Getting started

Plainbooks keeps simple books for a one-person business: a ledger, a receipt vault, invoices, and a Schedule C you can stand behind.

Sign in

Plainbooks doesn't use passwords. On the sign-in page you have two options:

  • Email me a sign-in link. Enter your email and we send you a link. Open it on the same device and you're in.
  • Continue with Google. Sign in with your Google account.

Either way, your account is your email address — use the same one each time so your books stay in one place.

Set up your business

The first time you sign in, a three-step setup runs before anything else:

  1. Name your business. Enter the name you go by, pick your business type (sole proprietor, single-member LLC, or multi-member LLC), and choose your timezone. The timezone matters — it decides which tax year a transaction near midnight on Dec 31 belongs to.
  2. Your categories are ready. Plainbooks seeds a full set of income and expense categories, each mapped to a Schedule C line — Advertising is line 8, Supplies is line 22, Meals is line 24b, and so on. You don't need to configure anything here; review the list and continue. You can add your own categories later, and they roll into line 27a (Other expenses) by name.
  3. Add your first account. An account here is a place money lives — business checking, savings, a credit card, or cash. Add the one you use most, or skip and add accounts later in Settings.

Accounts

Accounts live in Settings → Accounts. Each has a name, a type (checking, savings, credit card, cash, or other), and optionally the last four digits so you can tell two cards apart. Every transaction belongs to exactly one account.

Two things accounts are not:

  • They're not bank logins. Plainbooks never connects to your bank — you enter transactions yourself or import a CSV your bank gives you.
  • They're not budgets. They exist so money movements between your own accounts (like paying off the credit card) can be recorded as transfers, which keeps them out of your income and expense totals. More on that in Recording money.

Working with someone else

If a bookkeeper, an accountant, or a business partner needs to work in your books, add them from Settings → People. Enter the email address they'll sign in with and Plainbooks gives you a link to send them. We don't email it for you — copy it and send it however you normally reach that person.

The link only works for the address you typed, only once, and only for seven days. If it goes stale or you change your mind, revoke it on the same page and issue a new one.

Once they accept, they can do the everyday work: record and edit transactions, import CSVs, file receipts, send invoices, log mileage, and read every report including your Schedule C. They can't invite anyone else, change your subscription, create API credentials, or remove you. You can remove them at any time from the same page, and they lose access immediately.

There's always at least one owner. Plainbooks won't let the last owner be removed, so your books can't end up with nobody able to administer them.

Finding your way around

The sidebar has five destinations: Dashboard (how you're doing), Transactions (the ledger), Receipts (the vault and its inbox), Invoices (who owes you), and Reports (including your Schedule C). Settings sits at the bottom.

The + Add button in the sidebar opens quick entry from anywhere — it's the fastest way to record an expense. Pressing n does the same thing whenever you're not typing in a field.

On a phone, the sidebar becomes a bottom tab bar with a raised + button in the middle. The + opens the same quick entry, and the receipt drop zone accepts camera photos.

A good first session: add your main account, record today's expenses with quick entry, then import a CSV to backfill the rest of the year.
Recording money →