Billkeep
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GuideBackup and export
Your records are on this device, which is the point and also the risk. A backup takes about five seconds and is free on every tier, forever.
Do this before you need it
Clearing your browser's site data empties this browser. So does uninstalling the phone app, and so do some privacy extensions and cleanup tools. Signing in again fetches the copy in your account — but a backup file is the copy you hold, and that is a different kind of safe.
Taking a backup
Settings → Backup and export → Save a backup file. You get one JSON file containing every table: businesses, clients, invoices and their lines, payments, tax rates and groups, payment methods, saved items, repeating schedules, counters, history and your preferences.
- It is plain text. Open it in any editor and you can read your own records.
- It carries a format version, so a newer file is refused rather than half-imported by an older app.
- Entitlements are deliberately not in it — a subscription is a cached answer from Google Play, not a record of yours.
Keep it somewhere that is itself backed up: a cloud drive, an email to yourself, a USB stick in a drawer. A backup on the same device as the original is not a backup.
Restoring one
Settings → Backup and export → Restore from a file, then choose the file.
Restoring replaces what is on this device with what is in the file, in one step. It is not a merge — a merge has to decide which version of an invoice wins, and every wrong answer silently rewrites a business record. One clear promise beats a clever one nobody can reason about.
CSV, for a spreadsheet or an accountant
Three separate exports:
- Invoices as CSV — one row per document, with its number, dates, client, status and totals.
- Invoice lines as CSV — one row per line, for anyone who wants to pivot by what was actually sold.
- Clients as CSV — the list, in the same shape the importer reads.
Amounts are plain numbers with no currency symbol and no thousands separators, so a spreadsheet reads them as numbers rather than text. Quoting follows the standard, so a description with a comma in it survives the trip.
The file works both ways
A backup written in the browser restores on the Android app, and one written on the phone restores here. The two use the same table names, the same column names and the same document format, on purpose.
Handle it like your books, because it is your books
The file contains every client's contact details and every invoice you have written. Do not post it in a support forum, and do not send it to us unless it has been specifically asked for.
A reasonable routine
- Once a month, or after any busy week.
- Before clearing browser data or changing browsers.
- Before reinstalling or replacing a phone.
- At the end of a tax year, keeping that one permanently.