Bookkeeping for independent and bitcoin-native businesses
Clear books. Your business. Your control.
Track expenses in dollars or in sats, organize receipts, and keep owner loans and contributions clear. Zap Books helps you keep records you can review, export, and share with your accountant, with a signed history of every change.
The demo uses fictional businesses and runs entirely in your browser. Nothing is sent anywhere.
From receipt to clean books in three steps.
Built for owners who would rather run the business than do the books.
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Step 1
Add an expense
Enter it by hand, attach a receipt photo or PDF, or import payments from your bank's CSV export.
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Step 2
Review the details
Review suggested details and check anything flagged as uncertain. Possible duplicates and missing information are pointed out before you post.
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Step 3
Approve and post
Approving records a balanced entry. Totals, balances and exports update. Approval records the expense; it never sends money.
What you can do today
Zap Books focuses on expenses and the money between you and your business. It isn't a full replacement for general accounting software yet.
- Record and correct expenses Drafts, approval, and corrections that keep the original entry and its reversal visible.
- Keep receipts with each expense Photos and PDFs. On the hosted service, they're encrypted in your browser before they're uploaded.
- Keep books in sats Bitcoin wallets, amounts in sats, the dollar value recorded at the time of each entry, and buying or selling bitcoin, all kept apart from your dollar books.
- Track owner money Owner loans and contributions, expenses you paid personally, repayments, transfers and opening balances.
- Import from CSV Bank and card payments, and paid-expense history exported from tools like QuickBooks or Zoho Books.
- See where money goes Spending by month and category, and balances for bank, card, loan and owner accounts.
- Work with your accountant Invite them as a read-only viewer, or export expenses, the full journal and balances as CSV.
- Run more than one business Each business keeps its own accounts, records, receipts and members.
- Read receipts with private AI An optional receipt reader runs on your own computer. It needs technical setup and a capable computer.
- Expenses only: no income, invoicing, payroll, sales tax or bank reconciliation yet.
- No live bank connections: payments come in by CSV.
- Sign-in works in a desktop browser with a Nostr signer extension. Phone sign-in isn't available yet.
- Dollars, euros, pounds and bitcoin are each kept separately, with no automatic conversion.
- Bitcoin cost basis and gains aren't tracked yet, and there's no Lightning import or income yet.
- The hosted service is in private beta and isn't open for sign-up yet.
Coming next for bitcoin businesses
Books in sats are available now. Here is what we're building on top of them. Order and timing may change, and beta members help decide.
Cost basis and gains
- Every bitcoin you acquire tracked as a lot, with its date and dollar cost, per wallet.
- When you spend or sell bitcoin, the gain or loss recorded, first in, first out or from the lots you choose.
- A gains report and export your accountant can work from.
How bitcoin is taxed depends on where you are. Zap Books will keep the records; your accountant makes the call.
- Lightning payments Bring in Lightning payments from your wallet and match them to receipts.
- Income, including zaps Record what comes in as well as what goes out, zaps received included.
- A copy on your own relay Keep a verified, encrypted copy of your books on a relay you run.
- Sign in on your phone Use a remote signer to sign in and snap receipts from your phone.
- An AI helper you choose Connect your own AI to draft entries and suggestions. Only people can approve.
Privacy, ownership and verification
What Zap Books does to protect your records, and where its limits are.
See the code on GitHub- Sign in with your own key. No password required. Your key stays in your signer app. Zap Books never asks for your secret key.
- Changes leave a verifiable trail. Each accepted change is signed and linked to the one before. The app checks this trail when it loads your books.
- Revoke access to future records. Removing someone changes the encryption keys for new records. Records they already saw or downloaded can't be recalled.
- Review suggested details and check anything flagged as uncertain. Suggestions show the receipt text they came from. Nothing is posted until a person approves it.
What “verifiable” does and doesn't mean
Verification checks the history: that every accepted change was signed by your business's service, links to the change before it, and came from a signed request by a member. If a stored entry is changed, removed or reordered, the check fails.
It doesn't check that the bookkeeping itself is right. A wrong category or amount that someone approved is recorded faithfully, and is fixed with a correction that keeps both versions visible.
The Zap Books service reads each change to check it against the accounting rules before signing it, so it can see your books. Receipt files and the signed history are stored encrypted. The service keeps a readable copy of your current books so it can check each change.
Keys, recovery and access
Every business needs a way back in: a second owner or an offline backup key, chosen when you create it.
Changes to owners, the backup key or the service's key wait 48 hours, and another owner or the backup key can veto them. Because a backup key can take over after 48 hours, keep it as safe as your own key.
Roles decide who can do what: owners, bookkeepers who record and approve, and viewers who can only read.
Planned pricing
Hosted plans aren't on sale yet. These are the prices we plan to charge once the beta ends.
Solo
from $99 a year
Hosted Zap Books for a single business.
Business
from $199 a year
For owners with more than one business, or a larger team.
Full plan details before billing starts.
About AI: the receipt reader runs on your own computer and isn't tied to a plan. An AI assistant that can draft entries for your review is planned and not available yet.
Join the beta
We're inviting a small group of businesses to help shape Zap Books. New to Nostr? We'll help you get started.
Questions
Who is Zap Books for?
Independent businesses, freelancers and small teams who want clear expense records they control, especially owners who lend or put their own money into the business. If you need invoicing, payroll or sales tax, you'll still need other tools for now.
What can I do during the beta?
Everything listed under What you can do today: expenses, receipts, owner money, CSV imports, reports, exports and inviting members. Beta members also help decide what comes next. The limitations listed there apply.
Can my accountant use it?
Yes. Add them as a viewer so they can read your records without changing them, or send them CSV exports of your expenses, the full journal and account balances. They'll need their own Nostr key to sign in.
Can I import and export my records?
You can import bank and card payments, and paid-expense history exported from tools like QuickBooks or Zoho Books, as CSV files. Imports create drafts for you to review. You can export expenses, the journal and balances as CSV at any time. Full migration of complete books, and a complete backup-and-restore file, aren't available yet.
Do I need bitcoin or to know about Nostr?
You don't need bitcoin. You do need a Nostr key and a signer extension in a desktop browser to sign in. If you've never used one, we'll help you set it up. You can keep books in sats today, with the dollar value recorded at the time of each entry. Cost basis and gains aren't tracked yet; they're next on the roadmap.
Who can read my books?
The members you add, according to their role, and the Zap Books service, which reads each change to check it before recording it. Receipt files and the signed history are stored encrypted; the service keeps a readable copy of your current books so it can check each change. Someone you remove can't read new records, but keeps anything they already saw.
What happens if I lose my key?
Every business is set up with a second owner or an offline backup key. A backup key can replace your key after a 48-hour wait. A second owner can remove your old key and add a new one, also after 48 hours. If you lose your key and that backup, nobody can restore your access, including us. Keep the backup key offline and safe.
What happens if Zap Books disappears?
Export your records to CSV whenever you like, and keep those copies yourself. Zap Books is open source under the MIT license, so you can also run it yourself. Keeping a verified copy of your books on a relay you run is planned, not available yet.
Is this tax or accounting advice?
No. Zap Books helps you keep accurate records. For tax and accounting decisions, talk to a qualified professional.