๐Ÿ† Industry-First Gamification

Master Your Financial Realm

AI-Powered Bookkeeping for Independent Contractors

Transform bookkeeping from a chore into an engaging quest. Booksmaster combines cutting-edge AI receipt scanning, self-learning categorization, and the industry's first gamification systemโ€”completely free and open source.

๐ŸชŸ Currently Windows only. macOS & Linux support depends on community interest.

40M+*
US Contractors
5x*
Faster Parsing
6x*
More Accurate
MIT
Open Source

*40M+: Estimated independent contractors in the US who could benefit from Booksmaster
*5x Faster: AI: 8 sec/receipt vs Traditional OCR: 40 sec/receipt (tested on hundreds of real receipts)
*6x More Accurate: AI: 93% field accuracy vs OCR: 14% (Tesseract baseline)

๐Ÿ† Level 6: Master

1,400 / 1,500 XP

  • Receipt scanned: +15 XP
  • Category corrected: +25 XP
  • Quarterly review: +100 XP
  • Achievement unlocked! ๐Ÿ†
๐ŸŽฏ Next unlock: Advanced Tax Reports
The Problem & Solution

Why Contractors Choose Booksmaster

We understand the pain of bookkeeping. Here's what we solve.

โŒ Tedious Receipt Entry

Manual receipt entry takes 10 minutes per receipt. Traditional OCR doesn't intelligently read receipts, forcing you to re-type nearly everything.

โœ… AI Vision That Actually Works

Gemini Vision API reads damaged, faded, and crumpled receipts with 6x better accuracy than traditional OCR (93% vs 14% field accuracy). Plus it's 5x fasterโ€”process entire stacks in minutes, not hours.

โŒ AI That Never Learns

Other software makes the same mistakes repeatedly. You correct "Home Depot" to "Materials" a hundred timesโ€”it still doesn't remember.

โœ… Self-Improving Intelligence

Our AI learns from every correction. After 50 interactions, expect 90%+ categorization accuracy. Truly personal AI.

โŒ Income Double-Counting

Recording the same income twice (check + deposit) is the #1 IRS audit trigger. No competitor addresses this problem.

โœ… Smart Duplicate Detection

AI automatically detects when a check matches a deposit. One-click linking prevents double-counting. Industry-first feature.

โŒ Too Expensive & Complex

QuickBooks starts at $360/year. Designed for accounting teams, not independent contractors who especially need better receipt tracking.

โœ… Free & Open Source

MIT licensedโ€”free to use, modify, and share. No subscriptions, no vendor lock-in. Contractor-focused UI means you're productive in minutes.

Built by Perpetual Entrepreneurs

Why We Built This

I've started about 50 ventures over 20 years. Most failed. A few had minor success. One (this one) might actually stick.

Through all of themโ€”author, solar sales, AI consulting, graphic t-shirts, YouTube short films, social mediaโ€”one thing never changed: the receipts kept piling up.

In 2012, I ran an eBay sporting goods business with 400-500 receipts and more than 100 additional documents to track (including invoices and manifests). QuickBooks wanted me to take a college course to use their software. Their OCR couldn't read so much as a scale ticket. So I built my own spreadsheets and spent 30-40 hours manually sorting receipts every tax season.

Fast forward to 2026: A contractor friend asked me to help with his books. AI vision models were finally good enough to build something better than legacy OCR.

So I did.

Booksmaster uses Gemini AIโ€”actual intelligence, not pattern matching. It's 6x more accurate and 5x faster than traditional OCR. No feature bloat. No growth assumptions. Just receipt tracking that actually works.

Because I know what it's like to be on business idea #3 with a shoebox of receipts and tax season looming. I built this for perpetual entrepreneurs who cycle through 3-5 ventures before finding sustained successโ€”not because I want them to fail, but because pivoting is part of the process.

"I needed this 10 years ago. Now it exists."

Read the full story โ†’

Complete Feature Set

Mystical Powers at Your Command

Every tool a contractor needs to conquer their financial realm

๐Ÿฅ‡ Industry Firsts

๐Ÿ”ฎ

LLM-Based Receipt Parsing

First bookkeeping software using Google Gemini Vision API. 6x more accurate and 5x faster than traditional OCR (Tesseract). Tested on hundreds of real contractor receiptsโ€”AI achieved 93% field accuracy vs OCR's 14%.

๐Ÿง 

Self-Learning AI

Learns from every correction. Vendor normalization, category patterns, payment methods. Gets smarter over time.

๐Ÿ”

Duplicate Detection

AI-powered check-to-deposit matching with confidence scoring. Prevents IRS audit triggers automatically.

โšก Core Powers

๐Ÿ”ฎ

AI Vision Oracle

Gemini-powered receipt scanning: 93% field accuracy, processes receipts in 8 seconds each. Traditional OCR: 14% accuracy, 40+ seconds per receipt. The difference is night and day.

๐Ÿ“œ

Auto Categorization

13 expense categories. Materials, Tools, Fuel, Subcontractorsโ€”learns your business taxonomy.

โšก

Batch Processing

Process entire stacks of receipts simultaneously. One spell, dozens of organized documents.

๐Ÿ“Š

Tax Reports

Schedule C exports, QuickBooks IIF, Excel, PDF archives. Ready for tax season in one click.

COMING SOON
๐Ÿš—

Mileage Tracking

Trip logging with IRS standard rates. Business/personal/commute classification.

๐Ÿฐ

Local Fortress

Your data stays on your computer. No cloud dependency. Complete privacy, absolute control.

๐Ÿ“‹

Document Linking

Link manifests and itemized receipts to payments. Complete audit trail for complex purchases.

