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Settings & Preferences

BillKit offers various settings to customise the application's appearance, behaviour, and AI processing. This guide explains all available settings and how to configure them to match your preferences.

Accessing Settings

To open Settings:

  • Click "Settings" in the sidebar (under Configuration section)
  • The Settings screen opens showing tabs at the top

Settings tabs:

  • General - Appearance, currency, dates, and fiscal year
  • AI Services - AI provider, API key configuration, and confidence thresholds

Click the "General" tab to access appearance, currency, date formatting, and fiscal year settings.

Appearance Mode

Controls whether BillKit uses light mode, dark mode, or follows your macOS system preference.

Options

  • Bright & Light - Always use light mode regardless of macOS setting
  • Dark Mode - Always use dark mode regardless of macOS setting (default)

To change appearance

  1. Click "App Settings" → "General" tab
  2. Find "Appearance" section
  3. Select your preferred option from the radio buttons
  4. The interface updates immediately

App Accent Colour

BillKit uses teal as its accent colour by default. This affects:

  • Selected sidebar items
  • Active buttons
  • Progress indicators
  • Interactive elements

Changing the accent color

If your system settings uses multicolour as its accent colour, the app accent colour is used, otherwise your system accent colour is used instead.

Default Currency

Sets the currency used throughout BillKit when :

  • creating new expenses and the active business default currency is not available
  • displaying totals when a business is not set as active.

The default currency for a business will always be used where available. The default app currency is only used when no business is currently set as active (current business).

Options

  • All global currencies are available to select
  • Dropdown is searchable - type to filter

To change default currency

  1. Click "App Settings" → "General" tab
  2. Find "Default Currency" section
  3. Click the dropdown
  4. Type to search or scroll to find your currency
  5. Click to select
  6. Currency is saved immediately

Important: Changing the default currency doesn't convert existing expenses. They remain in their original currencies.

Date Format

Controls how dates are displayed throughout BillKit (expense tables, dashboard, forms).

Options

  • DD/MM/YYYY (e.g. 13/11/2025) - European format, common in UK
  • MM/DD/YYYY (e.g. 11/13/2025) - American format
  • YYYY-MM-DD (e.g. 2025-11-13) - ISO 8601 international standard
  • MMMM d, yyyy (e.g January 1, 2025) - Long form text

To change date format

  1. Click "App Settings" → "General" tab
  2. Find "Date Format" section
  3. Select your preferred format from the available options
  4. All dates in the app update immediately

Time Format

Controls whether times use 12-hour or 24-hour clock throughout BillKit (audit logs, timestamps, activity feeds).

Options

  • 12-hour (e.g. 2:30 PM) - Common in US and UK for general use
  • 24-hour (e.g. 14:30) - Military time, common in Europe and preferred in data contexts

To change time format

  1. Click "App Settings" → "General" tab
  2. Find "Time Format" section
  3. Select your preferred format from the radio buttons
  4. All times in the app update immediately

Fiscal Year Start

Sets the start month of your fiscal year for accurate "This Fiscal Year" and "Last Fiscal Year" reporting.

Default: January

To set fiscal year start

  1. Click "App Settings" → "General" tab
  2. Find "Fiscal Year Start" section
  3. Select the first month of your fiscal year from dropdown (January, February, March, etc.)
  4. Setting is saved immediately

Effect

  • Dashboard date range filters "This Fiscal Year" and "Last Fiscal Year" use this setting
  • No impact on expense data itself (only reporting periods)

Example: If you set fiscal year start to April:

  • "This Fiscal Year" on 13 November 2025 means April 2025 to March 2026
  • "Last Fiscal Year" means April 2024 to March 2025

Log Retention Period

Controls how long audit logs are kept before automatic deletion.

Options

The field is a number input field where you can enter the retention in days. By default, no days are set (0). So no log entries are ever deleted. Set this required.

To change log retention

  1. Click "App Settings" → **"General" tab
  2. Find "Log Retention Period" section
  3. Enter your preferred number of days
  4. Setting is saved immediately

What happens

  • BillKit automatically deletes audit logs older than the retention number of days
  • Deletion happens during app startup (not real-time)
  • Once deleted, logs cannot be recovered
  • Expenses and other data are NOT affected - only audit logs

AI Settings

Click the "AI Services" tab to configure AI provider and API key for invoice processing.

AI Provider Selection

Choose which AI service to use for invoice processing: Claude (Anthropic) or OpenAI.

