Add a transaction with its date, description, category and amount, marking it as income or expense.
Watch the running totals for income, expenses and balance update at the top of the report.
At the end of the week or month, Download PDF to hand the summary to your accountant or file it with your receipts.
When to use it
This is a cash book for people who do not want accounting software yet: a market stall, a one-person service business, a side project, or a family shop that needs to know whether this month was better than last. If your current system is a pile of receipts and a rough memory, a dated list with categories is the step that makes tax time bearable.
How the totals work
Each entry is either income or expense with a date, a description and an amount. Income adds to the running total, expenses subtract, and the balance at the top is income minus expenses for everything in the list. The list is kept in this browser's local storage, so it persists between visits on the same device, and the PDF export prints the entries and the three totals in one document.
Worked example
A market-stall trader records a Saturday: takings of $640 as income, then three expenses, $180 for stock, $45 for the pitch fee and $22 for fuel. Income $640, expenses $247, balance $393. Do the same every trading day for a month and the PDF at month end is the cash book: a dated list your accountant can work from, with the totals already added. The point is not the arithmetic; it is that the entries were made on the day, with the receipts still in your pocket, rather than reconstructed from a bank statement in April.
Common mistakes
Mixing personal and business spending. Keep this list for the business only; a coffee on the way to the market is not stock.
Entering tax-inclusive and tax-exclusive amounts side by side. Pick one convention (gross is simplest for a cash book) and stick to it, or the tax line will be wrong later.
Recording income when it is invoiced rather than when it is paid. This is a cash record. An invoice sent is not income yet; use the Invoice Maker to track what is owed.
Treating the browser as the backup. Clearing browser data clears the list. Export the PDF at least monthly.
When this tracker is the wrong tool
It is a single running list with two types of entry. It has no categories beyond income and expense, no accounts, no bank reconciliation and no tax codes. When you need to know profit by product line, VAT owed, or who still owes you money, that is accounting software territory. For stock rather than cash, the Inventory Tracker; for the staff side of the month's costs, the Payroll Calculator.
Good to know
Entries are saved in this browser's local storage, so the list is still here tomorrow on the same device, but it is not synced anywhere: back it up with the PDF export, and clear the site's data in your browser if you want to start fresh. It records what you type; it does not connect to your bank.