GBooks Air — Free bookkeeping software for Canadian small businesses

The obvious question

Every "free" tool has a catch. Here's ours, in full.

Most free accounting software gives you 5 invoices a month, locks reports behind a paywall, or quietly starts billing you after a trial. We built GBooks Air differently, and we'd rather just tell you the whole model up front:

Why it's free

It costs us nothing to run

There's no server processing your books, so there's no hosting bill that forces us to eventually charge you. Your laptop does the work.

The one limit

20,000 transactions, permanently free

That's roughly 15+ years of activity for most solopreneurs. If you outgrow it, we'll say so honestly — and offer a managed option, never a forced paywall.

How we make money

Some users hire our firm

A small number of people using this tool eventually want a human to take bookkeeping off their plate. That's our actual business — the software is the introduction, not the upsell.

Your books, your device

Zero database. Zero login. Zero anxiety.

Every transaction is written straight to your browser's own private storage the instant you add it — close the tab, shut the laptop, come back next week, and your ledger is exactly as you left it.

Auto-saves to your browser in real time — no "save" button to remember
One-click encrypted backup file you keep on your own computer
Optional Google Drive sync for switching between laptop and phone
We never see your numbers unless you personally choose to share them

Local Auto-SaveEncrypted FileDrive Sync

Local Auto-Save Active

Storage engineIndexedDB (browser)

Data sent to server0 bytes

Last local saveJust now

Backup fileAES-256 encrypted

Try the ledger

Transaction intake

Drop in a bank statement. Watch it sort itself.

Export a plain CSV from RBC, TD, BMO, Scotiabank, or CIBC and drag it in. GBooks Air recognizes the columns automatically, then hands you a fast, swipeable queue to categorize anything it doesn't already know.

Smart column mapping for major Canadian bank exports
Tinder-style categorizer with keyboard shortcuts
Smart Vendor Rules remember every choice you make
Everything parses locally in your browser, in milliseconds

ADOBE *CREATIVE CLD

−$32.45

Software & Subscriptions → Skip

Tap a category, or press a hotkey — GBooks Air remembers "Adobe" next time.

The shoebox killer

Snap a receipt. Skip the typing.

Hold a paper receipt up to your webcam or upload a phone photo. On-device OCR reads the vendor, date, total, and tax — then flashes a new, pre-categorized row straight into your ledger.

Camera capture or drag-and-drop photo upload
Auto-extracts vendor, date, total, and GST/HST
"Shell" auto-tags as Fuel, "Tim Hortons" auto-tags as Meals
Images compress automatically before they're stored

📄 receipt photo

VendorPETRO-CANADA

Date2026-06-30

Total$74.18

GST (5%)$3.53

CategoryAuto & Fuel

Canadian tax, built in

Know your GST/HST position before the CRA does.

Pick your province once. Every transaction after that carries the right sales tax automatically, and a running remittance meter shows exactly what you'd owe — or be owed — today.

GST, HST, PST, and QST rates for all 13 provinces & territories
Live net-remittance-owed meter
CRA mileage calculator using the current per-km rate
Personal vs. business splitter for mixed receipts

$1,284

Net GST/HST remittance owed — Q2 2026

Reporting suite

The three reports that actually run a small business.

Skip the 40-tab report menu. GBooks Air surfaces a real Profit & Loss, an Accounts Receivable aging tracker, and a plain-English cash runway gauge — drillable down to the month.

Profit & Loss by month, quarter, or year
A/R aging with color-coded 1–30 / 31–60 / 60+ day tags
"Months of runway left" cash flow gauge
Rough sole-prop vs. incorporated tax comparison

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Net income by month — click any bar to drill in

Look sharp to clients

Quotes, invoices, and getting paid — sorted.

Send a quote first, convert it to an invoice the moment it's approved, or bill directly with line items and the right provincial tax applied automatically. GBooks Air renders a clean, print-ready PDF locally and hands you a pre-filled email draft to send it from.

Quotes & estimates that convert to invoices in one click
Instant, locally-rendered PDF invoices
Tax auto-calculated by client province
Feeds straight into your A/R aging tracker

Invoice #0148Due Jul 15, 2026

Brand strategy — June$1,800.00

HST (13%) — Ontario$234.00

Total due$2,034.00

Build an invoice

The one honest limit

Built for micro-businesses on purpose — here's exactly how the cap works.

Every transaction you log counts toward a visible tracker. Nothing is hidden, and nothing is deleted when you hit the ceiling — you just can't keep adding to that year until you archive or reach out.

0 – 15,000 transactions1,450 / 20,000

Optimized — your browser handles this volume comfortably.

15,001 – 19,999 transactions16,600 / 20,000

Your business is rocketing — you're nearing the browser performance limit. Consider archiving the year or talking to our team.

20,000 transactions — cap reached20,000 / 20,000

Performance Freeze — export or archive your books for free anytime. New entries pause until you do.

A typical week

From bank statement to filed report, without a single upload to us.

Drop in your CSV

Export last month's transactions from your bank and drag the file in.

