Books

Create and manage Books in Bkper — configure settings, copy, delete, and connect to other features.

A Book is a self-contained ledger — the complete scope of an entity, whether an individual, a project, or a business. Every Account, Transaction, and Group lives within a Book, and every Book balances to zero. For a deeper look at the model, see Core Concepts — Books.

Create a Book

On the Book list, click New Book (+) at the top. Your new empty Book is ready immediately.

Animated walkthrough of creating a new empty Book in Bkper

To start with pre-configured accounts, choose a template from the Book list instead — such as Business General Ledger or Personal Finances — then click View Book Template and Copy this Book. Rename it and adjust the accounts and groups to fit your situation.

Book Settings

Book settings are configured individually per Book. Open your Book, navigate to the Transactions page, and click the Configuration Menu (⚙️) on the right side. Select Settings to configure your preferences.

Settings & Preferences

The following settings are available:

Time zone
Date pattern
Decimal places — up to 8 digits, supporting cryptocurrencies
Number format
Page size
Lock date — see Closing & Lock Dates
Closing date — see Closing & Lock Dates

Book settings detail view showing available options

Book properties

You can attach custom properties to a Book to store metadata that applies to the entire ledger — a tax ID, company address, or base currency code. These key/value pairs are especially valuable in automated workflows: bots read Book properties to determine how they should behave, such as the Exchange Bot reading exc_code to know the base currency.

To manage Book properties, open Settings (⚙️) → Configurations > Book Properties and add or modify key/value pairs. See the Properties guide for details and examples.

Renaming a Book

To rename a Book, open it and navigate to the Transactions or Accounts page. Click the Book name at the top-right and type a new name.

Changing Book Ownership

Only the current owner can request an ownership transfer:

Have the current owner send a request to support@bkper.com.
Share the Book with the new owner, granting them edit permissions.
Include the new owner’s email address and the Book ID (found in the Book URL) in the request.

Language

The user language is set by each individual user and applies system-wide across all their Books. Two users can work on the same shared Book, each with a different language.

Change your language from the Book overview, or from the Configuration Menu (⚙️) → Settings.

Language selection from the Bkper Book overview

Changing user language through the Book configuration menu

Example of multilingual recording with mixed LTR and RTL text in Bkper

Closing & Lock Dates

Bkper provides two mechanisms to protect past periods from modifications: the lock date and the closing date. Both prevent changes to Transactions before a given date, but differ in who can adjust them.

Lock date

The lock date prevents any modification prior to its date. Set it after filing a tax return or completing an interim review to protect the corresponding period. Both the Book owner and editors can set or adjust the lock date.

To set a lock date, open the Configuration Menu (⚙️) → Settings, set the Lock date, and press Save.

Setting a lock date in Bkper through the Book settings menu

Bkper transactions view showing that modifications before the lock date are blocked

Closing date

The closing date enforces a permanent closed period. It works like the lock date — blocking Transaction changes before the date — but only the Book owner can remove it or set it backward.

To set a closing date, open the Configuration Menu (⚙️) → Settings, set the Closing date, and press Save.

Bkper settings showing the closing date configuration

Lock date vs. closing date

Feature	Who can set it	Who can remove or move it backward
Lock date	Owner and editors	Owner and editors
Closing date	Owner and editors	Owner only

If both are set on the same Book, Transactions are blocked up to the most recent of the two dates. Use the lock date for day-to-day operational locks and the closing date for definitive period closes.

Copy a Book

To copy a Book, open it and navigate to the Transactions page. Click the Configuration Menu (⚙️), then select Make a copy…

Give the copied Book a name. To include transactions, check Copy Transactions and optionally enter a date from which transactions will be copied — leave blank to copy all. Press Save.

Animated walkthrough of copying a Book in Bkper

Delete a Book

To delete a Book, open it and navigate to the Transactions page. Click the Configuration Menu (⚙️), then select Delete this book. In the confirmation dialog, mark the checkbox and click Remove.

Animated walkthrough of deleting a Book in Bkper

BookID

The bookid is a unique identifier for each Book in your Bkper account — a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols that appears in the URL when you open a Book. It is generated when the Book is created and cannot be changed.

Where to find it

Open any Book in Bkper and look at the address bar — the bookid is the string after bookId=.

Bkper book URL with the bookid highlighted in the address bar

Using the bookid in integrations

Use the bookid whenever you need to reference your Book from external tools — Google Sheets, Google Apps Script, the REST API, or other integrations.

In Bkper Functions on Google Sheets, the bookid tells each function which Book to fetch data from. Placing it in a configuration cell lets you repoint an entire report to a different Book by changing one value.

Google Sheets showing the bookid used in a Bkper Function to connect to a specific book

Searching your Book

Every transaction in a Book is searchable using the query language. Type a query in the search bar to filter transactions by account, date, amount, status, or description — and see matching balance values in charts. The same query syntax works in the web app, Bkper Functions, and the Bkper Add-on for Google Sheets, so you can build a query once and use it everywhere.

For periodic reporting, save your queries and re-run them with a single click. Combined with date variables like after:$m-12, saved queries produce rolling reports that stay up to date automatically.

Hashtags

Hashtags are scoped to each Book — every Book maintains its own set of indexed hashtags, and the Bkper Agent learns hashtag-to-account patterns independently per Book. Use hashtags in transaction descriptions to enable cross-account segment reporting and faster search within the Book.

Comments and collaboration

Comments enable in-context communication within a shared Book. Instead of emailing about a transaction, comment directly on it — mention a collaborator with @username and they receive a notification. Comments attach to transactions, search results, accounts, groups, or hashtags, keeping discussions where they belong.

Attachments

Each Book supports file attachments on transactions — receipts, invoices, contracts, and other documents stored alongside the entries they support. Every Book also has a unique email address for recording by email: forward an invoice and the Bkper Agent creates a draft with the file attached, enabling paperless bookkeeping without leaving your inbox.