How to Use the Free Small-Shop Bookkeeping Tracker: Step by Step
Reviewed by the OnlineFree.app team · Updated
Key points
- The Free Small-Shop Bookkeeping Tracker is a no-signup, browser-only cash book that totals sales, expenses, net profit and cash on hand as you type.
- Cash on hand counts cash sales minus cash expenses only, so credit sales raise profit but never raise the cash figure.
- Amounts are capped at 9,999,999 DZD and rounded to two decimals, and dates cannot be in the future or more than two years old.
- Corrections are done by deleting the row and re-adding it, which updates every summary tile instantly.
- Data lives in your browser, so export the filtered CSV regularly — clearing site data permanently deletes the book.
What does the Free Small-Shop Bookkeeping Tracker do?
The Free Small-Shop Bookkeeping Tracker is a browser-based cash book where a shop owner records each sale and each expense, and instantly sees total sales, total expenses, net profit and cash on hand for the selected period. There is no sign-up, no install, and no accounting jargon to learn; amounts default to Algerian dinars (DZD).
It is deliberately narrower than accounting software. It does not do double-entry, VAT, invoices or tax returns. It does one job well: capture the money moving across the counter today, while you are still standing at it, in under 15 seconds per entry.
Everything runs in the page itself. You open the Free Small-Shop Bookkeeping Tracker, type an amount, and the summary tiles and ledger update on the same screen — no page reload, no email confirmation, no subscription prompt. It sits alongside the other free online tools on OnlineFree.app.
Record a sale in four taps
Start with the entry type set to Sale — that is the default. Type the amount in DZD: it must be greater than zero and no larger than 9,999,999, and it is rounded to two decimals, so 1,250.50 works fine on a phone keypad.
The date defaults to today, which is what you want 95% of the time. The field will not accept a future date, and it rejects anything more than two years back, so you cannot accidentally file a sale in 2019 with a mistyped year.
Pick a category — General, Food, Clothing or Other — then choose Cash or Credit. Leave a short note if it helps you later, but the note is capped at 60 characters and trimmed, so "2 kg tomatoes" fits while a full sentence does not. Press add and the entry appears at the top of the ledger with a green plus sign.
Our rule when we tested this with a counter workflow: if you cannot finish the entry before the next customer arrives, the note field is where you are losing time. Log the amount first, add the note afterwards only if it matters for that sale.
Log expenses without mixing them up
Switch the segmented toggle to Expense and the category list changes to Stock, Rent, Utilities, Transport, Salary and Other, with Other as the default. The Cash/Credit toggle disappears here, because expenses are treated as paid at the moment you record them.
That design choice matters. A shop that buys stock on credit from a wholesaler cannot mark that purchase as unpaid in this tool — it will reduce cash on hand immediately, even though no money left the till yet. If you buy on credit regularly, either record the expense on the day you actually pay the supplier, or note the credit terms in the note field and reconcile against your supplier receipts.
Rent and salary are usually monthly, so record them once on the day they leave the till. Utilities and transport are the two categories people most often forget; a week of small transport entries at 200–400 DZD each is easily 2,000 DZD that would otherwise inflate your apparent profit.
How do the four summary tiles actually calculate?
Total sales is the sum of every sale in the active filter. Total expenses is the sum of every expense. Net profit is sales minus expenses. Cash on hand is different: it is cash sales minus cash expenses only, so a credit sale raises profit but does not raise the cash figure until it is collected — and this tool has no collection step, so a credit sale never moves cash on hand at all.
A worked example: if today you took 12,000 DZD in cash sales, made one 3,000 DZD credit sale, and paid 7,500 DZD for stock in cash, the tiles read 15,000 DZD sales, 7,500 DZD expenses, 7,500 DZD net profit, and 4,500 DZD cash on hand. If the 4,500 does not match the notes physically in your drawer, the gap is almost always an unrecorded expense or cash taken out for personal use.
Remember that the tiles follow the filter chips, not the whole history. With "This month" selected you see month-to-date figures; switch to "All" for the full record. Verify any figure you plan to act on — for example a supplier payment decision — against your receipts before relying on it.
How do you fix a wrong entry and export the book?
The ledger lists entries newest first, with the date, category or note, payment method, and a signed amount in green or red. Filter chips for Today, This week, This month and All re-scope both the table and the four tiles at once.
Correction is delete-and-re-add rather than inline editing. Find the row, delete it, and re-enter the correct amount — the totals recalculate immediately. This is honest but easy to get wrong: after deleting, re-add before you navigate away, or the day's numbers stay short.
The export bar downloads a CSV of exactly the filtered ledger, so select "This month" first if that is the file you want. The Print button uses a clean print stylesheet with a shop-name header line, which is what most owners hand to a bookkeeper or keep in a folder as a paper backup.
Where this tracker stops — and what to do about it
Records live in your browser, not on a server account. That is why there is no sign-up, and also why clearing site data, switching browsers, or using a private window can wipe a day's entries. Export the CSV at closing time, or every few days at minimum, and keep it somewhere you control.
It is a cash book, not a tax record. There is no VAT handling and no audit trail of edits, so treat the export as a working record to hand to an accountant rather than a filing in itself. Amounts are entered in DZD; there is no currency conversion.
If your shop needs credit tracking, multi-currency, or a second user on the same book, this single-page tool will not carry it. That is a spec problem, not a bug — and it is the kind of thing we scope in a custom PRD build before writing code.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Free Small-Shop Bookkeeping Tracker free, and do I need an account?
Yes, it is free and there is no account, email address or password involved. You open the page and start entering sales and expenses immediately. Because nothing is tied to a login, the trade-off is that records live only in that browser, so download the CSV regularly if the numbers matter to you.
How do I export my cash book to CSV or print it?
Use the export bar beneath the ledger. Choose a filter chip first — Today, This week, This month or All — because the CSV contains exactly the filtered rows. The Print button next to it opens a clean print view with a shop-name header line, suitable for a paper folder or for handing to a bookkeeper.
Does the tracker calculate VAT or produce a tax return?
No. The Free Small-Shop Bookkeeping Tracker records sales, expenses, net profit and cash on hand only. It has no VAT field, no invoice numbering and no edit history, so it cannot serve as a tax filing on its own. Many owners give the CSV export to their accountant as supporting detail instead.
What happens to my entries if I clear my browser data?
They are deleted. The tracker stores entries in your browser rather than on a server, which is what keeps it sign-up-free and private, but it also means clearing site data, switching browsers or using private browsing can lose the book. Export the CSV at least weekly and before clearing anything.
Can I record a sale or purchase made on credit?
Sales can be marked Cash or Credit, but a credit sale raises net profit without changing cash on hand, since the tool has no collection step. Expenses have no credit option at all, so a credit stock purchase reduces cash on hand as soon as you record it. Record supplier payments on the day money actually leaves the till.