Changelog

What changed in each version of Counting Carrots. Download the latest, or an older version.

Version 2026.13

• Starting partway through the year is much easier: under My company → Bring in your history, enter each person's totals for each quarter so far instead of every past paycheck (or let the app read them from their last pay stub from your old payroll service), and check them against the Forms 941 already filed. Books started mid-year can bring in the earlier months as transactions or as a one-line-per-category summary.
• Keep track of sales tax (turn it on under My company): see which states you have to collect in, how close your sales are to each state's threshold, and a reminder for each return until you mark it filed.
• Shared company files no longer use passwords: make a one-time sign-in code for each computer, browser or passkey, and take any of them back. Old passwords stop working, so give each person a new code after updating. Sharing, backups, encryption and the recovery code are now together under Settings → Company file.
• My company now has a country and a currency, so a business outside the United States can keep its books and run simple payroll with its own withholdings, without any US taxes or forms.
• If your company file ever fails to open, the app now tells you why instead of showing the welcome screen, and it keeps a copy of the file before each upgrade changes it.
• Home, Money to send, My company, Start payday and the Welcome screen are shorter and plainer, with one to do per employee and the rarer settings a click away. A section's "To do" tag now points at the next field to fill in. Every table and to do list has PDF and Excel buttons, and the search box now finds every word and form number on every page.
• Payroll in more than 40 states and DC was checked against each state's latest rules and fixed where it differed, most of all who's covered by unemployment, nonresident withholding, paid leave, support orders and garnishments, new-hire reports and notices. Seattle's Social Housing Tax is new.
• Extra pay can be marked as commission, you can hold back a state amount or percent from every payment to a contractor, and starter 401(k)s are supported. Retirement savings are no longer taken from severance after someone leaves, students on F, J, M or Q visas can skip Social Security and Medicare, and a single-member LLC's 1099s go out under its owner's name as the IRS asks.
• Fixes: a bonus on its own check no longer gets a state's flat bonus rate just because an earlier bonus check had state tax taken, an amount too large to be real (typed or imported) is refused instead of read wrongly, hours with nothing paid show 0 instead of "-0", a problem in background work (like a backup or a shared connection) no longer closes the app, and Home and Tax forms open faster. Feedback can include the app's log, which now records backups and errors.
• The Linux version now runs on older systems too, like Debian 12, PureOS 11 and Ubuntu 22.04.

Version 2026.12

• Paydays is now Payroll, with Money to send as its first tab, and the search box is at the top of every page. Start payday fills in your next scheduled payday, and saving one takes you straight to the money to send for it.
• Retirement plans do much more: 403(b), 457(b) and SEP plans, who can join and when, automatic enrollment, safe harbor and Roth matches, vesting and forfeitures, and a year-end 401(k) report that estimates the nondiscrimination and top-heavy tests. Notices lists each plan's yearly deadlines.
• Payroll in 18 states and DC (Alabama through Louisiana, plus Utah) was checked against each state's latest rules and fixed where it differed, and more Alabama, Colorado, Kentucky and Michigan city taxes can be added to an employee. 2027 minimum wages already set are in.
• Many more kinds of workers and pay are handled: farm workers, H-2A and H-2B workers (with job-order wage checks), statutory employees, election workers, government employees, religious orders, nonresident aliens under a tax treaty (with Forms 1042-S and 1042), military differential pay, educational and adoption assistance, and sick pay from your disability insurer.
• Child support orders can be added for contractors too, and support orders and garnishments follow many more states' limits, fees and deadlines.
• Corrections to earlier quarters and years follow the IRS rules more closely: record when you filed a 941-X or W-2c, and take tax that wasn't withheld back from someone's later pay. Changing a name or SSN after W-2s are filed tells you a W-2c is needed.
• With two or more owners, each gets their own estimated tax payments, and Home shows this year's net profit so far beside them. Budgets now hold back what paydays still owe, so it isn't counted as money to spend.
• Federal fixes include exempt W-4s running out each February, bonuses withheld correctly when there's more than one, FUTA on Money to send matching Form 940, commuter benefit limits by month, and overtime for tipped staff.
• Smaller things: dates read day first ("Fri 24 Jan"), Home keeps finished items only for the day (the rest are under Completed tasks), an employee who was never paid can be deleted, a new hire's W-4 can be emailed, and next year's license can be bought early without losing days. Workplace posters are no longer tracked, and the terms of use now cover your books.

