Quaderno Review
Quaderno is Visma-owned tax compliance software that calculates sales tax, VAT and GST, issues compliant invoices, tracks registration thresholds and offers done-for-you filing for small online businesses, creators and SaaS companies selling across borders.
Independently scored, one dimension at a time. Every dimension is sourced, and we say whether a claim is published, reported, or estimated.
Self-serve plans, ten Enterprise tiers up to $10,500 a month, filing fees for 38 jurisdictions, e-invoicing per-document fees and Connect pricing are all published. Two things blunt it: the pricing page and the help center disagree on what happens at the transaction limit, and the E-Invoicing page says there are no add-on fees while the help center lists 0.05 euros per Peppol document and 0.07 euros per French invoice received. The price of the Paused plan is not published.
Setup is self-serve: a 7-day trial with no card, no-code connectors, a free sandbox and CSV import, plus free done-for-you migration on Business plans and up (TaxJar alternative page, 10 October 2026). The work that remains is manual: entering registered jurisdictions and tax IDs, and matching products to tax codes by SKU. The default Stripe connection treats prices as tax-inclusive, so adding tax on top at checkout needs the API or a plugin.
Support is by email, with response targets of 24 hours on Hobby and Startup, 8 hours on Business and priority handling on Growth, per the Shopify App Store listing read 11 October 2026. The pricing page promises an onboarding call for every new user, and support runs in English, Spanish and French. Trustpilot shows 4.6 from 72 reviews and the Shopify app 4.4 from 12 ratings, both small samples; no phone line or round-the-clock cover is published.
The help center lists 153 countries and regions for automatic calculation, every US state with a sales tax plus local rates by postal code, and four Canadian provincial taxes (updated 26 June 2026). Depth is the limit: the API spec exposes seven tax codes, and a help article says there is no support for excise goods, partial clothing exemptions or customs duties. Filing covers 38 listed jurisdictions, and e-invoicing is live for Spain, limited to Belgian companies for Peppol and receive-only in beta for France.
The integrations page lists 22 connectors, weighted toward payment processors, WooCommerce, Shopify and course platforms such as Kajabi, Thinkific and Teachable. The only accounting connector is Xero, and it runs one way from Quaderno to Xero; the NetSuite help article points to the API or partners, and the accountants page names QuickBooks Online with no listing or setup guide behind it. Shopify and the default Stripe connection record sales after checkout and leave the calculation to the platform.
Published tiers run from 25 to 1 million transactions a month (help center, updated 31 March 2026), with API calls capped at ten times the transaction allowance and a rate limit of 100 calls per 15 seconds. Each account maps to one legal entity, so a group runs several accounts through a switcher. Documents are capped at 200 line items, and the status page lists three incidents in 2025 and none in 2026 through 10 October.
The Visma Trust Centre page for Quaderno lists no certificates or assurance reports as of 10 October 2026, and the site cites the Visma Security Program Gold tier and GDPR, with no SOC 1 or SOC 2 named. The SLA page limits the accuracy guarantee and uptime credits to Premium customers, which the help center places at the 10,000-transaction tier, and caps the guarantee at twice the prior 12 months of fees. On the plus side, invoices cannot be deleted through the API, six user roles include a read-only Accountant, two-factor authentication is available, and the filing addendum effective 5 October 2026 spells out who pays for a late or wrong return.
No first-party MCP server and no in-product AI feature appear in the docs, help center or changelog as of 10 October 2026. The public REST API is documented with an OpenAPI 3.1 spec and a free sandbox, but its latest version is dated 28 October 2024 and it has no filing or registration endpoints. Two community MCP servers exist, one hosted by a third party and one on GitHub; Quaderno supports neither.
Low-cost, fully priced cross-border tax and invoicing for small sellers; light on assurance and tax depth
Written by the Audit Friendly research team. No vendor edits, no sponsored placement.
Quaderno is a compliance layer for small online sellers. It sits behind Stripe, PayPal, Shopify, WooCommerce and course platforms, turns each sale into a compliant invoice, keeps tax reports by state and country, and warns when a registration threshold is close. Plans run from $29 to $149 a month for up to 2,500 transactions, and every price above that is published too. Since May 2025 it also registers and files through partner specialists at fixed monthly fees per jurisdiction. Visma has owned it since September 2023.
The catch is depth and assurance. No SOC 1 or SOC 2 report is published for the product, the accuracy guarantee starts at the 10,000-transaction tier, and the tax engine works from seven tax codes with no excise, clothing rules or customs duties. The default Stripe link does not add tax at checkout, Xero is the only accounting connector and it runs one way, and there is no in-product AI or first-party MCP server. Filing liability is capped at 12 months of filing fees.
