ProcessWorkNotesLabAbout
Back to work

Case Study · Mowa product

Mowa Books

Accounting, invoicing, and payroll for freelancers, builders, and small businesses. Built by Mowa as a local-first SaaS, currently in private beta.

View live product →Private beta
Mowa Books
FeaturesHow it worksPricingFAQTry the demoStart free trial →
Now in private beta
The books
balance themselves.
Accounting, invoicing & payroll for freelancers, builders and side-hustlers. Send an invoice, run payroll, and the bookkeeping happens by itself.
Start free trial →Try the demo
3-day trial · no card·Income tax · auto·USD · EUR · GBP · NGN
General Ledger · Live
Mowa Studio · April 2026
posting
28/04
Adeola Bakare
INV-2041 · Brand strategy retainer
+ $3,000
27/04
Slack
Software · Workspace subscription
− $80
26/04
Lume Studio
INV-2042 · Q2 design sprint
+ $1,240
25/04
Payroll
April run · 4 employees
− $12,000
Balance, MTD
$28,500.00
Built in Lagos·Tax handled automatically·Multi-business·Donations + grants·Triggers do the bookkeeping·Made for SMEs·Built in Lagos·Tax handled automatically·Multi-business·Donations + grants·Triggers do the bookkeeping·Made for SMEs·Built in Lagos·Tax handled automatically·Multi-business·Donations + grants·Triggers do the bookkeeping·Made for SMEs·
Mowa Books
Books
Mowa Studio
Business · USD
⌄
▤Dashboard
⇄Transactions
✉Invoices
◐Projects
▭Receipts
◉Contacts
◇Accounts
$Payroll
▥Reports
Mowa Studio/DashboardSampleTrial · 3d left
Export your book
Mowa Studio
Welcome back.
April 2026 at a glance.
$13,900 in · $12,500 out · + $1,400 net
Thu · 30 Apr
Income, MTD
$13,900
Booked this month
Expenses, MTD
$12,500
Out the door
Outstanding
2
$3,400 to collect
Active employees
4
On the next run
Cash flow · last 6 months
+ $12,200 net
InOut
NOV
DEC
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
Next payroll
4 employees,
tax handled.
Income tax · auto-handled
Gross$12,000
− Tax$1,350
Net to pay$10,650
General Ledger
Recent activity
View all →
28/04
Adeola Bakare
INCOME
+ $3,000
27/04
Slack
EXPENSE
− $80
25/04
Payroll
EXPENSE
− $12,000
Mowa Books
Books
Mowa Studio
Business · USD
⌄
▤Dashboard
⇄Transactions
✉Invoices
◐Projects
▭Receipts
◉Contacts
◇Accounts
$Payroll
▥Reports
Mowa Studio/InvoicesSampleTrial · 3d left
+ New invoice
Receivables
Invoices
⌕Search number, client, project…
AllDraftSentPartialPaidOverdue+ New invoice
INV-2043
Thando Mokoena
Editorial illustration · Issued 28/04 · Due 12/05
paid
$2,100
INV-2042
Lume Studio
Q2 design sprint· Issued 24/04 · Due 24/05
sent
$12,500
INV-2041
Adeola Bakare
Brand strategy retainer · Issued 18/04 · Due 02/05
paid
$3,000
INV-2040
Olamide Audio
Podcast brand · Issued 10/04 · Due 24/04
overdue
$1,200
INV-2039
Yemisi Ojo
Site rebuild · Issued 04/04 · Due 18/04
partial
$3,600
$1,080 due
5 invoices
$9,900· $2,280 outstanding
Pricing
One page. Plain dollars.
Plan 01
Solo
For freelancers running one set of books.
$10/ month
  • 1 business✓
  • Invoicing & receipts✓
  • Payroll & tax auto✓
  • Reports✓
Start free trial
Most popular
Plan 02
Studio
For people juggling multiple businesses.
$20/ month
  • Everything in Solo✓
  • Unlimited businesses✓
  • Multi-currency✓
  • Custom branding✓
  • Cross-business reports✓
Start free trial
Plan 03
Cloud
Multi-device sync. Coming soon.
On the way
  • Everything in Studio✓
  • Sync across devices✓
  • Team access✓
  • Audit log✓
Join waitlist

Mowa Books

Local-first accounting, invoicing & payroll

Multi-currency·Local-first·Nigerian PAYE auto
Mowa Books landing page — "The books balance themselves" hero with general ledger preview
Mowa Books dashboard — month-to-date income, expenses, outstanding invoices, payroll
Mowa Books transactions ledger — categorised income and expenses across currencies
Mowa Books accounts — per-account balances across NGN and USD
Mowa Books invoice — PDF-ready invoice with currency, billing, and totals

Overview

Mowa Books is the first product in the Mowa product family. Built for freelancers, builders, and small businesses that need clean books for compliance and decision-making, without learning accounting in the process.

What it does

The user records what actually happened (sent an invoice, ran payroll, paid a supplier) and the bookkeeping follows from those actions. Multi-business books with per-currency accounts in NGN, USD, GBP, and EUR. PDF invoicing with payment tracking. Payroll with automatic tax calculation. Project-level instalment tracking with CSV import. Categorised transactions, account-scoped reports, and CSV export per report tab. Local backup and restore, with cloud sync arriving as a paid tier.

How it was built

Mowa Books is a local-first web application. Data lives in the browser via Dexie / IndexedDB, with cloud sync slated as a paid tier. The full Next.js 16 application runs on Cloudflare Workers via @opennextjs/cloudflare, which keeps the deployment unified with the rest of the Mowa stack. Authentication runs on Clerk. The payroll tax engine is built in pure functions, fully unit-tested, so payroll calculations stay reliable as the codebase evolves.

Where it stands

  • Live in private beta at books.mowa.work
  • 3-day free trial, no card required, sample data on first run
  • Multi-currency, multi-business, with automatic payroll tax handling
  • In-app knowledge base of 16 step-by-step guides
  • Geo-aware currency localisation and Cloud sync next on the roadmap

Capabilities

Product StrategyUX/UI DesignFront-end EngineeringBack-end EngineeringLocal-first architectureDocument rendering (PDF)Payroll tax engineAnalyticsSEO

Have a project in mind?