SmartSheets vs Accounter
A South African cloud accounting platform (from R300/month) that also offers a free online payslip generator.
This is an honest, side-by-side look at SmartSheets and Accounter for South African businesses. Both products have real strengths, and the right choice depends on your team size, budget and how much of your SARS admin you want the software to handle. Prices and features below were checked against the sources listed above and may change — always confirm current pricing on each vendor’s site.
Pricing at a Glance
SmartSheets
Free plan: R0 (1 payslip/month, no signup needed for the basic generator). Starter: R49/month or R395/year. Premium: R99/month or R799/year. Lifetime: R1,999 once-off.
Accounter
Free online payslip generator (no signup). Paid accounting platform: Small Business R300/month, Bookkeeper R650/month, Accounting Practice R900/month, Enterprise on request — with a 30-day free trial. Separate AI bank-statement/receipt extraction billing: free Starter tier (10 credits/month), then R249–R1,599/month. Verified on accounter.co.za/pricing, July 2026.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | SmartSheets | Accounter |
|---|---|---|
| Free payslip generator (no signup) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Entry paid price | R49/month (Starter) | R300/month (Small Business) |
| PAYE, UIF & SDL auto-calculation | ✓ | ✓ |
| Double-entry ledger & financial statements | Yes — Premium | ✓ |
| Bank reconciliation | Yes — with import rules | ✓ |
| Purchase orders, supplier bills & debit notes | Yes — Premium | ✓ |
| Inventory & stock valuation | Yes — weighted average, Premium | Yes — Bookkeeper plan and up |
| Multi-currency & fixed assets | Yes — Premium | Yes — Bookkeeper plan and up |
| Project accounting & billable time | ✗ | Yes — Bookkeeper plan and up |
| Payroll runs with bulk payslips | Yes — Premium | Payslip tool; full payroll module not advertised — verify |
| Leave management (BCEA) | Yes — from Starter | ✗ |
| Employee self-service portal | Yes — Premium | ✗ |
| Invoicing & quotes | Yes — with PayFast, Ozow, Yoco payments | ✓ |
| Bank statement PDF conversion | ✓ | Yes — AI extraction, credit-based billing |
| Practice/client management for accountants | Yes — R449/month Practice, first 2 clients free | Yes — R900/month practice plan |
| Once-off lifetime licence | Yes — R1,999 | ✗ |
The Honest Take
When Accounter is the better choice
Accounter is still the broader accounting system. Where it is genuinely ahead is job costing: project accounting and billable time tracking, on its Bookkeeper (R650/month) plan and up. If you bill clients by the hour or need costs and revenue reported per job, it does that and we do not. Its Accounting Practice plan (R900/month) also allows unlimited accountant users on one practice, with practice-wide reporting and workflow management, where our Practice tier is a single login.
It also carries a few things a longer-established ledger accumulates and we have not built: capital accounts, custom fields, batch operations and recurring bills. And its AI bank-statement and receipt extraction is a strong standalone product with a free starter tier. If your bottleneck is job costing, or you are a larger practice with several staff on the same client set, Accounter is buying you something we do not sell.
When SmartSheets is the better choice
If payroll is the job to be done, SmartSheets is both cheaper and deeper. Both of us offer a free no-signup payslip generator — but beyond the free tool, Accounter’s platform starts at R300/month for accounting, while SmartSheets Starter is R49/month with unlimited payslips and leave management, and Premium at R99/month adds payroll runs with bulk payslip generation and emailing, an employee self-service portal, e-signatures and EMP201/UI19/COIDA report summaries.
Premium also now produces real books. The invoices, expenses and payroll runs you have already captured post to a double-entry ledger, so you get a trial balance, an income statement and a balance sheet without re-capturing anything or knowing what a journal entry is — at R99/month against R300. Add VAT invoices and quotes with online payment collection, expense tracking, bank reconciliation, a bank statement converter and 30+ free calculators, and most small businesses have what they need to hand their accountant a clean set of numbers at year-end.
Verdict
The two overlap far more than they used to. Both offer a free payslip tool, and SmartSheets Premium now produces a double-entry ledger, supplier bills and creditors ageing, inventory, fixed assets and multi-currency at R99/month, against Accounter’s R300/month entry plan — features Accounter itself puts on a R650/month tier. Accounter is still ahead on job costing, which we do not do at all: project accounting and billable time. SmartSheets is stronger on payroll depth, leave, the employee portal and price, and its Practice tier is R449/month against R900. Choose on whether you bill by the job or run payroll.
Frequently Asked Questions
Both have free payslip generators — what is the difference?
Both generate SA payslips with PAYE, UIF and SDL calculated, free and without signup. The difference is what sits behind the tool. SmartSheets’ paid plans (R49–R99/month) build out payroll first — unlimited payslips, leave, bulk runs, employee portal — and Premium adds a double-entry ledger built from the invoices, expenses and payroll you have already captured. Accounter starts from the accounting side at R300/month and goes further into purchases, stock and assets than we do.
Is Accounter payroll software?
Primarily no — it is cloud accounting software with SARS VAT/PAYE/UIF/SDL workflows and a free payslip tool. A full payroll module with payroll runs and employee self-service is not advertised on its pricing page; verify with Accounter if you need that. SmartSheets is payroll-first with invoicing added.
Which is cheaper for a small business?
SmartSheets, on entry price: R49/month Starter or R99/month Premium against Accounter’s R300/month. Premium now covers payroll, invoicing and a full double-entry ledger together — trial balance, income statement, balance sheet, supplier bills and creditors ageing, inventory at weighted average cost, fixed assets and multi-currency. Accounter is the better buy if you need job costing: project accounting and billable time are the parts we have not built.
Can I use both together?
Yes, and it is a sensible split: SmartSheets for payslips, leave and compliance summaries; Accounter (or any accounting package) for the books. SmartSheets Premium exports data for Sage, Xero and QuickBooks to keep your accountant’s workflow intact.
Which should an accounting practice choose?
For managing many clients’ books, Accounter’s R900/month Accounting Practice plan with unlimited client accounts is built for that. SmartSheets suits practices that just need fast, compliant payslips and payroll summaries for micro clients without per-client accounting overhead.
Try SmartSheets Free
Generate a SARS-compliant payslip with PAYE and UIF calculated automatically — no signup needed for the basic generator.