Who it’s for
Built for people who keep their own corporation’s books
Langbyrde is made for incorporated contractors and consultants in Canada, starting with Ontario; for small service businesses; and for the CPAs who receive their year-end records. Here is what each of them gets, and who should look elsewhere for now.
Free during the beta · $149 CAD once at release (planned), after a 45-day trial · macOS and Windows
Incorporated contractors and consultants
You bill one client or a few, often in US dollars. You pay yourself through the corporation, remit payroll deductions and sales tax, and see your accountant once a year. Today Langbyrde covers a corporation based in Ontario.
What gets in the way
- Month-end means downloading statements, copying lines into a spreadsheet and looking up exchange rates by hand.
- HST and input tax credits are worked out at the last minute, and the 50% meals rule is easy to forget.
- Receipts are spread across e-mail, Downloads and a drawer.
- The shareholder loan balance is a number you hope is right.
How Langbyrde fits
- Import each account’s statement; Langbyrde flags a statement that does not balance, and duplicates.
- Accept or correct the proposed category and HST for each line, drop in the receipts, and attach each one to its expense.
- Invoice your client in USD from the same app; the payment is matched when the statement arrives.
- Track payroll remittances and the shareholder loan beside the books, not in another file.
A month, for example
An illustration of how the app is meant to be used, not a customer story.
- 1stDownload last month’s chequing, USD and card statements and import them. The app shows 46 new lines and 2 possible duplicates.
- 1stDrop the month’s receipts into Receipt intake; Langbyrde files them in your document folder.
- 1stReview the proposals. Accept most, change one category, mark a lunch as a client meal, and attach the receipts to their expenses. The gaps list shows one receipt still missing.
- 2ndBuild the invoice for your client in USD, issue it as a PDF and send it.
- 15thThe filings list shows the payroll remittance due. Mark it paid once you have paid it with your bank.
- Year endClose the year and export the CPA package. Send the folder to your accountant.
Small service businesses
A small construction firm, an immigration consultancy, a studio: the work comes in jobs, client files or engagements, and each one has its own costs and invoices.
What gets in the way
- You can’t easily see what a job cost you, or what you have re-billed.
- Receipts for several projects arrive in the same pile.
- Your bookkeeping tool keeps client and project details on a server you don’t control.
How Langbyrde fits
- Create a project for each job, client file or engagement.
- Tag expenses to a project as you review them, and mark the ones to re-bill.
- Re-bill a project’s expenses from its queue onto an invoice, so nothing slips through.
- See each project’s cost, revenue and margin, converted where it bills in another currency.
- Keep each project’s documents in your own folder, named consistently.
A month, for example
An illustration of how the app is meant to be used, not a customer story.
- MonA new engagement starts: create the project and its client.
- Through the monthImport statements and receipts as they come. Tag the materials and permit fees to the project, marked billable.
- Month endOpen the project: its cost, what is billable, what has been invoiced, and the margin.
- Month endAdd the waiting expenses from the re-bill queue to an invoice, issue it and send it.
- Year endClose the year and export the CPA package for your accountant.
CPAs and accountants
You do the year end, the T2 and the advice. Your small clients do their own books, more or less. Langbyrde is meant to make the “more or less” smaller.
What gets in the way
- Clients arrive with bank PDFs, a spreadsheet and a box of receipts.
- Hours go into matching receipts and reconstructing the HST before the real work starts.
- Every client’s spreadsheet is laid out differently.
How Langbyrde fits
- Your client sends one folder with the same layout every year.
- The workbook holds values, not formulas, and the reports come from a double-entry ledger.
- The trial balance is also provided under GIFI codes, as CSV.
- The app files nothing and advises nothing: the judgement stays yours.
A month, for example
An illustration of how the app is meant to be used, not a customer story.
- MarchA client sends the package folder for their fiscal year.
- MarchOpen README.txt: what is included, what was left out and why, and how many expenses have no receipt.
- MarchCheck manifest.json if you want to confirm no file changed since it was built.
- MarchStart from the trial balance and GIFI CSV; open receipts by category when you need to look one up.
Who should look elsewhere, for now
Being honest about this saves everyone time.
- Companies based outside Ontario, for now. Today Langbyrde handles a corporation based in Ontario end to end. The other provinces come next as free updates to version 1; Quebec arrives with version 2; the US and the EU are their own editions. Where Langbyrde is going says what is built and what is planned.
- Retail and inventory. Langbyrde does not track stock or run a point of sale.
- Teams editing the same books at once. Version 1 is one person per company file. An online bookkeeping service suits that better today.
- Anyone who wants the books done for them. Langbyrde makes doing your own books faster; a bookkeeper does them for you.
Your books, in your files.
Try every feature for 45 days. No account, no card, and your books stay on your computer unless you choose to send them.
macOS 13 or later, on Apple silicon or Intel · Windows 10 or 11