Before signing, get four things in writing. First, which plan carries the accuracy guarantee and uptime credits. Second, that US state nexus monitoring is in scope, since the contract's list of monitored jurisdictions omits the United States. Third, a filing quote that names the specialist, setup fee, monthly fee and any fiscal representation charge for each jurisdiction. Fourth, how long data stays retrievable after cancellation, because the terms and the help center give three different windows.
- A creator or small SaaS on Stripe, PayPal or Kajabi selling to consumers in the EU, UK and US that needs compliant invoices and threshold alerts for under $150 a month.
- A Spain-based online business that must meet Verifactu or TicketBAI and wants invoicing, e-invoicing and VAT reports in one tool.
- A platform or marketplace that wants white-label tax calculation and invoicing for its sellers at $5 per active connected account.
- Companies whose auditors require a SOC 1 or SOC 2 report on the tax engine; none is published for Quaderno.
- Sellers of apparel, alcohol or other goods that need detailed product taxability, excise or customs duties; Quaderno's help center rules all three out.
- Finance teams on NetSuite, Sage Intacct or QuickBooks that need a native ERP tax connector and exemption certificate management.
The jobs a tax team actually hires Quaderno for
Jobs, mapped to how finance teams actually buy.
Turn every Stripe, PayPal or Shopify sale into a compliant invoice
Each connected payment or order becomes an invoice with sequential numbering and a tax breakdown, and each refund becomes a credit note. Invoices go out in the customer's language and currency, and B2B tax IDs are checked against VIES and UK records so reverse charge applies. An issued invoice cannot be deleted; it is corrected with a credit note.
See registration thresholds coming across markets
Monitor totals sales by customer location across every connected channel and emails an alert at 90 and 100 percent of a threshold. The turnover report in the dashboard shows each threshold, and webhooks fire on warning and exceeded events. The help-center list of monitored jurisdictions, updated 21 September 2026, names EU OSS and 111 countries.
Hand US sales tax returns to a filing service
Quaderno prepares and submits state returns through licensed specialists while remaining the contracting party. The fee is flat per state per month whatever the filing frequency. A non-US company first needs a US mailing address, an EIN and a US bank account, per the help center.
Register and file EU VAT OSS or UK VAT from outside the EU
The filing add-on covers EU VAT OSS, UK VAT and the rest of the 38 jurisdictions on the published fee table. Sales data must be in the platform by the first day of the filing month, or that period's penalties stay with the customer under the addendum. Taking over an existing EU VAT OSS or UK registration costs 300 euros to set up, against 600 euros for a new one.
Meet Spain's Verifactu and TicketBAI rules from the billing stack
Quaderno says it is certified for Verifactu and supports TicketBAI and Facturae, so a Spanish seller can report invoices to the tax agency from the account that issues them. Peppol sending is limited to Belgian companies at 0.05 euros per document, and French e-invoicing is a receive-only beta. Germany, Poland and Italy are marked as coming soon.
Give marketplace sellers tax and invoicing under the platform's brand
Quaderno Connect lets a platform create white-label accounts by API or link sellers' own accounts through OAuth. The platform pays $5 per active account plus a plan sized to the combined volume, with Business at $99 a month as the minimum. A merchant of record does not need Connect, per the developer guide.
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What it actually costs
Here's what it really costs: published rates where a vendor lists them, aggregated quote data where they don't, plus a path to your own number.
25 transactions and 250 API calls a month, with 1 user, 1 jurisdiction and 1 integration. Email support with a 24-hour response target, per the Shopify listing.
250 transactions and 2,500 API calls a month, with unlimited users, jurisdictions and integrations. Multiple Stripe accounts are supported from this plan up.
1,000 transactions and 10,000 API calls a month. Adds an 8-hour email response target, free done-for-you migration and eligibility for Quaderno Connect.
2,500 transactions and 25,000 API calls a month, with priority email support.
Ten published tiers in the help center from 5,000 to 1 million transactions a month (updated 31 March 2026); the pricing page says to contact sales above 2,500. No yearly discount. The premium SLA starts at the 10,000-transaction tier ($500 a month).
Help center: extra transactions cost 25 cents each, and two months over the limit triggers an automatic upgrade. The pricing page describes an immediate automatic upgrade instead.
Done-for-you registration and filing with no setup fee, billed monthly whatever the filing frequency (help center, updated 6 October 2026).
