UBooks - our accounting platform
Accounting, payroll and invoicing software built for South Africa
Run your whole business from one place. Quotes, invoices, purchases, banking, a real double-entry ledger, payroll on current SARS tax tables, stock, projects and reporting - in one system instead of five spreadsheets and a payroll subscription.
No credit card required. Cancel any time.
ubooks - tax calendar
- Category
- Accounting & ERP
- From
- R249 / month
- Free trial
- 30 days
- Market
- South Africa
Stop stitching together spreadsheets
Most small South African businesses end up with an invoicing tool, a payroll subscription, a bank statement in Excel and an accountant reconstructing the picture two months later. Every handoff between those is a place for the numbers to stop agreeing.
UBooks puts sales, purchases, banking, the general ledger, payroll, stock, projects and reporting on one set of records. An accepted quote becomes an invoice in one click; that invoice posts to the ledger; the bank import matches the payment against it; and the trial balance is generated from the same entries rather than rebuilt by hand.
Built and supported by UnknownDev in South Africa. Visit ubooks.co.za
Where it fits
The spreadsheet has stopped coping
Invoice numbering is manual, VAT is worked out per document, and nobody is sure what is actually outstanding.
Payroll is a separate monthly panic
PAYE, UIF and SDL are calculated by hand or in a product that charges separately and needs a tax-table update every year.
Two entities, two sets of books
A second company means a second subscription, or one set of books with a column for “which business”.
Reporting arrives too late to use
Profitability per job, aged debtors and cash position are reconstructed after month end rather than visible during it.
11 modules, one database
Invoicing, purchases, banking, the ledger, SARS returns, payroll, stock, projects and reporting share the same records - so the trial balance is generated from the same data as the invoices, and an EMP201 from the same data as the payroll run.
Sales & invoicing
Quotes, proforma invoices, sales orders, invoices, payments and credit notes - with a valid South African tax invoice at the end of it.
- Leads through to customers, quotes, orders, invoices and payments in one chain
- An accepted quote becomes an invoice in one click, with no retyping of line items
- Every invoice carries the line items, tax breakdown and company details a South African VAT vendor needs
- Recurring billing for retainers and subscriptions - set the amount and interval once
- Separate price lists for trade, wholesale and shelf pricing, with bulk pricing by quantity
- Partial payments recorded against an open invoice so aged receivables stay accurate
- Overdue invoices tracked and flagged automatically for consistent follow-up
- Customer statements and PDF documents with full version history
Purchases
Supplier records, purchase orders and bills, with recurring bills and traceability from order through to payment.
- Supplier master data with contact and banking detail
- Purchase orders that carry through to bills
- Recurring bills for rent, retainers and subscriptions
- Full traceability from order to bill to payment
- Aged creditors reporting
Banking
Import a bank statement, let it match against the ledger, and reconcile what is left with rules you configure once.
- Statement imports with automatic matching against ledger entries
- Configurable matching rules for recurring transactions
- Reconciliation against the general ledger
- Multiple bank accounts, scaling with your plan
Accounting
A real double-entry general ledger underneath everything - not a transaction list with a report bolted on.
- Double-entry general ledger with a full transaction view
- Chart of accounts pre-configured on company setup, with codes, types and categories
- System accounts for bank, cash, receivables, inventory, fixed assets, VAT and payroll liabilities
- Add your own accounts alongside the system ones
- Cash book and fiscal period management
- Manual journal entries and expense tracking
- Tax brackets configured automatically for a new company
Tax & SARS submissions
A tax calendar built from your own registrations, with the EMP201, EMP501, IRP5 and provisional tax work sitting in the same system as the payroll it comes from.
- Tax calendar built from your registrations - a company that is not a VAT vendor never sees a VAT201 on it
- EMP201: the monthly PAYE, UIF and SDL declaration
- EMP501 reconciliations, with IRP5 / IT3(a) certificates
- Provisional tax, including the IRP6 first estimate on half the year’s estimated taxable income
- Year-end pack and a registration check
- Overdue returns listed with how many days late they are - SARS charges interest and penalties on a late return
- Export or print the calendar
Companies & shareholders
Several companies under one login, each with its own registration number, directors, shareholders and dividend records.
