Textbook Accounting — Doing it by the bookTextbook Accounting — Doing it by the book Join the beta

Accounting for South African small businesses

Your books, on your own computer.

Desktop accounting for offices that use Pastel on a network. Textbook Accounting runs on a computer in your office: invoices, bank statements, VAT, payroll and stock for everyone on the office network, with your books kept by you, not on someone else's server.

Join the beta See the prices

The beta starts in January 2027Free until 30 June 2027, with help moving your Pastel company across. In return, about an hour a week and honest feedback. What joining involves

  • Your data stays with you

    The books live on your own computer, backed up every night to a second place you choose: a USB drive, a shared folder.

  • Keeps working offline

    Everyone in the office keeps invoicing when the internet is down. It only needs the line for updates and its licence.

  • Buy it once, or pay yearly

    Buy it outright and keep it, or pay yearly. Five people can use it from the start; add payroll or stock only if you need them.

Fig. 1 Karoo Hardware (practice company) · DashboardFull size
The Textbook Accounting dashboard for Karoo Hardware, a practice company: cash in bank R 146 663,14, R 86 925,74 owed to you, R 33 810,00 you owe, recent activity and items to review.
  1. The money at a glance. Cash in the bank, what is owed to you and what you owe, and the VAT so far.
  2. Recent activity. See the latest changes in the practice company, including invoices, payroll and recurring work.
  3. What needs you today. Overdue invoices, the VAT return coming due, stock running low, each one a click away.

What it does

Everything a small business does every month

Made for South Africa from the start: SARS VAT201, PAYE, UIF and SDL, rand amounts, and South African banks' statements. These are the real screens, from a practice company, in the light theme.

Selling

Invoices typed as fast as you talk

Quotes, orders, invoices and credit notes, typed from the keyboard: Enter moves along the line, F5 copies the field above. Email the PDF from the invoice, and let reminders go out by themselves when it is overdue.

Fig. 2 Karoo Hardware (practice company) · Sales · INV00010Full size
A posted tax invoice, INV00010, to Springbok Renovations: 12 tins of white acrylic paint and 1 200 face bricks, VAT at 15% on each line, a total of R 20 617,20 ruled off under the VAT, and buttons for PDF, delivery note, email and credit note.
  1. One line per item, with its account and VAT rate, typed without reaching for the mouse.
  2. Totals ruled off the way a bookkeeper would: excluding VAT, the VAT, the total, and what is still open.
  3. From the invoice itself: the PDF, a delivery note, the email, or a credit note.

VAT

A VAT201 that checks itself before you file

The return builds up as you work. Before you file, it lists what SARS could question: VAT claimed from a supplier with no VAT number on record, large invoices to customers without one. Click any figure to see what is behind it.

Fig. 3 Karoo Hardware (practice company) · VAT201 · Oct to Nov 2026Full size
The VAT201 for October to November 2026, due by 31 December on eFiling. A yellow box headed Before you file lists seven checks, such as input tax claimed from suppliers with no VAT number on record. Below it, the first fields of the return.
  1. Before you file: each thing SARS could question, with what to do about it.
  2. The period and deadline, with a CSV download for the return.
  3. Every field of the return, and what is behind each figure.

Payroll, an add-on

Payroll, if you have employees

Each pay run starts from last month's, so you only enter what changed. PAYE, UIF and SDL worked out from SARS tables you check each year, payslips emailed, and the EMP201 ready.

Fig. 4 Karoo Hardware (practice company) · Payroll · Posted October pay runFull size
The posted October 2026 payroll for Sipho Dlamini, Thandi Mokoena and Pieter van Wyk: gross pay R 51 500,00, PAYE R 4 892,58, net pay R 46 195,30, an EMP201 summary and an Email payslips button.
  1. Everyone in the run: salaries, overtime and allowances, with each person’s gross pay and deductions.
  2. Posted, with payslips to email and the EMP201 ready.
  3. PAYE, UIF and SDL from the year's SARS tables, checked before payroll uses them.

Fixed assets

Fixed assets and depreciation

Keep your equipment and vehicles in a register, and post a month's depreciation in one step. Selling or scrapping an asset works out the profit or loss, and the register checks itself against the ledger.

Fig. 5 Karoo Hardware (practice company) · Fixed assets · RegisterFull size
The fixed asset register as at 6 November 2026: a pallet jack and trolleys, a till with scanners and a receipt printer, and warehouse shelving, with cost, depreciation and carrying value, totalling R 80 000,00 cost and R 58 888,89 carrying value.
  1. Depreciation, posted month by month from its own tab.
  2. Cost, depreciation and carrying value, totalled, and downloadable as a CSV.

And the rest of the month

  • Bank statements that match themselves

    Import the statement from your internet banking (CSV, Excel, OFX or QIF). Payments are matched to invoices, and the rest is coded the way you coded it before.

