Help center

Getting started

Get started with Estate Bookkeeper

Estate Bookkeeper keeps double-entry books for probate estates and trusts. Each estate or trust is a matter. A matter has its own accounts and transactions, and it produces the reports a court or beneficiary expects, such as an inventory as of the date of death or a combined account for the whole administration.

How the books work

Every transaction moves an amount from one account to another. The account the money comes from is the source. The account it goes to is the destination. Both sides are recorded, so the books stay in balance and every account keeps a running balance.

A matter has five kinds of accounts:

  • Asset accounts hold what the estate owns, such as a checking account, a brokerage account, or a house.
  • Liability accounts hold what the estate owes, such as a mortgage.
  • Equity accounts hold the estate's net value. Every matter starts with Opening Balance Equity and Net Income (Loss).
  • Income accounts sort money received, such as interest or dividends.
  • Expense accounts sort money paid out, such as legal fees or taxes.

See Account types and when to use each for details.

Key terms

  • Workspace. Your firm's shared space. Matters, templates, tags, members, and billing belong to a workspace.
  • Matter. One probate estate or trust settlement, for example Estate of Jane Smith.
  • Decedent. The person who died and whose estate is being settled.
  • Personal representative. The person the court appoints to manage the estate.
  • Beneficiaries. The people entitled to inherit from the estate.
  • Inventory. The estate's assets and liabilities with their values as of one date, usually the date of death.
  • Current matter. An open matter, or a matter closed within the last 120 days. Each plan limits how many current matters a workspace can have.

Typical order of work

  1. Create a matter and pick an account template if your workspace has one. See Create a matter.
  2. Set up accounts on the matter's Accounts tab. Add the estate's bank accounts, property, and debts, plus the income and expense categories you need. See Set up accounts.
  3. Record opening balances. Enter each asset's value and each debt as of the starting date, usually the date of death. See Record opening balances.
  4. Enter transactions on the Transactions tab as money comes in and goes out. You can also import them from a bank statement. See Enter a transaction.
  5. Run reports on the Reports tab and export them to PDF, Excel, or CSV. See Run a report.
  6. Close the matter when the work is done. You can reopen it later. See Find, edit, close, and delete matters.

Where things are

  • The matters list is your workspace home. Click the Estate Bookkeeper logo in the top left to return to it.
  • Open a matter to see its Assets, Liabilities, Equity, Income, and Expenses totals, and three tabs: Accounts, Transactions, and Reports.
  • Click your profile picture in the top right to switch workspaces, open Workspace Settings or Account Settings, or sign out.
  • Press Cmd+K on a Mac or Ctrl+K on Windows to open the command palette. See Use the command palette.