The iPhone companion

Beancount Desktop Companion (on your Home Screen, just Beancount) is a small iPhone app with one job: jot down a transaction the moment it happens, so that it is not forgotten by the time you sit at your Mac.

It is deliberately not Beancount Desktop on a phone. It has no reports, it never sees your ledger and there is no server or sync service. The two apps exchange two small files, and you decide how they travel: AirDrop, Files, iCloud Drive, mail…

Not released yet

The companion will be free on the App Store as Beancount Desktop Companion, for iPhone with iOS 26 or later. It is not available yet.

The cycle

1. Mac → iPhone: the context. On the Mac, File ▸ Export for iPhone… creates a .bcdcontext file with the names your ledger uses: accounts, payees, tags, links, metadata, currencies. Export the context

2. iPhone: import it. AirDrop it to the phone and it opens in the Companion, which now autocompletes with your real accounts and payees.

3. iPhone: capture drafts. Out and about, add a draft each time you pay for something. Drafts live only on the phone. Capture drafts

4. iPhone → Mac: the drafts. Back home, Send to Mac creates a .bcddrafts file. AirDrop it to the Mac.

5. Mac: import them. Import Drafts writes them straight into the ledger, in date order, as one commit. Import drafts

Repeat step 1 now and then — when you have opened new accounts or have new regular payees — so the phone’s suggestions stay current. It is never required: the Companion works with an old context, and even with none.

Privacy

• The context file holds names, not balances. It does include, for each payee, its last transaction (that is what lets the phone pre-fill a draft), so it does contain some amounts. Treat both files as being as private as your ledger.
• On the iPhone, the context and the drafts are stored inside the app with full file protection: encrypted while the phone is locked.
• Nothing is uploaded anywhere by either app.