  • A month end that ticks itself off

    Bank done, drafts posted, depreciation and payroll in, VAT filed, month locked: the dashboard sees each one happen.

  • Several people at once

    Everyone sees the others' changes as they happen, sees who else has an invoice open, and never overwrites someone else's save.

  • Stock, with barcodes (an add-on)

    Items, warehouses, price lists and stock on every invoice. Scan a barcode to find the item.

  • Recurring invoices and statements

    Rent and retainers invoiced and emailed every month; statements to every customer with a balance at month end.

  • Backups and updates looked after

    A backup every night and before every update. If an update ever fails, it puts the old version back by itself.

Coming from Pastel

It works the way your office already works

If your office has used Pastel on a network, nothing here will surprise you. The difference is that you can buy it outright again, and that it is being built now, with the offices that use it.

One computer keeps the books
The host runs on the office PC or server; everyone else connects over the network, from Windows, a Mac or Linux, or a browser.
Typing from the keyboard
Account codes, Enter to move on, Ctrl K to jump to any customer, invoice or screen.
Your company comes with you
We are finishing a tool that brings a Pastel company across. Beta companies are moved with our help, and checked balance by balance.
Your accountant can keep up
Trial balance, income statement, balance sheet, aged debtors and creditors, an audit trail of every change, and everything exports to Excel.
Your books stay yours
If a licence ends, the program becomes read-only: you can still open, print and export your reports and back everything up.

Setting up

One install in the office, then everyone connects

The computer that stays on in the office keeps the books, and everyone else works from it over the office network.

  1. Install the host

    On the computer that stays on in the office: Windows 10 or 11, a Mac, or an Ubuntu server.

  2. Connect each computer

    The app finds the host on the network. You check a short security code once, and it only ever talks to your host.

  3. Add your people

    Administrators, accountants and clerks, each with their own login and what they may do.

  4. Leave it running

    Backups every night, updates installed overnight after a backup, and you can always see what changed and who changed it.

Prices

Pay yearly, or buy it outright

The base covers invoicing, banking, VAT, reports and email. Add more people, payroll or stock only if you need them.

Proposed prices. They may change before launch. Prices include VAT where applicable.

Yearly

Renews each year

R 6 900 a year

  • 5 users and 1 company
  • Everything in the base: invoicing, banking, VAT, reports, email
  • Updates and email support included

Outright

Yours to keep

R 19 900 once

  • The same as yearly, and it never expires
  • Support and updates R 1 900 a year, optional after the first year
  • Without it, the version you have keeps working

Add-ons

AddWhat you getYearly planOutright
More usersUsers come in packs of 5R 3 300 a yearR 9 900 once
PayrollUp to 25 employees: PAYE, UIF, SDL, payslips, EMP201R 1 490 a yearR 3 490 once+ R 990 a year for tax tables
StockItems, barcodes, warehouses, price listsR 1 200 a yearOn request
TrialTry everything free for 30 days

Without a card.

BetaFree until 30 June 2027

For beta companies, with everything switched on. Join the beta

The beta

Use it free, and tell us what is missing

The first businesses start in January 2027. We are looking for a handful of offices that use Pastel today and will try Textbook Accounting alongside it.

You get

  • Everything switched on, free until 30 June 2027
  • Help moving your Pastel company across, checked with you
  • A direct line to the people building it

In return

  • About an hour a week
  • Honest feedback

Not ready to try it yet? Fill in the form anyway and we will tell you when it launches.

Questions

What people ask first

Anything else, write to support@pencilbooks.co.za. A person answers.

Where is my data kept?

On the computer in your office that runs the host, in a folder you can see, backed up every night to a second place you choose. We never hold your books. The program sends us a daily check-in (its version, and whether backups are working), its licence check, error reports with names and amounts removed, and notes you send us yourself. The privacy notice lists all of it.

Do I need the internet?

Not to work. Everyone on the office network keeps going when the line is down. The host checks for updates and its licence when it can, and keeps working in between.

Can I work from home?

Yes, through your office's VPN or remote desktop, as with Pastel. There is no cloud version, on purpose.

Which computers does it run on?

The host runs on Windows 10 or 11, macOS 13 or later, or Ubuntu 22.04 or later. The app runs on Windows, Mac and Linux, and in any modern browser on the office network.

Does it do the SARS returns?

It prepares the VAT201 field by field, with checks before you file, and the EMP201 for payroll. You file them on eFiling as you do now. Tax tables are updated every year and checked before payroll uses them.

What happens after the beta?

You choose a plan, or stop. Your books stay yours either way: if a licence ends, the program becomes read-only, and you can still open, print and export your reports and back everything up.

Who makes it?

Textbook Accounting, in South Africa. Write to support@pencilbooks.co.za with any question; a person answers.