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Mobile

SAE Books is a server-rendered web app with PWA (Progressive Web App) install support. Open https://app.saebooks.com.au (or your self-hosted URL) in Safari on iOS or Chrome on Android and install it to your home screen for a full-screen, app-like experience.

Install to your home screen

iOS (Safari)

  1. Open the URL in Safari.
  2. Tap the Share button (the box with an arrow pointing up).
  3. Scroll down and tap Add to Home Screen.
  4. Confirm the name and tap Add.

The app opens in standalone mode — no address bar, no Safari chrome.

Android (Chrome)

  1. Open the URL in Chrome.
  2. Tap the three-dot menu in the top-right.
  3. Tap Add to Home screen (or Install app on newer Chrome builds).
  4. Confirm.

Chrome may also show an install banner at the bottom of the screen automatically.

What the PWA gives you

  • Home screen icon — no address bar, launches straight to the dashboard.
  • Splash screen — branded loading screen on iOS while the app warms up.
  • App shortcuts — long-press the home screen icon to jump directly to New Invoice, Dashboard, or Reports (Android; iOS 16.4+).
  • Static asset caching — CSS, icons, and the manifest are cached at install; subsequent loads skip the round-trip for those files.
  • Offline notice — if your device has no connectivity, a branded page explains the situation rather than a browser error. Data writes always require a live connection to the ledger.

There is no native app on the App Store or Google Play.

Why no native app?

The SAE Books API is the product. A native app would be a third-party consumer of that API — a reasonable thing to build, but not what SAE Engineering is building right now. A self-hosted deployment should work from any browser on any device, and for most SME accounting workflows a mobile-responsive web app is sufficient.

If you're building a native mobile app on top of the SAE Books API, the Build an integration guide covers authentication and the API conventions you need.