Version 2026.11

• Send us feedback from Help → Feedback…, with a screenshot that hides what you've typed. A crash report can be sent right from the crashed page, and neither needs email set up.
• File → Import brings in an employee's form or a bank's file of transactions, and the License card is shorter.
• Fixed: the app opens where you left it, as big as you left it.
• Pick a theme in App settings. The new Victorian theme dresses the app and its PDFs in botanical engravings and old type.
• Add your logo in My company and it appears at the top of pay stubs, reports and letters.

Version 2026.10

• Send us feedback from Help → Feedback…, with a screenshot that scribbles out names, numbers and anything you've typed. If a page crashes, you can email a report right from there.
• Record who owns the company over time: distributions are checked against who owned what that day, and each owner gets a capital account.
• The Accountant Packet adds a balance sheet, a general ledger, a journal your accountant can import, owners' capital accounts and equipment to depreciate.
• Sole proprietors can send their year to TurboTax: File → Export saves a file for TurboTax Desktop, or lists the Schedule C amounts to type into TurboTax Online.
• Paydays handle Trump account contributions (W-2 code TA) and the higher SIMPLE IRA limits for small employers, the I-9's Section 2 is printed for you to sign, and a correction can be dated on the payday it fixes.
• Files you send your accountant are signed so no one can pass off a fake, sharing a company file uses stronger encryption, and view-only users can no longer see full SSNs or TINs.
• To do lists put things that can't be done yet at the bottom, dates are shorter ("by Wed, Jun 18"), and the Tax tables tab shows what each update changed.
• Fixes: My company no longer crashes, deadlines on a weekend or holiday move to the next business day, 1099 corrections follow the IRS's two-step process, and going back to an older version of the app no longer asks you to agree to the terms again.
• The terms of use now say the posters link also sends how many people work in that state, so you'll be asked to agree again. Connecting your bank now says SimpleFIN Bridge is a paid service from the makers of Counting Carrots.

Version 2026.9

• A payroll payment in Books asks plainly whether it was paid through Counting Carrots: match it to a payday (two of the same amount are told apart by the bank's memo), or say it's from before you used the app, like last year's FUTA.
• Books' transactions sort by any column, show each payee on one line, and can show just the ones that need a category from the Category column's menu. Right-click a category to add a sub category, and split one bank payment between owners who share an account.
• Start a payday with the amounts from an earlier one: right-click it in the list, or pick it under "Start with the amounts from" on a new payday.
• Much more of the app works from the keyboard: ⌘K searches from any page, ⌘F finds words on the page, ⌘T adds a transaction and ⌘1 to ⌘9 open the pages in the menu (Ctrl on Windows and Linux). Enter presses a form's main button, Esc cancels, and Tab and the arrow keys reach rows, tabs, tables and calendars.
• Starting a new company no longer asks for the EIN; add it later under My company. Fixed: text boxes autocorrecting what you type, and an extra owner appearing while you type owners' percents.
• An account's first reconciliation starts by checking its starting balance against the bank's statement, and each account to reconcile is its own to do.
• Each year there's a notice to send employees who work in another state the link to their workplace posters, with an Email button when email is set up.
• The year-end package for your accountant is now called the Accountant Packet. Its PDF opens with your books' bottom line, shows every account's beginning and ending balance, adds profit and loss by month, and has a contents page you can click.
• The Chain Code, the code that proves your books weren't changed, now always looks the same, in the app and on PDFs: a blue box with a chain-link icon.
• Money to send keeps payments due more than 30 days away (like a year's FUTA) under Upcoming, and doesn't count them until then. Home's number in the menu counts only its own to dos, and each says which employee or contractor it's for.

Version 2026.8

• The accountant's PDF is now the Accountant Package (“Testo Accountant Package 2026.pdf”): it opens with your books' bottom line, shows every account's beginning and ending balance, and includes the profit and loss by month. The code that proves your books weren't changed afterward is now called the Chain Code.
• ⌘T (Ctrl+T on Windows and Linux) adds a transaction from any page. Books also points you at what's left to do: the first transaction that needs a category, and budgets due to be filled.
• The 3 free months now cover your books too, and start with whichever you begin first: payroll or new transactions in your books. After them, changing your books needs a license; you can still look at them and open reports.
• Budgets are quicker to work with: you see what each budget will have as you type, a fill shows what every budget gets before you say yes, and ⌘Z (Ctrl+Z) undoes your last change. The list of budgets saves as a PDF or spreadsheet.
• Books reports saved as PDFs now read as financial statements, with your company and the dates at the top, categories indented under bold headings, and ruled totals; a report by month fits its page. Every PDF table has the same heading, a clearer typeface and roomier columns.
• Open several company files at once: each gets a window of its own with the file's name in the title bar, and File → Open Recent takes you back to the ones you've used lately. An accountant file's menu is blue, so you can tell its window from a company's.
• Smaller things: Home's to do list says which employee or contractor each item is for, the activity log filters from its column headings, and the list of what Counting Carrots does and doesn't do now covers Books.

