Features / Books

Books.

The Books area is where you record and review all money moving through your business: expenses, income, vendors, bank activity, and the numbers that feed your tax return.

Expenses

Expenses tracks every business purchase. Receipts are attached, categorized, and matched to vendors so the spend rolls up correctly into your P&L and Schedule C.

Category picker

Categories can be nested: a parent category may have subcategories indented beneath it (shown with an arrow prefix). Subcategories marked COGS are cost-of-goods-sold lines.

1. When editing an expense, open the Category dropdown.
2. Select a top-level category or one of its indented subcategories.
3. COGS categories are labeled with "COGS" in the picker.

Inserting a snippet

Snippets are reusable text blocks (terms, fine print) stored in Settings > Snippets.

1. In any expense document text area, click + Snippet.
2. A picker opens listing all available snippets with a name and preview.
3. Click a snippet to append its body to the text area, separated by a blank line.
4. If no snippets exist yet, a toast will prompt you to add them in Settings > Snippets.

Income

Income records money received outside of invoices: cash jobs, donations, dues, fundraising, grants, and interest.

Viewing income

1. Navigate to Books > Income.
2. The screen shows three summary cards at the top: Total (for the filtered set), Entries (count), and Active streams (count).
3. Stream breakdown chips below the summary show each stream's share of the filtered total.

Filtering

1. Use the Stream dropdown to show only entries for one income stream.
2. Use the Year dropdown to scope entries to a specific calendar year.
3. Both filters combine; the Total card updates live to reflect the filtered set.

Adding an income entry

Click Add income (top right) and complete the entry form.

Managing income streams

Click Manage streams (top right) to open the streams editor.

Vendors

Vendors tracks subcontractors and suppliers you pay. Spend on expenses is matched to vendor records by name. Vendors you will issue a 1099 to should be flagged here for year-end.

Viewing vendors

1. Navigate to Books > Vendors.
2. Three summary cards appear: Vendors (total count), Spend (total or filtered), and 1099 vendors (count).
3. If the system detects possible duplicate vendor names (for example, slightly different spellings of the same supplier), an alert banner appears listing each group with a Combine button.

Searching and filtering

1. Type in the search box to filter by vendor name, email, or phone.
2. Toggle Only 1099 to show only vendors flagged for 1099 reporting.

Adding a vendor

Click Add vendor (top right) and complete the vendor form.

Combining duplicate vendors

When the system suggests that two or more vendor records look like the same supplier:

1. Review the suggested group in the alert banner at the top of the screen.
2. Click Combine next to the group to merge them.

To trigger a manual combine at any time, click the Combine button in the screen toolbar.

Receipt trash

The Trash holds receipts that have been removed from Expenses. Removed receipts are kept for 30 days and then purged automatically.

Viewing trashed receipts

1. Navigate to Books > Trash.
2. The table shows: Vendor, Date, Amount, Trashed (relative time since deletion), and Window (days remaining before automatic purge).

Restoring a receipt

1. Find the receipt row in the table.
2. Click Restore on that row.
3. The receipt is returned to Expenses immediately.

Permanently deleting a single receipt

1. Find the receipt row in the table.
2. Click Delete on that row.
3. A confirmation dialog appears: "This removes the receipt for good. This cannot be undone."
4. Click Delete forever to confirm. The action cannot be reversed.

Emptying the entire trash

1. Click Empty trash (top right). The button is disabled when the trash is empty.
2. A confirmation dialog shows the count of receipts that will be deleted permanently.
3. Click Empty trash to confirm. All trashed receipts are permanently deleted.

Cards

The Cards route is a shortcut that opens the Bank & Reconcile screen directly on the Cards tab. All card management happens within that screen.

Bank & Reconcile

Bank & Reconcile connects your financial institution accounts (via Teller) and lets you match bank transactions to your recorded expenses.

Tabs

The screen is organized into tabs:

• Transactions (default): bank feed transactions and matching.
• Cards: credit and debit cards linked to your connected accounts.

When no bank account is connected

If no institution has been linked yet, the screen shows an empty state prompting you to connect one.

Cards tab

1. Navigate to Books > Bank & Reconcile and click the Cards tab, or go directly to #/cards.
2. Cards linked to your connected institution are listed here.

Owner Loan

Owner Loan tracks money you personally put into the business. The running balance shows what the business owes you back.

Viewing the summary

1. Navigate to Books > Owner Loan.
2. Three KPI cards appear at the top:
   • Balance owed to owner: the net amount the business owes you (or you owe the business).
   • YTD owner contributions: total money you put into the business this year.
   • YTD reimbursements: total money paid back to you this year.
3. The Entries list below shows each transaction with its date, memo, kind (contribution or reimbursement), and amount. Contributions display with an info badge; reimbursements display with a green badge.

Logging a new entry

1. Click New entry (top right).
2. A modal opens with the following fields:
   • Date: defaults to today.
   • Kind: choose Contribution (owner to business) when you are putting money in, or Reimbursement (business to owner) when the business is paying you back.
   • Amount: enter the dollar amount.
   • Memo: describe what the entry is for.
3. Click Log entry to save. The summary and entries list refresh immediately.
4. Click Cancel to discard without saving.

Recurring

Recurring tracks fixed overhead expenses that repeat on a schedule: subscriptions, insurance, rent, and similar items. billWright creates each recurring expense automatically on its cadence based on the last booked date.

Viewing recurring items

1. Navigate to Books > Recurring.
2. Each row shows: the vendor name and last-booked date, the expense category, the cadence and day of month, the amount, and an Active or Paused status pill.

Pausing or reactivating a recurring item

1. Find the item in the list.
2. Click its status pill (Active or Paused).
3. The status toggles immediately and a toast confirms the change. Paused items stop generating new expenses until reactivated.

Adding a new recurring item

Click New recurring (top right) and complete the item form.

Accounting

Accounting is the tax-ready view of your books: profit and loss, a Schedule C readout, and a rough tax-liability estimate. All figures update immediately when you change the period or accounting method.

Viewing the P&L summary

1. Navigate to Books > Accounting.
2. Three KPI cards appear at the top:
   • Revenue: total income for the selected period on the selected accounting basis.
   • Expenses: total expenses for the period, with a count of categories.
   • Net: revenue minus expenses.

Choosing a period

1. Use the Period dropdown (top right) to select: All time, Year to date, Q1, Q2, Q3, or Q4.
2. Q1 through Q4 map to the calendar quarters of your configured tax year. The figures recalculate immediately.

Switching accounting method

1. Click Cash or Accrual in the segmented control next to the period selector.
2. All figures recalculate immediately on the new basis.

Exporting

1. Click P&L statement to open or download a profit and loss statement for the selected period.
2. Click Export CSV to download the current figures as a CSV file.

Schedule C roll-up

Expense categories are grouped by their Schedule C line so totals are ready to reference when filing. The grouping is built from a canonical Schedule C line scaffold.

Tax liability estimate

A rough tax liability estimate is displayed based on the period's net income. It combines a self-employment tax approximation and a simplified federal rate applied to net income. This is an approximation only and should not replace advice from a qualified tax professional.