# EscBooks > EscBooks is bookkeeping for people who bill for their time, and for creators and authors paid by platforms: time tracking, invoices, retainers, expenses, bank feeds, bills, platform payouts and royalties, rental property, and taxes, with your own AI assistant connected over MCP. Books are in US dollars, on cash or accrual basis. For attorneys (client trust accounts, retainers per matter, 6-minute billing, privacy): https://escbooks.com/for/attorneys For creators and authors (platform payouts from YouTube, Patreon, Twitch, Substack, KDP, Audible and more, split into earnings and fees, each platform's 1099): https://escbooks.com/for/creators For landlords and hosts (rental property: leases and rent roll, Airbnb and Vrbo payouts, mortgages, security deposits, depreciation, Schedule E by property): https://escbooks.com/for/landlords For consultants (monthly and prepaid retainers, day rates, fixed fees billed by milestone, project budgets, subcontractors, clients billed in their own currency): https://escbooks.com/for/consultants For freelancers (time tracking to invoices, Pay Now links and reminders, estimated tax set-aside and quarterly due dates, mileage and deductions): https://escbooks.com/for/freelancers For architects and engineers (fixed fees billed by phase, hours against the fee, reimbursables with markup, consulting engineers as subcontractors): https://escbooks.com/for/architects For nonprofits (donations with donors and receipts, restricted grants and funds released as they're spent, program, management and fundraising expenses, salaries split by time logged, Form 990, 990-EZ and 990-N figures and Schedule B): https://escbooks.com/for/nonprofits For accountants and bookkeepers (every client's books from one sign-in, one client per browser tab, a conversation with each client with questions pinned to transactions, proposed changes the owner approves, Client Books with return due dates, read-only and private by design): https://escbooks.com/for/accountants Pricing (one plan with every tool, founding member pricing, and how it compares): https://escbooks.com/pricing The guides below describe EscBooks as it is. Each link is the guide as plain Markdown; the same guides are at https://escbooks.com/help. ## Getting started - [Getting started](https://escbooks.com/help/getting-started.md): Join the beta, answer the welcome's questions, take the tour, then set your rates and add your first client and project. - [Terms and features](https://escbooks.com/help/terms.md): Use your industry's words for clients, projects and the rest, and hide the parts you don't use. ## Your AI assistant - [Connected assistants](https://escbooks.com/help/assistants.md): Let Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or Grok log time, add expenses and draft invoices, with your OK. ## Moving to EscBooks - [Moving to EscBooks](https://escbooks.com/help/moving-to-escbooks.md): What comes over from your old app, the easiest way to bring it, and what to keep. - [Moving from QuickBooks](https://escbooks.com/help/migrate-quickbooks.md): Exactly what to export from QuickBooks Online, and how each file comes into EscBooks. - [Moving from Xero](https://escbooks.com/help/migrate-xero.md): Exactly what to export from Xero, area by area, and how each file comes into EscBooks. - [Moving from FreshBooks](https://escbooks.com/help/migrate-freshbooks.md): Exactly what to export from FreshBooks, and how each file comes into EscBooks. ## Time and projects - [Projects](https://escbooks.com/help/projects.md): The work you bill clients for, and your own: its rate, budget, fee and milestones. - [Tracking time](https://escbooks.com/help/time.md): Time your work as you go, add time you already did, and how it's rounded when it's billed. - [Time Reports](https://escbooks.com/help/time-reports.md): Your tracked time for any range, client or project: share it, export it, or attach it to an invoice. ## Billing - [Invoicing and getting paid](https://escbooks.com/help/invoicing.md): From unbilled work to a sent invoice to money received: drafts, sending, what your client sees, payments, reminders and write-offs. - [Retainers](https://escbooks.com/help/retainers.md): Deposits your invoices are paid from, and monthly fees with hours included. - [Client trust accounts](https://escbooks.com/help/trust-accounts.md): A bank account that holds clients' money until it's earned: a ledger for each client, a journal, and a monthly three-way reconciliation. ## For creators and authors - [Creators, authors and musicians](https://escbooks.com/help/creators.md): Brand deals, platform payouts, affiliate earnings, book royalties and music royalties: where each goes, gross and fees, and each platform's 1099. ## For nonprofits - [Record a gift](https://escbooks.com/help/record-a-gift.md): Gifts of money, goods or services, with their donor: anonymous gifts, a gala ticket with a dinner, a giving platform's fees, and gifts found on a bank statement. - [Thank donors](https://escbooks.com/help/thank-donors.md): Which gifts need a written receipt and why, sending receipts, marking a gift thanked, and each donor's year-end giving statement. - [Restricted gifts and grants](https://escbooks.com/help/restricted-funds.md): A fund for each grant or restricted gift: what it holds, spending from it, releases from restriction, the grant report, and closing it. - [Programs and functional expenses](https://escbooks.com/help/functional-expenses.md): What each cost was for: program