Free for life. On your server. The Community edition pre-configured for sole traders: cash-basis invoicing, STP Phase 2 payroll, weekly time tracking, employees, and super — all included. No SaaS lock-in, no trial that expires, no credit card required. Switch to full accrual any time without migrating data.
Cash-basis means you record money when it moves, not when you issue a document. Cashbook handles invoicing, expenses, payroll, time tracking, and GST — without requiring you to know what a journal entry is.
Not a trial. Not a “free tier” that disappears when you hit some limit. Cashbook is AGPLv3 open-source software. Install it on your own server and it stays free for as long as you run it — no vendor, no subscription, no gotcha.
Your books live in a database you control, on hardware you own or rent. No cloud vendor can raise prices on you, no service can be discontinued under you, and no one can sell your transaction data to a third party. Cancel nothing — just stop running the container.
When your business needs accrual accounting, flip the cash-basis default off — same binary, same database, no migration. Add bank feeds or BAS e-lodgement later with a paid licence key. The payroll engine and time tracking you already have carry over unchanged.
Cashbook is not a stripped-down demo tier. It is a complete sole-trader stack — cash-basis bookkeeping, invoicing, payroll, time tracking, employees, and super — all free, all on your server.
Issue invoices as documents — no journal entry until payment arrives. When money lands in the bank, a single Dr Bank / Cr Income / Cr GST entry is posted automatically. Expenses work the same way in reverse. Simple, accurate, zero accounting jargon required.
Add employees, assign a super fund, run a pay calculation. NAT 1004 PAYG formula engine, SG 12% super, leave accrual (NES annual + personal). STP Phase 2 payload built on every finalised pay run — ready to lodge once ATO accreditation completes. Payroll engine in beta; verify ATO tax-table coefficients before production use.
Log hours by day, project, and contact from the weekly grid. Approval workflow keeps records clean. Bulk-convert billable entries to an invoice line when it’s time to bill — rate locked at entry time, so late price changes don’t rewrite history.
Cashbook tracks GST collected and GST paid as you go. When your BAS is due, run the GST summary and hand it to your accountant or fill in the ATO portal yourself. No surprises at quarter end.
Attach a receipt photo to any transaction. ATO-compliant digital records, findable in seconds, no shoebox required.
Export a cash summary for any date range. Clean enough for your accountant, simple enough that you actually understand it.
Cashbook is the Community edition with cash-basis mode and single-user lock turned on by default. Same source, same binary, same database schema as every other tier — just opinionated configuration for someone who doesn’t want to think about journal entries.
Payroll, time tracking, invoicing, employees, super — it’s all there because it’s the Community edition. The Cashbook bundle just sets POSTING_BASIS=cash and locks the user count to one. Flip the basis setting and you get full accrual double-entry on the same running instance.
When you need accrual accounting — because your accountant asks for it, or you start running inventory, or you want proper P&L that doesn’t lag your invoicing — one config change does it. SAE Books backfills the A/R journal entries for any open invoices automatically. No migration, no export/import, no starting fresh. For multi-company, FX revaluation, bank feeds or BAS e-lodgement, step up to the paid Business / Pro / Enterprise tiers — same binary, new licence key.
See all editionsThere is no catch. Cashbook is AGPLv3 open-source software. Download the source, run it on your own server, use it indefinitely at zero cost. We make money when businesses grow and upgrade to paid tiers — so Cashbook being genuinely useful to you is good for us too. The only thing that costs money is if you want us to host it for you, or if you eventually need bank feeds or BAS e-lodgement — payroll and time tracking are free.
Yes. The Cashbook bundle ships the same Community binary, so employees, super funds, NAT 1004 PAYG calculation, SG 12% super, leave accrual (NES annual + personal), and STP Phase 2 payload assembly are all included. A sole trader with one employee can manage the full payroll workflow — including time tracking, pay calculations, and lodgement records — without ever paying a subscription. One caveat: the PAYG tax-table coefficients in the current beta are derived placeholders, not yet sourced from the official ATO NAT 1008 spreadsheet. Verify before running production payroll.
Both are the same Community edition (free, self-hosted, AGPLv3). The Cashbook bundle is that edition pre-configured for sole traders: cash-basis posting by default (no journal entry until money moves), single-user lock, sole-trader chart of accounts. The vanilla Community edition lets you run accrual from day one with multi-user access and whatever chart you want. If you invoice and collect in the same period, or you just want simplicity, install the Cashbook bundle. If your accountant needs accrual reports, install vanilla Community — or install Cashbook today and flip POSTING_BASIS=accrual tomorrow without losing a transaction.
Because a free SaaS account is a hostage situation. When the company changes direction, raises prices, or shuts down, your financial history goes with it. On-prem means you own the data unconditionally. A Docker container on a $5/month VPS is sufficient for a sole trader — it’s not a big ask, and the upside is that nobody can take your books away from you. If you genuinely want us to host it, that’s an option — but we’d rather you own it outright.
Upgrade when your accountant asks for accrual financials, when you start tracking inventory with COGS postings, or when you want automatic bank feeds or BAS e-lodgement. Payroll, time tracking, and invoicing all stay as they are — the upgrade only changes the bookkeeping method. There’s no data loss and no urgency.
