Will my lender accept this?
Often, yes. For most small-business loans, lenders accept financial statements prepared by the owner, usually signed and dated, and the packet can print a signature block for that. Some programs — including certain mortgage programs that qualify you on a Profit and Loss alone — require statements prepared by a CPA or another credentialed tax professional. Ask your lender what they require before you buy. Rekonix Lite does not audit, review or compile your financial statements and provides no assurance on them.
Can my tax preparer use it?
Yes. The packet includes a worksheet showing where each category usually goes on your return (Schedule C, Form 1065, 1120-S or 1120), a list of the people you may need to send a Form 1099, and an Excel copy of every transaction. It is not a tax return, and your preparer will still make tax adjustments such as depreciation.
What do I need to get started?
Every statement that covers your 12 months, for each bank account, credit card and loan the business uses: every account, every month, with no month missing. If your statements end mid-month, you also need the one that includes January 1 (usually the statement dated January, which starts in December) and the one that includes December 31. Thirteen per account is normal. PDF statements downloaded from your bank’s website work best; a CSV, Excel or QBO/QFX/OFX export of the year works too, with the account’s opening and closing balances typed in when the export does not carry them. If you pay people by check, have your bank’s check images or your check register handy; a statement shows only the check number. You do not need receipts, a chart of accounts, or any bookkeeping software. Which statements do I need? A checklist by account →
Personal expenses are on the same account. Is that a problem?
No. Anything personal is marked as an owner draw, so it shows on the Balance Sheet as money you took out, not as a business expense. You can mark every transaction from a payee at once.
How long does it actually take?
About a minute per statement to read — drop them all at once and leave the tab open — then as long as you take to check it. You can finish a year in an evening.
Can my tax preparer or bookkeeper do this for me?
Yes. Anyone you give the statements to can build the packet and send it to you, or you can send them the packet once it is downloaded. A firm can keep every client’s packets under one account and pays only per packet downloaded.
How do I know the numbers are right?
Because every statement has to add up — what you started with, plus every transaction, equals what you ended with, to the cent — or it is not used, and every account must be covered for the whole period with no month missing. Anything that does not add up is shown to you to correct. Every figure traces back to a statement you uploaded, or to a number you supplied and the packet labels as yours, and the packet’s proof page lays the checks out so a lender or preparer can verify them against your statements without taking anyone’s word for it.
What is not included?
The Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss are prepared on the cash basis from your bank, card, and loan statements. They do not include money customers owe you, bills you have not paid, inventory, or depreciation for the current year. Payroll shows as what was paid from the accounts; the payroll returns themselves are not prepared. Deposits from a card processor or marketplace (Square, Stripe, PayPal, Shopify, Amazon and the like) are recorded as Sales at the amount deposited, net of the processor’s fees; the fees are not shown as a separate expense, so the gross figure on a Form 1099-K will be higher than Sales here. You can list equipment and vehicles you already owned, and add your own categories. The full list of known limits →
My lender wants more than one year. What does that cost?
Your first packet is $49.99. Buy every year at once and each extra year is $25 for up to two accounts, plus $10 for each account beyond two: add the years to the business from your packets page, and when they are ready they are paid together on one Pay page. A year bought on its own later is $49.99. Your years download together as one packet, with a column for each year on the Balance Sheet and the Profit and Loss, or any year on its own: your choice on the Download page.
What if it does not work for my statements, or I want a refund?
Write to the support address below and tell us what happened. Refund requests are handled individually. If Rekonix Lite could not read your bank’s statements correctly, we would like the chance to fix that for you.
Is this a subscription?
No. You pay once for a packet covering one business: one year of up to 12 months, plus any further years of that business you buy with it. You can change categories and download it again as often as you like at no charge. One packet is one business: an account two businesses share goes in one of them, with the other’s spending as owner draws.
How much is read before I pay?
Up to 60 statements are read free before purchase, which covers a four-account year, and up to 120 across everything you have not yet purchased; if your year needs more, purchase the packet and upload the rest. A purchased packet reads up to 120 statements, which covers a year with mid-month cycles and the odd re-upload.
How accurate is the sorting?
Every transaction gets a first category from the payee and the kind of business you describe. You see every one before you pay, can change any line or a whole payee at once, and the lines we were not sure about are shown to you first. Nothing prints that you have not seen.
Which banks work?
Statements from more than 30 banks and card issuers have been read so far, including scanned ones. Each statement is proved against its own printed balances before it is used. If yours cannot be read, you do not pay, and we would like the file so we can fix that.
Can I upload a scan? A photo?
A scanned statement is accepted and proved like any other: its beginning balance plus every transaction must equal its ending balance before it is used. A photo of a statement is not accepted; download the statement from your bank’s website instead.
My lender wants year-to-date. Does that work?
Yes. Pick any start and end up to twelve months; a lender’s year-to-date request is the same packet.
There are two of us. Does it handle an S corporation, or partners?
Yes. The Owners page handles members, partners and shareholders: each draw or contribution can be assigned by name, the Balance Sheet shows them that way, and a corporation is asked how its shareholders are paid so the packet can say so for your preparer.
I have a rental property. Does it do Schedule E?
Not yet. The tax-line worksheet covers Schedule C, Form 1065, 1120-S and 1120. A rental’s statements can still be read and sorted, and the Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss still work, but no worksheet maps the categories to Schedule E.
Another question? Write to our support address, shown once the page has loaded.