Your royalties, reconciled on your own computer
Drop in the monthly reports you already download from KDP, Kobo, and Apple Books and get one clear month back. Nothing is uploaded, because the app never talks to the internet.
You're on the list
The early build goes out by email. Ours is patchy right now, so if it does not reach you, ask us here and we will see it.
Built by the team behind Kelso, a small product studio with a live app on the Shopify App Store.
One month view, put together on your machine
It runs on your computer
Your sales and tax data stays on your machine. No account to make, no files to send us, no internet needed once it is installed.
Every store in one month view
The reports you already download from KDP, Apple Books, and Kobo get read into one normalized month, by title and by pen name. For Kobo that is the monthly sales report, plus the Kobo Plus report if you earn from it.
Built for the money questions
Currency conversion, page reads, returns, and the gap between what you earned and what you have actually been paid.
The month-end problem
This is what wide authors describe when they talk about closing out a month. It is the job the app is being built to finish.
"Every month you rebuild the same spreadsheet just to answer what did I actually earn."
"Amazon pays you a lump sum. Working out which book earned which part of it is your problem."
"Four stores, four currencies, four payment schedules, and none of them line up."
"Page reads land in a different month than the sale, so the math never quite closes."
How it works
Three steps, and none of them involve an account or a password.
Download your monthly reports
The same exports you already pull from KDP, Kobo, and Apple Books. For Kobo, grab the monthly sales report under My Account, Payment Information, not the dashboard export. Nothing new to set up, no passwords to hand over.
Drag them onto the app
The files are read on your own computer. They are not sent anywhere, because there is nowhere to send them.
Get one reconciled month
Earnings by title and pen name, with each currency kept separate, plus a cash view of what has been paid and what is still owed.
Which file to download from each store
Every one of these stores puts a lookalike estimate right next to the real report, so here is the one that carries the money.
- Amazon KDPReports, then Prior Months' Royalties
Amazon generates it near the 15th of each month, and it is the one that reflects what you were actually paid. The royalties estimator on the dashboard is a different number, and Amazon says so itself: to see your actual earnings, check the Prior Months' Royalties report.
- Apple BooksPayments and Financial Reports in iTunes Connect, then Create Report
Apple says a month is generally there by the end of the following month. Skip Sales and Trends for this. Apple calls those figures estimates based on daily downloads and tells you outright that you should not reconcile the two reports against each other.
- Kobo Writing LifeMy Account, then Payment Information
Kobo uploads a month on the 25th of the month after it. The dashboard is a live estimate rather than the money, which is Kobo’s own wording, so it is not the file you want here. If you earn from Kobo Plus, that arrives as a separate report marked SUBS. The app reads that one too, and counts those reads on their own rather than mixing them into your sales.
Checked against each store’s own help pages on 22 August 2026. These are their words, not ours, and stores do move things.
There is no scraping and no login that can get cut off. It reads the files you give it, on your machine, and that is the whole of it.
Working out which store owes you what, and when, is most of the job. We wrote up what KDP, Kobo, Apple Books, Google Play and Draft2Digital each publish about payment timing if you want the dates without the tool.
Where it actually is right now
We would rather tell you exactly what works than say coming soon.
- Apple Books reads end to end. Returns and multiple currencies included. Its totals match all three of the checksums Apple prints at the bottom of the report, which is how we know it is reading the file correctly and not just plausibly. That report is a real one, but it is an App Store report rather than a Books one, because Apple uses the same financial report layout for both. So no real author report has been through this yet either.
- Amazon KDP reads end to end too. Drop in the Prior Months' Royalties export and it imports, returns and mixed currencies included. One gap we would rather name than hide: we tested it against a file we built to the layout Amazon documents, not a real author report yet. That is the first thing we want a tester for.
- Kobo Writing Life monthly sales reads end to end too. Drop in the monthly sales report from My Account, Payment Information and it imports, using Kobo's own currency conversion rather than ours, because that is the rate that produced your deposit. Same gap as KDP: we tested against a file we built to Kobo's documented layout, not a real author report yet. Kobo Plus reads too now. Those reads are counted on their own rather than folded into your sales, and we still have not put a real Kobo report of either kind through it.
