Cashora

Self-hosted petty cash ledger software for the cash box you already keep: an imprest float, categorized disbursements, and a balance that proves out at month-end.

The problem it solves

Petty cash is the last corner of most small businesses still run on paper: a locked drawer, a wad of receipts, and a spreadsheet nobody reconciles until month-end — when the count doesn't match and nobody can say why. Cashora's real competitor is that spreadsheet, so here is the honest comparison: a spreadsheet's =SUM() will happily record a cash box going negative — something a physical tin cannot do — and say nothing. Cashora refuses the impossible payout and tells you which replenishment went unrecorded. The float-vs-balance status is computed, not maintained by a formula someone eventually breaks; the custodian is a first-class field, not a column heading; and each box keeps its own currency, so the EUR tin never contaminates the USD ones. Full expense-management SaaS is a different tool for a different flow — it reimburses employees spending their own money; petty cash is the business's cash leaving a tin.

• Cash counts that don't match the receipts, discovered weeks late
• A spreadsheet that records impossible negative balances without complaint
• No live view of which box is over or under its float
• A monthly SaaS fee for what a simple, exact ledger should do

Every feature

• The receipt, attached to the payout. A photo or PDF of the receipt attaches to the disbursement itself — decided by the file's bytes (PNG, JPEG, WebP, PDF), replaceable while the record is open, and served only to signed-in staff. The paper trail lives on the row it explains.
• Multiple cash boxes. Each box or fund gets its own custodian, opening (imprest) float, and currency — front desk, workshop, events kitty, all in one place.
• Exact running balances. Every balance is computed in integer cents in PHP — no floating-point drift — with a live over / under / on-float status per box. A payout larger than the box balance is refused (a tin cannot go negative), and a box that somehow reads below zero gets its own Overdrawn status, never a routine label.
• Categorized disbursements. Record date, category, amount, payee, description, and a receipt reference for every cash-out, against expense categories you configure.
• Replenishments. Log top-ups toward the float with notes, so the imprest cycle is visible instead of implied.
• Month-end period report. Per-box period report — opening balance, disbursements by category, replenishments, closing balance — exported as PDF and CSV.
• Hardened exports. Dependency-free PDF generation and CSV exports hardened against spreadsheet formula injection.
• Installable mobile app (PWA). Add it to a phone or tablet home screen straight from the browser — a full-screen app served from your own server, with no app store involved. Business data is not stored offline on the device; what you see is read live.
• Count and close the month. At month-end the custodian counts the tin, note by note or as a total, and a second person checks it. Cashora keeps the expected balance beside the counted one and records a difference as a difference, never an invented entry. The month's figures freeze, nothing dated in it can be changed on that box, and the bookkeeper gets one PDF: the figures, the count sheet with both names, and every payout's receipt status.
• A journal your bookkeeper can import. The month as a QuickBooks Online or Xero journal: each category's spend to its expense account, the total out of the box's cash account, top-ups from your bank, under your own account names. A file you import; nothing is sent anywhere.
• Large payouts wait for approval. Set a limit, and a payout above it waits for an administrator before the cash goes out. Approving still cannot take the box below zero.
• Snap the receipt. The payout form opens the phone's camera. Switch on reading with your own AI key (OpenAI, Anthropic or your own Ollama server) and it fills in the payee, date, amount and category for you to check before saving.
• Receipts from people without an account. Give each cash box its own link. Whoever spent cash from the box hands in the receipt on their phone: their name, the amount, the day, what it was for and a photo. It waits on the box's page until the custodian records it as a payout, with the photo attached, or turns it down. Replace the link or switch it off at any time.
• Updates from inside the app. The Updates page installs a new release with your license key: Ownware's signature is checked, a backup is taken first, and the app puts the previous version back by itself if the update is interrupted or the database step or start-up check of the new version fails. It never checks by itself.
• Backups by themselves. Automatic backups, an optional copy to S3-compatible storage you own, and a weekly check that the latest backup reads back. The Health page names anything that needs attention.
• Own It 4.0.1 — fixes and an up-to-date manual. For Cashora, 4.0.1 fixes an installer that had lost its styling, a rollback that a page opened during an update could stop and a command-line update that ended in an error after putting the previous version back. Its manual, FAQ and QUICKSTART now cover everything 4.0 added, including two Nginx rules that keep the data folder private. Your license covers it: press Check for updates on the Updates page, or download it from your order page.
• Own It 4.0.2 — the installer opens on every host. For Cashora, 4.0.2 fixes a fresh install on an Apache host: the one-page setup at /install/ looped back to itself and never opened, and now it opens. Your license covers it: press Check for updates on the Updates page, or download it from your order page.

Release notes in full

• Own It 4.1: client installations and your other tools. For Cashora, 4.1 makes two changes that every app gets. An Extended license bought from October 4, 2026 covers up to ten client installations, one per client project: hand each one over to the client or host it for them, with the client's logo and colors from the app's branding settings. The API reference now shows how to connect Cashora to Zapier, Make or n8n, using its own webhooks and API key. Your license covers the update: press Check for updates on the Updates page, or download it from your order page.
• Own It 4.0: it updates and backs itself up. For Cashora, 4.0 means updates from inside the app: the Updates page checks for a new release with your license key, verifies Ownware's signature, takes a backup and puts the previous version back by itself if the update is interrupted or the database step or start-up check of the new version fails. A new install can start with a sample business and remove it in one click; backups run by themselves, with an optional offsite copy and a weekly check that the latest one reads back; and the Health page says whether the install is looking after itself.
• Own It 3.3: receipts from people without an account. This release opened the box to the people who spend from it. Each cash box can have its own link, where whoever spent cash from the box hands in the receipt on their phone, with a photo. It waits on the box's page until the custodian records it as a payout, with the photo attached, or turns it down.
• Own It 3.2: the month, counted and closed. This release took Cashora to month-end: the custodian counts the tin, a second person checks it, the month's figures freeze, and the bookkeeper gets one PDF and a QuickBooks Online or Xero journal to import. Payouts above a limit you set wait for an administrator. The payout form opens the phone's camera for the receipt.
• Own It 3.1: the paperwork on the record. The 3.1 wave gave the catalog ways to reach the other side of the transaction. For Cashora, which sends no email at all, it meant the receipt filed on the payout it explains, replaceable while the record is open.
• Own It 3.0: works for your AI, not just for you. An agent can list boxes with live balances, open one entry by entry, pull the month-end report and record a payout or top-up over MCP — and the one rule does not relax: the never-below-zero guard refuses with the same sentence the screen uses, word for word. The month-end PDF pack is what you actually hand a bookkeeper.
• Own It 2.0: API, 2FA, backups, dark mode. Cashora 2.0 adds the 2.0 owner layer. Upgrade by replacing the files — the database migrates itself, and it is still the same one-time purchase.