Buy it for the organisation,
not for whoever holds the role.
Bookkeeping is a permanent need; renting it forever is a choice. RE is software you own — priced so a volunteer treasurer can expense it once and never think about it again.
One payment for the organisation, not the seat. Unlimited successor treasurers, unlimited users, self-hosted, every update in the current major version.
Optional: $99/year for updates and the year-end filing pack- The full close ritual — statement import, matching, $0.00 gate, locked months
- Rules memory, transfer detection, anomaly scan, receipts
- Three one-page reports + the monthly close certificate
- Unlimited entries, years, users and successor treasurers — admin, editor, viewer roles
- The handoff pack — one folder your successor opens, with every closed month and the audit trail intact
- Runs on any PHP host or your own machine — no database to manage
The honest math
Cheaper than the habit it replaces.
QuickBooks Online Plus went to $140 a month in August 2026 — a 21.7% rise in one step. MoneyMinder is $299 a year, every year, from the same volunteer budget. A bookkeeper’s monthly close starts around $200 a month. Against any of those, one payment of $199 that survives three changes of treasurer is not a discount; it is a different shape of commitment. And if price is genuinely the whole decision, we will point you at Manager.io, which is free — we would rather say it here than have you find it later.
A hosted version — we run it, same folder-of-files ownership — is coming for people who’d rather not touch a server. Owning your data will never cost extra on any tier.
Compared
What keeping small books actually costs.
| Route | Cost | The monthly close | If the vendor disappears |
|---|---|---|---|
| QuickBooks / Xero / Zoho | $420–$1,140 every year | Bank feeds drift and break; no true close ritual for small books | Your books live in their database, behind their export |
| A spreadsheet | Free, plus your weekends | No double-entry, no matching, no lock — errors compound silently | Survives, but was it ever right? |
| Outsourced bookkeeping | $200–$600 every month | Done for you — until it isn’t (ask 12,000 Bench customers) | Your books were their product |
| RE | $199 once, org-wide | The product is the close — $0.00-gated, locked, reported | Nothing happens. The folder is already yours |
Comparison figures are typical published prices as of 2026; early-access pricing may change at launch — anyone who bought before keeps what they bought.
Always free
Things we will never charge for.
Leaving
Your books are files on your machine from day one. Export, backup, and walking away are not features — they’re physics. No exit fee can exist.
Reading your own books
Viewer access is unlimited and free forever. A board member, an auditor, or next year’s treasurer never needs a paid seat to see the truth.
The schema
The file format is documented and public. Any developer — or any future tool — can read your books without our permission. That’s deliberate.