What PilePilot is
PilePilot is an AI bookkeeping copilot for small businesses. You feed it your bank activity - by connecting your bank or uploading statements - and it sorts every transaction into a clean profit & loss statement mapped to your tax return, then surfaces tax strategies you may qualify for.
The goal: turn the shoebox of statements into books you can actually sign, in minutes instead of weekends.
PilePilot is software that helps you organize your books. It is not a CPA and does not provide accounting, legal, or tax advice. For decisions about your specific situation, talk to your own tax professional.
Quick start
The whole flow, top to bottom:
- Sign in with your email (a magic link) or with Google. No password to remember.
- Get your data in - connect your bank (best), or upload statements (PDF / CSV / Excel), or import a P&L you already have.
- Let the AI sort it. It categorizes every transaction and builds your P&L automatically.
- Review what it flags. Anything it’s unsure about is queued for your eyes - a quick tap to confirm.
- Explore tax strategies matched to your numbers.
- Sign & lock your books when they’re ready.
Signing in
Magic link (email)
Enter your email and we send you a one-time sign-in link. Click it and you’re in - there’s no password to set or forget. The link is single-use and expires, so it stays secure.
Sign in with Google
Prefer one click? Use Sign in with Google on the login screen. It’s the same account either way, tied to your email.
Getting your data in
There are three ways to feed PilePilot. You can mix them, but here’s when to use each:
1 路 Connect your bank recommended
Link your bank once and PilePilot pulls every transaction directly - exact amounts, no scanning. This is the most accurate path and the easiest to keep current.
- From your cockpit, tap Connect bank and pick your institution.
- You log in securely through Stripe (our bank-connection provider). PilePilot only ever gets read-only access to your transactions - it can never move money.
- Back in PilePilot, tap Sync transactions into my books.
2 路 Upload statements
No connection? Upload the statements your bank gives you - PDF, CSV, or Excel. CSV/Excel is fastest and cheapest to process; PDF works on anything, including scans.
- One file per month is ideal, but not required.
- Drop several files at once.
- Same-content files are skipped automatically so your books aren’t double-counted. (Want to re-import one? Delete the existing copy first - see Chapter 11.)
3 路 Import a P&L you already have
Already export a profit & loss from QuickBooks, Wave, Xero, or your accountant? Upload it and PilePilot reads the totals directly - skipping categorization and jumping straight to tax strategies.
Your cockpit
The cockpit is your home screen - a live snapshot of your business. Here’s what each piece means:
| Card | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Revenue YTD | Total money in for the year, from your categorized deposits. |
| Expenses YTD | Total deductible business spending, grouped into categories. |
| Net Profit | Revenue minus expenses - your draft bottom line for Schedule C. |
| Tax Estimate | A rough federal + payroll estimate based on your current numbers. A planning guide, not a filing. |
The Savings Pipeline banner shows how many tax strategies match your books and ties them to your real tax bill. Tap it to explore each one.
The buttons up top are your controls: Connect bank, Upload statements, Re-run books (re-reads everything and rebuilds from scratch), and Sign & lock books.
How PilePilot keeps your numbers honest
This is what makes PilePilot different. Most tools read a statement and show you whatever they got - even if they missed half of it. PilePilot checks its own work against your bank’s printed totals before it trusts a single number.
Reconciliation, in plain English
Every bank statement prints its own totals (“Total Deposits & Credits,” “Total Withdrawals,” etc.). When PilePilot reads a statement, it adds up what it captured and compares that to those printed totals.
- If they tie out (within normal scan rounding), your books are trustworthy and show up in the P&L.
- If they don’t - say the scan was blurry and it couldn’t read every deposit - that statement is held out of your P&L and you’ll see a red banner explaining the gap.
What to do when a statement is held out
- Connect your bank (or upload a CSV export) for that period - exact data, no scanning. This always fixes it.
- Or upload a clearer scan of the statement and re-run.
A tiny gap (a few dollars on a big statement) is just scan rounding and won’t hold anything out. Held-out statements are reserved for real mismatches - the kind that would otherwise quietly make your books wrong.
Reviewing & fixing transactions
PilePilot auto-categorizes everything it can with confidence. The rest it hands to you - clearly flagged as Needs review.
- Your cockpit tells you how many transactions need your eyes.
- Open the transactions view to see them, set the right category, and PilePilot remembers your choice for next time.
- Re-run books never erases a category you reviewed - your decisions are preserved across runs.
Checks
A paper check usually shows up on a statement as just “Check #1168” - no payee, no purpose. PilePilot will not guess a category for a check it can’t identify; it flags it for your review instead. That’s deliberate - a guessed check is worse than a flagged one.
The cleanest fix: connect your bank. The bank feed knows who each check was written to, so checks come in already identified - no guessing required.
Tax strategies
Once your numbers are in, PilePilot matches your business against a library of tax strategies and shows the ones that fit - tied to your real tax estimate, not a fantasy number.
- Open the Savings Pipeline to see each strategy.
- Some need a few answers from you to confirm you qualify - answer them to move a strategy from Potential to Eligible.
- Track each one through the pipeline as you implement it.
Sign & lock your books
When your books are reviewed and tie out, Sign & lock books finalizes them - a clean, dated record you can hand to your preparer or keep for your files.
Managing your data
Delete one statement
On the Upload page, each file on the server has a 馃棏 Delete button. Deleting a statement now also removes that statement’s transactions from your books and rebuilds your P&L - the rest of your books stay exactly as they were. This is the right tool for everyday cleanup (“I uploaded the wrong month”).
Start fresh (delete everything)
If you want to wipe the whole slate and begin again, there’s a Start fresh option tucked into Advanced 路 data controls at the bottom of the Upload page.
- It permanently deletes all statements, all transactions, and your P&L.
- It keeps your account, login, billing, and any connected bank.
- To prevent accidents, you must type
DELETE EVERYTHINGto enable the button, then confirm once more.
Privacy & security
- Bank connections are read-only. PilePilot can see transactions to do your books - it can never move, send, or withdraw money.
- Your bank login is never seen by us. You authenticate through Stripe, our bank-connection provider; we only receive the transaction data.
- Your books are yours. You can delete a statement or wipe everything at any time (Chapter 11).
- Passwordless by design. Magic-link and Google sign-in mean there’s no password for anyone to steal.
FAQ & troubleshooting
Your statement was likely held out because it didn’t tie to the bank’s printed total (a rough scan). Look for the red banner. Fix it by connecting your bank or uploading a CSV/clearer scan, then re-run. See Chapter 6.
That’s PilePilot protecting you from a wrong number. It’s working as intended. Connect your bank or upload a clearer statement/CSV for that period.
Normal right after linking - banks take a few minutes to release the first batch. Wait and tap Sync again.
If it’s the same content as one already uploaded, it’s skipped to avoid double-counting. Delete the existing copy first, then re-upload.
No. Reviewed categories are preserved across re-runs.
PilePilot won’t guess a check’s purpose. Categorize it yourself, or connect your bank so checks arrive already identified. See Chapter 8.
Email support@pilepilot.com from any address and we’ll help you recover access.
Get help
Stuck on anything this manual didn’t cover? We’re real people and we read every message.
Email: support@pilepilot.com
Tell us what you were doing, what you expected, and what happened - and a screenshot if you can. We’ll get you sorted.