits Core
Basis
Digits is the ledger and accounting system of record.
Not the ledger. An automation layer on top of QuickBooks Online or Xero. The connected ledger remains the system of record and a separate subscription.
AI isn't a feature; it's the foundation. Digits is AI-native, powered by the Agentic General Ledger™ (AGL®). Proprietary models built for accounting and trained on 180 million real transactions representing nearly $1 trillion in financial activity auto-book, reconcile, and review continuously, then surface only the exceptions that need a human.
Built on OpenAI's frontier models, routed to the best-fit model per task and guided by accountant-built Procedures, firm instructions, and client context. No proprietary accounting model or published benchmark found.
Digits automatically reconciles your accounts to bank statements (uploaded or connected) and flags only what needs review, so you can trust your numbers without doing the busywork. Reconciliation happens continuously, not just at month-end.
AI matches bank statements to your existing ledger and prepares reconciliation reports. It flags discrepancies and can propose correcting journal entries for accountant review.
Ask Digits is your ledger-native assistant, purpose-built for accounting. It understands your financial data and answers questions directly from the ledger. It is not a chat layer sitting on top of reports.
Analyzes connected accounting data and documents on request. It can explain changes, compare budgets with actuals, and create forecasts with supporting sources.
AI does the routine work; you manage the exceptions. Exceptions and items flagged for review land in the Checklist, grouped by close step: uncategorized or low-confidence transactions, missing or duplicate items, schedule candidates, quality control flags, open comments, and more. With Digits Checklist, you review the close instead of preparing it.
Flags unmatched transactions, conflicting information, and low-confidence results. Users can review the supporting sources, calculations, and explanations.
Describe a Quality Control check in plain English. Digits turns it into a deterministic check that runs the same way on every transaction, continuously. Built-in checks: missing fields, miscoding, duplicates, unusual activity, account validity, vendor changes, and more.
Reusable Procedures, policies, mappings, and thresholds guide the agents' work, and exceptions are surfaced when judgment is needed. Procedures are instructions the AI interprets each time; deterministic checks are not described.
Digits automatically detects and drafts schedules directly in the ledger. You can also create a new one or import a schedule. After accountant approval, Digits automatically generates recurring entries for prepaids and fixed assets.
Agents build schedules and workpapers during the close, then post approved entries to the connected ledger. Automatic detection of transactions that need a schedule is not described.
More than automation. Built for scale.
If you're comparing platforms to find the best AI accounting software, don't stop at task automation. Digits pairs the Agentic General Ledger™ with what real-world finance teams need: unlimited users, built-in comments, departments and locations, plus bill pay, invoicing, and documents in the same ledger.
Features & Limits beyond AI
Digits Core
Basis
Unlimited users included—firms, clients, CFOs, operators, auditors, all at no extra cost.
Supports teams working across accounting engagements. Public product materials do not list standard seat allowances or per-user pricing.
Built‑in comments and @mentions on transactions, bills, categories, reconciliations and more. Checklist gathers every open question and action item in one place, by workflow step.
Organizes work by client and carries reviewer feedback and client context into future work. Built-in client comments and email-based replies are not clearly documented.
Visualize your business’s financial health. Real-time P&L, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow, and AR/AP Aging with drill-through to transactions and export. Drag-and-drop KPIs and statements as tiles.
Agents draft financial statements, reporting packages, and variance analysis for review. The connected ledger (QBO or Xero) remains where statements and dashboards live.
Departments and Locations are included with dimensional dashboards and statement slicing. (Projects coming soon.)
Works with accounting structures in the connected ledger.
12,000+ banks & cards via Plaid, plus Gusto, Ramp, BILL, Stripe, Mercury, and Reach Reporting; bank statements auto‑fetched to Documents for many institutions; PDF‑to‑CSV where supported.
Uses bank and card transaction data from your connected QuickBooks Online or Xero ledger, plus statements you provide.
