Holded

What Is Holded?

Here is the bold claim: for the majority of European SMEs with fewer than 50 employees, Holded can replace your accounting software, your invoicing tool, your CRM, your HR platform, and your project management app — all at once, for less than you are paying for any two of them separately.

That is not marketing copy. That is the proposition that has driven over 80,000 businesses — predominantly in Spain and Latin America — to consolidate their operational software onto a single platform built in Barcelona. Holded launched in 2016 with a thesis that small businesses do not need five best-of-breed tools. They need one tool that is good enough across all five domains, with the critical advantage that everything shares the same data model.

In 2022, Visma Group — the Norwegian enterprise software giant with over 15,000 employees across Europe — acquired Holded. This was not a talent acquisition or an acqui-hire. Visma paid a reported nine-figure sum because Holded had proven that the all-in-one model works at scale in the SME market.

The result today is a platform that combines double-entry accounting, customisable invoicing, contact and pipeline management, HR with payroll preparation, inventory tracking, and project management with time logging. Each module is less deep than a dedicated alternative. But the integration between them — an invoice that automatically creates a journal entry, a project that tracks time against client billing, an HR record that feeds payroll data to accounting — creates workflows that are impossible when your tools are siloed.

Key Features

Unified Accounting and Invoicing

Holded's accounting module supports double-entry bookkeeping with automated journal entries, bank reconciliation with automatic transaction matching, and comprehensive tax compliance for the Spanish market. Invoice creation is flexible, supporting custom templates, recurring invoices, and electronic invoicing (factura electronica) as required by Spanish regulations.

The real power emerges in the connections: when you send an invoice, the corresponding accounting entry is created automatically. When a client pays, the bank reconciliation module matches the payment, updates the invoice status, and closes the accounting entry. This automation eliminates the manual bridging work that plagues businesses running separate invoicing and accounting tools.

CRM and Sales Pipeline

The CRM module provides contact management, deal tracking with customisable pipeline stages, and activity logging. It is not going to compete with Salesforce or even Pipedrive on depth — there is no AI lead scoring, no predictive analytics, no complex workflow automation. What it offers is something more pragmatic: when you close a deal in the CRM, you can generate an invoice from the deal data with one click, and that invoice feeds directly into your accounting.

HR and Payroll

Holded's HR module covers employee profiles, document management, leave tracking, and payroll preparation. For the Spanish market specifically, it handles the complexities of Spanish social security contributions and withholding calculations. The payroll preparation feature does not replace a full payroll processor for complex scenarios, but for straightforward SME payroll, it handles the calculations and exports needed for submission.

Inventory and E-Commerce

For product-based businesses, Holded offers inventory management with stock levels, warehouse tracking, and automatic reorder points. Integrations with WooCommerce, Shopify, and PrestaShop synchronise product catalogues and orders, with each sale automatically updating inventory counts and generating the corresponding accounting entries.

Project Management

The project management module provides task tracking, time logging, and team collaboration features. Time tracked against projects can be linked to client billing, creating a direct pipeline from work performed to invoices generated to revenue recognised — all within a single system.

Pricing

Holded operates on a tiered model starting with a genuinely free plan that includes basic invoicing for a single user. Paid plans scale from approximately EUR 14/month for full accounting and invoicing, through EUR 28/month for CRM and inventory access, to EUR 50/month for the complete suite including HR and project management.

When evaluating the pricing, the relevant comparison is not against a single dedicated tool — it is against the combined cost of the tools Holded replaces. A business running separate accounting (EUR 15-30/month), invoicing (EUR 10-20/month), CRM (EUR 15-50/month), and project management (EUR 10-25/month) tools is likely spending EUR 50-125/month across multiple subscriptions. Holded's Premium plan at roughly EUR 50/month covers all four, albeit with less depth in each.

Annual billing offers discounts, and enterprise pricing with custom onboarding and API access is available on request. The free tier is useful for sole traders who need basic invoicing, but most businesses will need at least the Basic plan for meaningful accounting functionality.

EU Compliance & Data Privacy

Holded is a Spanish company (Holded Technologies S.L.) headquartered in Barcelona, now owned by Visma Group, headquartered in Oslo. All data is hosted in EU data centres and processed under GDPR.

For Spanish businesses specifically, Holded supports SII (Suministro Inmediato de Informacion) automatic submissions to the AEAT tax authority, as well as generation of Modelo 303, 347, and other required tax forms. This level of localised tax compliance is where Holded significantly outperforms international alternatives like QuickBooks or Xero, which treat Spanish tax requirements as an afterthought.

The Visma acquisition strengthens the compliance picture: Visma operates enterprise-grade infrastructure across Europe and has deep experience with regulatory compliance in multiple EU jurisdictions.

Who It's Best For

Spanish SMEs are the primary audience, and this is where Holded shines brightest. The combination of SII compliance, Spanish payroll, and EU accounting standards in one platform is hard to match.

European small businesses (under 50 employees) that want to eliminate tool sprawl. If you are managing four or five separate subscriptions for basic business operations, Holded consolidates them into one.

E-commerce businesses selling through WooCommerce, Shopify, or PrestaShop that need automatic inventory, invoicing, and accounting synchronisation.

Businesses that value simplicity over depth. If you need enterprise-grade CRM or complex project management, look at dedicated tools. If you need something that works well enough across all domains, Holded delivers.

The Verdict

Holded makes a compelling case that most SMEs are over-tooled. By consolidating accounting, invoicing, CRM, HR, and project management into a single platform, it eliminates the integration headaches and data silos that plague small businesses running five separate subscriptions. The trade-off is depth — no individual module matches its dedicated competitor. But for the vast majority of small European businesses, that trade-off is worth making. The Visma acquisition adds financial stability and infrastructure backing without (so far) diluting the product's identity.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Holded available in English?

Yes. Holded supports multiple languages including Spanish, English, Catalan, and Portuguese. However, its deepest tax compliance features are built for the Spanish market, and the largest user community is Spanish-speaking.

Does Holded comply with Spanish SII requirements?

Yes. Holded supports automatic SII (Suministro Inmediato de Informacion) submissions to the Spanish tax authority (AEAT), as well as generation of Modelo 303 and 347 tax forms.

Who acquired Holded?

Holded was acquired by Visma Group in 2022. Visma is a major Norwegian-headquartered European enterprise software company with over 15,000 employees. The product continues to operate under the Holded brand.

Can Holded genuinely replace multiple business tools?

For most SMEs under 50 employees, yes. Holded covers accounting, invoicing, CRM, HR, inventory, and project management in one platform. Each module is less deep than a dedicated alternative, but the unified data model and elimination of integration work makes the trade-off worthwhile for most small businesses.

Where is Holded data stored?

All Holded data is stored in EU-based data centres under GDPR compliance. As part of the Visma Group, Holded benefits from enterprise-grade European infrastructure with no data transfers outside the EU.