Intro
Keeprr is an AI-powered tool for solo business owners who need to understand their actual financial position — not just their bank balance. It accounts for taxes, pending expenses, and income uncertainty to answer one question: how much of this money can I actually use?
Problem
There are over 2.6 million self-employed people in Canada, and 70% of them run their businesses alone (Statistics Canada). No finance team. No one to ask. And a tax system complicated enough that even straightforward situations often end up on a CPA's desk.
The problem isn't that people don't care about their finances. It's that the tools available don't answer the question they're actually asking. Invoicing apps track what came in. Bookkeeping tools record what went out. But the question most solo operators wake up wondering — can I afford to pay myself this month? — doesn't have a clean answer anywhere.
So they look at their bank balance. And the bank balance looks like truth, but it isn't.
Insight
That became the core insight.
A bank balance is a mix of things: money that's already been earned, money that's already been promised elsewhere, and money that might not belong to the business at all — GST collected for the CRA, tax that hasn't been set aside yet, an invoice that might not clear. Add it together and the number on the screen is technically accurate and practically useless.
What people need isn't more data. They need a clearer interpretation of what they already have.
Approach
I didn't want to build another accounting tool. The space is full of them, and the problem wasn't that people needed more features — it was that existing tools were answering a different question.
So I scoped it down to one thing: given what you've told me about your situation, here's how much of your cash is actually safe to use.
The onboarding collects only what it needs — province, business structure, income pattern, fixed expenses. Behind the scenes, the model estimates tax obligations, accounts for GST/HST as a liability, and builds in a buffer for income variability. The goal isn't perfect accuracy. It's a number you can trust enough to make a decision.
The hardest design problem wasn't the interface. It was figuring out what to leave out. Every variable I cut was a judgment call: does this meaningfully change the answer, or just add noise?
Reflection
Keeprr is still a prototype. The model needs real-world validation. Edge cases exist. But the core bet has held up: solo operators don't need more financial data. They need a way to understand what the data means for them.
It doesn't replace an accountant or a bookkeeping tool. It sits at a different layer — the one that helps you understand your numbers before you decide what to do with them.
Financial clarity shouldn't require an accountant. It should be something you can check before your next coffee.
