Home/Bookkeeping
What we file · Books
Books that keep themselves, for an accountant in any country.
Connect Mercury, Stripe and Wise with read-only keys, or import a statement from any bank. Every movement is categorised as it arrives, a correction is remembered, and each month closes into a statement in your documents. Your accountant gets a year-end pack; the IRS gets Form 5472 with the right numbers on it.
01First
The bank account is the bookkeeping.
Every founder who ends up with expensive books did the same thing: paid for the company from a personal card for six months and then tried to reconstruct it. Open the company's account before the first sale, pay every company cost from it, and pay yourself by recorded distribution. Form 5472 then writes itself, the liability protection holds, and the accountant's bill is small.
So the books start at the bank. Mercury and Wise are connected with a token you create in their settings and mark read-only, and Stripe with a restricted key that can only read the balance; each can list movements and cannot move money, and we read them once a day. With Stripe in the books at gross, a payout is the transfer it is, and revenue is counted once, at what the customer paid. Any other bank, including Relay, is a statement you export and drop in, with the same row never counted twice.
02Then
Categorised as it arrives, corrected once.
What happens to a movement between the bank and the year-end pack, read like a ledger.
- Eighteen headingsRevenue, interest, refunds; software, contractors, advertising, processing, bank fees, the state, taxes, shipping, inventory, travel, equipment, other. And three that are neither income nor expense.
- Not forty
- An owner's moneyA deposit from you is a contribution, not revenue; a payment to you is a draw, not an expense; a move to savings is a transfer. This is the error Form 5472 exists to catch, and the books do not make it.
- Kept apart
- A correctionChange Figma from Other to Software once and every Figma movement, past and future, follows. Rules are yours, per company.
- Remembered
- A doubtWhen nothing fits, the movement waits under Needs a category rather than being filed somewhere wrong and quiet.
- Left for you
- Each monthOn Premium, a statement of activity for the month is prepared a few days after it ends and filed in your documents: income and expenses by heading, the owner's movements set aside, every line listed. What a bank asks for with a credit application, and what the CPA works from.
- Closed
- Your accountantEvery movement with its category, signed, money in and money out in separate columns. Any plan, any time, any accounting software.
- A CSV
03What we will not do
We read the account. We never touch it.
We do not hold your money and we do not move it; the token we ask for cannot. We do not sell or share what the feed shows. We do not guess a category we are not sure of. The token is stored encrypted and read for minutes a day, and deleting it at the provider ends the feed at once. The books are yours: export them whenever you like, and if you ever leave, take them with you. What else we will not do.
04Questions
Questions about the books.
If yours is not here, email us at [email protected] before you order.
No. It is bookkeeping: the record of every movement in the company's accounts, categorised and kept current. Accounting is what your accountant does with that record: the return in your country, any US filing beyond Form 5472, and advice. The books are built so that work is short.
Mercury, Stripe and Wise by read-only token, on every plan. Any other bank, including Relay, by statement import: export the CSV or PDF from the bank and drop it in, and the same row is never counted twice.
The token you create at Mercury or Wise is marked read-only in their settings, and the Stripe key is restricted to reading the balance and movements. None of them can move money. We store them encrypted, read them for minutes a day, and deleting the token at the provider ends the feed at once.
Yes, and it is at its easiest now. Form 5472 reports what moved between you and the company even in a year with no revenue: the money you put in, the fees you paid, anything you took out. A record that starts on day one is a short job at year end; one reconstructed from a personal card is the expensive kind.
Every movement is given one of eighteen headings as it arrives, with your own money kept apart from revenue and expenses. Correct one and the rule is remembered for every movement from that counterparty, past and future. Anything uncertain waits under Needs a category rather than being filed wrong.
Yes, on any plan. Export a CSV at any time: every movement with its date, counterparty, category and sign, money in and money out in separate columns. It opens in any accounting software, and on Premium the monthly statements are in your documents to go with it.
Ready when you are
Answer the questions. We do the filing.
A few minutes, a price with nothing hidden behind it, and no charge until you have seen the whole order and confirmed it.