How to keep your books with this app

A guide for restaurant owners who are not accountants and not computer people. You need about 20 minutes once, then about 15 minutes a week.

The idea in one minute

Bookkeeping means writing down every franc that comes in and goes out, and why. The law asks for it, and the tax office and VAT office use it.

This app does most of that writing for you. You give it three things that you already have:

Your bank statement, downloaded from e-banking. It shows every payment in and out.
Your till report, exported from the cash register. It shows what you sold, and how people paid.
Your bills and receipts: supplier invoices with a QR code, and shop receipts. A phone photo is enough.

The app reads them, recognises most things by itself (rent, Prodega, Swisscom, card payouts…), and only asks you about what it cannot know. Those questions appear under To do.

Where your data lives: on the shared address, the books are kept on a server, and every device that opens the address shows the same books (see Several devices). Opened any other way, they stay only in that browser. Either way, keep a monthly backup (see Keep it safe).

The first day (about 20 minutes)

Open the app in Chrome, Safari or Edge, on the computer you will use for the books. Bookmark the page.
Try the demo first, if you like. Settings → Load a demo fills in a made-up month so you can click around without fear. When you are done, Settings → Delete all data empties it again.
Fill in Settings. Restaurant name, the owner's name (so private transfers are recognised), which days you are closed, and whether you are a sole owner or a company (SA / Sàrl). Click Save settings.
Tell it your starting point. Bookkeeping always starts from a date; 1 January is easiest. In Settings → Enter starting balances, fill in what you know: cash in the till, equipment, food and drinks stock, unpaid supplier bills. Leave the bank empty: the first bank statement fills it in. Take the figures from last year's balance sheet, or ask your fiduciary. Not sure? Skip it and add it later.
Add your staff in Payroll → Add employee: name, monthly salary or hourly rate, year of birth, start date. If someone has no C permit or lives in France, enter their tax-at-source rate (from the Geneva table your fiduciary or the tax office gives you).
Check the insurance rates in Payroll → Insurance rates. The Geneva rates are already there. Copy the accident, sickness and pension rates from your own insurance policies.

Every week (about 15 minutes)

Download your bank statement in e-banking. Choose the format camt.053 (XML) if offered, otherwise CSV. Pick the dates since last time.
Export the till report from your cash register for the same days, as CSV or Excel-CSV. (Ask your till supplier once where the export button is; it is usually under "Reports" or "Rapports".)
Photograph receipts you paid in cash or by card, and drop in PDF bills from suppliers.
Drop everything into the app. Drag the files onto the page, or use Add → Choose files. On a phone, Photograph a receipt opens the camera. You will see the files fly into the books.
Answer the questions under To do. Typical question: "CHF 180 to Fleurs de Carouge, what was this?" Pick the answer once; next time the app remembers.

That is all. Do not type in the payments one by one: the app does that from the files.

Every month

Count the cash in the till on the last day. In the new month, To do shows Enter the count. Small differences are normal; the app books them.
Run payroll: Payroll, type the hours of hourly staff, then Run payroll. Open each payslip, print or send it. Pay the net wages from e-banking; next week's bank statement settles them automatically.
Look at Overview. It shows sales, costs, profit, and three health checks: food cost (aim at most 30 % of food sales), drinks cost (at most 25 %) and staff cost (at most 35 % of sales). Red means look closer.
Make a backup: Settings → Download backup. Keep the file in two places (computer and a USB stick or cloud folder).

The yearly calendar

When	What	Where in the app
End of each quarter	VAT return to the federal tax office (ESTV), due 60 days after the quarter. The app fills in the figures; you type them into the ESTV ePortal and pay.	Reports → VAT, then I've filed it in the ePortal
Every month	Tax at source for staff without a C permit or living in France: declare and pay to the Geneva tax office (AFC-GE), as often as its letter to you says (usually monthly).	Payroll shows the amount
Paid when billed	Social insurance bills (AVS, family allowances, accident, pension). The compensation office sends advance bills.	Recognised from the bank automatically
January	Salary certificates (certificat de salaire) for every employee.	Payroll → Wage certificates
31 December	Count the stock in the cold room, storeroom and bar.	Year end
January – March	Close the year: the app makes the balance sheet and income statement. Print them and give them to your fiduciary or attach them to the tax return (GeTax).	Year end → Close, then Print / save as PDF
Once a year	Communal business tax (taxe professionnelle communale): fill in the form your commune sends.	Turnover and rent are in Year end

Why some words are in French: Geneva's tax office works in French, so the annual accounts show the official French name of each line in small grey letters next to the English one (for example "Balance sheet · Bilan"). Your fiduciary and the tax office will recognise them. Everything else in the app is in English.