Options

  • Anthropic (Claude)
  • OpenAI (ChatGPT)

To select AI provider

  1. Click "App Settings" → "AI Services" tab
  2. Find "AI Provider" section
  3. Click the radio button for your preferred provider
  4. Selection is saved immediately

Switching providers

When you switch AI providers (from Claude to OpenAI or vice versa), BillKit displays a confirmation dialog warning that your current API key will be removed.

After confirming, the existing API key is deleted and the new provider is set as active. You'll need to enter a new API key for the newly selected provider. BillKit stores only one API key at a time - the one for your currently active provider.

API Key Management

Store your AI provider's API key securely for invoice processing.

API Key field

  • Large text area
  • Displays current API key if one is saved (shows actual key, not masked)

To save an API key

  1. Obtain an API key from your provider
  2. Click "App Settings" → "AI Services" tab
  3. Ensure correct provider is selected (Claude or OpenAI)
  4. Paste your API key into the text area
  5. Click "Save API Key" button
  6. Success message appears briefly: "API key saved successfully"

To update an API key

  1. Edit the text area with the new key
  2. Click "Save API Key"
  3. Old key is overwritten
  4. Success message appears briefly: "API key saved successfully"

To delete an API key

  1. Click the "Delete API Key" button
  2. Confirmation dialog appears
  3. API key is removed from secure storage
  4. Text area clears
  5. You cannot process invoices until a new key is added

Security

  • API keys are stored in macOS Keychain (system-level secure storage)
  • BillKit never sends your API key anywhere except to the selected AI provider
  • Keys are encrypted at rest by macOS
  • No cloud syncing - keys stay on your Mac

Getting a Claude API key (Anthropic)

  1. Visit https://console.anthropic.com in your web browser
  2. Click "Sign Up" and create an account (email + password)
  3. Once logged in, navigate to "API Keys" in the sidebar
  4. Click "Create Key"
  5. Give your key a name (e.g. "BillKit")
  6. Copy the API key that appears (it starts with "sk-ant-")
  7. Important: Save this key somewhere safe - you cannot view it again after closing the page

Getting an OpenAI API key

  1. Visit https://platform.openai.com in your web browser
  2. Click "Sign Up" and create an account (email + password)
  3. Once logged in, navigate to "API Keys" in the sidebar
  4. Click "Create new secret key"
  5. Give your key a name (e.g. "BillKit")
  6. Copy the API key that appears (it starts with "sk-")
  7. Important: Save this key somewhere safe - you cannot view it again after closing the page

Free credits:

Both Anthropic and OpenAI typically provide free credits when you sign up. This lets you test invoice processing before committing to paid usage. Check their respective websites for current offers.

AI Confidence Scores

Every expense created by AI processing includes a confidence score from 0-100. This indicates how certain the AI is about the extracted data.

Be default this is set at 60% but can be changed by:

  1. Clicking "App Settings" in the sidebar
  2. Click the "AI Services" tab
  3. Locate the Confidence score section
  4. Change as required. This is saved in real time as changes are made.

What confidence scores mean

  • 90-100: Very high confidence - Data likely 100% accurate
  • 70-89: High confidence - Data likely accurate with minor uncertainties
  • 60-69: Moderate confidence - Data mostly accurate, worth double-checking
  • 0-59: Low confidence - Data may have errors, requires manual review

Applying Changes

Most settings apply immediately when changed:

  • Appearance mode - Interface updates instantly
  • Date/time format - All displayed dates/times update instantly
  • Fiscal year start - Dashboard date ranges update instantly
  • Default currency - Only affects new expenses (existing unchanged)

No restart required for any settings changes.

Resetting to Defaults

If you want to reset all settings to their default values:

Option 1: Manual reset

Go through each setting and select the default:

  • Appearance: Dark
  • Default Currency: USD (or your region's currency)
  • Date Format: DD/MM/YYYY (UK) or MM/DD/YYYY (US)
  • Time Format: 12-hour
  • Fiscal Year Start: January
  • Log Retention: 0 (or empty)
  • AI Provider: Claude

Option 2: Full app reset

  • Use "Reset App Data" in sidebar (under System section)
  • This deletes ALL data, not just settings
  • Only use if you want to completely start over

There is no "Reset Settings Only" button currently. You must manually revert each setting.

Settings Persistence

How settings are saved:

  • Settings are saved to UserDefaults (macOS standard preferences)
  • Saved immediately when changed (no "Apply" or "Save All" button needed)
  • Persist across app restarts
  • Not synced to iCloud (local to your Mac only)

When settings are lost:

  • If you delete BillKit and reinstall (UserDefaults are cleared)
  • If you use "Reset App Data" (all preferences wiped)
Exporting Your Data
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