You will finish with a book that knows where your money is and what you started with.

1. Create the book. A book is one business. A shop plus freelance work means two books. Create one during onboarding, or from Home with the book switcher at the top-left using New book.

2. Use one currency per book. Amounts are plain numbers in that currency. If you work in two currencies, keep one book for each.

3. Add your money accounts. Add only the places you really keep money: main bank, wallet app, card reader. Any account list has a Manage button to add, rename, or delete. NapkinLedger also creates seven locked system accounts, including your main bank. You can ignore the rest.

4. Enter your starting balances. Open the Balance form, type what each account holds today, and press Record it. From now on NapkinLedger only tracks change.

Next: the 90/10 method and the month-end ritual.