A fast, keyboard-driven double-entry bookkeeping engine built for independent businesses and accountants. Full Tally Prime muscle memory, exact decimal arithmetic, honest two-sided financial statements, and local SQLite data that never touches the cloud.
Traditional accounting vendors charge you year after year just to access your own ledger. Slide to see your cumulative capital loss:
Interactive Live Simulator
Test real double-entry calculations, live Gateway KPIs, and honest two-sided financial reports right here in your browser.
| Item Description | Quantity (pcs) | Rate (₹) | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy Structural Steel Beams (HSN 7216) | ₹50,000.00 |
The Anti-Subscription Manifesto
Double-entry bookkeeping was codified by Luca Pacioli in 1494. It is a universal mathematical discipline — not a corporate rent-seeking scheme.
Cloud accounting platforms store your company's deepest secrets on multi-tenant servers. If you ever cancel your subscription, they freeze your account and lock you out of your historical records. With Independent Books, your database is a single, standard SQLite file on your physical hard drive.
Modern web apps force you to take your hands off the keyboard, wait for spinning loaders, and click tiny buttons with a mouse. Independent Books preserves every authentic Tally Prime muscle-memory hotkey (F2–F10, Alt+G, Ctrl+A) so your accountants can post hundreds of invoices an hour without touching a mouse.
Most modern JavaScript and SaaS web tools calculate money using standard IEEE floating-point math, leading to tiny rounding errors that accumulate and corrupt balance sheets.
Independent Books computes every voucher using exact Python Decimal and integer cents. Zero balancing plugs. Zero fabricated numbers.
Uncompromising Comparison
See how we stack up against proprietary incumbents and cloud SaaS tools.
| Feature | Independent Books ⚡ | Tally Prime | QuickBooks Online | Zoho Books |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Licence & Pricing | Free Forever (MIT) | ₹22,500+ / yr | $30 – $90 / mo | ₹750 – ₹3,000 / mo |
| Database Format | Open SQLite (You Own It) | Proprietary .900/.tsf |
Proprietary Cloud DB | Proprietary Cloud DB |
| Air-Gapped Operation | ✓ 100% Offline (127.0.0.1) | ✓ Local | ✗ Internet Required | ✗ Internet Required |
| Tally Keyboard Ergonomics | ✓ Full Hotkeys (F2–F10, Alt+G) | ✓ Native | ✗ Mouse-Heavy Web UI | ✗ Mouse-Heavy Web UI |
| Balance Sheet Layout | Honest Two-Sided (Left/Right) | Two-Sided | Single Stacked Column | Single Stacked Column |
| Decimal Precision | ✓ Exact Python Decimal |
✓ Native Integer | ✗ Float Rounding | ✗ Float Rounding |
| Native Binary Compilation | ✓ C Machine Code (8.57 MB) | ✓ C++ Binary | ✗ Heavy Browser Tabs | ✗ Heavy Browser Tabs |
| User Telemetry & Tracking | Zero Telemetry | Licence Tracking | Heavy Ad/Analytics Trackers | Heavy Analytics Trackers |
Keyboard Mastery
Every action, voucher, and report is reachable in a split second without your fingers ever leaving the home row.
Get Started in Seconds
Free forever. No credit card, no sign-in, no telemetry. Choose your preferred distribution below.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Independent Books is released under the permissive open-source MIT License. There are no renewal fees, no subscription plans, no locked screens, no seat limits, and no company limits. You are free to use it for personal, business, or client bookkeeping.
Your books are stored in a local SQLite file (data/books.sqlite3) on your own machine.
The backend server strictly listens on the loopback address 127.0.0.1 and has zero external telemetry or cloud sync.
You can take full JSON backups anytime via Data → Backup.
Press Alt+K (or F3) → select Alter Company. In the Company Alteration screen, press Alt+D (or click the red Delete Company button). A two-step safety confirmation dialog will prompt you to confirm permanent deletion.
Yes! Export your masters and vouchers from Tally as standard XML. Then in Independent Books, choose Import → Import XML, select your exported XML file, preview the transaction counts, and commit.
Yes! For macOS, an official launcher script (launch_mac.sh) is included in the GitHub repository that isolates application data in ~/Library/Application Support/IndependentBooks. For Android, you can run the server in LAN mode (.\Launch.ps1 -Lan) and open your local IP on any phone or tablet as a PWA, or build the standalone native APK from android/.