Setup is 600 euros for a new registration or 300 euros for a takeover. Setup fees are non-refundable once registration starts.
38 jurisdictions are on the published table. Setup runs 600 to 2,100 euros for a new registration and 300 to 1,750 euros for a takeover; certified translations cost extra where required.
Required for Mexico, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland, with a minimum one-year commitment.
Charged per invoice or credit note delivered through Peppol. Available only to companies residing in Belgium (help center, updated 6 August 2026).
Charged per supplier e-invoice received from 1 October 2026. Receive-only and limited to companies registered in France (help center, updated 28 August 2026).
What it actually takes to go live
The SLA page (read 10 October 2026) limits the accuracy guarantee and the 99.99 percent uptime credits to Quaderno Premium customers. The help center says the premium SLA starts at the 10,000-transactions-a-month tier, which is listed at $500 a month. The guarantee covers uncollected tax, penalties and interest only up to twice the fees paid in the prior 12 months, only after an audit, and only with notice inside 14 days. For everyone else, the Terms of Service effective 1 October 2026 make no guarantee of the accuracy of the service's calculations and cap liability at 12 months of fees.
Quaderno's Stripe integration page (read 10 October 2026) says Stripe sends the final charge amount and Quaderno treats it as tax-inclusive. Adding tax on top at checkout needs the Quaderno API or a platform that calculates before the charge reaches Stripe. Stripe Link with Checkout does not pass the customer's tax ID, so B2B sales are unsupported on that path. On Shopify, the platform calculates the tax and Quaderno handles invoices, reports and alerts afterward.
The public API spec (version 20241028) lists seven tax codes: standard, reduced, exempt, eservice, ebook, saas and consulting. A help article updated 31 March 2026 says Quaderno does not calculate excise goods, partial sales tax exemptions for clothing or other goods, or customs duties. A store that sells more than one product type needs each product created in Quaderno with a matching SKU and a tax code set by hand. Customer exemptions are a manual status on the contact, and no certificate collection or expiry tracking is described.
The filing addendum effective 5 October 2026 says services are delivered in part through licensed tax advisors and filing agents, and the Terms of Service name Zamp Technologies and Global VAT Compliance B.V. as third-party providers. Quaderno accepts responsibility for a late or wrong return only when the data was complete and uploaded before the first day of the filing month. Its total liability for filing services is capped at the filing fees paid in the prior 12 months. Setup fees are non-refundable once registration starts, and ending the service takes 30 days' notice.
The Monitor product page says Quaderno tracks economic nexus in every US state with a sales tax. The help-center article that lists monitored jurisdictions, updated 21 September 2026, names EU OSS and 111 countries and does not mention the United States or Switzerland. That matters because the filing addendum ties Quaderno's responsibility for a missed threshold to the jurisdictions on that list. The addendum also treats the dashboard as the authoritative notice and describes email alerts as a courtesy. Ask for written confirmation that US state nexus monitoring is in scope.
The E-Invoicing page (read 10 October 2026) says e-invoicing is included in every plan with no add-on fees and that Spain and France are supported today. The help center says Peppol is available only to companies residing in Belgium, at 0.05 euros per document sent (updated 6 August 2026). The French integration is in beta, receives supplier invoices only, and costs 0.07 euros per received invoice from 1 October 2026 (updated 28 August 2026). The developer guide still marks Factur-X, XRechnung and Facturae as coming soon.
Scored on what an outside agent can actually reach: the documented API, how it authenticates, and whether the vendor ships an MCP server.
Exists: Quaderno publishes no MCP server of its own. On 11 October 2026 its developer hub, help center, product pages and GitHub organization (8 public repositories) carried no MCP mention. The official MCP registry lists one server for Quaderno, io.usefulapi/quaderno, run by the third party usefulapi.io. A second community server, AnderRahe/quaderno-api-mcp, sits on GitHub with five tools and no stars. Composio, a generic integration catalog, also lists a hosted Quaderno toolkit. None of these is built or supported by Quaderno.
Scope: Both community servers wrap Quaderno's own REST API. The GitHub one exposes tax calculation, tax ID validation, contact creation, invoice creation and invoice listing; the registry entry describes tax-rate calculation, invoices, contacts, products, receipts and expenses. Underneath, the API (version 20241028, 54 documented paths) covers transactions, invoices, credit notes, receipts, expenses, contacts, products, registered tax IDs, location evidence, webhooks and three CSV report types. It has no endpoint for filings, registrations or threshold status.
