Import your bank's CSV, categorize a year in an afternoon, and hand your accountant a clean P&L. Real double-entry books on your own machine, for $197 once.
No credit card for the trial · 30-day money-back guarantee · Mac, Windows & Linux
Cloud bookkeeping tools charge $20 to $80 a month, raise the price most years, and keep your records on their servers. Over three years that's a lot of money to look at your own numbers. Books Done Fast is a one-time purchase: pay once, keep it, and keep your data.
| QuickBooks, Xero & co. | Books Done Fast | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $20–$80 / month | $197 once |
| Cost over 3 years | $720–$2,880 | $197 |
| Where your data lives | Their servers | Your computer |
| Works offline | No | Yes |
| Future price changes | Most years | None |
| Keeps working if the vendor disappears | No | Yes |
From a bank export to a finished P&L. Every screen, no mockups.
The core of bookkeeping done properly, and nothing you'll never use.
Import the CSV any bank will give you. Chase exports are recognized automatically; for other banks, map the columns once. Duplicates are caught so re-importing is safe.
Smart Batch groups uncategorized transactions by vendor, proposes a category for each group with a confidence score, and lets you approve a hundred at once.
Every time you categorize something, the app saves a rule. Next month's import lands already categorized. Review or edit the rules whenever you like.
Enter the statement balance, tick off cleared transactions, and watch the difference go to zero. Reconciled entries are locked in so the numbers stay trustworthy.
Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet for any date range, with presets for this month, last quarter, or last year. Export to PDF for tax time.
The app finds your recurring rent, payroll, subscriptions, and revenue, then projects your cash balance up to a year ahead so you see the dip before it happens.
A proper chart of accounts, journal entries, and account ledgers underneath. Splits, transfers, and manual entries all balance, the way an accountant expects.
Each business is its own file. Switch between them from the sidebar, back up with one click, and keep as many as you like under a single license.
No account to create, no cloud, no telemetry. The app never makes a network request. Your books are one SQLite file on your disk that you can copy, move, or open in any SQLite tool.
Three steps from download to your first report.
Unzip, double-click, and the app opens in your browser. No account to create and nothing to configure.
Export transactions from your bank's website and drop the file in. Pick the columns once; the app remembers them next time.
Approve the suggested categories, reconcile against your statement, and export a P&L your accountant can use as-is.
The full app, with a reminder banner until you enter a license key. Nothing to reinstall when you buy.
Apple Silicon means M1 or later. Need an Intel Mac build? Email us. Setup help is in the Getting Started guide.
No tiers, no per-user fees, no renewal.
One license per person. Unlimited computers, unlimited businesses.
About what three months of QuickBooks costs.
or download the free trial first
Secure checkout by Stripe. Your license key appears on screen and in your inbox right after payment.
Not for you if you need invoicing, payroll, inventory, or live bank feeds.
Try it with your real books. If it isn't right for you, email support within 30 days and you'll get a full refund. No forms, no questions.
The trial and the paid app are the same download. Paste your key into the banner and keep working. Everything you entered during the trial stays.
A note from the maker
I'm Mark, and I built Books Done Fast to keep the books for my own businesses. I wanted software that did the core job properly, stayed out of my way, kept my financial records on my own machine, and didn't bill me every month for the privilege.
That's what this is. It's deliberately small. It won't send invoices or run payroll, but it will get a year of transactions categorized, reconciled, and into a report your accountant can use, and it will keep doing that for as long as you want it to.
If something doesn't work the way you expect, email me. The reply comes from the person who wrote the code.
Mark Sanborn · support@eligian.com
Download the trial, import last month's statement, and see your numbers before you spend a dollar.
No credit card for the trial · 30-day money-back guarantee
