Economico for AI startups

Know what it costs to serve your customers

Credit packs and subscriptions bring in revenue. Model and cloud usage create costs. Put both sides on the books so the margin question has a real starting point.

Connect your agent

Your API bill does not say which customer caused it

Suppose a Scan action calls a model, while every Discover tap calls a paid maps API. A customer who opens Discover daily may cost more to serve than one who scans occasionally, even on the same plan. Vendor bills tell you what you spent, but not which action or customer caused it. Economico can record the usage measurements and vendor costs you supply; it does not trace your product's API calls.

  • Credit packs$9,000
  • Enterprise pilot$3,000
Money in $12,000 one ledger
  • Inference / API$4,200
  • Cloud$800
  • Difference shown$7,000
Illustrative comparison: $12,000 in customer payments and $5,000 in shown provider and cloud charges. The $7,000 difference is before other costs, not customer margin.

Inspect the economics, not just the top line

A customer may buy credits before using them, while model and other API bills arrive later. Your agent can show what was sold, consumed and recognized, what a vendor charged, and which credit allowance was used. To estimate margin by action, plan or customer, you still need to link the relevant delivery costs to that usage.

Review an AI plan
Show the usage and prepaid capacity consumed by this customer, the revenue recognized and the vendor costs attributed to the period.

Bring the usage data you trust

Economico does not meter your product, find the paid services it calls, or fetch provider invoices automatically. Your agent or application supplies measurements and costs; you review their classification and attribution before relying on a margin figure.

An AI startup's first quarter · in journal entries

Credits in, provider bills out — see the period result.

Scroll through Brightforge AI's first quarter — plans, credit packs and vendor bills recorded in one ledger. Margin by plan still needs those costs attributed to the plans they served.

01

Incorporate and raise

Selene and Matias found Brightforge and close the YC standard deal. Half a million in — none of it revenue.

We incorporated Brightforge and closed the YC standard deal — set up the books.
7 tool calls
  • Economicocontracts.create✓
    {
  "ledgerBindings": {
    "money": "led_00000000000000000000000840"
  },
  "parties": {
    "founder-a": "selene-brooks",
    "founder-b": "matias-ortega"
  },
  "templateDocumentId": "doc_01KBBKB1006DMSKYKM0Q9M4ZPM",
  "terms": {
    "authorize": {
      "shares": "12000000"
    },
    "buy-founder-a": {
      "par": "50000",
      "premium": "1200000",
      "shares": "5000000"
    },
    "buy-founder-b": {
      "par": "50000",
      "premium": "1200000",
      "shares": "5000000"
    }
  }
}
  • Economicocontracts.record✓
    {
  "activityKey": "buy-founder-a",
  "contractId": "ctr_01KBBKB100D1C7TST6ZKM5Z9D4",
  "effectiveAt": "2025-12-01T00:00:00Z",
  "facts": {
    "bank": "mercury-checking"
  },
  "occurrenceKey": "buy-founder-a",
  "sourceFactId": "founder-stock:selene-brooks"
}
  • Economicocontracts.record✓
    {
  "activityKey": "buy-founder-b",
  "contractId": "ctr_01KBBKB100D1C7TST6ZKM5Z9D4",
  "effectiveAt": "2025-12-01T00:00:00Z",
  "facts": {
    "bank": "mercury-checking"
  },
  "occurrenceKey": "buy-founder-b",
  "sourceFactId": "founder-stock:matias-ortega"
}
  • Economicocontracts.create✓
    {
  "ledgerBindings": {
    "money": "led_00000000000000000000000840"
  },
  "parties": {
    "investor": "y-combinator"
  },
  "templateDocumentId": "doc_01KCFMX300HPV6ZJEJBR2WG6ZZ",
  "terms": {
    "fund": {
      "amount": "12500000"
    }
  }
}
  • Economicocontracts.record✓
    {
  "activityKey": "fund",
  "contractId": "ctr_01KCFMX300NP5WPGQW5D8211D7",
  "effectiveAt": "2025-12-15T00:00:00Z",
  "facts": {
    "bank": "mercury-checking"
  },
  "occurrenceKey": "fund",
  "sourceFactId": "mercury:wire:yc-post-money-safe"
}
  • Economicocontracts.create✓
    {
  "ledgerBindings": {
    "money": "led_00000000000000000000000840"
  },
  "parties": {
    "investor": "y-combinator"
  },
  "templateDocumentId": "doc_01KCFMX300HPV6ZJEJBR2WG6ZZ",
  "terms": {
    "fund": {
      "amount": "37500000"
    }
  }
}
  • Economicocontracts.record✓
    {
  "activityKey": "fund",
  "contractId": "ctr_01KCFMX300BJDZS3VAD0PKTRKH",
  "effectiveAt": "2025-12-15T00:00:00Z",
  "facts": {
    "bank": "mercury-checking"
  },
  "occurrenceKey": "fund",
  "sourceFactId": "mercury:wire:yc-mfn-safe"
}
Founder stock plus both YC SAFEs recorded — $525,000 in, revenue zero.
02

The cost side arrives first

OpenAI for inference, LangSmith for observability — the vendor contracts are already in the inbox.

