Thomson Reuters Accounting CS
Firm write-up ledger for CPA shops: trial balance, statements, and payroll in one CS database. Quote-only. Not a DIY QuickBooks file.
- Starting price
- Contact sales; SaaS Accounting profile listed at $501/mo ($761 firm minimum)
- Pricing
- Contact sales
- Works with
- Replaces your ledger
- Pricing checked
- September 12, 2026
Our take
- Best for
- US CPA firms that want the write-up ledger, trial balance, statements, and (optional) live payroll in the CS Professional Suite next to UltraTax CS.
- Not ideal if
- A 1-50 person shop where the owner does the books, or a firm that wants to stay on the client's live QuickBooks Online or Xero file.
- Standout
- One firm database for write-up, after-the-fact payroll, and optional Client Access, with year-end sharing into UltraTax CS.
About Thomson Reuters Accounting CS
Accounting CS is write-up software for CPA firms. It is the ledger for the clients you keep in-house. Staff enter or import transactions, reconcile the bank, and close the trial balance in Accounting CS. Optional Client Access puts the client in the same database, so their bookkeeping and your adjustments land in one file with no export step. After-the-fact payroll is in the base license. Live payroll (checks, direct deposit, PayCard) is the Accounting CS Payroll add-on. Year-end balances, W-2s, and 1099s can share into UltraTax CS.
That is the opposite of Botkeeper or Double, which sit on the client's QuickBooks Online or Xero file. QuickBooks Online is the DIY owner ledger. Kick and Wave replace QuickBooks for a shop that wants a simpler cash file. Gusto and OnPay run payroll next to someone else's books. Accounting CS is the firm's books: many clients, one Windows or hosted CS database, sold through Thomson Reuters sales.
Firms that stick already run UltraTax CS or the rest of the CS Professional Suite and want write-up, statements, and payroll in the same stack. They accept a quote, Windows or Virtual Office CS hosting, and a product that public CPA forums call slower than a browser ledger when the server or SaaS disk is weak. They stay for the tax-form library and the one-database Client Access idea, not for a Saturday owner signup.
Pricing
Contact sales for an on-premise or Virtual Office CS license. The only official dollars opened this pass are on the still-published CS Professional Suite SaaS PDF: Accounting profile $501/mo, Tax $651/mo, Full Service $761/mo, Admin $368/mo, with a $761 firm minimum and an $1,850 SaaS start-up package. A one-person Accounting profile still hits that $761 floor. Multi-profile discounts start at 8%. Extra storage is $9/GB/mo. A 5-person DIY shop with one entity should not buy this. TaxProTalk users have quoted about $4,000/year for Accounting CS; that is a forum figure, not a list price. Third-party hosts quote Virtual Office CS around $147/portal/mo; that is not on a Thomson Reuters page opened this pass.
On-premise or Virtual Office CS license
Firms that buy Accounting CS (and optional Payroll) as a traditional license, hosted locally or in Virtual Office CS. Dollars are a quote.
- Write-up, trial balance, statements, after-the-fact payroll
- Optional Accounting CS Payroll and Client Access
- Virtual Office CS: Thomson Reuters hosts the CS apps
- On-premise: you host on a Windows desktop or firm server
- Talk to sales: 800-968-8900
SaaS Accounting profile
Published CS Professional Suite SaaS staff profile that includes Accounting CS and Accounting CS Payroll. Not a standalone ACS desktop SKU. Official PDF: $761 minimum per firm per month.
- Accounting CS and Accounting CS Payroll on the Accounting profile
- Workpapers CS, Fixed Assets CS, Planner CS, Practice CS, FileCabinet CS also checked on that profile
- Microsoft Office with Exchange listed on the same profile
- Standard SaaS start-up package $1,850 on the same PDF
- Storage over the included allotment: $9 per GB per month
SaaS Full Service profile
Same official SaaS PDF. Full Service is the tax-plus-accounting staff profile and is also the published firm minimum.
- UltraTax CS (includes PRP and ELF fees per the PDF footnotes)
- Accounting CS and Accounting CS Payroll
- Other CS apps on the Full Service column of the PDF
- Multi-profile discounts: 8% (2-4), 18% (5-8), 25% (9-12), 35% (13+)
- PDF example: 1 Full Service + 1 Tax = $1,299.04 after the 8% discount
How it hits your books
- Replaces your ledger
- Yes
- QuickBooks Online
- Partial
- Xero
- No
- Multi-entity
- Yes
- 1099s
- Yes
- Payroll
- Yes
You reconcile and close the trial balance in Accounting CS, then print statement profiles. Bank Feeds can feed Enter Transactions. You still lock the period in this file, not in QuickBooks.
