Bookkeeping in Fulkrum

Bookkeeping is just keeping an organized record of the money coming into and going out of your business. In Fulkrum you don't do that with spreadsheets or accounting jargon. You connect your account, and then answer a few simple questions. Here's exactly how it works.

Two ways to do your books

Pick whichever fits you. You can switch anytime:

• Do it yourself (DIY). Fulkrum's tools and assistant do the heavy lifting; you just confirm. Great if you want to stay hands-on and keep costs low.
• Full Service. Our accountants keep your books for you and handle your year-end taxes. Great if you'd rather hand it off entirely.

Everything below is the DIY flow, and it's the same set of books your accountant uses if you upgrade to Full Service.

Step 1: Get your transactions in

Fulkrum needs to see your income and spending. Two easy ways:

• Connect your bank (recommended). We connect securely through Stripe. Your transactions flow in automatically from then on, and your bank login stays with your bank.
• Upload a statement. Prefer not to connect? Download a statement from your bank and upload the file, and Fulkrum reads it for you.

You never type transactions in by hand.

Step 2: Fulkrum sorts them for you

As soon as your transactions arrive, Fulkrum's assistant makes a first pass and sorts each one into the right category, like "Office supplies," "Software," or "Sales income." It's confident about most of them right away.

Step 3: Answer a few simple questions

For anything the assistant isn't sure about, it asks you a plain-English question, one at a time. For example, "Was this $18 coffee shop charge a business expense?"

• Tap to confirm, or pick a different answer.
• If it's a type of expense you have often, Fulkrum remembers your choice and stops asking.
• When you've been through a statement, it's marked as reviewed.

That's the whole rhythm: the assistant proposes, you confirm. No accounting terms, no manual sorting.

Step 4: Add receipts (optional, but smart)

Snap a photo of a receipt or upload it, and Fulkrum automatically matches it to the right transaction. Receipts don't change your numbers; they're proof attached to the record, which makes tax time and any future questions much easier. You can add tags to a receipt too, and they carry over to the matched transaction.

Step 5: Tag the things that matter to you

Beyond the basic category, you can add tags to transactions, such as a project, a location, a client, or a piece of equipment. Later, your reports can slice by any tag, so you can see, for example, how much a particular project actually cost. This is optional; skip it if you don't need it.

Step 6: Close out the month

Once a month's transactions are reviewed, you can mark the month complete. Then open the Health & Forecast view to see a plain summary: money in, money out, profit, and a simple forecast. If you spot something off, you can reopen the month and fix it.

What you can see any time

Your Home dashboard always shows the essentials in numbers you can read at a glance:

• Cash on hand: what's in your accounts right now.
• Are you making money? income, spending, and what's left.
• Will you run out of cash? roughly how much runway you have.

Fixing something later

Made a mistake or changed your mind? You can recategorize a transaction at any point, even after it's been finalized. Pick the new category and Fulkrum updates your books and your reports.

A few tips

• Do a little, often. Reviewing new transactions once a week takes minutes and keeps everything current.
• Connect the bank if you can. It's less work than uploading and nothing gets missed.
• When unsure, just ask. The assistant can answer questions about your own numbers in plain language.

What you don't have to do

• No spreadsheets.
• No debits and credits, no chart of accounts to memorize.
• No typing transactions by hand.

Connect your account, confirm a few questions, and your books stay current. That's bookkeeping in Fulkrum.