Shoebox bookkeeping for UK accountants
Clients still turn up with nothing but bank statements?
No software, no ledger, no schedules — just an account and good intentions. You can run a full year-end prep in Entrio from that pack: categorised, reconciled, and a reviewed trial balance (or cash-basis accounts prep for sole traders) — without rekeying a year of someone else’s spending. Filing still happens outside.
| Code | Account | Opening | Movement | Closing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1000 | Current Account | 10,000.00 | 11,536.31 | 21,536.31 |
| 1010 | Savings Account | 5,000.00 | 4.11 | 5,004.11 |
| 4000 | Sales Revenue | 0.00 | (12,750.00) | (12,750.00) |
| 4200 | Interest Received | 0.00 | (4.11) | (4.11) |
| 7200 | Rent & Rates | 0.00 | 950.00 | 950.00 |
| 6300 | Computer & IT | 0.00 | 263.69 | 263.69 |
| 9999 | Opening Balance Equity | (15,000.00) | 0.00 | (15,000.00) |
| Totals | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
The records are the bank. That’s it. That’s the file.
They meant to keep books. They bought the software, used it for six weeks, and then got busy running the business. What actually exists is a current account, possibly a savings account, and a shoebox of receipts nobody is going to type in.
So the job becomes reconstruction: work out from the bank what the business actually did, and turn that into something you can put your name to.
The bank is a complete record of what moved. Entrio takes it as the foundation, codes it on your firm’s rules, and surfaces the handful of lines that genuinely need your judgement rather than your typing.
Where Entrio fits
Entrio is not accounting software.
It is where the shoebox year gets finished as bookkeeping — full year-end prep, cash-basis accounts for self-employed clients, or a trial balance into Xero, FreeAgent, TaxCalc or IRIS. For a shoebox client there is nothing to maintain yet. Somebody has to build the year before any filing tool has anything to hold.
- A carrier bag arrives
- Paste statements into Excel
- Code a year, line by line
- Guess at the odd ones
- Untangle transfers between accounts
- Reconcile to the closing balance
- Build a trial balance and hope it foots
A day you quoted half a day for
- Import the statements as the bank produced them
- Categorise on your firm’s rules
- Review the exceptions, not the routine
- Reconcile — gaps surface before export
- Trial balance that foots both ways
A full year-end prep you can defend
- Statutory accounts
- VAT returns and payroll
- Corporation tax
- Companies House filing
- Invoicing and client access
Carries on exactly as it does today. Nothing needs migrating.
Entrio doesn’t replace your accounting software. It replaces the hours before you open it.
Same fee. A fraction of the hours.
“Shoebox” describes the client. It doesn’t describe the job.
Underneath, it’s always one of three — and knowing which one tells you what matters. Same workflow either way; different things to get right.
The year has closed and accounts are due
That’s a year-end — and you can finish the whole prep year in Entrio. What matters is opening balances carrying in, adjusting journals when needed, a reviewed trial balance, and locking the year so it stays agreed.
They’re months behind and still trading
That’s catch-up. What matters is volume: rules that sweep the whole history at once, and catching the statement period they’ve sent you twice.
They’ve just joined you from somewhere else
That’s onboarding. What matters is a defensible opening position, and your firm’s existing rules doing most of the coding before you look.
Often it’s all three at once. That’s fine — one workflow, a full year-end prep from the same shoebox.
A fair question
“Can I trust something that codes a year automatically?”
You can trust it exactly as far as you can inspect it — which is the whole design. Entrio has no model, no confidence score and nothing that learns. Every line is coded because a rule matched it, and the rule is shown next to the result.
Entrio isn’t asking you to trust an algorithm. It’s asking you to trust your own process.
Proof, not promises
We can’t show you a case study yet. We can show you the arithmetic.
No case studies yet — we’re taking our first firms now. What we can do is let you check the arithmetic, which is the only claim that matters here anyway.
We’d rather show you a reconciliation you can pick apart than a testimonial you can’t check.
Founding firms · 20 of 25 places left
Shape the workflow around real shoebox jobs.
We’re taking our first firms as founding members. If your book is full of clients whose records are a bank account and an apology, you are exactly who this is being built with. 33% off, locked for as long as you stay. Best suited to firms who like sharpening the tools they work with.
Tell us what your firm actually needs. What fits real practice gets built.
Talk to the person building Entrio — not a ticket queue.
Founding firms get first response when something needs fixing or explaining.
Keep your founding rate for as long as you stay — it never expires, never rises.
Pricing
Priced per practice, not per statement.
Unlimited uploads on every plan. The work bunches at year-end, and that is exactly when you shouldn’t be watching a meter.
One bookkeeper, a manageable list of clients.
- Up to 50 clients
- 1 team member
- Unlimited statement uploads
- Your own chart of accounts & firm rules
Need a little more? Add 10 clients for £10/mo, or a team member for £29/mo — no need to jump a tier.
Start on SoloA small firm with staff and a full client book.
- Up to 250 clients
- 5 team members
- Unlimited statement uploads
- Your own chart of accounts & firm rules
Need a little more? Add 25 clients for £15/mo, or a team member for £25/mo — no need to jump a tier.
Start on PracticeA full practice, counted generously.
- Up to 1,500 clients
- 25 team members
- Unlimited statement uploads
- Your own chart of accounts & firm rules
Need a little more? Add 250 clients for £60/mo, or a team member for £15/mo — no need to jump a tier.
Start on FirmEvery plan starts with a 14-day free trial No card required Cancel anytime
Frequently asked questions
Before you hand it a real client file.
Can I import PDFs?
No. Entrio intentionally supports exported Excel and CSV bank statements because they are materially more accurate and reliable than PDF parsing — and on a shoebox job, where the bank is your only complete record, that reliability is the whole foundation. Nearly every UK bank will export a date range as CSV. Asking once is cheaper than checking a parse line by line.
The client genuinely has nothing but bank statements. Is that enough?
For the bookkeeping, usually yes — the bank is a complete record of what actually moved. What it cannot tell you is intent: whether a payment was a cost or a drawing, whether a receipt was sales or a loan. Entrio surfaces exactly those as exceptions to decide, instead of guessing and burying the guess.
Can I do a full year-end from a shoebox in Entrio?
Yes for the bookkeeping year: import the statements, categorise, reconcile, post any adjustments, and lock a reviewed trial balance — including cash-basis accounts prep for self-employed clients. That is a full year-end prep job. Statutory accounts, tax computation and filing still happen in TaxCalc, IRIS, CCH or HMRC software. Entrio never files.
What about cash the client never banked?
Entrio can only see what went through an account. Cash takings and cash expenses that never touched the bank have to come from you, posted as journals. It will not invent them, and it will not pretend the bank is the whole story.
Does Entrio replace Xero, FreeAgent, Sage or QuickBooks?
For many shoebox clients, it can replace the need for a cloud bookkeeping seat at all — especially cash-basis sole traders. For clients who already live in Xero or FreeAgent, Entrio prepares the year and hands you a reviewed trial balance; their system stays where it is.
Is it deterministic, or is it guessing?
Deterministic. A transaction is coded because a rule matched it, and the rule is shown next to the result. There is no model, no confidence score and no learning — run the same statement twice and you get the same trial balance twice.
Can I review everything before it leaves?
Yes, and the export is blocked while a reconciliation is still open. Nothing gets signed off on your behalf.
Spend less time reconstructing bookkeeping.
Start with the messiest client you have. A sample client is waiting the moment you register, so you can see the whole workflow before any real data goes near it.