Using it on several devices

The shared books live at cafe-gandhi-books.pages.dev. Every phone, tablet or computer that opens that address sees the same books, and changes show up on the others within a few seconds.

Open the address on the device and bookmark it (on a phone: Share → Add to Home Screen, so it opens like an app).
Watch the small label at the top: Synced means everything is shared; Saving… means a change is on its way; Offline: changes will be sent means there is no internet right now. Keep working; it catches up by itself.

There is no password. Anyone who has the address can see everything, including staff wages, and can change or delete it. Share the address only with people you trust. To add a password later, ask whoever set up the books.
If two people change the very same thing at the same moment, the version that reached the server first is kept and a note appears in the log. Different changes are always combined.

Keep it safe

Back up every month (Settings → Download backup). If the computer breaks or the browser is reset, Restore from backup… brings everything back.
Do not clear the browser's history and site data for this page; that empties the books in this browser.
Shared books still need backups. Anyone with the address can delete things, and that deletion is shared too. A monthly backup file is your way back.
Keep the originals (bank statements, bills, receipts) for 10 years. Swiss law requires it.

Words you will meet

VAT · TVA: Tax added to your prices. You collect it from guests and pay it to the state, minus the VAT on what you bought. 8.1 % for table service, 2.6 % for take-away food.
AVS / AI / APG: Old-age, disability and income-loss insurance. 5.3 % from the wage, plus 5.3 % paid by you. (AHV in German)
AC: Unemployment insurance, 1.1 % each side. (ALV)
LPP: The pension fund (second pillar). Rate depends on age and your pension fund. (BVG)
LAA: Accident insurance. Work accidents are paid by you, non-work accidents by the employee.
AF: Family allowances. In Geneva 2.22 % of wages, paid by you.
Tax at source · impôt à la source: Income tax taken directly from the wage of foreign staff without a C permit and of cross-border workers.
CCNT / L-GAV: The collective agreement for hotels and restaurants: minimum wages, 42-hour week, 13th salary, holidays.
Minimum wage: Geneva law: at least CHF 24.59 per hour in 2026. The app warns you if a wage is below it.
Balance sheet · bilan: A photo on one day of what the business owns (bank, cash, stock, equipment) and what it owes (bills, taxes, loans), plus the owner's part (equity).
Income statement · compte de résultat: A film of the year: sales minus all costs equals profit or loss.
Equity · capitaux propres: What would be left for the owners if everything were sold and all debts paid.
Fiduciary · fiduciaire: Your accountant. With this app they need far fewer hours: give them the backup file and the printed annual accounts.

When something looks wrong

A file was not recognised

The app shows a small window asking which column is the date, the amount and so on. Answer once; it remembers that bank or till format.

The bank balance in the app is not the same as in e-banking

Usually a statement is missing. Look at the dates under Add and drop in the missing period. If you started mid-year, the starting balance may be off: To do offers to correct it.

I answered a question wrongly

Go to Entries, find the line, and choose remove. The question comes back under To do so you can answer again.

A receipt photo was read wrongly

Open it under Add and correct the supplier, date or total by hand. Take photos flat, in good light, with the whole receipt visible.

The books are empty after reopening

Check the address: the shared books are at cafe-gandhi-books.pages.dev, and you need to be signed in. Opened anywhere else, each browser has its own copy; use Restore from backup… if needed.

Does the app file my taxes?

No. It prepares every figure, but you (or your fiduciary) still type the VAT return into the ESTV ePortal, the tax return into GeTax, and sign them. Ask your fiduciary to check the first year-end with you.