- The app itself runs, not just the file reading. We packaged the real desktop build, opened it, and dropped all three reports in through the actual window. The totals matched the version we develop against, so the packaged app and the engine agree. One limit worth naming: we did that on Linux. Nobody has opened it on a Mac or Windows yet, and that is the other thing we want a tester for.
There is an early build now and we are still not taking payment. Testers get it first.
What it will cost
We have not settled on a price yet, or on how it will be sold, so this page does not name either one. We would rather say that plainly than put up a number and change it later, or dangle a discount we have not worked out.
Testing is free, and testers will not be charged for helping.
Questions, answered honestly
Does my sales data ever leave my computer?
No. The app runs entirely on your machine and makes no network calls at all. There is no account, no sync, and no usage tracking. Nothing is looked up online, not even an exchange rate, so it keeps working with your wifi switched off.
Do you ever ask for my KDP or store password?
No. It reads the report files you already download. It never logs into your accounts and never scrapes anything, so there is no connection that can get cut off when a platform changes something.
Which platforms does it read right now?
All three stores read end to end today, including returns and more than one currency in the same month: Apple Books, Amazon KDP, the Kobo Writing Life monthly sales report, and the Kobo Plus subscription report marked SUBS. Kobo Plus reads get counted as their own number rather than folded into pages or copies sold, because a Kobo Plus read is a chunk of reading time and not a sale. One thing worth knowing about that report: Kobo does not publish which of its money columns is the one they actually pay you on, so we use the publisher revenue share figure and tell you when the other column disagrees rather than quietly picking one. And here is the one limit we would rather say plainly than let you find out later: no real author report has been through the engine yet, on any of the three. The Apple side was built against a real Apple financial report, but an App Store one rather than a Books one, because Apple uses the same financial report layout for both. The KDP and Kobo readers were built to the layouts those stores document. A real export from any of the three is the thing we most want a tester to try.
Which file do I download from each store?
One per store, and each store keeps a lookalike estimate right next to it. From Amazon KDP, open Reports and take Prior Months' Royalties, which Amazon generates near the 15th of each month. From Apple Books, open Payments and Financial Reports in iTunes Connect and create the report, which Apple says is generally available for a month by the end of the following month. From Kobo Writing Life, open My Account and then Payment Information, where Kobo uploads a month on the 25th of the month after it. The three to avoid are the KDP royalties estimator, Apple’s Sales and Trends, and the Kobo dashboard, because all three are estimates rather than what you were paid, and each store says so in its own help pages. Kobo Plus earnings come as a separate report marked SUBS, and the app reads that one too. Those reads get counted as their own number rather than as pages or copies sold.
Is this real, or another idea page?
It is real and being built now. The engine already reads a real Apple financial report end to end and its totals agree with all three of the checksums Apple puts at the bottom of that file. That sample is an App Store report rather than an Apple Books one, so no real Books, KDP or Kobo file has been through it yet. We have also packaged the desktop app, opened it, and dropped all three stores in through the real window, and the totals matched the version we develop against. That run was on Linux, so nobody has opened it on a Mac or Windows yet. It is not finished and we are not taking money, but there is an early build now and testers get it. That is why this page asks for testers instead of customers.
What will it cost?
We have not settled on a price yet, or on how it will be sold, so we are not going to quote you one or promise a discount we have not worked out. Testing is free, and testers will not be charged for helping.
There are other royalty tools already. Why this one?
There are, and if you are happy sending your reports to a web service then one of them may suit you fine. This one exists for authors who are not. The reports carry your sales and tax data, and two authors told us plainly they would only use a tool that runs offline. That is the difference we are building, and it is the whole reason to pick this over something else.
See the five tools we know about side by side, including where they beat us
What does testing involve?
You run an early build on your own files and tell us where the numbers look wrong. Your reports stay with you, and we never ask you to send them to us. It is early and rough, so expect bugs. If that sounds like a bad time, join anyway and we will come back to you when there is a finished version instead. One thing worth knowing either way: our outgoing email is patchy right now, so if you sign up and never hear from us, write to support@kelsohq.com and we will see it.
Test an early build
We are looking for a small number of authors who sell on more than one store and are willing to run rough builds against their own reports. You keep your files. You tell us where the numbers are wrong. That is the deal.
You're on the list
The early build goes out by email. Ours is patchy right now, so if it does not reach you, ask us here and we will see it.