Question 1

What does CovelBooks actually do?

Accepted Answer

CovelBooks unifies the banks, accounts and cards across all your companies into a single double-entry ledger. You record inflows, outflows and transfers, import statements as CSV, auto-categorize them with rules, and report across the whole group from one place.

Question 2

How is the company hierarchy structured?

Accepted Answer

There are four levels: company, then bank, then account, then card. You can model a parent company with several subsidiaries, each holding its own banks and accounts, and still report on everything together.

Question 3

Do I need accounting experience to use it?

Accepted Answer

No. Transfers between your own accounts are recorded as a single balanced movement, so you do not have to think in debits and credits. The double-entry ledger keeps the books correct underneath while you work in plain language.

Question 4

How long does setup take?

Accepted Answer

Most teams add their first company, connect an account and import an opening statement within a few minutes. You can build out the rest of the hierarchy and your categorization rules over time.

Question 5

Is there a free plan?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The trial plan is free for a single company and does not expire. Upgrade when you add more companies or grow your team.

Question 6

Which payment methods do you accept?

Accepted Answer

Payments are handled by Stripe, so any card Stripe supports works. CovelBooks never sees or stores your full card number.

Question 7

Can I switch between monthly and yearly billing?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Yearly billing is charged once for twelve months and costs less than paying month to month. You can switch the cycle from your billing settings, and the saving is shown on the pricing page.

Question 8

What happens if I cancel?

Accepted Answer

You keep access until the end of the current billing period, after which the workspace moves to read-only so you can still export your data. Nothing is deleted automatically.

Question 9

How do I import bank statements?

Accepted Answer

Export a CSV from your bank and upload it. You map the columns once per account, and CovelBooks remembers the mapping for next time. Imported transactions are matched against your rules and categorized automatically.

Question 10

How do auto-categorization rules work?

Accepted Answer

Rules match on the description, amount or counterparty and assign a category. They run on every imported and manual transaction, so recurring payments like rent, payroll or subscriptions sort themselves the moment they arrive.

Question 11

Does CovelBooks handle multiple currencies?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Each account and card holds its own currency, so a single company can mix, for example, USD and EUR balances. Group reports bring those figures together for a consolidated view.

Question 12

Can I get my data back out?

Accepted Answer

Always. Your transactions and reports can be exported, and your data remains yours. There is no lock-in and no fee to leave.

Question 13

How is my financial data protected?

Accepted Answer

Data is encrypted in transit with TLS and encrypted at rest in the database. Access is scoped by role so people only see the companies they are entitled to, and we follow industry-standard practices for hosting and backups.

Question 14

Do you store my card details?

Accepted Answer

No. All payment processing runs through Stripe. CovelBooks stores only a reference to your Stripe customer, never the card number or security code.

Question 15

Who on my team can see what?

Accepted Answer

Roles and access control let you decide who can view or edit each company in your hierarchy. An owner can invite teammates and restrict them to specific companies.

Question 16

Where can I report a security issue?

Accepted Answer

We welcome responsible disclosure. Email hello@example.com and we will acknowledge your report and work with you on a fix. See our security page for full details.

Answers to the questions we hear most

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