Accounting & finance
Accounting and finance software built for South Africa
Financial software is judged differently from other software. A rounding error is not a bug report, it is a reconciliation that does not balance and an afternoon gone. We build for finance teams with that standard in mind, and we run our own accounting platform against it, which means we live with these decisions rather than handing them over at go-live.
Where it usually breaks
A double-entry ledger, VAT-valid invoicing and SARS-compliant payroll that has to be right every month, not approximately right.
What we build instead
UBooks - our own accounting and ERP platform - plus custom reporting, bank-statement automation and integrations into the systems a finance team already uses.
- Double-entry general ledger and trial balance
- PAYE, UIF and SDL on current SARS tax tables
- Bank statement import with automatic matching
- Aged debtors and creditors reporting
Right every month, not approximately right
Getting there means handling what generic software skips. These are the four that cost the most in this sector.
Tax tables that move every year
PAYE brackets, UIF ceilings and SDL rules change on a schedule set by SARS, not by your release calendar. Rates belong in configuration with effective dates, so a change is applied rather than redeployed.
Reconciliation done by eye
Matching a bank statement line by line is the task most likely to be automated badly. Automatic matching with a clear, reviewable exception queue beats a clever algorithm that silently guesses wrong.
Reports that disagree with the ledger
Management reporting drifts when it is rebuilt from exports instead of read from the books. Reporting should be derived from the same ledger the financials come from, or it will be argued with.
Month end that depends on one person
When the close relies on a spreadsheet only the financial manager understands, the business has a key-person risk on its books. Documented, automated steps remove it.
What you end up with
- A ledger that balances, with a full audit trail per entry
- Payroll on current SARS tables with the statutory returns produced
- Bank reconciliation reduced to reviewing genuine exceptions
- Management reporting derived from the ledger, not from exports
- A close that does not depend on one person being available
The disciplines this draws on
We also run a product in this space: UBooks.
What this has changed in practice
A real outcome from this sector. We do not publish client names.
5businesses running on UBooks
An accounting and ERP platform we run ourselves
UBooks is our own product, in production, with five businesses keeping their books on it. We carry the consequences of its engineering decisions every month rather than handing them over at go-live - which is the standard we build client finance systems to.
Accounting & finance: common questions
Should we buy UBooks or have something custom built?
Buy first. If UBooks covers your accounting, payroll and stock, that is far cheaper than building. Custom work makes sense for the operational system around it - the part unique to your business - integrated to the ledger rather than duplicating it.
Can you integrate with the accounting software we already run?
Generally yes, where it exposes an API or a supported import. We integrate rather than migrate wherever we can, because moving historical financial data is a project in its own right and rarely the cheapest path to what you actually want.
Tell us how your operation runs
Including the parts held together by a spreadsheet. You will get a straight answer on what is worth building and what is not.
A reply from a developer. Not a sales pipeline. The person who reads your message is the person who would do the work.
An honest answer on fit. If an off-the-shelf product solves your problem better than a custom build, we will tell you which one.
No obligation. A first conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing. Discovery output is yours either way.