If you run an LLC, your books are not just a profit-and-loss exercise. You have to track each member's capital account, separate owner draws from guaranteed payments, allocate income correctly for K-1s, and keep distributions from getting tangled up with payroll. Most cloud accounting tools either charge per user or hide multi-member equity tracking behind their highest tier, which gets expensive fast for a two- or three-member LLC. FreshLedger Pro is a Windows desktop accounting system designed for owners who want to handle this themselves (or hand a clean file to their CPA at year-end). It includes full double-entry accounting, integrated payroll, and complete MACRS depreciation in a single $799 one-time purchase. There is no per-seat subscription, no upsell for adding members, and a free Accountant Edition you can hand to your CPA so they work directly in your file.
FreshLedger Pro maps cleanly to how LLCs actually keep books, not how a SaaS pricing tier wants them kept. Member capital account tracking. You can set up a separate equity account for every member - Capital Contributions, Draws, Distributions, and Allocated Income subaccounts under each. This matches how a Schedule K-1 (Form 1065) reports beginning and ending capital, contributions, and withdrawals. When a member takes money out, you record it against their draw account, not as an expense, so your P&L stays clean. Owner draws vs guaranteed payments vs distributions. These are three different things and the IRS treats them three different ways. FreshLedger lets you set up distinct accounts and memo codes so a guaranteed payment (deductible to the LLC, ordinary income to the member, reported on K-1 line 4) is never accidentally booked the same as a non-deductible distribution (K-1 line 19A) or a draw against capital. Multi-member without per-user pricing. The $799 license covers as many members, employees, and contractors as you need in the file. Adding a fourth member doesn't bump you to a higher subscription tier. Integrated payroll for S-corp-elected LLCs. If your LLC has elected S-corp status, you need to run real payroll for member-managers. FreshLedger handles W-4 (2020 redesign), federal withholding, FICA, FUTA, state withholding tables, Form 941 quarterly worksheets, Form 940 annual, W-2s, and 1099-NEC for contractor members. Full MACRS depreciation. Vehicles, equipment, real estate held by the LLC - all depreciable assets are tracked with the right class life, convention (half-year, mid-quarter, mid-month), Section 179 election, and bonus depreciation. This feeds Form 4562 cleanly. Free Accountant Edition. Your CPA installs the Accountant Edition at no charge, opens your file directly, makes year-end adjusting entries, and hands it back. No "accountant user" subscription seat.
Workflow 1: Quarterly member distribution for a two-member LLC. You and your co-owner each hold 50%. The LLC had a strong quarter and you both agree to distribute $20,000. In FreshLedger you open the General Journal, debit Member A - Distributions $10,000, debit Member B - Distributions $10,000, credit Operating Cash $20,000. You write the two checks (or record the ACH) against that journal entry. At year-end, those distribution balances roll into each member's capital account reconciliation and show up on the K-1 line 19A draft you give your CPA. No payroll taxes were withheld because these are distributions, not wages - which is correct for a default-classification LLC. Workflow 2: S-corp-elected LLC running owner payroll. Your single-member LLC elected S-corp treatment. You need reasonable compensation as a W-2 employee of your own company. You set yourself up in Payroll with a W-4, choose a $6,000 semi-monthly gross, and run payroll. FreshLedger calculates federal withholding from the current Pub 15-T tables, Social Security and Medicare (employer and employee halves), FUTA accrual, and state withholding. At quarter-end you pull the Form 941 worksheet; at year-end you generate your own W-2 and W-3. Any additional cash you pull comes out as an owner distribution against your single-member equity account, not as wages. Workflow 3: Buying a $42,000 truck used 100% for the business. You record the asset purchase, then open the Depreciation module. You select 5-year MACRS, half-year convention, and elect Section 179 expensing up to the current-year limit (subject to the SUV cap if applicable for heavy vehicles between 6,000 and 14,000 lbs GVWR). FreshLedger generates a Form 4562 worksheet showing Section 179, bonus depreciation, and any remaining regular MACRS, plus a year-by-year schedule for the asset's full recovery period.
LLCs are a tax classification chameleon, and your books need to reflect which path you're on. A single-member LLC defaults to a disregarded entity and files on Schedule C of the owner's 1040 - but you still want clean separate books for liability and audit defense. A multi-member LLC defaults to partnership taxation and files Form 1065 with Schedule K-1s to each member. Either default can elect S-corp (Form 2553) or C-corp (Form 8832) treatment, and the right answer changes how owner compensation must be booked. Key items to get right: capital account maintenance on a tax basis (required disclosure on Form 1065 Schedule K-1 since 2020), separately stated items (Section 1231 gains, Section 179 deduction, charitable contributions, interest income) that flow through to members individually, guaranteed payments under IRC Section 707(c), and self-employment tax treatment of member earnings under Section 1402 - which differs for member-managers versus passive members. For real estate held inside an LLC, you'll use 27.5-year straight-line MACRS with mid-month convention for residential rental, or 39-year for commercial. Cost segregation studies that break out 5- and 15-year components are supported - you just enter each component as its own asset with its own class life.
FreshLedger Pro is $799 one-time. The optional payroll tax table update is $99/year and only matters if you're running payroll (S-corp-elected LLCs, or LLCs with W-2 employees). If you're a default-classification LLC with no employees and only member draws, you may never need the update at all. Compare to subscription accounting software: a typical mid-tier plan that includes multi-member equity tracking and payroll runs $90-$200/month, or roughly $1,100-$2,400 per year, with per-employee payroll fees on top. Over three years, FreshLedger costs $799 (or $1,097 with three years of payroll updates) versus $3,300-$7,200 for a subscription. For a two-member LLC paying for two user seats on a SaaS product, the gap widens further.
FreshLedger Pro is not the right tool for every LLC. If your members are in different cities and need to be in the books simultaneously, this is a single-user-at-a-time desktop file - you'd need to pass it back and forth or use a shared remote desktop. If you want your books on your phone, there is no native mobile app; the Windows app runs in a VM on macOS but there's no iOS or Android version. If you depend on automatic bank feeds that pull transactions overnight, FreshLedger imports CSV, OFX, QFX, and QBO files you download from your bank - it does not connect via Plaid or direct bank API. And because it's a real double-entry system, expect a steeper learning curve than invoice-first tools. If those constraints are dealbreakers, a cloud product is a better fit.
One-time-purchase accounting software with built-in payroll, full depreciation handling, and a free Accountant Edition for your CPA.
Buy FreshLedger Pro — $799One-time purchase. No subscription. Free Accountant Edition included.