CPA Pilot vs MarginEdge

Pricing, features, platforms and who each one suits — side by side.

CPA Pilot

AI tax workspace for U.S. CPAs, EAs and tax firms: review, research, planning

From $29/moVisit site

MarginEdge

Restaurant back office software for invoices, food costs and inventory

From $350/moVisit site

Choose CPA Pilot if…

you want the lower entry price ($29/mo vs $350/mo)
you want to trial it before paying
you're in its core audience: cpas, enrolled agents

Choose MarginEdge if…

you're in its core audience: independent restaurant owners, multi-unit restaurant groups

Side by side

FeatureC

CPA PilotM

MarginEdge

Pricing modelFree trialPaid

Starting price$29/mo$350/mo

Free plan

Free trial

API

Open source

Trains AI on your contentNoYes

Data retentionUploaded documents and outputs auto-deleted after 90 days; account data 30 days post-cancellationKept while account is active or as needed to provide services

Security and compliance—PCI DSS

Invoice capture—

Bill pay—

QuickBooks/Xero sync—

Forecasting

Human experts included

PlatformsWebWeb

CategoryFinance & AccountingFinance & Accounting

Rank in its category#5 of 10#7 of 10

CompanyCPA PilotMarginEdge, Co.

Based inUnited StatesUnited States

Founded——

Part of——

What you'd pay

The cheapest plan that fits, per month, billed yearly where the plan offers it.

Team size	CPA Pilot	MarginEdge
1 person	$29 CPA Pilot 20	$350 MarginEdge
5 people	$29 CPA Pilot 20	$350 MarginEdge
20 people	$29 CPA Pilot 20	$350 MarginEdge

Work it out for your team

People

CPA PilotCPA Pilot 20$29/mo
MarginEdgeMarginEdge$350/mo

The cheapest paid plan with a published price that fits. Custom and sales-quoted plans aren't included.

Key features

C CPA Pilot

Tax return review that flags risks and inconsistencies
Client-ready summaries of 1040, 1120, 1120-S and 1065 returns
Tax organizer generated from a prior-year return
Drafts researched replies to client emails
Federal and state tax research with code citations
Tax projections and scenario modeling
Entity selection comparison: Schedule C, LLC, S-Corp, C-Corp
Maps PDF, Excel or CSV data into tax software fields

M MarginEdge

AI and human-reviewed invoice coding
Daily controllable P&L including labor
Price change alerts on most-used products
Tom AI assistant for cost questions
MCP connector for ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini
Recipe costing with automatic plate cost updates
Inventory counts and AI sales forecasting
Unlimited bill pay for U.S. restaurants

Plans and prices

From each vendor's site. Prices change — confirm before buying.

CPA Pilot

CPA Pilot 20$29/mo

CPA Pilot 60$49/mo

CPA Pilot 150$119/mo

CPA Pilot Unlimited$199/mo

MarginEdge

MarginEdge$350/mo per location

MarginEdge + Freepour$500/mo per location

Large groupsCustom

Strengths and limitations

CPA Pilot

Every plan includes all AI workflows
Pricing is by messages, not seats, with unlimited devices
Annual billing saves 16% and unused messages roll over
Outputs can be exported as PDF, CSV or text

Credit card required to start the free trial
Lower plans have small message allowances (20/month on the $29 plan)
Subscriptions can't be paused
Focused on U.S. tax only

MarginEdge

Flat $350 per location per month with unlimited invoice processing
No contracts on monthly billing and no setup fees
Integrates with Toast, Square, QuickBooks, Xero and 7shifts
Restaurant data is not used to train AI models

No free plan or free trial listed
Toast users pay a pass-through API fee and need the $50/mo Restaurant Management Suite
Bill Pay is available to U.S. clients only
Onboarding packages cost extra