Your books.
Your computer.
Your business.
Double-entry bookkeeping that lives on your desk — invoices, bills, bank feeds, payroll and the reports your accountant asks for. Buy it once. Keep the file forever.
No card. No account. Nothing to cancel. · Windows 10/11 · Works with the internet off
Journal — try it: post a transaction
| Account | Debit | Credit |
|---|---|---|
Accounts receivable Harbor Cafe · Inv 1042 | 1,200.00 | |
Service revenue Consulting — March | 1,200.00 | |
| Balanced | 1,200.00 | 1,200.00 |
Invoice #1042 — Harbor Cafe
INVOICE
Due Apr 14 · Net 30
Bank feed — Chequing ···4471
Journal — try it: post a transaction
| Account | Debit | Credit |
|---|---|---|
Accounts receivable Harbor Cafe · Inv 1042 | 1,200.00 | |
Service revenue Consulting — March | 1,200.00 | |
| Balanced | 1,200.00 | 1,200.00 |
By the numbers
Four numbers that explain how AcboBooks is different.
Counted from the shipping build, not a brochure. The test count moves with every release.
0
servers that hold your data
The company file lives on your computer. Nobody can read it, lock it, or lose it.
0
automated accounting tests
Every build proves debits equal credits before it ships.
0
file for the whole company
Copy it, back it up, hand it to your accountant.
$0
once, per business
No seats, no meter, no renewal to keep working.
The AcboBooks promise
Four things that are true of every copy we ship.
Not a feature list. These are the rules the software is built around, and the reason it behaves the way a bookkeeper expects.
01
Local-first.
Your company file is a file on your own computer. Copy it, back it up, hand it to your accountant.
Harbor-Cafe.acbo · 41.8 MB · backed up 09:12
02
Double-entry, enforced.
Every transaction must balance to the cent before it saves. Closed periods lock. Changes are logged.
Dr 1,356.00 = Cr 1,356.00 · balanced
03
US & Canada ready.
Federal payroll tables, W-2 e-file output, USD and CAD side by side with per-document exchange rates.
USD $1,200.00 · CAD $1,644.00 @ 1.37
04
Multi-user on your network.
One PC hosts the file; others connect over the office LAN with record locking. No cloud relay, no seat fees.
3 connected · Invoice #1042 locked by Priya
Who it's for
Built for the people who close the shop, then open the books.
Owner-operators across the United States and Canada — trades, food, retail, services — and the bookkeepers who help them. People who want to understand their numbers, not rent them.
Trades
Quotes from the van, invoices from the kitchen table.
Food & retail
Daily sales, suppliers paid, sales tax that reconciles.
Partners & small teams
Two people in the same file, over the office network.
Editorial photography illustrating the businesses AcboBooks is made for.
The product
One install. The whole back office.
Pick an area. Everything you see is in the box — no add-ons, no tiers.
From estimate to paid, without leaving the ledger.
Invoice #1042 — Harbor Cafe
INVOICE
Due Apr 14 · Net 30
Why AcboBooks
Built for the owner who still wants to understand the numbers.
Cloud tools hide the ledger behind a dashboard. AcboBooks keeps the ledger where you can see it — and keeps you in control of the file.
01
Your books are a file on your drive.
Back it up, copy it, hand it to your accountant on a USB stick. No subscription holds your history hostage, and no outage locks you out at month-end.
02
The ledger refuses to be wrong.
Every transaction must balance before it saves. Closed periods lock. Changes leave an audit trail. Exchange rates are stored per document, not guessed.
03
If you learned on QuickBooks Desktop, you already know it.
Customers, vendors, items, classes, jobs, the register, memorised transactions — the workflow you have, not a re-education.
Moving from QuickBooks® Desktop
Bring the whole company file. Keep the history.
AcboBooks reads what QuickBooks Desktop exports — lists and transactions — and rebuilds your chart of accounts, names, items, and open balances. You verify the totals before anything is final.
STEP 1
Export or connect
Export an IIF from QuickBooks, or let AcboBooks pull the data directly while QuickBooks is open on the same PC.
STEP 2
Map and review
Accounts, customers, vendors, items, and classes are mapped automatically; anything unusual is flagged for you to confirm.
STEP 3
Reconcile and go
Opening receivables, payables, and bank balances are compared line by line. Re-running the import never duplicates a thing.
Example · after import
Figures from a real QuickBooks Premier 2021 company file used during development. Your numbers will differ; the checks won't.
Your data, your rules
Local-first is a feature, not a limitation.
We don't host your books, so we can't lose them, lock them, mine them, or raise the price of getting them back.
One file, in plain sight
The company file lives in a folder you choose. Copy it, sync it, archive it — it's yours.
Password-protected, with roles
Admin, bookkeeper, and view-only users. Eight bad logins and the door locks for a minute.
Works with the internet off
Month-end during an outage is still month-end. Nothing in the core needs a connection.
Licence that works offline too
Activation is a signed key, checked on your machine. No phone-home before you can open your own books.
What's in the file
Pricing
One product. One price. No monthly meter.
Try the whole thing for 15 days, then buy it once. No per-seat fees, no "plans" to decode, and your file is yours either way.