- Multiple companies under one login, scaling with your plan
- Company registration number held against each entity
- Directors and shareholders register
- Dividend records
- Leads and customers tracked per company
Payroll
PAYE, UIF and SDL worked out on current SARS tax tables - included in the plan rather than sold as a separate product.
- PAYE calculated per employee on current SARS tax tables, with age-based rebates
- UIF at the statutory 1% employee and 1% employer split, up to the monthly earnings ceiling
- SDL at 1% of payroll for businesses over the annual exemption threshold
- Review gross pay, deductions and net pay for every employee on one screen before you approve the run
- Individual PDF payslips generated for each finalised run
- Pay schedules and recurring deductions
Stock
Stock items, price lists and multiple warehouses on the plans that need them.
- Stock items linked to sales and purchase documents
- Multiple warehouses from the Essentials plan up
- Price lists per customer group
- Sales item limits that scale with your plan
Projects
Track a project with its sales and purchases attached, so profitability is visible per job.
- Projects with sales and purchase documents attached
- Per-project cost and revenue visibility
- Monthly project allowance by plan
Reporting
Trial balance, profit and loss, balance sheet, general ledger and ageing - generated from the ledger, not reassembled by hand.
- Trial balance, profit and loss, and balance sheet
- General ledger detail behind every figure
- Aged receivables and aged payables
- Stock reporting
- Export any report to Excel or CSV
Data in and out
Bring an existing business across from spreadsheets without retyping it, and get your own data back out whenever you want.
- Import employees, customers, projects, checklists, sales documents, document lines and sales items
- Accepts .xlsx, .xls, .csv, .json and .xml, up to 20 MB per file
- Save a field mapping and reuse it on the next import
- Export from every list and report
- No lock-in: the data you put in is data you can take out
What it actually looks like
Not mockups. These are screens from the running product - the SARS tax calendar, the chart of accounts, the importer and multi-company setup.
A chart of accounts that is ready on day one
Numbered accounts with a type and a category, pre-configured when you create the company - bank, cash, receivables, inventory, fixed assets, VAT and payroll liabilities. Add your own alongside the system ones.
ubooks - chart of accounts
Bring the business across without retyping it
Import employees, customers, projects, checklists, sales documents, document lines and sales items from .xlsx, .xls, .csv, .json or .xml - up to 20 MB a file. Save the field mapping and reuse it next time.
ubooks - import data
More than one entity, properly separated
Each company keeps its own registration number, directors and shareholders register, dividend records, and its own leads and customers - under a single login rather than a second subscription.
ubooks - companies
The statutory maths, done for you
Payroll is part of every plan rather than a separate subscription, and you review gross pay, deductions and net pay for every employee on one screen before you approve the run. The returns that follow read from the same figures.
- PAYE
- Calculated per employee on current SARS tax tables, with age-based rebates applied.
- UIF
- The statutory 1% employee and 1% employer split, up to the monthly earnings ceiling.
- SDL
- Calculated at 1% of payroll for businesses over the annual exemption threshold.
- VAT
- Every invoice carries the line items, tax breakdown and company details a South African VAT vendor needs on a valid tax invoice.
- EMP201 & EMP501
- The monthly PAYE, UIF and SDL declaration, and the reconciliation with IRP5 / IT3(a) certificates - from the same payroll data.
- Provisional tax
- IRP6 estimates, including the first on half the year’s estimated taxable income, plus a year-end pack.
Priced in rands, for rand-sized businesses
Four plans, all including payroll. Annual billing is ten months’ price. Every ceiling - users, companies, employees, invoices, storage - can be raised with an add-on instead of forcing a jump to the next tier.
Starter
R249/month
A solo owner or a very small team getting off spreadsheets.
- 2 users
- 1 company
- 3 employees
Essentials
R449/month
A small business with a second entity and a handful of staff.
- 5 users
- 2 companies
- 10 employees
Plus
Most popularR699/month
A growing team running multiple entities, stock and projects.
- 10 users
- 5 companies
- 25 employees
Ultimate
R999/month
A larger operation that needs the ceilings taken off.
