Bookkeeping 101
Proper books, South African compliance, and the understanding behind every entry.
A complete double-entry accounting platform tailored for South African business. It connects quotations, billing, paperless capture, banking, 15% VAT and general ledger postings into one auditable flow. Uniquely, it pairs real accounting operations with an integrated learning suite — including the Harbour Lane Studio three-month case study and an AI assistant — so business owners, junior bookkeepers and students master the mechanics behind the numbers.
What it does
Key features
The capabilities that matter — and the reason they were built this way.
Paperless Capture with Duplicate Detection
Upload invoice photos or PDFs. Supplier, line items and VAT amounts are pre-filled, and supplier, date and amount are cross-checked to flag a possible repeat before you post.
Bank Reconciliation & Rule Drafting
Import CSV and Excel statements, reconcile lines with duplicate protection, and run Suggest Rules — unmatched narratives are analysed and reusable bank rules drafted for your approval.
South African VAT 201 Engine
Line-by-line VAT tracking across standard 15%, zero-rated and exempt, with an automated VAT return summary and transaction-level detail ready for eFiling.
General Ledger & Month-End Controls
Full chart of accounts, balanced recurring journals, tracking categories for divisional P&Ls, fixed-asset depreciation, payroll journal imports and period locks that protect completed months.
Bulk Corrections with Find & Recode
Search, review and re-allocate wrongly coded ledger lines across open periods in one bulk operation, instead of a string of individual journal reversals.
Case Study & Training Pack
A complete practical curriculum: the Harbour Lane Studio three-month case study, source workbooks, model answers and marking guides, all run against a dedicated Demo Company.
Who it's for
Small business owners, independent bookkeepers, finance interns and accounting students who need both a working South African accounting system and a practical environment to build real competence.
Why it's built this way
Most accounting packages either overcomplicate simple operations or hide the double-entry mechanics completely, creating a black box where bad entries compound unseen. Bookkeeping 101 was built by a CA(SA) to bridge operational bookkeeping with foundational accounting discipline. Every screen connects directly to the underlying ledger, corrections preserve audit integrity rather than silently deleting records, and the built-in training pack ensures the person entering the data genuinely understands the debits, credits and tax consequences of every transaction.
Let's build the right thing for your business.
Tell us what you're trying to fix, finance or automate. We'll come back with a clear next step — usually within a working day.