15-day trial
$0
no card · no account · 15 days
AcboBooks Pro
$399.99
one-time · per business · yours to keep
Everything you enter during the trial stays in your file and unlocks the moment you paste the licence key. Prices in USD; Canadian customers are billed in CAD at checkout.
Compared
Desktop and local, on purpose.
How AcboBooks stacks up against the two ways most small businesses keep books today.
| Feature | AcboBooks | Typical cloud accounting | Spreadsheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your data | |||
| Where your data lives | Your computer | Vendor's servers | Your computer |
| Works without internet | Yes | No | Yes |
| Account or sign-up required | None | Yes | None |
| Take your data with you | It's a file — always | Export, often partial | It's a file |
| Automatic backup before changes | Yes, on your drive | Vendor-held only | No |
| Doing the books | |||
| Enforced double-entry | Yes | Yes | No |
| Closed-period lock & audit trail | Built in | Usually | No |
| Bank feeds | OFX + statement import | Yes | No |
| Payroll & W-2 e-file | Included | Add-on | No |
| Multi-currency, per-document rates | Included | Higher tiers | Manual |
| Inventory, jobs & classes | Included | Higher tiers or add-on | Manual |
| Print cheques & statements | Yes | Varies | No |
| Imports QuickBooks® Desktop | Lists + transactions | Varies | Manual |
| Working together | |||
| Multi-user | Office network, record locking | Internet | Conflicts |
| Accountant access | Free — copy the file or add a user | Often a paid seat | Email the file |
| Works on the PCs you already own | Windows 10/11, offline | Any browser | Yes |
| Cost | |||
| How you pay | Once — $399.99 | Monthly, per seat | Free |
| Price can rise next year | No — you own it | Commonly | No |
| Updates & support | 12 months included | Included while subscribed | None |
"Typical cloud accounting" describes common subscription products in general, not any single vendor.
From early users
What owners and bookkeepers tell us.
Sample reviews shown for layout — real customer quotes, with consent, replace these at launch.
The import matched my receivables to the penny. I checked twice, then I checked my accountant's face.
Dana R.
Owner, HVAC contractor · Spokane, WA
I open the file on my laptop at a client's office and nobody needs a login. That alone sold me.
Marcus T.
Independent bookkeeper · Hamilton, ON
Month-end closed during an internet outage. The internet came back after we were done.
Priya S.
Restaurant owner · Austin, TX
We moved three years of QuickBooks history in one afternoon. The trial balance matched before dinner.
Len W.
Controller, cabinet shop · Calgary, AB
Paid once. No "your plan is changing" emails since. My books are a file in my backup, where they belong.
Teresa G.
Owner, landscaping company · Raleigh, NC
Payroll with W-2 output and real closed periods, without a per-employee fee. Finally.
Omar H.
Office manager, dental clinic · Mississauga, ON
Two of us work in the same file over the office network. It just locks the record you're on.
Jill & Sam K.
Partners, print shop · Portland, OR
CAD invoices, USD suppliers, and the exchange rate is on the document where I can see it.
Étienne B.
Importer · Québec City, QC
The import matched my receivables to the penny. I checked twice, then I checked my accountant's face.
Dana R.
Owner, HVAC contractor · Spokane, WA
I open the file on my laptop at a client's office and nobody needs a login. That alone sold me.
Marcus T.
Independent bookkeeper · Hamilton, ON
Month-end closed during an internet outage. The internet came back after we were done.
Priya S.
Restaurant owner · Austin, TX
We moved three years of QuickBooks history in one afternoon. The trial balance matched before dinner.
Len W.
Controller, cabinet shop · Calgary, AB
Paid once. No "your plan is changing" emails since. My books are a file in my backup, where they belong.
Teresa G.
Owner, landscaping company · Raleigh, NC
Payroll with W-2 output and real closed periods, without a per-employee fee. Finally.
Omar H.
Office manager, dental clinic · Mississauga, ON
Two of us work in the same file over the office network. It just locks the record you're on.
Jill & Sam K.
Partners, print shop · Portland, OR
CAD invoices, USD suppliers, and the exchange rate is on the document where I can see it.
Étienne B.
Importer · Québec City, QC
4.9
average rating — sample
15 days
free trial, no card
1 price
$399.99, once
Questions
Before you download
"Ack-bo Books." Four letters, two syllables.
No. AcboBooks is independent software. It can import data that QuickBooks® Desktop exports, the same way a spreadsheet can. QuickBooks is a registered trademark of Intuit Inc.
Nothing bad. It stays on your computer and opens read-only, so you can still look up anything. Paste a licence key and it's fully editable again — every transaction you entered during the trial is still there.
Yes. You own the version you buy, for as many years as you like to run it. The price includes 12 months of updates and email support; after that you can keep using it as-is, or renew updates when there's something you want.
Windows 10 and 11 today. A macOS build is planned; tell us if you need it and we'll let you know when it ships.
Yes. Give them a copy of the file, or add them as a user on your office network. There's no "accountant seat" fee.
You paste a licence key once. It's verified on your machine with a signed certificate — no account, no phone-home, and it keeps working offline.
Get started
Your books, on your desk, this afternoon.
Download, open the sample company or import your own, and watch the ledger balance.
No card. No account. Nothing to cancel.