- 25 users
- 15 companies
- 40 employees
What each plan includes
| Limit | Starter | Essentials | Plus | Ultimate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Invoices / month | 100 | 500 | 2 000 | Unlimited |
| Customers | 50 | 500 | 5 000 | Unlimited |
| Suppliers | 25 | 250 | 2 500 | Unlimited |
| Sales items | 100 | 1 000 | 10 000 | Unlimited |
| Bank accounts | 2 | 5 | 15 | Unlimited |
| Warehouses | - | 2 | 5 | Unlimited |
| Projects / month | 3 | 15 | 75 | Unlimited |
| Storage | 5 GB | 20 GB | 50 GB | 100 GB |
Raise one ceiling, not the whole plan
Outgrown a single limit? Add just that. Published add-ons include:
- 3 extra usersR149
- 1 extra companyR199
- 10 extra employeesR279
- 100 extra invoices / monthR99
- 25 GB extra storageR149
Prices as published on ubooks.co.za and subject to change. Check current pricing
Up and running in an afternoon
No implementation consultant, no six-week onboarding. The chart of accounts, tax brackets and pay schedules are configured when you create the company.
Create your company
The chart of accounts, tax brackets and pay schedules are configured for you on setup - not left as homework.
Bring your data across
Import customers, suppliers and items from your existing spreadsheets, or add them as you go. Excel and CSV import is on every plan.
Send your first invoice
Same day. A valid South African tax invoice, emailed as a PDF, with the payment tracked against it.
No credit card required. Cancel any time.
Built for South African rules, not adapted to them
The international platforms are competent software written for somebody else’s tax year. UBooks starts from PAYE, UIF, SDL and a valid South African tax invoice.
Local tax is not an add-on
PAYE, UIF and SDL are calculated on current South African tax tables inside the same system that raises the invoices, and the EMP201, EMP501, IRP5 and provisional tax work lives there too. No separate payroll subscription, no annual tax-table patch to buy.
The SARS calendar knows your registrations
Most accounting software leaves you to remember what is due. UBooks builds the return calendar from what your company is actually registered for, then tells you what is overdue and by how many days - before SARS does, with interest.
One system, not five
Invoicing, purchases, banking, the general ledger, payroll, stock, projects and reporting share one database. The trial balance is generated from the same records as the invoices.
Priced in rands, for rand-sized businesses
Plans start at R249 a month. Add-ons let you raise one specific ceiling - users, employees, invoices, storage - instead of paying for a whole tier you do not need.
Built and supported here
UBooks is developed by UnknownDev in South Africa. The people who wrote the payroll calculation are the people who answer the support email.
Questions about UBooks
Is UBooks built for South African tax and payroll?
Yes - that is the point of it. PAYE is calculated on current SARS tax tables with age-based rebates, UIF applies the statutory 1% employee and 1% employer split up to the monthly earnings ceiling, and SDL is calculated at 1% of payroll for businesses over the annual exemption threshold. Invoices carry the detail a South African VAT vendor needs on a valid tax invoice.
Does UBooks handle EMP201, EMP501 and IRP5?
Yes. The tax module covers the EMP201 monthly PAYE, UIF and SDL declaration, EMP501 reconciliations with IRP5 / IT3(a) certificates, provisional tax including the IRP6 estimates, and a year-end pack. They sit in the same system as the payroll runs the figures come from, so nothing has to be re-keyed between the two.
Will it tell me when a SARS return is due?
Yes. The tax calendar is built from your own registrations - a company that is not a VAT vendor never sees a VAT201 on it - and it lists what is coming up alongside anything overdue, with how many days late each return is. That matters because SARS charges interest and penalties on a late return.
Is payroll an extra subscription?
No. Payroll is part of every plan rather than a separate product, with the employee count set by your plan and extra employees available as an add-on.
How much does UBooks cost?
Plans run from R249 per month for Starter up to R999 per month for Ultimate, with annual billing at ten months’ price. Users, companies, employees, invoices and storage can each be topped up as add-ons instead of forcing a jump to the next tier.
Can I try it before paying?
Yes. There is a 30-day free trial with no credit card required, and you can cancel any time.
How long does it take to get going?
Most businesses are up and running in an afternoon: create the company, import your customers and items from a spreadsheet, and send the first invoice the same day.
Can UBooks handle more than one company?
Yes. Starter covers a single company and the higher plans cover two, five and fifteen, with extra companies available as an add-on.
Something else you need to know?
Start a projectSee where your money actually goes
30 days free, no credit card, cancel any time. Create your company, import your customers from a spreadsheet, and send a valid tax invoice the same day.