Ledvo

Local-first bookkeeping

What local-first bookkeeping means in Ledvo

Local-first bookkeeping means your accounting book is useful before it is connected to anyone else's server. Ledvo keeps the ledger in your browser profile, uses a local WebAssembly accounting engine, and gives you explicit exports for backup and portability.

The book lives where you work

Traditional cloud accounting software starts with an account, a subscription, and a remote database. Ledvo starts with the browser. Your journal entries, chart of accounts, reports, and book settings are written to private browser storage on the device and browser profile you are using.

That tradeoff is intentional. A freelancer who wants a clean ledger for invoices, expenses, cash flow, and tax preparation should not have to publish their books to a vendor before they can see a trial balance.

What stays local

  • Journal entries and draft posting state.
  • Accounts, counterparties, periods, and report preferences.
  • Browser-side exports and backups you explicitly create.
  • The local accounting engine that calculates balances and reports.

What local-first does not mean

Local-first is not magic sync. If your browser profile is deleted and you never exported a backup, Ledvo cannot recover your book from a cloud copy because Ledvo never had that cloud copy. The privacy benefit comes with backup responsibility.

The practical habit is simple: export your book after meaningful work, keep a copy outside the browser, and treat the browser as the working ledger rather than the only archive.

Who this is for

Ledvo is for freelancers, tiny teams, students, and builders who want a private double-entry book without a sales call, signup wall, or cloud ledger. It is not a replacement for an accountant when your situation needs professional judgment.