How it works
- Free country board — always open. Country comparison (US, Canada, Mexico, Germany, Japan) stays free forever.
- Local boards when you want them. Jobs, household, and street-level facts for your county or metro. We look up your ZIP to name the place — we don't keep it.
- 14-day free trial from your first local lookup on Working Ledger for a place beyond the sample board. Opening the Naperville sample (no ZIP / demo) does not start a trial. Paid plans below also include a 14-day trial before the first charge.
- After the trial, choose how wide to stay: your home place, home plus one region, or full coverage.
How you pay
- Card — Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and other cards our checkout supports.
- Apple Pay / Google Pay — when your phone or browser offers them at checkout.
- PayPal — PayPal isn't available yet. Card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay work at checkout when your device offers them.
Checkout opens on a secure page (Stripe). 14-day trial on paid plans before the first charge.
After you finish checkout, you return to a short thank-you from the desk.
What you get (compare)
| Level | Price | Local depth | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free country board | $0 | None (countries only) | US vs Germany wages, hours-to-buy-food — no county card |
| Home desk | $6/mo · $60/yr | Your home ZIP / county priority | ZIP 93901 → Monterey County rings stay open after trial |
| Home + one pack | $9/mo · $90/yr | Home + one region pack | Home Monterey County and a Central Coast pack (neighboring counties) |
| Complete | $10/mo · $100/yr | Full regional coverage | Look up ZIPs across regions without picking a single pack |
Examples use California places for clarity. Your home is whatever ZIP you look up. Region pack list is chosen at signup / Desk — not locked to “Central Coast” only.
Free country board
$0
No card. Forever free.
- Full five-country scoreboard on Working Ledger
- Free issues of the sheet when we publish them
- No local county / metro depth after you only browse national
Example: You compare US / Canada / Mexico / Germany / Japan facts. You never enter a ZIP — still useful, still free.
Home desk
$6 / month · $60 / year
Best if you care about one place — where you live or work.
- Everything in the free country board
- Home ZIP priority: local boards for your home county / metro after trial
- 14-day trial before the first charge
Example: You live near Salinas. You look up 93901, get Monterey County named, and keep job / household / street-level facts for that home place. Neighboring counties are not included on this tier.
Home + one pack
$9 / month · $90 / year
Home desk plus one region pack — for people who split time or watch a wider patch.
- Everything in Home desk
- One extra region pack (a set of related counties / metros)
- 14-day trial before the first charge
Example: Home = Monterey County. Pack = Central Coast. You keep home boards and can open local depth for pack counties (for example Santa Cruz or San Luis Obispo when that pack is selected) without jumping to Complete.
Complete
$10 / month · $100 / year
Full regional coverage — widest local depth.
- Everything in Home + pack
- Full regional coverage: look up ZIPs across regions without being limited to one pack
- 14-day trial before the first charge
Example: You follow family in North Carolina, work ties in Alabama, and home in California. Complete keeps local boards available across those regions instead of choosing a single pack.
Checkout opens on a secure page. Cancel during the trial and you are not charged. No reader email list is sold. Sponsors never receive subscriber identity files. ZIP lookups use Zippopotam + FCC for county/metro only — ZIP is not stored permanently.