Docs
Getting started
From a blank app to a working instrument in about ten minutes.
Try it without installing anything
The live demo runs in the browser on sample data — no signup, nothing saved. It’s the same app, so anything in these docs can be tried there first.
The setup questions
The desktop app (Mac & Windows; an iOS app is on the way) opens with a short wizard. Its questions aren’t decoration — each one drives something real:
- Where you pay tax picks the recipe: the set-aside rate, the fiscal year, the payment deadlines, even the local word for VAT. toqe speaks ten countries — UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Greece, US, Canada and Australia.
- Your currency becomes the base everything is valued in. Projects and clients can still bill in any currency — they convert for the rollups.
- VAT / sales tax registration decides whether invoices carry tax lines and whether the VAT estimate runs.
- How you bill and your payment terms become the defaults a new booking starts from.
- Your usual day rate prices a new booking before you’ve typed anything.
Then it asks where your data should live. Any folder works; one that syncs (Dropbox, iCloud Drive) doubles as your backup and carries the same document between machines. “Decide later” is fine too — toqe stages a home in your Documents folder so nothing you type is ever homeless. Your data has the full story.
Worth doing in the first sitting
- Type your cash on hand (Settings → Money). The forecast simulates forward from this number; with it blank, the curve starts from nothing.
- Set a safety buffer — the cushion the forecast won’t let the balance dip below without telling you.
- Add your regular costs in Expenses — the bills you know, and rough allowances for the rest. The burn is half of what makes the runway honest.
- Book what’s already booked: sweep this month’s work onto the Calendar, or add rows in Projects.
- Bring your history in if you have it — Importing takes a CSV from anywhere.
The desktop app runs a free trial; buying once unlocks it for good — toqe is a one-time purchase, not a subscription.