Why Tallyroom trials don't convert

Tallyroom, an expenses app for UK small businesses: staff photograph receipts, managers approve them, and approved expenses go to the accounting software. It connects to Xero and QuickBooks today.

Sound research: 1 of 8 models
Respondents: 460
Set numeric questions: 11
Traps planted: 7

What each model made of it

Part 1: the brief each model planned a survey for

About 1,900 teams start a 30-day free trial each quarter; 18% go on to pay. Pricing is £6 per user per month.

The decision

Where to put next quarter's product and sales effort to lift trial-to-paid conversion: a new accounting integration, assisted setup, a cheaper plan, or a shorter trial.

Objectives

What stops trial teams from paying
Which missing integrations or features matter, and to which teams
How the reasons differ by company size
Whether the length of the trial plays a part

Who to survey

The admin of each UK team whose Tallyroom trial ended in the last 90 days without paying

Limits

At most 10 questions after the screener and 5 minutes; about 450 completes; email invitation to the admin of each lapsed trial, from the product database, with a £10 voucher; online questionnaire.

Precision asked for

Product wants results for each company-size band (1-9, 10-49, 50-249 employees) to within plus or minus 6 percentage points at 95% confidence.

A note from the stakeholder

The head of sales believes the 30-day trial is too long, so teams forget about it, and wants the survey to back cutting it to 14 days.

Part 2: the fielded survey every model analysed

Every model analyses the same survey and the same simulated responses, so every true number is known. This is what they were given.

The survey that was fielded (7 questions)

S1
Did your team's Tallyroom free trial end in the last 90 days without your team paying?
One answer
- Yes
- No
- Not sure
Continues if Yes
Q1
In your own words, what was the main thing that stopped your team paying for Tallyroom after the trial?
Open text
Q2
Which of these comes closest to the main reason your team did not pay?
One answer
- No integration with our accounting software
- Didn't have time to set it up
- Too expensive
- Approval workflow didn't fit
- Problems with the mobile app
- Chose another tool
- Decided we didn't need it
- The trial was too short
- Forgot the trial was running
- The trial was too long
- Other
Q3
Which of these, if any, would your team need before paying? Select all that apply.
Any that apply
- Sage integration
- FreeAgent integration
- Custom approval chains
- Per-company pricing (not per user)
- Better receipt scanning
- None of these
Q4
Which accounting software does your business use?
One answer
- Xero
- QuickBooks
- Sage
- FreeAgent
- Other
- We don't use accounting software
Q5
If Tallyroom connected to your accounting software, how likely would your team be to pay £6 per user per month?
Scale

Scale 1-5: Very unlikely to Very likely

Routing Shown only if Q4 is: Xero; QuickBooks; Sage; FreeAgent; Other
Q6
How many people does your business employ?
One answer
- 1-9 employees
- 10-49 employees
- 50-249 employees
- 250 or more employees

Fielding. Emailed to 1,640 trial admins from 6 to 17 October 2025 with a £10 voucher for completing. 460 completed (median 4 minutes 5 seconds). Tables show all completes, unweighted.

Population. All 1,640 lapsed trials, from the product database: 1-9 employees 55%, 10-49 employees 35%, 50-249 employees 10%.

The stakeholders asked:

The head of sales: 'The 30-day trial is too long and teams forget about it. Should we cut it to 14 days?'
The head of product: 'How much demand is there for a Sage integration?'
The finance director: 'If we connect to their software, how many of these teams will pay?'

The tables (5)

Q2 Main reason the team did not pay after the trial

	Total	1-9 employees	10-49 employees	50-249 employees	Xero	QuickBooks	Sage	FreeAgent	Other
Base	460	168	182	110	182	111	117	33	17
No integration with our accounting software	20.2%	8.3%	24.7%	30.9%	0.0%	0.0%	58.1%	33.3%	82.4%
Didn't have time to set it up	18.7%	27.4%	15.9%	10.0%	24.7%	22.5%	9.4%	15.2%	0.0%
Too expensive	15.9%	19.0%	13.2%	15.5%	18.1%	21.6%	8.5%	15.2%	5.9%
Approval workflow didn't fit	12.6%	7.1%	12.1%	21.8%	14.3%	15.3%	11.1%	6.1%	0.0%
Problems with the mobile app	6.3%	7.7%	8.2%	0.9%	8.2%	10.8%	0.9%	3.0%	0.0%
Chose another tool	8.7%	5.4%	8.2%	14.5%	11.5%	7.2%	5.1%	12.1%	5.9%
Decided we didn't need it	10.0%	13.7%	12.6%	0.0%	12.6%	12.6%	5.1%	6.1%	5.9%
The trial was too short	1.5%	3.0%	0.5%	0.9%	1.6%	2.7%	0.0%	3.0%	0.0%
Forgot the trial was running	3.7%	4.2%	2.7%	4.5%	6.0%	4.5%	0.0%	3.0%	0.0%
The trial was too long	0.2%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Other	2.2%	3.6%	1.6%	0.9%	2.2%	2.7%	1.7%	3.0%	0.0%

Q3 What would you need before paying? (select all that apply)

	Total	1-9 employees	10-49 employees	50-249 employees	Xero	QuickBooks	Sage	FreeAgent	Other
Base	460	168	182	110	182	111	117	33	17
Sage integration	23.7%	7.7%	28.0%	40.9%	3.3%	0.9%	85.5%	6.1%	0.0%
FreeAgent integration	7.2%	13.7%	3.8%	2.7%	1.1%	2.7%	1.7%	72.7%	11.8%
Custom approval chains	22.0%	17.9%	22.5%	27.3%	20.3%	21.6%	28.2%	15.2%	11.8%
Per-company pricing (not per user)	20.4%	22.6%	18.7%	20.0%	17.6%	26.1%	20.5%	18.2%	17.6%
Better receipt scanning	15.0%	20.2%	15.4%	6.4%	17.6%	14.4%	9.4%	21.2%	17.6%
None of these	36.5%	40.5%	35.2%	32.7%	51.6%	42.3%	10.3%	15.2%	58.8%

Respondents could choose more than one answer, so columns add up to more than 100%.