The CPA is the user. Share year-end, W-2, and 1099 data into UltraTax CS, or export balances to Lacerte, ProSystem fx, or ProSeries. A DIY owner's CPA who only opens QuickBooks Online will not take this file.
What people who used it say
What they tend to like
Payroll forms and W-2 printing in the same write-up file
TaxProTalk firms that keep Accounting CS for payroll cite a thick federal/state/local form library and W-2 printing they prefer to QuickBooks.
One database with UltraTax CS and the rest of the suite
Firms already on UltraTax CS stay so year-end balances, W-2s, and 1099s do not get re-typed. Switching means leaving an integrated stack.
Client Access as a QuickBooks alternative for write-up clients
Official brochure and product page sell Client Access as the client working in the firm's file in real time, which is why write-up shops adopt it.
What they hesitate about
The CS suite is slow on a firm server or on Thomson Reuters SaaS
r/Accounting, r/taxpros, and r/msp threads describe multi-second screen loads, mapped-drive lag, and SaaS disk complaints. MSPs say the app is chatty over SMB and needs fast local storage.
Clunky next to Creative Solutions Accounting and QuickBooks
TaxProTalk users who left CSA for Accounting CS call the newer product slower and less intuitive than CSA or QuickBooks, with weak support.
Bank Feeds and support bills
One r/msp comment (CS Professional Suite performance thread) said Bank Feeds were dropped in 2019, a $5/month per-client feed fee still billed, and a support call was quoted at $272 against a $2,200 renewal. Treat the dollars as that user's bill, not a list price.
Features
- Write-up, trial balance, and statements
- Enter or import transactions, post journals (including adjusting, reclassifying, and tax entries), and close the trial balance in Accounting CS. Official brochure: firm-wide templates, up to 20 account segments, bank rec with statement import, and custom statement profiles you can print across many clients at once.
- Import from QuickBooks, then keep the books here
- Official help: import QuickBooks Online transactions, chart of accounts, vendors, and bank accounts. Payroll and class/segment data do not come over from QuickBooks Online. Desktop import is the current and previous two QuickBooks versions (QBW only; Pro / Premier / Enterprise). Virtual Office CS or SaaS firms use the CS QuickBooks Data Utility. This is a conversion or periodic import, not a live two-way sync.
- Bank rec and Accounting CS Bank Feeds
- Reconcile in the write-up file: statement import, set the frequency, and unfinalize a rec to fix it. Official product page and a Thomson Reuters write-up post name Bank Feeds that pull the client's financial institution into the Enter Transactions screen so staff journalize from the feed instead of a shoebox.
- After-the-fact payroll in the base; live payroll as an add-on
- The base license does after-the-fact payroll for the firm and clients. Official brochure: W-2, 940, 941, 943, 944, 945, 1099, and listed state/local forms, plus EFTPS. Accounting CS Payroll adds live checks, Rapid batch entry, time-clock and spreadsheet import, MICR, direct deposit, PayCard, and multi-state calculations. Payroll page also names 1095-C and W-2C.
- Client Access: client and firm in one database
- Optional Client Access is the client's online bookkeeping and live-payroll screen on the same data the firm already uses. You set which fields and reports the client can touch. Official brochure: no import/export between firm and client, and you can offer this as an alternative to QuickBooks for that client.
- Share year-end into UltraTax CS
- Official brochure: share year-end data, W-2s, and 1099s with UltraTax CS, Fixed Assets CS, and Practice CS. You can also export balances to Lacerte, ProSystem fx, or ProSeries. Cross-client processing lets staff run the same task across many clients in one pass.
Images
Integrations
Platforms
Audience
Pick something else instead of Thomson Reuters Accounting CS
QuickBooks Online
Pick QuickBooks Online instead if you are the business owner, or if the firm wants to keep working in the client's live QBO file instead of converting write-up into Accounting CS.
Double
Pick Double instead if the firm only needs a per-client close workspace on QuickBooks Online or Xero, not a replacement write-up ledger.
Gusto
Pick Gusto instead if you only need US payroll and a journal into QuickBooks Online or Xero, not firm write-up.
Kick
Pick Kick instead if you want a published-price replacement ledger a DIY US service shop can start this week.
Ready to try Thomson Reuters Accounting CS?
Check the live pricing page before you sign up. Plans change.