Most practice management tools built for accounting and tax firms cost roughly US$58–89 per user, per month. Docket's core is free — the CRM, work tracking, document collection, deadlines and time and billing, all of it. No seat caps. No credit card. Not a 14-day trial that quietly ends. This page explains, plainly, exactly what is free, what is optional and paid, and how that compares with the per-seat tools you are probably pricing against.
Accounting practice management software ……………… about US$58–89 / user / month
Docket core platform …………………………………………… CA$0.00
The core platform is free. AI customization is the one paid tier. That is the whole model — no per-user fee on the software itself, no setup invoice, no annual contract to reach the free part.
"Free" is an overused word in accounting software. It usually means a stripped tier, a seat cap, or a countdown. Here it means the opposite — so it is worth being precise about the terms.
The free core has no end date. You are not on a clock that flips to a paywall in two weeks. Use it for one client or one hundred, for as long as you like, at no cost.
Add your whole firm. There is no per-user fee on the core platform, and no limit that forces an upgrade once you invite the third or the tenth person. The whole team works in the free tier.
Signing up asks for an email, not a card number. Nothing charges automatically once a trial lapses, because there is no trial to lapse.
Free is not a demo version with the useful parts removed. CRM, work tracking, document collection, deadline tracking, the client portal, boards, and time and billing are all in the free tier.
This is the full list of what runs a Canadian accounting or tax firm day to day. Every item below is in the free tier — not an add-on, not a higher plan.
Want the deeper walkthrough of each of these? Take the product tour →
There is exactly one thing you pay for, and it is optional: AI customization. Describe the workflow, field, view or screen you want in plain English, and Docket builds it — previewed, approved by you, versioned and one click from rollback. The AI edits configuration, never your data. You can run the entire free core forever without ever turning this on. It exists for firms that want the software to bend to an unusual process without hiring a consultant to do it. See tiers and pricing →
1 The "typical per-seat tool" column describes the general pattern across popular accounting practice management products and is drawn from publicly available pricing pages. Figures are approximate, quoted in US dollars, and change over time — verify the current price on each vendor's own site before relying on it. Docket is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any other practice management vendor. Product and company names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective owners and are used here only for honest comparative reference.
Free is not automatically the right answer. If your firm runs on deep, established integrations with a specific ecosystem, needs a mature global platform for multi-office collaboration, or has dedicated operations staff who already run a heavyweight tool well, the incumbent you know may be worth its per-seat price. Docket is built for the small-to-mid Canadian firm that wants a complete, adjustable practice-management system without a monthly per-user bill — not for every firm on earth. We would rather say that plainly than sell you a poor fit.
It is genuinely free, not a trial. Docket's core practice-management platform — client CRM, work tracking, document collection, deadline tracking, the client portal, workflows and automations, and time and billing — is free forever, with no end date and no countdown. The only paid tier is optional AI customization, which you turn on if and when you want it.
No. There is no seat cap and no per-user fee on the free core. You can invite your whole firm — two people or twenty — and everyone works in the free tier. You do not hit a wall that forces an upgrade as you add staff.
No. Signing up asks for an email, not a card. Because there is no trial, nothing charges automatically after a period ends — there is no period to end. You add billing details only if you later choose the optional AI customization tier.
Popular accounting practice management tools generally price per user, per month — commonly in the range of about US$58 to US$89 per seat according to their public pricing pages, which change over time and should be verified on each vendor's own site. Docket's core is free because the paid layer is the optional AI customization, not the software itself. The practice-management functionality every firm needs day to day sits in the free tier.
Yes. Docket is CRA-native: T1, T2 and GST/HST deadlines are tracked automatically, recurring work is fiscal-year-end aware, and dates follow the way the CRA dates them. That Canadian tax fit is part of the free core, not a paid add-on. You can also export all of your data at any time.
The full practice-management core, free forever — no seat caps, no card. Add AI customization only if and when you want it.
Start free — no card →Practice management that shapes itself to your firm. Free for accounting and tax firms.
howard@docket-systems.com