LedgerHelm documentation
A reference for everything the platform does — data sources, AI categorization, money in and out, the native ledger, reconciliation, reporting, taxes, teams, and security.
Accounts & data sources
LedgerHelm works in one of three modes per business: synced to QuickBooks Online, synced to Xero, or native (ExoCount). All three feed the same AI categorization, close workflow, and reporting.
QuickBooks Online sync
Two-way: transactions and the chart of accounts are read on a daily sync (plus on demand), and confirmed categorizations write back so QuickBooks stays the system of record. A separate historical importer can bring your full books into native mode if you're leaving QuickBooks entirely.
Xero sync
Transactions and accounts sync from Xero; categorization decisions are written back with match-or-create semantics that never double-post.
Bank feeds & statement import
Bank accounts link via Stripe Financial Connections for automatic daily transaction import. Statements upload in PDF, CSV, or OFX/QFX; AI extraction handles PDFs without a data layer. All imports are deduplicated.
AI categorization & rules
Every transaction is categorized by AI with a confidence score, backed by deterministic rules and guardrails.
Confidence & auto-approval
High-confidence suggestions can post automatically; low-confidence ones wait in the review queue. Thresholds are managed per account.
Rules
Rules match a normalized vendor name and can add conditions: a description phrase and/or an amount range. Confirmed categories become learned rules automatically; a nightly sweep re-applies rules to any backlog.
Vendor-history guardrail
If a suggestion contradicts a vendor's established category pattern, the transaction is held for human review rather than auto-posted — a deterministic backstop on top of the AI.
Anomaly detection
A nightly sweep flags duplicates, spikes, and unusual entries and turns them into action items with context.
Tags
Free-form labels on transactions, orthogonal to categories and dimensions, with per-tag totals in reporting.
Invoicing & money in
A complete receivables workflow: estimates, invoices, payments, deposits, and dunning.
Invoices
Line items from your product catalog or free-form; discounts; per-line tax exemption; custom or automatic numbering; professional PDFs; a secure customer view link that requires no login; edit-after-send with an audit trail; multi-currency documents with issuance exchange rates.
Payments
Full or partial payments with method and date; automatic paid-state transitions; realized FX gain/loss computed automatically when a foreign-currency invoice settles at a different rate.
Sales receipts & customer deposits
Sales receipts record pay-at-sale income (net of tax) in one step. Customer deposits hold prepayments as a liability until applied to an invoice.
Undeposited funds
Batch multiple customer payments into a single bank deposit so the books match the single line your bank statement shows.
Price rules & billable time
Per-customer product prices pre-fill invoice lines. Billable project time entries pull onto draft invoices at their bill rates.
Reminders & late fees
Automatic overdue-invoice reminders (with AI-drafted copy for staff review) and optional late fees.
Bills, vendors & money out
Payables tracking with the same rigor as receivables.
Bills
Enter bills with due dates and line details; partial payments; aging into the AP reports; recurring bills generate automatically on schedule.
Vendors & 1099s
Vendor records track contractor payments for 1099 reporting, with W-9 collection, backup-withholding logic, and corporate exemptions handled.
Purchase orders
Open POs track committed spend against projects before a bill ever posts.
ExoCount (native ledger)
A full double-entry general ledger with a numbered chart of accounts. Every money workflow posts real, balanced entries into it; a continuous tie-out check verifies the books always balance.
Journal entries
Manual entries with per-line class/location dimensions and project tags; balanced-entry validation to the cent; void and reverse flows with guardrails (system entries can only be undone through their owning record). Posted entries are immutable — corrections happen by reversal, never by edit.
Period lock
A books-locked-through date blocks postings into closed periods across every workflow. Administrators can override for a specific posting; every override writes a dedicated audit entry.
