Overview

Puzzle keeps cash and accrual accounting on the same underlying ledger, so teams can work across both bases without maintaining separate books. Puzzle Chat answers business questions in plain English, while Cowork can match invoices to payments or find subscriptions for a person to review. AI agents can also categorize transactions, reconcile accounts, and flag exceptions; actions are editable and reviewable before financial statements are finalized. That review step is valuable for teams that want automation without handing final accounting decisions to an opaque process.

The integrations page names Stripe, Ramp, Brex, Mercury, Gusto, Rippling, Deel, Meow, Causal, Runway, Bill.com, Central, MyRunwayHealth, and Joiin. Puzzle says integrations are read-only, data is encrypted with AES 256-bit encryption, and customers own their data; it says it does not share or sell customer information. It also states that it is SOC 2 compliant, with role-based access, encryption in transit and at rest, and audit traceability for user activity and approvals.

Key features

Dual accounting basis: Cash and accrual books share one ledger, useful for businesses that need both views without splitting their accounting foundation.
AI with review: Chat answers business questions, and Cowork and AI agents handle matching, categorization, reconciliation, and exception flagging. Editable actions keep people in the approval loop, though plan-specific AI credit caps may constrain usage.
Financial tracking: Core adds insights, spend and revenue tracking, variance analysis, and multi-entity support via integration. Complete adds revenue recognition, AI accuracy review, and reconciliations; revenue recognition and deferred revenue are supported.
Optional bookkeeping: Buyers can subscribe to software alone or pair it with a vetted partner for monthly bookkeeping. The service tiers have entity, accounting-basis, expense, and scope boundaries.
Close workflows: Puzzle supports close workflows, alongside subscription metrics and multi-entity accounting.

Pricing

Puzzle is paid, starts at $30/mo, and offers a 14-day trial; there is no free plan. The pricing page says yearly billing is available with 20% savings on Starter, Core, Complete, and Scale, and Starter is free for 2 months. Check the billing term and whether a service or add-on requires an active subscription before choosing a total-cost estimate.

Starter — $30 /mo: 1 seat, 25 lifetime AI credits, up to 98% auto-categorization, unlimited connections, and cash and accrual books. It is the entry point for a single-user business, but the lifetime credit allotment and one-seat cap make it a narrow fit for collaborative or frequent AI use.
Core — $72 /mo: 5 seats, 25 lifetime AI credits, insights, spend and revenue tracking, variance analysis, and multi-entity via integration. This adds meaningful reporting and room for a small team, but still has lifetime rather than monthly AI credits. Core paired with accounting services is only available to businesses with up to $10K / mo in expenses.
Complete — $120 /mo: Unlimited seats, 100 AI credits / month, AI accuracy review and reconciliations, revenue recognition, and priority support. It is the better fit for teams needing recurring AI capacity, review support, and revenue recognition.
Scale — $360 /mo: Unlimited seats, 300 AI credits / month, no transaction limits, no integration limits, backup and restore, and dedicated onboarding and support. This suits higher-volume teams that need fewer usage constraints and more guided service, at a substantial step up in price.
Core + Expert Reviewed Bookkeeping — $171 /mo: Software and service for up to $10K / mo in expenses, one entity and one accounting basis, and up to three bookkeeping questions per month. It excludes payroll processing, accounts payable/receivable, and inventory. This is a bounded bookkeeping option, not a full back-office service.
Migration — $149 once: Charged once for each system moved from QuickBooks, Xero, or another system; available with an active Puzzle subscription. Useful for switching systems, but the subscription remains a separate cost.
Catch-up bookkeeping — From $300 /mo of books: Available with an active subscription, with price depending on how many months of books are behind. It targets cleanup work rather than steady-state bookkeeping.
Tax Filing — From $1,250 /yr, plus $250 for each state filed in: Available with an active subscription; price depends on entity type. State filings and entity type affect the total.
R&D Study — 1.50 USD per once: Billed 1.5% of qualified research expenses and available with an active Puzzle subscription.

Platforms

Puzzle is available on web and through an API, and is cloud deployed. That combination suits teams integrating accounting into an existing software stack while using a browser-based product.

Who it's for

Puzzle targets startups and small and midsize businesses, with services described as scaling from pre-seed to Series B. It is most compelling for teams that want a shared cash/accrual ledger, connected financial tools, and human review over automated accounting actions. Businesses with limited bookkeeping needs may prefer software alone; those needing broader outsourced bookkeeping should account for the Expert Reviewed tier's one-entity, one-basis, expense, and task exclusions.

Pros and cons

Pro: One ledger supports both cash and accrual views, reducing the need to choose between those accounting bases.
Pro: AI actions remain reviewable and editable before statements are finalized, a useful control for teams adopting automation.
Pro: The named integrations span payments, banking, payroll, and finance tools, including Stripe, Ramp, Mercury, Gusto, and Bill.com.
Con: Starter and Core include only 25 lifetime AI credits, so recurring AI-heavy use points toward a more expensive tier.
Con: The lower-cost bookkeeping service is tightly scoped to one entity, one accounting basis, up to $10K monthly expenses, and three questions monthly, while excluding several common back-office tasks.
Con: Several add-ons require an active Puzzle subscription, so migration, catch-up work, tax filing, and the R&D study are not standalone purchases.

Alternatives

AI Accounting Software and SaaS Accounting Software are useful category lists for comparing broader options. Choose CloseZero if a free plan capped at $10,000 MRR or $100,000 raised is more important than Puzzle's paid tier structure; it includes AI bookkeeping, Stripe and bank statements, invoicing, and multi-entity support. Campfire is a fit to consider when custom pricing based on entities, transaction volume, revenue-model complexity, and integration count is preferable. Choose Numeric when month-end project management, ERP integrations, auto-reconciliations, and transaction monitoring are the priority and an existing ERP is in place. Rillet uses sales-consultation custom pricing. Digits is another paid option with a free trial and plans including Essentials at $65.00 USD per month and Core at $100.00 USD per month. Zoho Books offers a free plan for solopreneurs and micro businesses while annual revenue stays below $50K. Zoho Inventory has a free tier capped at 50 orders monthly, one user, and one location. Accountic offers a free plan with modules to try and credits that never expire, alongside pay-as-you-go pricing.

Verdict

Puzzle is a strong fit for startup and growth-stage teams that want cash and accrual accounting on one ledger, a broad set of listed integrations, and AI workflows that preserve human review. The main reason to choose it is that balance of accounting structure and reviewable automation, with optional bookkeeping services when needed. Look elsewhere if a free plan is essential, if you need broad outsourced bookkeeping beyond the stated service boundaries, or if recurring AI usage makes the lower tiers' lifetime credits too restrictive.

	Accountrix AI	Puzzle
Free plan	No	No
Free trial	Yes	Yes
Paid from	₹499.92/mo	$30/mo
Open source	No	No
Platforms	Web	api, Web
Free plan	No	No
Bookkeeping automation	No	—
Bank reconciliation	Yes	—
Document capture	Yes	—
Accounting integrations	TallyPrime	—
Paid from	—	30 /mo

Accountrix AI vs Puzzle

Accountrix AI

Puzzle