๐Ÿ’ฐ

Tax Estimates

Quarterly tax calculator with Schedule SE. Deadline tracking with countdown timers.

๐Ÿ“

Invoicing

Create and track invoices. Earn XP for staying on top of accounts receivable.

See The Difference

How We Compare

Feature-by-feature comparison with major competitors

FeatureQuickBooksFreshBooksExpensifyBooksmaster
Price/Year$360-2400$228-720$60-216FREE
Batch ScanningโŒโŒโœ“ Basic OCRโœ“ Gemini AI
LLM/AI ParsingโŒโŒโŒโœ“ Gemini
GamificationโŒโŒโŒโœ“ FIRST
Self-Learning AIโŒโŒโš ๏ธ Basicโœ“ Advanced
Duplicate DetectionโŒโŒโŒโœ“ FIRST
Mileage Trackingโœ“โŒโœ“โœ“
Tax Estimatesโš ๏ธ Add-onโŒโŒโœ“
Offline-FirstโŒโŒโŒโœ“
ComplexityVery HighMediumLowVery Low
Simple Process

The Sacred Ritual

Four steps to financial enlightenment

1

Download

Install Booksmaster on Windows. No arcane configuration needed.

2

Scan

Import receipt images or use your camera. Batch process entire stacks at once.

3

Review

AI presents findings. Approve, adjust, or override. Your judgment is supreme.

4

Export

Generate tax-ready reports. Face the IRS with confidence and documentation.

Free & Open Source

Support the Mission

Booksmaster is free forever. If it helps you, consider supporting development.

Built by an indie developer, sustained by your support. This project took 3 months to build. Your donations = more features, faster bug fixes, and continued maintenance. Even $5/month helps dedicate time to this instead of client work.

๐Ÿ“œ MIT License

Free to use, modify, and share. No subscriptions. No vendor lock-in. No hidden costs. Fork it, customize it, make it yours. View on GitHub โ†’

๐Ÿ’š

GitHub Sponsors

Recurring monthly support

  • $5/month - Supporter badge
  • $10/month - Logo in README
  • $25/month - Priority issues
  • $50/month - Monthly feedback call
  • $100/month - Quarterly consulting
Become a Sponsor
๐Ÿ’™

PayPal

Direct one-time donations

  • Instant donation
  • Any amount
  • No signup required
  • Everyone has PayPal
  • Tax-deductible option
Donate via PayPal

๐Ÿ› ๏ธ Need Custom Work?

Consultation & Custom Development Available

Industry-specific customization โ€ข Training & mentorship โ€ข AI integration consulting โ€ข White-label versions โ€ข Multi-tenant solutions โ€ข Custom feature development

๐Ÿ’ผ
Hourly Consulting

$100-200/hour

๐ŸŽฏ
Support Contracts

$50-300/month

๐Ÿ—๏ธ
Custom Builds

Starting at $500

Visit AIAlchemist.net โ†’

Or contact via support page

๐Ÿ’ฐ The Value: Why Booksmaster Matters

Manual receipt entry: 10 min/receipt โ†’ 30 sec with AI = 30 hours saved/year
At $50/hr contractor rate = $1,500+ value
Plus: Lower tax prep fees ($300+), avoid software costs ($360+/year)
Total value: $2,000-5,000/year. Cost to you: $0.

If Booksmaster saves you $100 at tax time, consider donating $10 to keep it going.

Questions Answered

Frequently Asked Questions

๐Ÿ”’ Is my data safe?

Your financial data stays on your computerโ€”no cloud storage, no sharing. Important: When using AI receipt scanning, receipt images are sent to Google Gemini for processing. Google's AI processes the image and returns extracted data, but we recommend reviewing Google's privacy policy. You can use offline Tesseract OCR instead if preferred.

๐ŸŒ Do I need internet?

Only for AI features (receipt scanning). Once scanned, everything works offline. You can use Tesseract OCR fallback without internet.

๐Ÿ“ฑ Is there a mobile app?

Not currently planned, but very feasible with ongoing community support. Mobile development depends on user demand and sustained donations. Support development to help make it happen!

๐ŸŽฎ What's this gamification thing?

Earn XP for every actionโ€”scanning receipts, correcting categories, reviewing quarterly taxes. Level up from Apprentice to Master Contractor and unlock features as you progress.

๐Ÿ”„ Can I import from QuickBooks?

We export TO QuickBooks format (IIF), making migration easy. Import from QB coming in future updates.

๐Ÿ“Š What reports can I export?

Schedule C CSV, QuickBooks IIF, Excel with formatting, PDF receipt archives. Everything you need for tax season.

๐Ÿ”‘ Do I need an API key?

Yes, for AI features you'll need a Google Gemini API key on a pay-as-you-go tier (no subscription needed). The free tier has rate limits too restrictive for practical use. You only pay for what you useโ€”typical costs are minimal. Without an API key, you can still use Tesseract OCR for basic scanning. Get your API key โ†’

๐Ÿค– How accurate is the AI?

Gemini Vision API achieves 90%+ accuracy on receipt parsing. The self-learning system improves with every correction you make, becoming personalized to your business.

Begin Your Quest

Download Booksmaster and master your financial realm

๐Ÿ“Œ Version 1.0.0

Windows Desktop Application

Complete suite: AI receipt scanning, gamification, self-learning categorization, tax reports, and more.

โš”๏ธ Download for Windows (93 MB)

๐ŸชŸ Currently Windows only

Windows 10+ (64-bit) 4GB RAM minimum 500MB disk space Internet for AI features Google AI key required No subscription needed

macOS and Linux support depends on community interest. Support development to help prioritize cross-platform builds.