Help & FAQ
How to use it, and the questions worth asking first.
Two things in one quiet place: how to save the app to your phone, and straight answers about money, taxes, your email, and your privacy.
Open it in your browser
Head to the Creatives Ledger in Safari or Chrome on your phone. No download, no account wall. It's just there.
Tap the share button
The little square with the arrow at the bottom of your browser. It opens the share menu you already use every day.
Choose "Add to Home Screen"
Scroll down the menu and tap it. Keep the name as is, or call it whatever you like.
That's it, it's an app now
The icon lands on your home screen and opens full screen, just like any other app. No store, no updates to chase.
Straight answers
The questions worth asking first
- Is this only for creatives?
- It was built with creatives first. That's where it comes from and who it's shaped around. But the work underneath is the same for anyone self-employed: money in, money out, receipts kept, invoices sent. If you're a consultant, a tradesperson, a gig worker, or running a small business of any kind, it works just as well for you.
- Do you hold my money?
- No. Never. Invoices are paid into your own Square or Stripe account; the money goes straight from your client to you. We only see that a payment happened so we can mark the invoice paid.
- Do you do my taxes?
- No. We track and categorize what you earn and spend so tax time is calm; we don't calculate what you owe. Any real tax math belongs with a professional.
- Does it work the same in Canada and the US?
- It adapts. Currency, date format, expense categories, and the way mileage is shown all follow your country. In the US we show a standard-rate mileage estimate, clearly marked as not tax advice; in Canada we show your business-use share rather than a flat per-kilometre figure.
- What happens to my email?
- We read it once to pull a receipt, then discard the message. Access is read-only; we can't send, delete, or change anything in your inbox.
- Is my data private?
- It's built to a high bar from the start: your records are yours alone, never pooled with anyone else's, and sensitive connections are stored encrypted. Card and bank details are held by your payment processor, Stripe or Square, who are built to guard them, including for any recurring payments; we keep only a secure reference, never the full numbers, and we never store passwords.
- Do I need to download anything?
- No app store, no download. The Creatives Ledger runs in your browser, and you can save it to your home screen so it opens full screen like any other app; the walkthrough above shows exactly how.
Privacy & security
How we keep your information safe
The short version is simple: we hold as little as possible, we keep it walled off, and the truly sensitive parts stay with the people built to guard them. Here is the whole picture.
- We never hold your money
- Invoices are paid into your own Square or Stripe account. The money goes straight from your client to you; we only see that a payment happened so we can mark the invoice paid.
- Your inbox is read once, then let go
- Access to your email is read-only. We pull a receipt and discard the message; we can't send, delete, or change anything in your inbox, and we leave no rules behind.
- Your records are walled off from everyone else's
- Every account's data is isolated at the row level, so no one ever sees anyone else's books, not even by accident. Your ledger is yours alone.
- Card and bank numbers stay with the processor
- Your payment details live with Stripe or Square, who are built to guard them, including for any recurring payments. We keep only a secure reference, never the full card or bank numbers.
- Sensitive connections are encrypted
- Anything we do need to store to keep your connections working, like access tokens, is kept encrypted. And we never store your passwords.
- A professional review before real data flows
- It's built to a high privacy bar from the first line of code, and a professional security review will happen before anyone's real data moves through the system.
Still curious? Have a look around the demo.
The whole app is open as a working demo with stand-in figures. Nothing is saved or sent.
Open the demo