Orange Book Support

Frequently asked questions

The app has a fuller guide to each figure under Settings › FAQ & How the Numbers Work.

Where is my data kept?

Only on your iPhone. There’s no account and no server, so I can’t see or recover your transactions. See the Privacy Policy for details.

How do I back up my transactions or move to a new phone?

Go to Settings › Backup & Restore and export a CSV file. Save it somewhere safe, such as Files or iCloud Drive. On the new phone, install Orange Book and import the file from the same section, or from the welcome screen. Re-importing a file you’ve already imported won’t create duplicates. Settings shows whether you have changes that haven’t been backed up yet.

Does Orange Book sync with iCloud?

Not at the moment. Exporting and importing a CSV file is the way to move your data between devices.

What format does CSV import expect?

A file with these column headings. The order and capitalisation don’t matter, and fee_currency and notes are optional.

date,type,btc_amount,price,total_fiat,fee,currency,fee_currency,notes
2024-01-15T10:30:00Z,buy,0.05,42000,2105.25,5.25,GBP,GBP,"first buy"
2024-09-10T09:00:00Z,sell,0.01,58000,578.55,0.000025,GBP,BTC,

• type is buy or sell.
• currency is GBP, USD or EUR.
• total_fiat is the cash that actually moved. On a buy that’s what you paid, including any cash fee. On a sell it’s what you received, after any cash fee was taken off.
• btc_amount is the Bitcoin that actually moved. On a sell with a Bitcoin fee, it includes the fee, so total_fiat is (btc_amount − fee) × price, as in the example above.
• fee_currency is BTC or the row’s own currency. If it’s left out, the fee is taken to be in the row’s currency.
• Use commas between columns and a full stop for decimals.

Exchange exports use their own column names, so you’ll need to rename the headings in a spreadsheet first. A row with a problem is reported by its row number, counting the heading row as row 1 and skipping blank lines, and the rest of the file still imports.

How is profit and loss calculated?

The Portfolio screen uses average cost, which matches HMRC’s Section 104 pooling. Each buy adds its Bitcoin and its cost to a single pool. Each sale takes Bitcoin out at the pool’s average cost, so selling doesn’t change the average. That means it isn’t simply the total you’ve ever paid divided by what you hold now.

The Tax Report also applies HMRC’s same-day and 30-day rules, so its figures can differ from the Portfolio screen when you’ve bought and sold close together.

Is the Tax Report tax advice?

No. It’s a record of your gains and losses worked out from the transactions you entered, to help you or your accountant. Check it against your own records, and ask a qualified adviser if you’re unsure.

Where do prices come from, and why might they differ from other apps?

Prices come from Kraken’s public market data. That is one exchange’s price, not an average across many exchanges, so it can differ slightly from other sites. Price history goes back about two years.

Prices aren’t updating

Check your internet connection, then pull down to refresh. Settings shows when prices last updated. In the background, iOS decides when the app may refresh, so prices update reliably when you open the app.

How do I delete all my data?

Use Settings › Delete All Transactions, or delete the app. Export a backup first if you might want the data again. Deleting can’t be undone.

Can Orange Book access my exchange account or wallet?

No. It never connects to exchanges or wallets and never asks for keys or passwords. You enter your transactions yourself or import them from a file.