Close Review (pre-close QA)
A one-click pre-close check run from Monthly Close before you lock the period. A deterministic engine recomputes from the ledger and flags blockers — books that don't tie out, pending or uncategorized transactions, undeposited funds, unsent drafts, negative inventory, uncleared Opening Balance Equity — each with a fix link, and those checks alone set the pass/fail status. An advisory AI layer reads a numbers-only P&L summary (this month vs last) and adds reasoned observations — likely miscategorizations, unusual swings, missing recurring items — without ever altering the numbers. Free for internal staff; a $29/mo add-on for self-serve accounts. Educational review, not a CPA audit.
Accountant adjusting entries
External accountants (read-only access) draft adjusting entries; the client or bookkeeper approves, which posts a real journal entry linked to the proposal, or rejects with a note.
Multi-currency
Foreign-denominated invoices and bills carry document currency and issuance rate; settlements book realized FX automatically; a period-end revaluation restates open AR/AP at closing rates with an automatic next-day reversal (ASC 830 / IAS 21 treatment).
Inventory (FIFO)
Inventory-tracked products layer purchases at cost and relieve oldest-first into COGS on sale. Quantity adjustments post the correct entries; reorder points flag low stock.
Fixed assets & depreciation
An asset register with book depreciation posting monthly, disposal handling, and tax depreciation schedules (MACRS, §179, bonus) computed separately for tax prep.
Loans
A loan register with derived amortization schedules; each recorded payment posts the principal/interest split (liability + Interest Expense vs. cash) from the live balance, so extra paydowns self-correct.
Payroll journal
Payroll runs (including Gusto-synced runs) post the standard gross-wages / withholdings / net-pay entry automatically.
Projects & job costing
Projects tag revenue and costs across the ledger for per-job P&L, with budgets, committed-cost tracking from open POs, and labor overlays from time entries.
Bank reconciliation
A statement-based reconciliation workflow that ties the books to the bank, account by account, period by period.
Worksheet
Enter the statement ending balance, check off cleared transactions, and watch the cleared balance converge on the statement balance in real time. Outstanding items are always visible.
Finish & lock
A finished reconciliation stores its report and locks its cleared state. Staff can reopen with a recorded reason when a correction is genuinely needed.
Reporting
Statements generated from the same ledger every other view uses.
Core statements
Profit & Loss (comparative months, % of income view), Balance Sheet (current vs prior month vs prior year), Cash Flow, Trial Balance, General Ledger, and custom date-range statements — all downloadable as PDFs.
AR/AP aging
Summary buckets (current/30/60/90+) plus per-document detail: every open invoice and bill with its counterparty, due date, days overdue, and open balance.
Scheduled delivery
Monthly statements are generated and emailed automatically on the 1st; investor reports and audit packages generate on demand.
AI assistant
Ask plain-English questions — answers are grounded in your actual numbers, not generic advice.
Taxes
Built-in US tax workflows that keep you ahead of deadlines.
Sales tax & nexus
Collected-tax tracking by jurisdiction, economic nexus threshold monitoring by state (marketplace-facilitator aware), and filing reminders.
1099s
Contractor payment tracking, W-9 collection, backup withholding, corporate exemptions, and filing-ready output.
Year-end package
Annual statements and supporting schedules packaged for your tax preparer, including tax depreciation on native books.
Teams, firms & permissions
Role-based access for owners, teammates, bookkeepers, external accountants, and multi-client firms.
Roles
Clients operate their own workspace; bookkeepers are assigned per client; managers and administrators have staff-level oversight; external accountants get read-only access plus the adjusting-entry proposal channel.
Firms & white-label
Accounting firms run every client from one workspace, with per-client assignments, firm-level billing, and light white-labeling (your logo and accent color on client-facing surfaces).
Audit trail
Every meaningful action — postings, voids, lock overrides, approvals, exports — is written to a per-tenant audit log.
Security & data
Your books are yours, and they're protected.
Isolation
Every customer's data is isolated with database-enforced row-level security — enforced at the database layer, not just in application code.
Backups & export
Nightly backups, plus a complete self-serve export (transactions, documents, reports, books) available anytime from Settings.
Credentials
Bank connections use Stripe Financial Connections; accounting connections use OAuth. LedgerHelm never sees or stores your banking password. Sensitive tokens are encrypted at rest.
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