Books that check themselves | MUVES case study

Custom software, at work.

Built: An Apps Script project, an eight-tab workbook and daily jobs around it
Stack: Google SheetsApps Script (clasp)GmailDriveCalendar
Timeline: October 2026
Status: In daily use for MUVES's own books
Scale: 8 tabs, 7 scripted parts, one company's books

The problem

A new company has bills, client payments, receipts in email and subscriptions that renew on dates nobody remembers. We wanted books that live where we already work, in Google Workspace. A plain spreadsheet can do that, but it never tells you when it is wrong.

A shoebox overflowing with paper receipts next to a laptop inbox full of invoice emails and a wall calendar with no renewal dates marked.

The workbook

Eight tabs, one set of books.

Cash basis, double entry. Every number on the summary tabs comes from the Journal, so there is one place where an entry lives. Shown here without figures.

Tab	What it holds
Overview	The dashboard, with the CHECKS block at the top
Monthly P&L	Money in and out, month by month
Owners	What each founder put in and took out
Statements	Bank and card statement lines, for reconciling
Money	Each account and what it should hold
Clients	Who was billed, who paid, who is due
Recurring	Every subscription and the date it renews
Journal	Every entry, both sides, with its source

What we built

Scripts that feed the workbook, and checks that read it.

How it fits together. Three ways in, one workbook, three ways out. The red boxes are the two places that refuse bad data: a duplicate entry is turned away, and numbers that do not agree turn the CHECKS block red.

One setup script
setupMuves, run once with clasp, built the company's Drive folders and the workbook itself, so the structure is code that can be rebuilt, not clicks that have to be remembered.
Email filing
runUpdate labels client threads in Gmail and copies their attachments into the right client folder in Drive.
Booking, once
runPending books queued changes into the Journal and refuses any it has already booked. That refusal is tested. New entries can arrive through a small web endpoint that only accepts a secret token.
Expected bills
A daily job posts every subscription due as an "Expected" row, so a renewal shows up before it hits the account.
Reconcile
muvesReconcile lines the books up against the statements, so a missing or doubled entry stands out.
A CHECKS block
A block on the dashboard that turns red when the books do not agree with themselves.
A calendar at 6 am
Every morning at 6 the payment calendar is rebuilt from the workbook in Google Calendar: what is due, and when.

How it runs

A day in the books.

When	What happens	Who
6:00	Payment calendar rebuilt from the workbook	Script
Daily	Due subscriptions posted as Expected rows	Script
Each update run	Client threads labelled, attachments filed to Drive	Script
When something is spent	Entry queued, booked once, duplicates refused	Script, from a founder's entry
Any time	CHECKS block read. Red means stop and look	A founder
Each statement	Reconcile run, differences cleared	A founder, with the script

What changed

Books that say when they are wrong.

A spreadsheet window with a CHECKS block glowing green at the top, a calendar beside it with renewals already marked.

MUVES's books were reconciled through October 7 on this system, and every renewal now appears on a calendar before it is charged. We keep our own figures private, so there are no money numbers on this page.

The bigger change is the habit: the CHECKS block is green or it is not, and nobody has to remember which subscription renews on which date.

What we'd reuse

For a business that lives in Google Workspace and is not ready for an accounting system.

A cleaning company tracking client invoices and supply runs. A two-person agency with retainers and software bills. A food truck with daily cash and monthly permits. The parts carry over: a journal, expected rows, a reconcile step, a CHECKS block and a calendar. We do not rebuild past years of accounting, and we tell you when it is time for real accounting software.

Finance & operations workbooksBooks, checks and calendars that update daily

Inbox triage & filingAttachments filed to the right folder on arrival

Owner dashboardsThe numbers on one screen, with checks

Have you outgrown your spreadsheets?When a workbook is enough, and when it is not

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