Getting started

What is NapkinLedger, in one sentence?

A double-entry bookkeeping app for small businesses where you enter a few big items a month and confirm your cash balances. That's the whole system.

Do I need to know accounting?

No. You fill friendly forms (a sale, a purchase, a balance check); NapkinLedger writes correct double-entry ledger lines behind them. If you can read a bank app, you can run NapkinLedger.

How is this different from Wave or QuickBooks?

Those tools are built to record every transaction and reconcile bank feeds. NapkinLedger records the handful of items that matter and uses your real month-end balances to prove everything else adds up. Same double-entry foundation, a fraction of the input.

Who is NapkinLedger not for?

We'd rather tell you now than lose you later. If you need invoicing, payroll, tax filing, bank feeds, or stock control, use a full suite. If you run a small business, want your true profit, and don't mind typing a few numbers a month, you'll feel at home here.

What does it take to start?

Three steps: create a book for your business, add the cash accounts you actually use, and type today's real balances as your starting point. That's about five minutes, and your first month is simply declaring where you stand.

How it works

What is the 90/10 method?

About 90% of your money moves through 10% of your transactions: rent, payroll, big purchases, invoices. Record those few, then confirm what your bank and wallets actually hold at month end. NapkinLedger reconciles the rest for you.

Does it connect to my bank?

Deliberately no. Manual entry of a handful of numbers is safer, cheaper, and matches the monthly rhythm small businesses actually run on.

What happens to the small purchases I don't record?

Your balance confirmations absorb them automatically. The gap between what your ledger expected and what your bank actually holds is your unrecorded spending: NapkinLedger posts it as a single Misc line in your income statement, and it lands in your locked profit. You see the true number without ever tagging a coffee.

Does that mean I can stop keeping records?

No. Absorb the small stuff to save time, not to skip record-keeping. Keep the invoices and receipts somewhere (a shoebox, a folder on your phone) for tax season, and watch the gap: if the unrecorded amount grows past what feels honest for your business, record one or more of the items inside it next month. Storing your paperwork the right way →

How do pending docs work?

Mark a purchase as recurring and next month's form pre-fills itself: confirm, tweak, submit. Unpaid invoices can add a pending doc for the payment too. Overdue, due-soon, and later items are grouped on the Pending docs page.

Can I fix a mistake after recording it?

Yes. Every entry appears on the History page with an Edit button that reopens its form. Edits are void-and-repost: the old ledger lines are removed, new ones are posted, and every balance and report recomputes instantly.

Reports and accuracy

What reports do I get?

An income statement per month and year-to-date with a 12-period chart, a balance sheet, a trial balance, the full double-entry journal, and an entry-by-entry history that links every line back to the form that created it.

Why is the profit tile called "Net profit (locked)"?

Because once you confirm your real balances, profit stops being an opinion. It is derived from what you own and owe, so the same month can't later report a different number unless you change the entries or the confirmed balance.

Will my accountant accept bookkeeping done this way?

Yes. Behind every friendly form are standard double-entry records: dated journal lines, debits, credits, and a trial balance. You hand over the reports plus the invoices you kept, and they get an ordinary ledger, just entered faster.

Data and privacy

Is my data private?

Your data is yours. No bank connections, no selling, no advertising trackers, no third parties seeing your numbers. The details are in the privacy policy.

Can I use it in Arabic?

Yes. The whole interface works in Arabic, English, or Spanish, with full right-to-left support for Arabic. Switch anytime from the header.

How do you handle currencies?

Amounts are plain numbers within one book, which most people keep in a single currency. There is no automatic exchange-rate conversion; if you trade in two currencies, run a book per currency.

Where is my data stored, and can I get it out?

On managed cloud infrastructure with encryption in transit and at rest. You can export your data any time by contacting us, and deletion requests are honored within 30 days.

Billing and cancellation

Why is it so affordable?

No bank connections, no data-hungry infrastructure, no sales team. Lean software stays cheap. See the pricing page for current plans.

Is billing monthly or annual?

Both. Choose on the pricing page; annual billing comes with a discount versus monthly. A 14-day full refund applies to first payments.

What happens if I stop subscribing?

You can export your data any time. After cancellation your account becomes read-only; nothing is deleted.

Can I run more than one business?

Yes. Each business is its own book with its own accounts and reports, and you can switch between books from anywhere in the app. A subscription covers one book, so side projects get their own plan.