Support

PrivateBooks does not give us remote access to your books. The best support starts with the offline Help centre, a reproducible description, and only the diagnostic details you choose to share.

Start here

  • The complete owner guide walks through setup, preview, Review and Undo, readiness limits, handoff packages, backup, and restore.
  • The app has a full help centre built in - open Help in the top bar. It works offline and is searchable.
  • The FAQ covers importing, categorizing, backups, and what to hand your preparer.
  • The bookkeeping guides explain common categories, eligibility questions, and records to review.

Contact Arc & Ledger Accounting

Email support@privatebooks.org with PrivateBooks in the subject for support, bug reports, feature requests, or privacy questions. Start with a non-sensitive description. Do not send books, bank statements, receipts, passwords, tax identifiers, or financial records in your first message. Ask before sharing an attachment.

In a support report, include:

  • Your operating system and PrivateBooks version (the version is in the app's footer).
  • What you did, what you expected, and what happened instead.
  • For an import problem: the bank, and whether the file was CSV or PDF. Don't send the statement itself. Use a synthetic or fully sanitized example instead.
  • A local diagnostic, only after reviewing every field it includes: in the app, open About → Preview diagnostic fields, then Download this kind of diagnostic. It is created locally and is not sent by the app.

Report a bug or ask for a feature

Use the support email above. Include what you did, what you expected, and what happened instead. Email is a separate communication you choose to send; we receive your address and the content you include. PrivateBooks does not send the message or give us remote access to your books.

Security and privacy issues

Email a non-sensitive description to the support address above. Do not include credentials or financial records, and do not post private records publicly. Review any diagnostic fields before choosing to share them. We do not promise a response time or a tax-filing outcome.

Unexpected background telemetry, cloud sync, or financial-data upload would violate the product contract and should be treated as a serious security issue. Owner-opened public links and app-store install/update traffic are outside that automatic-upload boundary.

Lost your books?

We can't recover them - we never had them. That's the trade the local-first design makes. Use Back up my data regularly, and always before replacing a machine or reinstalling. PrivateBooks also keeps automatic recovery copies before any restore; they're listed on the About page.

Privacy questions

Read the privacy policy, or email the support address above with your question. The app's offline Help and owner guide are available without sending us data.