Categorize in minutes

Swipe through anything unrecognized; vendor rules handle the repeats.

Snap your receipts

Photograph paper receipts as you go — OCR fills in the details.

Check your numbers

Glance at your P&L, GST position, and runway whenever you like.

Save & sync

One click backs everything up to a file or your own Google Drive.

Where this fits

Not trying to be QuickBooks. Trying to be enough.

If you need payroll, inventory, or a bookkeeping team already, use full accounting software. If you're doing your own books solo, this is built for exactly that job.

What matters to a solo owner	GBooks Air	Typical paid accounting software
Monthly cost	$0, forever	Usually $20–$70/mo once you need real reports
Account or login required	No	Yes
Where your data lives	Your browser & your own cloud drive	Their servers
Transaction limit	20,000, clearly shown	Often unlimited, but gated behind pricing tiers
Receipt scanning (OCR)	Included	Frequently a paid add-on
Setup time	Under 60 seconds	Onboarding calls, bank connections, plan selection
Best for	Solopreneurs & micro-businesses	Growing teams needing payroll & inventory

Built by GSH Financial

Canadian bookkeeping & advisory

We got tired of watching small business owners either avoid their books entirely, or pay for enterprise software built for companies twenty times their size.

GBooks Air is the tool we wished existed for our smallest clients: something honest, private, and genuinely free — not a 14-day trial dressed up as a gift. It runs the real mechanics of bookkeeping (double-entry under the hood, proper Canadian tax handling, real reports) without ever asking you to hand your numbers to a server.

If you eventually outgrow it, that's a good problem — one our team would be glad to help you solve. But most people won't, and that's fine too. Either way, the ledger stays free. You can find out more about us at gshfinancial.com.

If (and when) you outgrow it

The ledger is free forever. Growing out of it isn't a trap — it's a milestone.

Free 15-minute diagnostic

Confused by a number, or just want a second set of eyes? Send your local books over and our team will review them — no cost, no obligation.

Ask for a review →

Tax-ready flag review

The app flags common red flags — like vehicle expenses that look high, or missing receipts — and we'll walk you through fixing them before you file.

Get the guide →

Managed bookkeeping

Past 20,000 transactions or just done doing it yourself? We take it over for a flat monthly fee — no more manual entry, ever.

Book a discovery call →

Confused by your own books?

Send them to us for a free 15-minute diagnostic.

No pressure, no sales pitch disguised as a "free call." A real bookkeeper looks at your setup, flags anything obviously wrong, and tells you honestly whether you're fine on your own or ready for help.

We only see what you choose to export and send
Response within one business day
Zero obligation to become a client

Request received

We'll email you within one business day to set up your 15-minute review.

Pricing

One plan. One price. Zero surprises.

Free forever

$0/month

Up to 20,000 transactions, hard cap, no exceptions and no upsell trap

Unlimited CSV bank imports
Unlimited receipt scans (OCR)
Full GST/HST/QST & mileage tools
P&L, A/R aging & cash runway reports
Unlimited PDF invoices
Encrypted local backup + optional Drive sync
Free 15-minute human diagnostic, any time

Launch GBooks Air

Outgrown the ledger? Managed bookkeeping plans start at a flat monthly fee — talk to us.

Questions

Straight answers, no fine print

Correct. GBooks Air has no backend database. Every transaction, receipt, and report is calculated and stored inside your own browser (via IndexedDB). The only time your data leaves your device is if you personally click "Save & Sync to Drive," export a backup file, or use the "Send to My Bookkeeper" button — all of which are optional and entirely under your control.

Nothing is deleted or held hostage. Once you hit the cap, the app pauses new entries but still lets you view, export, and back up everything you've entered for free. Most people archive the fiscal year (which resets the counter to zero) or reach out to our team if the business has genuinely outgrown a browser-based ledger.

The Smart-Mapper is tuned for standard exports from RBC, TD, BMO, Scotiabank, and CIBC. Most other Canadian banks and credit unions export in a similar generic CSV format (date, description, amount columns), and the mapper lets you manually reassign columns in a few clicks if it doesn't guess correctly.

It's genuinely good on clear, well-lit photos of standard retail receipts, using the same open-source OCR engine used across the industry. It isn't perfect on faded thermal paper or handwritten receipts — every scanned field stays editable before you save it, so you're always the final check.

Your local auto-save lives in that specific browser, so clearing site data will clear your ledger. That's exactly why we build in two safety nets: a one-click encrypted backup file you keep yourself, and optional sync to your own Google Drive — either one restores your full ledger on any device in seconds.

It's a serious tool for doing your own bookkeeping, not tax or legal advice, and it doesn't file anything with the CRA on your behalf. Many solopreneurs run their entire year on GBooks Air and hand a clean export to their accountant at tax time — which is exactly the workflow it's built for.

Yes — this is built and maintained by a working accounting firm, not an anonymous app. Reach out any time, and if your question turns into something bigger than a quick answer, we'll offer that free 15-minute diagnostic call.

Bookkeeping that finally gets
out of your way.