services, management and general, or fundraising, set on projects, equipment and expenses, and the statement of functional expenses. - [Splitting salaries by time](https://escbooks.com/help/salaries-by-time.md): Each payroll split between program services, management and general and fundraising by the hours logged in its pay period, and charged to a grant. - [The Form 990 worksheet](https://escbooks.com/help/form-990.md): Which Form 990 applies, and the worksheets of the year's numbers for your organization's accountant: Form 990-EZ, Parts VIII and IX, and Schedule B. ## Property and equipment - [Equipment](https://escbooks.com/help/equipment.md): Computers, cameras and tools: what they cost, written off in full or over their useful life, and what happens when you sell one. - [Rental properties](https://escbooks.com/help/rental-properties.md): A house let by the month, a condo on Airbnb or the building you work from: each property's own profit and loss, and the form its figures go on. - [Leases and rent](https://escbooks.com/help/leases-and-rent.md): A lease's rent, due day and late fee, recording rent as it's paid, and the Rent Roll: what each tenant owes this month and what's late. - [Short-term rentals](https://escbooks.com/help/short-term-rentals.md): Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com payouts on a property: the gross, the host fee and occupancy tax, importing Airbnb's or Vrbo's earnings file, and the 1099-K. - [Mortgages](https://escbooks.com/help/mortgages.md): A loan on a property: each payment split into interest, principal and escrow, tax and insurance paid from escrow, and the year-end Form 1098 check. - [Security deposits](https://escbooks.com/help/security-deposits.md): A tenant's deposit is held for them, never income: received, refunded, kept for damage, or applied to the last month's rent. ## Bank accounts - [Connecting a bank](https://escbooks.com/help/connecting-a-bank.md): Link your bank and cards through Plaid, and their transactions come in on their own, for your review. - [Importing statements](https://escbooks.com/help/importing-statements.md): Bring a month or a year in from your bank's CSV download, or hand the statement to your assistant. - [Your accounts](https://escbooks.com/help/accounts.md): Your bank and credit accounts, their months at a glance, and which statements are in. - [Reviewing and approving](https://escbooks.com/help/reviewing-statements.md): Look over a month's lines before they reach your books: what's added, what's set aside, and why. - [When a bank feed stops](https://escbooks.com/help/bank-feed-stops.md): Why a bank asks you to sign in again, how EscBooks tells you, and how to catch up. Nothing is lost. - [Paying vendors and bills](https://escbooks.com/help/paying-vendors.md): Pay a vendor by check, ACH, wire, Zelle or a payment app; enter the bills vendors send, see when they're due, and pay several with one payment. - [Printing checks](https://escbooks.com/help/printing-checks.md): Print checks onto your own check stock, line them up with your printer, and keep every check number accounted for. - [Import rules](https://escbooks.com/help/import-rules.md): How statement imports learn your vendors and categories, and how to add, change and delete the rules. - [Month-end](https://escbooks.com/help/month-end.md): One checklist for each month: every statement in and reconciled, every line accounted for, ready for your accountant. ## Spending - [Expenses](https://escbooks.com/help/expenses.md): Add expenses with their receipts, bill them back to a client with a markup, log mileage, and find any of them again. - [Subcontractors and 1099s](https://escbooks.com/help/subcontractors.md): The people you pay to do part of the work: their costs on your projects, billing them on, and W-9s and 1099s. - [Payroll](https://escbooks.com/help/payroll.md): Record each payroll at gross, or import Gusto's report: officer salary and wages that match the W-2s, and bank lines matched, not counted twice. - [Subscriptions](https://escbooks.com/help/subscriptions.md): Every tool and service you pay for again and again: what it costs a month and a year, when it renews, and the charges still to record. ## Reports and taxes - [Reports and taxes](https://escbooks.com/help/reports.md): Your year, your quarters, any report for any dates, estimated taxes and tax time. - [Cash or accrual](https://escbooks.com/help/cash-or-accrual.md): Your accounting method: what cash and accrual basis count, how to set and change it, what follows it, and the tax rules around a change. - [Business tax structure](https://escbooks.com/help/tax-structure.md): Sole proprietor, S corp, C corp or nonprofit: the form your reports follow, your estimated tax dates, and what owner money is called. - [Owner money](https://escbooks.com/help/owner-money.md): What you put in, lent, took out and were paid back, named the way your accountant files it. - [Your accountant](https://escbooks.com/help/accountant.md): Give your accountant their own sign-in, free. They see everything, print and export, and you choose whether they can edit, with your approval or directly. ## Your account - [Keeping your account safe](https://escbooks.com/help/security.md): Two-step verification, your password, confirming it's you, where you're signed in, Recent Activity, and the emails that warn you. - [Backing up your books](https://escbooks.com/help/backup.md): Download everything in your books as one zip: your records, spreadsheets, receipts and statements.