Version 2026.7

• The app is tidier and easier to read: consistent text sizes, fields and forms on every page, plainer words, short explanations with the details under More, and messages in the bottom corner instead of banners that push the page around.
• My company → Encryption can make a new key if someone else may have your recovery code, and recovery codes are printed larger and are easier to type in.
• The app is clearer about its limits: a new "What Counting Carrots doesn't handle" section, to-do lists that say they come from what you've entered, reminders that the agency's own instructions and letters win, PDFs that say they were prepared with Counting Carrots, and updated terms of use.
• A license is now good for a year from the day you buy it, instead of for one tax year, and the app reminds you in its last 30 days.
• The activity log, and other long logs like imports and emails sent, show a page at a time; their PDF and Excel copies still have everything.
• Paydays in California, Washington, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Oregon say why that state's payroll is especially complicated and suggest having an accountant check it, and the Tax tables tab shows the official publications each state's numbers were checked against.
• New Books page: bring in your bank and card transactions (synced through SimpleFIN Bridge, from bank files, or from QuickBooks), put them in categories, attach receipts, reconcile, and see profit and loss, cash flow, tax-return lines and balances. Payroll, owner's draws and contractor payments are matched to the bank, and Books' To do lists what's left to tie up.
• Books → Budgets: set money aside for expenses (and the owner's estimated tax, health insurance and draws), give each budget a plan, including every payday, and fill them all with one button. Tax withheld from pay and sales tax collected are held aside, not counted as money to spend.
• Accountants can make their own accountant file (File → New Accountant File…) and give clients their key. Clients can then send their books' history and year-end package encrypted, and the accountant can check the history and view the books read-only.
• The accountant package opens with a one-page summary and now includes the books: profit and loss, cash flow, accounts at year end, things to look at, and every transaction in the spreadsheet.
• Close the books through a day once a year's return is filed: after that, changes need a yes and are listed for your accountant. Every change is kept in a sealed history, so a report's code proves it hasn't been altered since.
• In a narrow window the menu moves to the top (or keep it there with App settings → Always show the menu at the top).
• My company → Payroll can turn payroll off for a company that only keeps its books here: payroll's reminders and categories go away, but posters and new hires' paperwork stay while anyone is still employed.

Version 2026.6

• Checklists can be filtered to show only what's left, every Home to do can be marked done, and on Tax forms the forms that don't apply start hidden. The Switching from QuickBooks to do is gone.
• Contractors have the same forms table as employees for their W-9 (or W-8) and OK to get 1099s by email, and a Pay button on each row of the list.
• App settings → Email lets you pick Gmail, Outlook, Fastmail, iCloud, Yahoo or Zoho (or Custom), links to where you make the app password it needs, and saves the email password encrypted like Social Security numbers.
• Each employee has a table of the forms they need (Form I-9, W-4, the OK to get pay stubs by email, and their state's form): send each one by email, print it or drag it out, track whether it was sent and received, and keep the completed copy. Your company is already filled in on the W-4, and My company has a contact email for people to send their forms back to.
• An employee's page saves by itself, so you can add someone with just a name and finish later, and payday asks for their pay and filing status if they're missing. A They no longer work here button asks for their last day and why.
• You can fill in your part of an employee's Form I-9 in the app, and a scan or photo of an I-9 or W-4 is read for you to check, so you can create an employee from it or add it to one.
• Setting up a company asks how many owners it has (up to four), and someone you add as an owner is treated as one right away so the pay warnings don't wrongly appear.
• Search finds each state's withholding form (like G-4) and each employee's copy.
• After you create a company you land on Home. A pay schedule your state doesn't allow for hourly staff shows a small yellow note instead of a red warning, and typing a hyphen in an SSN or EIN puts it in.
• The new terms of use can wait a week if you've agreed to earlier terms; a new install still needs you to agree first.
• Employees, contractors and your company now show what's left to set up, with a count on each tab and list, and Home has an item for each that takes you to the next thing to do. Your company's EIN and full address are on that list too.
• PDFs the app makes (letters, pay stubs, tables and packages) now say when they were made, after the document name in the footer.
• Printing steps show the keys for your computer (⌘P on a Mac, Ctrl+P on Windows), and the optional IRIS TCC to do shows the date to apply by.

