My wife loved her paper checkbook register, so we built something that worked the way she did.

One evening over a glass of wine, my wife Jennifer and I got to talking about her checkbook. She’s always preferred the little paper register that comes with a new box of checks. It was simple, familiar, and worked for her.

I asked why she didn’t use an app. She’d tried several. Some were too complicated, some wanted our banking information, and sharing a register with me had been frustrating enough that we gave up.

As she talked, I started taking notes. That conversation became Simple Register.

We wanted to keep what she liked about paper and make it easier for both of us to stay caught up. Now she can enter a payment on her phone, and I can open the same register on mine through iCloud. She doesn’t have to carry the paper register everywhere, and I don’t have to ask her for the balance.

Then we started working through the little things that drove her crazy. Christmas shopping was a big one. You place one Amazon order, but they charge you separately as things ship. Suddenly, that one order becomes several amounts you have to match against your statement.

That’s where itemized charges came from. Enter the order total, keep the separate charges underneath it, and check them off individually as they clear. It’s one of Jennifer’s favorite features because she knows exactly what a headache it used to be.

People using the app have helped shape it too. Requests like importing transactions from another app and adding more fonts have given us things to work on. We both have regular jobs, so we read the emails and build together during evenings and weekends.

Simple Register works on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. No bank connections, no ads, and no subscription. Your records stay on your devices and in your own iCloud account if you choose to use it.

There’s a seven day free trial, then a $9.99 one time unlock in the U.S.

We built it to make something we do every day a little easier. If you’ve had the same frustrations, we’d love for you to take a look.

See Simple Register and our 55 second video tour: https://simpleregister.app/

Do you still use a paper register, or have you found something that works for your household?