# Pilot review (2026): is it worth $99 a month? > Done-for-you bookkeeping, tax and CFO services for small companies Checked Nov 12, 2026 ยท graded Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA. Pilot is a bookkeeping service rather than software you run yourself. It combines AI categorization with human bookkeepers who keep a company's books, and it sells tax filing and part-time CFO advice as separate services. Plans are priced by the company's monthly expenses. - **Category:** Accounting & Invoicing - **Made by:** Pilot.com Inc. - **Website:** https://pilot.com - **Runs on:** Web - **Who should skip it:** Pricey if your spending grows: Core rises with monthly expenses, $499 a month at $30,000. - **Facts last checked:** Nov 12, 2026 ## Pricing As of Nov 12, 2026, Pilot is a paid product, starting at $99 per month for up to $100,000 in monthly expenses. - **Pricing model:** Paid - **Free plan:** None. - **Free trial:** None listed. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Essentials | $99 per month, for up to $100,000 in monthly expenses | Cash-basis books from bank and card data, monthly close, year-end package for your tax preparer and in-app support. | | Core | $299 per month, up to $15,000 expenses, billed annually ($399 monthly) | Adds a US-based bookkeeper, accrual or cash basis and a custom chart of accounts. Price rises with expenses: $499 a month at $30,000. | | Custom | Custom | For larger or more complex companies: existing QuickBooks file, AR, AP, payroll administration and CFO advisory. Sold through sales. | Read from https://pilot.com/pricing on Nov 12, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Pilot before buying. ## Ways to pay less - **Discount on Core for pre-revenue startups** (Other savings): Pilot says startups that are still pre-revenue can contact it for a discount on the Core plan. Source: https://pilot.com/pricing ## Key features - **AI-assisted bookkeeping:** Transactions from bank and credit card feeds are categorized by AI, reconciled and closed each month; Core adds a human bookkeeper. - **Tax filing:** Federal and state returns for LLCs, partnerships, S-corps and C-corps, sold as a yearly service on top of Pilot bookkeeping. - **CFO services:** Monthly, bi-weekly or weekly calls with a finance lead, plus a budget and forecast model, from $1,750 a month on the Basic tier. - **Reports and dashboards:** Financial reports delivered on the 10th business day on Core, or the 6th on Custom, with dashboards and AI answers about past transactions. - **Operations services:** Bill payments, invoicing and payroll work can be added, priced from an estimate based on monthly volume. ## Good for - Startups that want someone else to keep the books - Small companies that also want tax filing from the same provider - Founders who plan to add outside CFO advice later ## Worth knowing - It is a service, not self-serve software: you hand the books to Pilot instead of keeping them yourself. - Tax filing starts at $1,000+ a year for a single-member LLC and must be bought with Pilot bookkeeping. - Core pricing climbs with monthly expenses, and companies above $200,000 a month get a custom plan. - The pricing page does not say how long the free trial offered in the site header lasts. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 1.8 out of 4**, graded Nov 12, 2026. Pilot is a done-for-you bookkeeping, tax and CFO service, from $99 a month for cash-basis books on up to $100,000 of monthly expenses. Core, with a US-based bookkeeper and accrual books, is $299 and rises with spending, tax filing starts at $1,000 a year and must be bought with bookkeeping, and you hand over your books. - **Value for money: D.** $99 a month for Essentials and $299 for Core on annual billing ($399 monthly), against $26 in the middle. It's a service, but that's still the dearest tenth. - **Free plan and trial: D.** The site header mentions a free trial, but the pricing page doesn't say how long it lasts or what it covers. No free plan. - **Features: C.** AI-assisted bookkeeping, tax filing, CFO services and reports. Essentials is cash-basis only, accrual needs Core, and tax has to be bought with bookkeeping. - **Ease of use: C.** No store rating on record. You hand over bank and card data and the work is done for you. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web, with Bill.com, Stripe, Shopify, Mercury, Chargebee, Recurly, Melio and Airtable. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Pilot's own pages on 12 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among accounting and invoicing tools - Pilot's GPA of 1.8 is higher than 7 of the 65 other accounting and invoicing tools we grade, and level with 3. - It stands best on platforms and integrations (B, above 13 of 65) and worst on value for money (D, above 0). - Its paid plans start at $99 a month, against a middle price of $18.09 for the category: 52 of the 54 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.3 out of 4. 16 tools score higher and cost less. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/accounting ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** To replace Pilot you would be making live feeds from your bank, which take an agreement with each bank or a service that has them. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. That makes this kind of software worth paying for, not this one in particular: 55 of the 65 other accounting and invoicing tools grade higher. It costs $1,188 a year. - You could make: Reports: an app builder makes this well. - You could not: Live feeds from your bank, which take an agreement with each bank or a service that has them. - You could not: Connections that pull numbers from dozens of other services. - You could not: It plugs into other products, Bill.com, Stripe and Shopify among them. - You could not: AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with Bill.com, Stripe, Shopify, Mercury, Chargebee, Recurly, Melio, Airtable **Tags:** Bookkeeping, Reports, Dashboards, AI features ## Alternatives - [Bench](https://toolgpa.com/tools/bench): Bookkeeping done by an assigned bookkeeper, with optional tax filing. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/bench-vs-pilot) - [QuickBooks Online](https://toolgpa.com/tools/quickbooks): Cloud accounting from Intuit, from a free plan to 25-user Advanced. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/pilot-vs-quickbooks) - [Puzzle](https://toolgpa.com/tools/puzzle): AI-driven accounting software for startups and small businesses. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/pilot-vs-puzzle) - [Found](https://toolgpa.com/tools/found): Business bank account with bookkeeping and tax tools built in. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/found-vs-pilot) - [Xero](https://toolgpa.com/tools/xero): Cloud accounting for small businesses, with unlimited users. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/pilot-vs-xero) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 12, 2026: - https://pilot.com/ - https://pilot.com/pricing - https://pilot.com/integrations Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/pilot Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).