# Gift Ledger - Track Gifts Received & Given, Return Ideas

> Free private gift ledger: log wedding, shower and birthday gifts received and given, see each person’s balance, get return-gift ideas and print a list.

- URL: https://qilingtools.com/en/gift-ledger
- Category: Productivity (https://qilingtools.com/en/office)
- Tags: [Finance](https://qilingtools.com/en/tags/finance), [Everyday Life](https://qilingtools.com/en/tags/life), [Productivity](https://qilingtools.com/en/tags/office)
- Last updated: 2026-10-26
- Price: Free, no sign-up
- Privacy: Runs locally in the browser; files are never uploaded

After a wedding, baby shower or big birthday it’s easy to lose track of who gave what — and when it’s their turn to celebrate, hard to know what to give back. This ledger keeps gifts you received and gifts you gave in one place. Each entry records the name, relation, amount, date and occasion; received gifts can be filed under one of your events, and gift items and notes fit alongside cash. The Balances tab totals everything per person — what they gave you, what you gave them and the difference — and suggests a return gift: it takes their most recent gift, grows it by a yearly increase you choose, optionally adds a little extra, and rounds to the nearest 10, 50 or 100, or to lucky numbers without a 4 as Chinese custom prefers. The print tab produces a clean table of everyone who gave at an event, with a total, and a traditional vertical Chinese-style red ledger is available too. Import and export CSV to work in a spreadsheet, or back up to JSON. Everything stays in your browser and is never uploaded.

## How to use

1. Create an event (such as your wedding) and add the gifts you received, or switch to Given to log gifts you sent
2. Open Balances to see what you and each person have exchanged, and tune the yearly increase and rounding for return suggestions
3. Print the guest list for an event as a table or a vertical ledger, and export CSV or JSON backups from the Data tab

## Features

- Gifts received and given in one ledger, with multiple events
- Weddings, baby showers, birthdays, housewarmings, graduations, funerals and more
- Per-person balance with automatic name matching
- Return-gift suggestion with yearly increase, extra and rounding
- Printable table with totals, or a traditional vertical ledger
- Optional Chinese uppercase amounts
- CSV import/export and JSON backup
- Private: stored only in your browser

## FAQ

### How is the suggested return gift calculated?

It starts from the most recent gift that person gave you (or, if they never gave one, your last gift to them), compounds it by your yearly increase up to today — $100 three years ago at 3% is about $109 — adds your extra percentage, then rounds as you choose. Lucky-number rounding picks the next common amount such as 600, 888 or 1,000 and skips amounts containing a 4. Treat it as a starting point; closeness and local custom matter more.

### Can I use it for a wedding thank-you list?

Yes. Create an event for your wedding, add each guest’s gift — cash amount, gift item or both — and use the search box to check who still needs a thank-you note. Print the event’s list as a table, or export it to CSV for a spreadsheet or mail merge.

### What is the vertical ledger?

In Chinese tradition, gifts at weddings and other banquets are written in a red ledger called a lǐbù: names run in vertical columns from right to left with the amount in formal Chinese numerals beneath. The print tab can reproduce this layout on landscape A4 in red-line, gold-on-red or plain memorial styles.

### Is my data private?

Yes. Entries are saved only in this browser on this device (localStorage) and are never sent to a server. Clearing browser data, switching devices or private browsing will hide them, so export a JSON or CSV backup regularly, and use Erase all data on shared computers.

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