Add vendors and receipts from email.
4 tool calls
  • Gmailsearch_gmail_messages✓
    {
  "q": "from:(openai.com OR langchain.com) (agreement OR terms OR welcome)"
}
  • Gmailread_gmail_message✓
    {
  "messageId": "19b4f1c2e8a07d3b"
}
  • Economicoparties.create✓
    {
  "categories": [
    "vendor"
  ],
  "name": "OpenAI",
  "partyId": "openai",
  "url": "https://openai.com"
}
  • Economicoparties.create✓
    {
  "categories": [
    "vendor"
  ],
  "name": "LangSmith",
  "partyId": "langsmith",
  "url": "https://smith.langchain.com"
}
OpenAI and LangSmith on file — inference and observability, your cost side. Nothing posts until a bill lands.
03

Plan plus credits, billed and paid

Fern Logistics takes the AI Workflow plan with a credit pack it used up in January — $3,200, collected within two weeks.

Bill Fern Logistics — the AI Workflow plan plus their credit pack.
2 tool calls
  • Economicocontracts.record✓
    {
  "activityKey": "invoice",
  "contractId": "ctr_01KDY02100TJBWGSH7DW3YA286",
  "effectiveAt": "2026-01-05T00:00:00Z",
  "facts": {
    "credit_pack": "70000",
    "credits_used": "70000"
  },
  "occurrenceKey": "2026-01",
  "sourceFactId": "BFA-INV-001"
}
  • Economicocontracts.record✓
    {
  "activityKey": "pay",
  "contractId": "ctr_01KDY02100TJBWGSH7DW3YA286",
  "effectiveAt": "2026-01-16T00:00:00Z",
  "evidence": {
    "payment": [
      {
        "kind": "other",
        "ref": "mercury:ach:fern-2026-01-16"
      }
    ]
  },
  "facts": {
    "bank": "mercury-checking",
    "invoice": "BFA-INV-001"
  },
  "occurrenceKey": "BFA-INV-001",
  "sourceFactId": "mercury:ach:fern-2026-01-16"
}
$3,200 in — plan revenue and credit revenue on separate lines, so consumption stays visible.
04

The token bills land

OpenAI $1,450 and LangSmith $399, paid from the Mercury checking account. The books show the period's recorded revenue and costs, but the bills are not yet attributed to a customer or plan.

Find and handle any bills.
4 tool calls
  • Gmailsearch_gmail_messages✓
    {
  "q": "(receipt OR invoice) after:2026/01/01 before:2026/02/01"
}
  • Gmailread_gmail_message✓
    {
  "messageId": "19c0a7d51e3b9f42"
}
  • Economicocontracts.record✓
    {
  "activityKey": "bill",
  "contractId": "ctr_01KDY0210034VDXQ3QN559GJ0R",
  "effectiveAt": "2026-01-31T00:00:00Z",
  "evidence": {
    "service": [
      {
        "kind": "other",
        "ref": "doc_01KG8NJW00BMPMYTBVVD8GT0A7"
      }
    ]
  },
  "facts": {
    "amount": "145000",
    "bank": "mercury-checking"
  },
  "occurrenceKey": "2026-01",
  "sourceFactId": "openai:receipt:2026-01"
}
  • Economicocontracts.record✓
    {
  "activityKey": "bill",
  "contractId": "ctr_01KDY02100T15ZR9JRFVBQAZR1",
  "effectiveAt": "2026-01-31T00:00:00Z",
  "evidence": {
    "service": [
      {
        "kind": "other",
        "ref": "doc_01KG8NJW00GPRFSMVEC2W8YKRA"
      }
    ]
  },
  "facts": {
    "amount": "39900",
    "bank": "mercury-checking"
  },
  "occurrenceKey": "2026-01",
  "sourceFactId": "langsmith:receipt:2026-01"
}
OpenAI $1,450 and LangSmith $399, paid from checking. January's recorded revenue less these costs is $1,351; the bills still need attribution before we can call that a customer margin.
05

February: growth goes red

A second customer, a token overage — and a $5,500 prompt-engineering bill that outruns them both.

Close February — are we still in the black?
2 tool calls
  • Economicoreports.run✓
    {
  "from": "2026-01-01",
  "kind": "income_statement",
  "until": "2026-03-01"
}
  • Economicoreports.run✓
    {
  "as_of": "2026-03-01",
  "kind": "balance_sheet"
}
No: ($998) cumulative. A second customer and a token overage, but the $5,500 PromptOps bill outran them. To estimate margin per plan, we first need to attribute the vendor costs.
06

The quarter closes in the black

Three customers and token prices that moved twice — the quarter's result is visible, while per-plan cost attribution remains to be done.

Close the quarter — show revenue, recorded costs and the result.
2 tool calls
  • Economicoreports.run✓
    {
  "kind": "revenue_summary",
  "period_end": "2026-03-31T23:59:59.999Z",
  "period_start": "2026-01-01"
}
  • Economicoreports.run✓
    {
  "from": "2026-01-01",
  "kind": "income_statement",
  "until": "2026-04-01"
}
Revenue $16,050, recorded costs $12,677, net $3,373 — back in the black for the period. These reports do not calculate margin per plan without attributed costs.

Ask whether each plan still clears its cost

Start a plan
Put Fern Logistics on the AI Workflow plan — $2,500 a month plus a credit pack.
Record inference cost
Record OpenAI's $1,450 January inference bill as cost of revenue.
Check your margin
Show this quarter's recorded revenue and delivery costs. Which costs still need attribution before we can estimate margin by plan?

What you'll use

The money loop, tuned for AI startups.

18Usage metering 10Startup credits 09Bills & expenses 02Accrual accounting % 11Founder analytics 14Investor reporting

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Books your agent runs. Numbers you can explain.

Hand your agent the setup guide, approve its connection, and start with one real transaction. Inspect the books as you go.

Connect your agent

Related:  Usage-based businesses  ·  SaaS startups  ·  Bootstrapped founders

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