Compare · Trifold vs Spreadsheets

# Trifold vs Spreadsheets

Plenty of microschools and small non-profits keep their books in Excel or Google Sheets: a ledger tab, with a Stripe CSV pasted in each month. It works, and at low volume it's often the right call. Trifold does the same job from the Stripe events themselves: balanced books, a signed receipt for every payment and sealed months, exported to the same CSV whenever you want a sheet.

## Where Spreadsheets is strongest

Honest first. If these matter most to you, Spreadsheets is likely the better fit.

### Free, and everyone knows it

Google Sheets is free and Excel comes with Microsoft 365. Nobody needs training, and there's nothing to migrate.

### Total control

Lay it out however you like. For a 20-student school with one trusted person on the books, it's often enough.

### Your file, in open formats

CSV and XLSX open anywhere, and you hold the file. Version history and sheet protection are there if you use them.

## Where Trifold differs

Shipped means it works today in the engine. Next means it's on the roadmap and not built yet.

Shipped

### Books that always balance

Every Stripe payment posts as a debit and a credit, so the books balance by construction, and replaying the events gives the same balances and journals.

Shipped

### A receipt for every payment, a seal on every month

Each payment gets a signed receipt anyone can check with no account, and a sealed month shows any later change.

Shipped

### It still opens in a spreadsheet

Export to CSV (or Parquet and hledger) any time, so the sheet you know is one download away.

## Side by side

The companies and products, fact by fact. Trifold's prices are planned; the hosted service is early access.

| Fact | Trifold | Spreadsheets |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Cost | Free, then Starter $29, Pro $79, Witnessed $149 a month, planned. Non-profit and co-op: $15 / $39 / $79 | Free (Google Sheets), or part of a Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace subscription |
| Seats | No per-seat fees; CPA and bookkeeper seats free (planned) | Shared by link; no per-seat fee on Sheets |
| The books | Balanced double-entry books built from Stripe events; corrections are new events, never edits | Whatever the sheet's formulas do; nothing makes it balance |
| Stripe | Native: books built from Stripe events, Stripe's webhook signature checked | A CSV export pasted in, or a third-party connector |
| Checks | Signed receipts and sealed months; anyone, in a free browser verifier or the cli, with no account | Version history and sheet protection; no signed receipts or enforced period locks |
| AI | Rifo, Next (not shipped): drafts and explains, you approve, the engine does the math | Gemini in Sheets and Copilot in Excel can edit cells, without accounting controls |
| Export | Parquet, hledger and CSV, on every plan | CSV and XLSX |
| Where it lives | The engine is self-hostable | You hold the file |

## Which one fits

### Choose Spreadsheets if…

You take a handful of payments a month and one trusted person keeps the books.

### Choose Trifold if…

Payments outgrow what one person can reconcile by hand, or a board, auditor or parent will ask how you know the numbers are right.

## Basis

General knowledge of Excel and Google Sheets, not a vendor page.

Written 2026-11-06. Corrections: [hello@gettrifold.com](mailto:hello@gettrifold.com). [All comparisons](https://tfd-ledger.pages.dev/compare).

## Every dollar, three ways. Every month, sealed.

Books **✓**·Receipt **✓**·Stripe **✓**

[Get early access](https://tfd-ledger.pages.dev/early-access) [Verify a sample receipt](https://tfd-ledger.pages.dev/verify)

Design partners: founder onboarding, free during the pilot.