Turnkey: Nothing is turnkey from the vendor. The usefulapi.io server is hosted and answered an MCP initialize on 10 October 2026, with a free tier of 100 tool calls a month, but using it means handing a Quaderno API key to a third party. The GitHub server runs locally with an API key in its environment. The API itself authenticates with an account API key over HTTP Basic; OAuth2 bearer tokens with read-only or read-write scope exist for Quaderno Connect platforms.
In-product AI: no AI feature appears on the product pages, in the help center or in the product changelog as of 10 October 2026. Tax codes are set by the user per product or by an account default. The site does publish an llms.txt file that points AI assistants to its public pages; it gives no access to account data.
Quaderno, kept current
The help center's tax compliance pricing article, last updated 6 October 2026, lists setup and monthly filing fees for 38 jurisdictions, including $70 per US state per month.
An addendum to the Terms of Service, updated 21 September 2026 and effective 5 October 2026, sets out which filing failures Quaderno pays for and caps its liability at 12 months of filing fees.
The French e-invoicing integration, in beta and receive-only, was free until 1 October 2026 and then costs 0.07 euros per received invoice, per the help center.
A fixed sidebar and top bar, a keyboard-driven account switcher, settings moved under the profile menu and billing history merged into billing details, live for all accounts.
Quaderno's changelog says the product is certified to support Verifactu, Spain's invoice verification rule. The entry is dated July 2025 with no day given.
Quaderno began offering tax registration and return filing worldwide as an add-on delivered with global partners. The changelog entry is dated May 2025 with no day given.
Quaderno FAQ
The software runs from $29 a month (Hobby, 25 transactions) to $149 a month (Growth, 2,500 transactions), published on the pricing page and checked 10 October 2026. Most sellers with a few hundred to a thousand sales a month land on Startup at $49 or Business at $99. Paying yearly costs ten months instead of twelve.
Filing is extra. Done-for-you US sales tax filing is $70 per state per month with no setup fee, so a Business plan with one US state comes to $169 a month, the figure Quaderno uses on its own TaxJar comparison page. EU VAT OSS and UK VAT are each 100 euros a month plus a 600 euro setup fee, or 300 euros to take over an existing registration.
Above 2,500 transactions the help center lists Enterprise tiers from $249 a month at 5,000 transactions to $10,500 at 1 million. The pricing page and the help center describe overage differently, one as an automatic upgrade and the other as 25 cents per extra transaction, so ask which applies to the account.
Software plans are month to month, billed in advance, with no lock-in or cancellation fee. Fees are non-refundable, and Quaderno can change prices with 15 days' notice (Terms of Service effective 1 October 2026). Filing services take 30 days' notice to end, setup fees are non-refundable, and fiscal representation in Mexico, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland carries a one-year minimum.
Invoices, receipts, credit notes, expenses, customers and products export as JSON through the API at no charge, and reports download as CSV or PDF. A Paused plan keeps read and download access for a reduced monthly fee.
Export before cancelling. One section of the terms says an account and its content are deleted six months after cancellation, another gives a 30-day API retrieval window, and the help center says data is preserved if the account is reactivated within 90 days.
An owner or finance lead can do it without IT, and Quaderno describes connector setup in minutes. Connecting Stripe, PayPal, Shopify or a course platform takes a few clicks; registered jurisdictions and tax IDs are then entered by hand and products are matched to tax codes. Quaderno offers an onboarding call to every new user and a free migration of history on Business plans and up.
A custom checkout needs a developer. Quaderno says its API can usually be implemented in less than a day (vendor claim). The free sandbox has no time limit, though it caps an account at 200 documents and returns local US rates for four test ZIP codes only.
Filing takes longer and depends on the jurisdiction. It starts with a call and a written quote, and a non-US company needs a US mailing address, an EIN and a US bank account before any state registration. The help center (updated 6 October 2026) puts the EIN at four to six weeks by mail, about four business days by fax, or immediate by phone.
Only through the API. Quaderno has no MCP server of its own and no AI assistant in the product as of 10 October 2026. An agent given an API key can calculate tax, validate tax IDs, record sales and refunds, create invoices and credit notes, manage contacts and request CSV reports, within a limit of 100 calls per 15 seconds.
Two community MCP servers wrap that API: one hosted by usefulapi.io and listed in the official MCP registry, and one on GitHub that runs locally. Neither comes from Quaderno, and the hosted one means sharing an API key with a third party.
An agent cannot file a return, register in a jurisdiction, read threshold status or change plan settings, because the API has no endpoints for them. Threshold alerts do reach other systems through webhooks.
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