AI Bill Pay and AI Invoicing included—digitized documents, auto-extracted vendor data, smart categorization, and streamlined approvals.
Can read invoices, prepare accounting entries, and work with AP/AR data. Native bill payment and customer invoice sending are not positioned as core Basis workflows.
One tool, no bolt-ons. Bill pay, invoicing, documents, and reconciliation run in the same system as your ledger.
Works across an existing accounting stack, connecting to the systems already in use. Positioned as an execution platform, not an ERP or practice-management system.
Trusted by 7,000+ accountants and business owners
This is a fundamentally unique experience for our clients, allowing our professionals to spend more time helping clients get value from their financial data and make informed business decisions. Even more so than before, we can provide business consulting services that move our clients forward.
Digits simplified everything on the financial side. What used to take me four hours a day now takes just 15–20 minutes.
Digits is INCREDIBLE! So intuitive, interactive, very easy to pickup and finally gives the right information beyond spreadsheets.
Digits combines a sleek dashboard with deep, nuanced insights — it's the perfect balance.
I don't spend time on accounting — and I love that.
Sleek interface, world-class support — I save hours every month at close.
Digits AI Invoicing makes managing my finances effortless. Everything's in one place—no more platform hopping.
The smoothest invoicing tool I've used. Everything just works, and billing takes a fraction of the time.
Digits saves 6 hours per client and helps us deliver deeper insights.
The future of accounting isn't crunching numbers — it's managing the tools that do. That's why I love Digits.
You don't have to sell me, the software sells itself.
A year in, my experience has been fantastic. Digits is the best AI-native accounting software available today — I’m so impressed that I only take on clients willing to use it.
Which Platform Is Right for You?
Digits Core
Is best for:
- Businesses ready to put bookkeeping, reconciliation, and review inside one AI-native ledger.
- Buyers who want published AI benchmarks and clear proof of how accounting automation is tested.
- Teams that want Quality Control checks that run the same way on every transaction, not instructions the AI reinterprets each time.
Basis
May be better for:
- Teams that keep accounting records in one platform while running AI workflows in another.
- Organizations that prefer sales-led packaging over published pricing and seat details.
- Businesses that want their accounting run on OpenAI's general-purpose models rather than a model built and benchmarked for accounting.
Frequently asked questions
Digits is the ledger. Basis is an AI agent layer that works on a ledger you already run. Digits is the accounting system of record, powered by the Agentic General Ledger™ (AGL®). It categorizes transactions, keeps accounts reconciled to bank statements, drafts schedules, and runs Quality Control checks inside its own ledger, routing exceptions to the Checklist when judgment is needed. Basis runs accountant-written Procedures against a connected QuickBooks Online or Xero ledger, and posts approved entries back, so the firm keeps and pays for both systems. Choose Digits when you want the books and the automation in one platform; choose Basis when clients are staying on QuickBooks Online or Xero.
The difference starts with whose model does the work. Basis is built on OpenAI's frontier models, routing each accounting task to the best-fit model and directing it with accountant-built Procedures, firm instructions, and client context. By Basis's own account, its capability compounds as OpenAI's models improve. The models underneath belong to a frontier lab.
Digits runs on Digits AGL® (Agentic General Ledger™), its own accounting-specific model architecture, built and trained in-house on 180 million transactions representing nearly $1 trillion in real financial activity. In its 2026 benchmark, Digits AGL® achieved 97.8% transaction-categorization accuracy, scored against ground truth established by U.S.-based GAAP accountants, outperforming every frontier AI model tested. Basis directs general-purpose models it doesn't own. Digits owns the accounting model and publishes how it performs.
No. Basis is an AI execution platform that connects to an existing ledger such as QuickBooks Online or Xero, reads its data, and posts approved entries back. The connected ledger stays the system of record, so a firm using Basis maintains and pays for both systems. Digits is the ledger, with reconciliation, automated Quality Control, automated schedules, bill pay, and invoicing built in.