Make your bank account explain itself.
Your deposits arrive with names like STRIPE TRANSFER 4K9F2P and SQ *MRDN&CO. Ledgerline matches each one to a client, a project and an invoice, then compiles the month into figures your accountant can file.
Connect your bank See it on a real month
Read-only, through Plaid. Ledgerline can see your deposits; it has no way to move your money.
| In the feed | Ledgerline reads | Invoice | Amount | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| STRIPE TRANSFER 4K9F2P2 Sep | Bloomfield StudioBrand system | INV-014 | $2,400.00 | Matched |
| SQ *MRDN&CO 9J2K5 Sep | Meridian & CoPitch deck | INV-015 | $850.00 | Matched |
| PAYPAL INST XFER 8H2K106 Sep | Looks like Halcyon PressPackaging identity | — | $1,120.00 | Confirm |
| WISE REF 8823-INTL11 Sep | Studio NoriPackaging, milestone 2 | INV-016 | €1,600.00≈ $1,732.00, day’s rate | Matched |
| DEPOSIT 111218 Sep | Bloomfield StudioBrand system, milestone 1 of 3 — $600 of $1,800 | INV-017 | $600.00 | Part-paid |
| VENMO CASHOUT 2M4T22 Sep | PersonalNot a client — held out of income | — | $75.00 | Not income |
| Net income, September | $6,702.00 | 5 of 6 counted | ||
From a cryptic deposit to a filed invoice.
- Connect once
- Your bank, and Stripe, PayPal or Wise if you use them. Read-only through Plaid — there are no statements to download and no spreadsheet to keep up.
- Let it read
- Every deposit gets a name. SQ *MRDN&CO becomes Meridian & Co; the second time you are paid by someone, Ledgerline already knows what the payment is.
- Approve and file
- It never guesses quietly. Anything unsure is flagged for one decision from you, and the month totals itself into the categories an accountant already recognises.
The deposits that break spreadsheets.
Milestones, part-payments, three currencies and one client with four trading names. Ledgerline is built around the deposits that make you give up and open a spreadsheet.
Halcyon Press — packaging identity
Quoted $5,400, split three ways- Milestone 1 — paid 6 Sep$1,800.00
- Milestone 2 — invoiced, due 14 Oct$1,800.00
- Milestone 3 — not yet invoiced$1,800.00
One $1,800 deposit became one milestone, not the whole project — so what is still owed stays visible instead of quietly disappearing.
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Refunds, not income
A refunded deposit is netted out of the month, never counted as a second payment. STRIPE REFUND 9F2K subtracts; it does not add.
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Two currencies in one month
Euros, dollars and pounds are kept as their own totals, converted at the rate on the day each one landed, with that rate noted on the line.
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The 40% that never came
When a deposit lands short of the quote, Ledgerline marks the shortfall against the invoice and carries it as outstanding until it is paid.
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Personal money in the business account
VENMO CASHOUT 2M4T and the coffee habit are held out of your income totals, and stay visible if anyone ever asks.
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One client, four names
MERIDIAN, SQ *MRDN, a PayPal handle and a bank transfer all collapse into a single client record you can invoice from.
Totalled the way the tax office wants it.
When the year closes you reconstruct nothing. The figures arrived already sorted, and every one of them traces back to a real deposit.
| Category | This year | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Design services | $58,340.00 | Schedule C, line 1 |
| Payments from abroad | $6,120.00 | converted at the day’s rate, FX notes attached |
| Refunds and reversals | -$540.00 | netted out, never counted as income |
| Platform fees — Stripe, PayPal, Wise | $1,410.00 | deductible expense |
| Home studio, pro-rata | $960.00 | deductible, at your own square-foot ratio |
| Net design income | $63,920.00 | carried into the year-end pack |
Export a CSV, a PDF pack for your accountant, or the pre-totalled 1099-NEC figures. Software, kit, mileage and studio rent are categorised as they arrive, so April is an export rather than a project.
One price, and a reason to trust it.
- Every transaction and every client, no caps
- Multi-currency, with the day’s rate on each line
- CSV, PDF and accountant-ready exports
- 1099-NEC and Schedule C totals, pre-filled
- Read-only bank connection you can revoke any time
- One studio per account — no seats to buy
If you invoice under $5,000 a year, a spreadsheet is genuinely cheaper and we will not pretend otherwise. Ledgerline starts paying for itself at roughly two invoices a month.
Start 14 days free No card. If it cannot sort a month, do not pay for it.
It can see your deposits. It cannot touch them.
- Read-only by design
- Ledgerline connects through Plaid with view access only. It cannot move money, hold money or request a payment — the permission simply is not there to grant.
- Nothing to steal
- Your bank credentials never reach us and are never stored. Ledgerline only ever receives the transaction lines your bank agrees to share.
- Yours to take
- Export everything as CSV and PDF whenever you like, or close the account and the transactions go with it. No export fee, no retention, no phone call.
Your clients never see Ledgerline. Invoices go out under your studio’s name, on your template, from your address.
Two people who stopped dreading January.
Four years of “I’ll sort it in January” ended this year. It matched 212 deposits against my invoices in one evening, and the two it could not place were genuinely two I had forgotten to invoice.
Priya Naidoo · brand designer, Bristol
I invoice in euros, dollars and pounds and never once reconciled the exchange properly. First month in Ledgerline, the converted totals were already waiting when my accountant asked for them.
Tomás Reyes · packaging designer, Rotterdam
Questions we get before people connect a bank.
- Do you store my bank login?
- No. The connection is read-only through Plaid. Ledgerline never sees your credentials and has no ability to move money.
- What if it matches something wrong?
- You correct it in one click and it remembers that client’s other names. Nothing is filed or exported until you approve the month.
- Does it work outside the US?
- Deposits in any currency, converted at the day’s rate with the note attached to the line. Exports cover Schedule C and 1099-NEC in the US, and Self Assessment in the UK.
- What about PayPal friends-and-family and cash?
- Flagged as personal and held out of your income totals, but still visible if your accountant asks to see everything.
- Do my clients know I use it?
- No. Invoices carry your name and your template. Ledgerline is bookkeeping, and it is never on the invoice.
- Can I leave and take my data?
- Every transaction exports as CSV and PDF. Close the account and the data goes with it, the same day.
Bring the mess. Leave with the invoices.
Connect one account, let Ledgerline read a single month, and decide whether it has earned its $12 before you pay anything.
Connect your bank Read-only · 14 days free · no card