Your accounts

What an account is#

An account is a bank account or credit card the business pays with or gets paid into. Each expense says which account paid for it, each statement belongs to one, and money moved between them is a transfer, not spending.

• Connected through your bank, its transactions come in on their own (see Connecting a bank). A dot beside its name says how the feed is doing.
• Added by hand, you bring its statements in yourself (see Importing statements).

The month strip#

On Accounts, each account shows its balance, this year's spending and a strip of twelve months. Each month shows whether a statement covering it is in. Hover over a month and it says which.

• Filled ("Statement imported"): an approved statement covers the month. Its expenses are in your books.
• Half filled ("Waiting for review"): a statement for it is in EscBooks, waiting for you to approve it.
• Dashed ("No statement yet"): nothing covers that month yet. The month you're in is dashed too, until a statement covers it.
• Faint: the month hasn't started.

Each state, with what the account's page says for the month, what it means and what to do:

Under the strip, a line says what's left: a statement waiting for review (click it to open it), how many months have no statement yet, or "Every month so far is in." It also gives the day of the last charge.

Bringing a month in and approving it#

Accounts

Accounts

Your business bank and credit accounts, with their statements and balances.

Add ManuallyConnect a Bank

Drag a card, or use its arrows, to put the accounts in your order.

Cedar Bank Business Checking···4821Bank account · $12,480.22 as of Oct 29$41,372.89266 expenses in 2026

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1 month without a statement yet. Last charge Sep 29.Expenses

Business Card···7710Credit account · owes $2,316.40 as of Oct 29$14,306.52212 expenses in 2026

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October 2026 Business Card (bank feed) is waiting for reviewExpenses

Step 1 of 6PauseStart over

1. 1On Accounts, a dashed month has no statement yet. Here, it's October.
2. 2Open the account. Its Bank Feed card has October's lines from the bank: click Bring In.
3. 3Ticked lines go into your books when you approve, or one at a time with +. Unticked lines stay out.
4. 4To check that every line is here, enter the statement's balances. Use it fills in last month's closing balance.
5. 5Click Add 31 Expenses. The month is approved, and Reconciled when its balances tie out.
6. 6Back on Accounts, October is filled in. Every month so far is in.

1. Find a dashed month on Accounts and open the account.
2. Connected to your bank? Click Bring In beside the month on the Bank Feed card. Otherwise click Import a Statement (or Import beside the Missing month) and upload the statement from your bank. Either way, the month is now waiting for review.
3. On the review page, check the lines. Ticked lines go into your books when you approve, or one at a time with Add Now; the rest stay out (see Reviewing and approving).
4. To check that every line is there, type the Opening balance and Closing balance printed on the statement (on a card, Previous balance and New balance). Use it fills in the last statement's closing balance. "Ties out" means the lines take one to the other.
5. Click Add … Expenses (Approve when there's nothing to add). EscBooks says how many expenses were added and takes you back to the account, where the month shows Approved, or Reconciled when its balances tie out. On Accounts, it's filled.

Approving waits until every card payment and transfer says which of your accounts it went to or came from. Not ready? Leave the page: the month stays waiting for review. Discard throws the import away, and nothing from it is added; a month from a bank feed goes back on the Bank Feed card, to bring in again.

Why months matter#

Your books are only as complete as your statements. Going month by month means a missing month is easy to see now, not in April when your accountant asks for it: every dashed month is a statement to go and get. It also matches how your bank reports, so each month's statement checks against its balances, and a card's January lines can't hide in February.

A connected bank fills the months as you bring them in. Once every month is filled, your year is ready for tax time.

An account's page#

Open an account to see more:

• Balance (Balance Owed for a card). On a connected account it's the bank's own balance, the most recent figure there is: "Balance at the bank, as of" the time of the last sync. Under it, the Statement closing balance: what the latest approved statement closed at, the figure that statement reconciles (ties out) to. On an account added by hand, the balance is the latest statement's closing balance, or the one you entered. If a connected account's feed hasn't synced for 7 days (it needs you to sign in again, or keeps failing), the bank's figure is too old to lead, and the statement's closing balance (or the one you entered) takes over until it syncs again. A line under the balance says so.
• A small icon beside the balance, here and on Accounts, says where it's from: a bank for the bank's own balance, a page for a statement's closing balance, a pencil for the one you entered. Hover over it, or tap it on a phone, for the date it's as of.
• Paid in the year, and how many Expenses it paid for.
• Statements: how many of this year's months are in ("10 of 10"), or how many are still to bring in.
• Statements in the year: every month, newest first. A month without one shows Missing, with an Import button. Each statement shows Waiting for review, Approved, or Reconciled when its balances tie out ("Off by" and the amount when they don't), with what it brought in ("31 expenses, 4 transfers") and its closing balance. Download the original file from its row.
• The arrows beside the year step back through earlier years.
• On a connected account, the Bank Feed card; on a bank account, its Vendor Payments (see Paying vendors).
• The Register: everything in your books for the account in the year, newest first, one line each, with Money in, Money out and the Balance after it (on a card, Payments, Charges and what's Owed). Expenses, client payments, payouts and other income, owner money, transfers, payroll and loan payments are all there. Click a line to open its record. It shows fifty lines at a time; Show 50 More brings in the rest, and the last line says the balance on January 1. It lists what's in your books, not what's on a statement: lines on a statement still waiting for review come in once it's approved, and a deposit with part returned shows as the payment that stayed.

Adding one by hand#

1. On Accounts, click Add Manually.
2. Give it a Name and pick its Kind: Credit account, Bank account, Cash or Other. A debit card's charges are on its bank account's statement, so it isn't an account of its own.
3. For a credit or bank account, add the Last Four Digits of its number. If you like, add its Balance (Balance Owed for a card) and the day it's As Of; imported statements keep it current.

Accounts are also made for you: when you connect a bank, when you pick New account… while importing a statement, or when your assistant imports one for an account you don't have yet.

Putting them in order#

Drag a card up or down, or use its arrows. With the keyboard, focus the grip, press Space, move with the arrow keys, and press Space again. The same order is used on Expenses and in the Paid With list when you add an expense.

Transfers and card payments#

Money moved between your own accounts (paying the card from checking, moving savings) isn't an expense or income. When a statement comes in, EscBooks sets those lines aside as transfers, and you say which of your accounts the money went to or came from. Each transfer is recorded once, even when both accounts' statements show it. See Reviewing and approving.

Closing or deleting one#

Open the account and click Edit; both are at the bottom, and each asks you to confirm. Close Account is for one you no longer use: it leaves Accounts and the lists you pick an account from, but its statements, expenses and payments stay in your books and reports, and Reopen Account brings it back. Delete Account is offered only while nothing is recorded under it.