Version 2026.5

• Fixed the app freezing or doing nothing when opening forms on macOS 12 (Monterey).
• Fixed buttons and menus doing nothing after you've started filling in a form: "Are you sure?" questions now actually appear. The log file (Help → Show Log File…) also records the pages you open and any problems, never names or amounts.
• On a shared company file, only the person at the computer holding the file can print the recovery code; a payment made from a payday (pay after death) can only be changed by changing the payday; a W-2 for an earlier year keeps the retirement plan code it was run under; and a file dropped for someone you never added no longer carries over to the next new employee or contractor.

Version 2026.4

• Contractors: a new Contractors page keeps each contractor's details, W-9 and payments. It also makes 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC forms, saves IRIS upload files, tracks TIN matching and IRS B notices, and withholds backup withholding when required.
• Accountant package: new year-end package with journal entries, a payroll register, what's still owed, contractor payments, estimated taxes and possible tax credits. It now adds up line by line, with bookmarks and a contents page in the PDF.
• Corrections: record a correction to an earlier quarter, and filed Forms 941, 940 and W-2s now show what has changed since they were filed and which form fixes it (941-X, 940, W-2c).
• Add files: drop a W-4, I-9 or W-9 anywhere in the app and it is read, filed with the right person, and used to fill in their details. Scans and photos are read with built-in text recognition. Completed forms are kept encrypted.
• Employees: pages are split into tabs. New options cover HSA and FSA contributions, taxable non-cash benefits, expense reimbursements, and a single "Kind of work" list for workers who are exempt from certain taxes.
• 401(k): company contributions beyond the match, 2026 limit checks, a "true-up match" option, and clearer deposit deadlines. You can also choose no plan, a SIMPLE IRA or a SEP-IRA.
• Pay stubs, W-2s and forms: pay stubs show more year-to-date detail, W-2s follow the 2026 IRS layout, and Forms 941, 940 and 945 can be marked final, with a third-party designee.
• Notices and checklists: required posters and notices were expanded for many states, with a new "If you close the business" section. Home, Money to send, Paydays and Tax forms now share one checklist style.
• State updates: withholding, unemployment, paid leave, minimum wage, final pay and payday rules were updated for many states and cities, including pay after an employee's death and military spouses.
• Home has a search box, and Settings has a Text size choice with View → Zoom In and Zoom Out.
• Sole proprietors get quarterly estimated tax reminders, an Owner's draws page and a simpler setup. S corporation owners get reasonable-wage warnings.
• Windows and Linux now store the encryption key and email password in the system's secure store. You can print a recovery code page.

Version 2026.3

• File → Export All Data… saves everything in your company file as spreadsheet (CSV) files in a zip.
• Switching from QuickBooks Online or Desktop? You can now import your employees and this year's paychecks from QuickBooks reports.
• Help → Show Log File… shows a troubleshooting log you can attach to an email when asking for help. It never contains Social Security numbers, email addresses or pay amounts.
• On a Mac, "Update to…" now installs the new version for you and reopens Counting Carrots.
• People using a shared company file from a web browser can now download tables and pay stubs as PDFs or spreadsheets.

Version 2026.2

• Home now shows one checklist of everything to do: money to send, tax forms to file, notices and posters, and pay stubs to give. Click a row to open its steps, and click the circle to mark it done.
• State withholding returns, yearly reconciliations, unemployment wage reports and new-hire reports are now in the Tax forms checklist with their due dates and filing steps.
• Counting Carrots can back up your company file by itself into a folder you choose, such as a cloud drive, and you can restore any backup from Settings.
• You can now email pay stubs to employees who agreed to get them that way, and Settings lists every email sent.
• Each form and payment has a box for your own notes, and Settings is split into General, Email and Backups tabs.
• The app now remembers its window size and position, and many smaller fixes and wording improvements.

Version 2026.1

• First release of Counting Carrots.