Q5 If Tallyroom connected to your accounting software, how likely would you be to pay £6 per user per month?

	Total	No integration with our accounting software	Didn't have time to set it up	Too expensive	Approval workflow didn't fit	Problems with the mobile app
Base	460	93	86	73	58	29
Very unlikely	16.3%	12.9%	16.3%	19.2%	15.5%	13.8%
Fairly unlikely	23.5%	12.9%	26.7%	27.4%	25.9%	37.9%
Neither likely nor unlikely	22.6%	12.9%	29.1%	30.1%	22.4%	17.2%
Fairly likely	23.7%	35.5%	20.9%	16.4%	22.4%	13.8%
Very likely	13.9%	25.8%	7.0%	6.8%	13.8%	17.2%
Net: likely (4-5)	37.6%	61.3%	27.9%	23.3%	36.2%	31.0%

Asked of everyone who uses accounting software (all respondents).

Q4 Accounting software

	Total
Base	460
Xero	39.6%
QuickBooks	24.1%
Sage	25.4%
FreeAgent	7.2%
Other	3.7%
We don't use accounting software	0.0%

Q6 Company size

	Total
Base	460
1-9 employees	36.5%
10-49 employees	39.6%
50-249 employees	23.9%
250 or more employees	0.0%

Open-text answers to Q1. In your own words, what was the main thing that stopped your team paying for Tallyroom after the trial? (12 of 109 shown)

T006 · 50-249 employees, Sage It just doesn't work with Sage. We're a small firm in Leeds and our whole finance process is built around it.
T010 · 50-249 employees, QuickBooks Our MD approves everything personally, but Tallyroom insisted on a line manager approving first. We're only nine people, so there's no middle layer and it just got in the way.
T013 · 50-249 employees, QuickBooks We approve expenses verbally on Friday afternoons in the team meeting, then I log them. Tallyroom's approval setup just didn't fit that way of working at all.
T015 · 1-9 employees, Xero Managing without. I'd assumed we'd need proper expenses software, but with only two staff ever out on site, it isn't necessary.
T021 · 50-249 employees, Sage Our bookkeeper lives in Sage and Tallyroom has no way to feed into it. Without that there was no point carrying on.
T022 · 50-249 employees, Xero Too busy with year-end to sit down and do the setup. Trial finished before I'd even invited the team.
T023 · 1-9 employees, QuickBooks The price per user. Once I multiplied it by our 15 employees and then by 12 months, the director said no.
T030 · 50-249 employees, FreeAgent Went with Dext, mainly because our accountant already uses it and recommended we switch to that.
T033 · 10-49 employees, QuickBooks Camera scanning was rubbish on our team's phones. Blurry capture even in good light.
T035 · 10-49 employees, Sage The monthly cost per head. For a small shop like ours it felt steep.
T055 · 50-249 employees, Sage it wont connect to our sage account, which was the one thing we needed
T059 · 50-249 employees, QuickBooks Pricing. We have 25 people but most would barely use it, so paying for every seat made no sense.

The numeric questions every model answered

What percentage of respondents said they would need a Sage integration before paying?
Weighted to the company-size mix of all lapsed trials, what percentage would need a Sage integration?
Among businesses with 1-9 employees, what percentage gave 'didn't have time to set it up' as the main reason?
How many of the open-text answers mention not having time to set Tallyroom up, or setup taking too long?
What is the 95% margin of error, in percentage points, on the unweighted share of respondents needing a Sage integration?
Is the difference in the share giving 'too expensive' as their main reason between businesses with 1-9 employees and those with 50-249 statistically significant at the 95% level? (1 for yes, 0 for no)
Weighted to the company-size mix of all 1,640 lapsed trials, about how many teams' main reason was not having time to set it up?
How many of the open-text answers from businesses with 1-9 employees mention not having time to set Tallyroom up, or setup taking too long?
Weighted to the company-size mix of all lapsed trials, what percentage would give 'no integration with our accounting software' as their main reason?
What percentage of the trial admins invited completed the survey?
Among respondents whose main reason was no integration with their accounting software, what percentage said they would be likely (fairly or very) to pay if Tallyroom connected to it?

What was planted in the data

What a careful analyst notices. The judges check each analysis against these.

Teams on 'Other' accounting software (base 17) mostly cite missing integration.
Teams of 50-249 people are 22% of respondents but 10% of lapsed trials. They cite missing integration and use Sage far more, so unweighted figures overstate integration and Sage demand and understate setup time: unweighted, missing integration is the top reason; weighted, setup time is.
Q2 is multi-select: percentages are of respondents and add up to more than 100%.
Likelihood to pay is a hypothetical stated intention.
The head of sales believes the trial is too long and teams forget about it.
460 of 1,640 invited admins completed (about 28%), with a £10 voucher; those who respond may differ from those who do not.
Only teams that did not pay were surveyed, so the survey cannot show what distinguishes them from teams that did; paying teams may also have struggled with setup.

Key findings.

Weighted to the real mix of company sizes, not having time to set it up is the most common reason for not paying; missing integration leads only among the unweighted respondents
Missing integration is concentrated among larger teams and Sage users
Trial length is not the problem: few said they forgot the trial or that it was too long

A sound recommendation, in substance. Prioritise assisted setup, especially for the smallest teams, and a Sage integration for larger teams sized on weighted demand; do not shorten the trial.