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frappe/books

★ 4,633TypeScriptAudience · pm founderComplexity · 2/5LicenseSetup · easy

TLDR

Frappe Books is a free offline desktop accounting app for small and medium businesses. It handles invoices, bills, payments, journal entries, and financial reports using double-entry bookkeeping. No subscription, no cloud, no account needed, your data stays on your computer.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((Frappe Books))
    Accounting
      Double Entry
      Journal Entries
      General Ledger
      Trial Balance
    Invoicing
      Sales Invoices
      Bills
      Payments
    Reports
      Profit and Loss
      Balance Sheet
    Point of Sale
      Retail Sales
      POS Screen
    Offline Storage
      SQLite File
      No Server
    Platforms
      Windows
      macOS
      Linux
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Code map

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Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Track income and expenses for a small business without paying for accounting software

USE CASE 2

Create and send invoices and record bill payments in one place

USE CASE 3

Generate profit and loss statements and balance sheets at any time

USE CASE 4

Use the point-of-sale screen to process retail sales transactions

Tech stack

TypeScriptVue.jsElectronSQLiteYarn

Getting it running

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min

Download the installer from the releases page. macOS and Linux users can also install via Homebrew. Linux supports Flatpak. No account or cloud setup required.

Open-source license maintained by Frappe. Free to use, modify, and share.

In plain English

Frappe Books is a free, open-source desktop application for accounting, aimed at small and medium-sized businesses. It handles the core financial tasks a business needs: creating invoices, recording bills and payments, writing journal entries, and generating standard financial reports like a profit and loss statement, balance sheet, general ledger, and trial balance. Double-entry accounting is built into the system, which means every transaction is recorded in two places to keep the books balanced. The app also includes a point-of-sale screen for retail businesses that need to process sales transactions directly. One notable aspect is that the app works entirely offline. All data is stored in a SQLite file on the user's own computer, so there is no server to connect to and no subscription required. The interface is built with Vue.js and packaged as a native desktop application using Electron, which means it runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux without needing a web browser. Installation is straightforward: download the installer from the releases page, or use Homebrew on macOS and Linux, or Flatpak on Linux. There is no account to create and no cloud setup involved. For developers who want to contribute or run a local build, the README explains how to clone the repository, install dependencies with Yarn, and start the app in development mode with live reload. Building a distributable installer is also covered. Contributions are accepted from non-coders as well. Users can report bugs, suggest features, or help with translations. The project has already been translated into a wide range of languages by community contributors. It is released under an open-source license and maintained by Frappe, the same organization behind the ERPNext business software.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
I have Frappe Books installed. Help me set up my chart of accounts for a small retail business and record my first invoice.
Prompt 2
Using Frappe Books, walk me through how to record a bill payment and reconcile it against an expense account.
Prompt 3
I want to generate a monthly profit and loss report in Frappe Books. What steps do I follow and what should I look for?
Prompt 4
Help me understand double-entry accounting using Frappe Books as an example. Show me how a single sale affects two accounts.
Prompt 5
I want to contribute a translation to Frappe Books. Where do I start and what tools do I need?
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