Your accountant

Inviting your accountant#

Settings/Accountant Access

Accountant Access

Give your accountant access to your books.

Invite Your Accountant

They get an email with a link to sign in. If they already use EscBooks for other clients, it shows up next to the rest; they switch between businesses at the top of the sidebar.

Name

Pat Lee, CPA

Email

pat@example.com

Send Invite

People With Access

0 of 2 accountant seats used

AR

Alex Rivera(you)

alex@example.com

Owner

Step 1 of 5PauseStart over

1. 1In Settings → Accountant Access, type their name (if you like) and email, then click Send Invite.
2. 2If you haven't proved it's you in the last 10 minutes, Confirm It's You asks for your password (or a two-step code) first.
3. 3They're emailed a link to join that works for 14 days. Copy it to send it yourself as well, then click Done.
4. 4Until they join, they're listed as Invited, holding one of your two seats. In the row's menu, Copy Link or Resend Invite makes a fresh 14-day link, and Cancel Invite cancels it, once you say yes.
5. 5Once they've joined, their access shows on their row: View Only to start. Remove Access, in the row's menu, ends it at once (after Confirm It's You, if it's been a while).

Your accountant gets their own sign-in to your books, free on every plan. They sign in with their own email and password, so you never share yours, and what they can change is up to you. EscBooks has two roles: you, the owner, and your accountant. Your plan includes two accountant seats, say for your CPA and your bookkeeper.

1. Open Settings → Accountant Access. Under Invite Your Accountant, type their Name (if you like) and Email, then click Send Invite.
2. If you haven't proved it's you in the last 10 minutes, Confirm It's You asks for your password, or a code with two-step on (see Keeping your account safe).
3. EscBooks emails them a link to join, in your business's name, with replies coming to you. The link works for 14 days and is shown to you too: Copy it if you'd like to send it yourself. Click Done.

Inviting someone is recorded in your Recent Activity, and every owner is emailed about it, so an invite you didn't send can't go unnoticed.

While the invite is out#

People With Access lists everyone who can sign in to your business: your accountant, and you, marked Owner. Until they join, their row says Invited, with the day it was sent and the day the link runs out. Its More Actions menu (⋯) has:

• Copy Link copies a fresh link, good for another 14 days. The old link stops working.
• Resend Invite emails them a fresh link.
• A fresh link is a new way in, so both ask Confirm It's You first if you haven't in the last 10 minutes, as the invite did.
• Cancel Invite asks Cancel the invite to morgan@example.com? Click Cancel Invite (Keep leaves it out) and the link stops working at once: it then says the invite was cancelled, and the seat it held is free again. Cancelling doesn't ask for your password, so it's never held up.

Inviting the same email again replaces the invite that's out. Someone who already has access can't be invited twice. Invite Accountant, above the list, invites a second person.

An invite that's out holds a seat as well as an accountant who has joined, because its link is a way in. The bars under People With Access show how many seats are used. With both seats taken, Invite Accountant is turned off and the line under the list says why. To invite someone else, remove an accountant or cancel an invite. The database counts the seats itself, so two invites sent at the same moment can't get a third accountant in.

How they join and sign in#

• New to EscBooks: the link opens Join with their email filled in. They add Your Name and a Password (at least 8 characters), click Join (it names your business), and confirm their email from the link EscBooks sends. They don't start a business or a plan of their own.
• Already use EscBooks: they click Sign in, sign in, and click Join. Your business opens beside the others they look after, and their own, if they have one.

The invite only works for the email it was sent to. Signed in as someone else, the page says so and offers Sign Out. A link that has expired, was cancelled or was already used says which, and what to do. So does one for a business whose accountant seats have filled up since: they ask you to free a seat, then open the same link again.

After that they sign in at the usual sign-in page, like anyone. Their sign-in is theirs to protect: they can turn on two-step verification in their own Settings → Security.

An accountant who looks after several businesses signs in once and switches between them at the top of the sidebar, under Businesses, or from the Command Menu (Esc), where each one is Switch to its name. Switching keeps the page they were on: from Expenses in one business to Expenses in the next. Each browser tab keeps its own business, so two can be open side by side; opening a business from the list in a new tab leaves the first tab where it was. Signing in always starts in their own business, if they keep its books in EscBooks too. In that list their own business has a crown. Client accounts have their own color for buttons, links and selected items (green to start; Settings → Appearance), so it's plain whose books are open.

What they can see and do#

Your accountant sees your books as you do, with everything there to read, print and export. A pill in the header, beside the bell, shows their access in your business at a glance (View Only, Edit with Approval or Edit Directly), and opens to what it allows. Every button that would change something is left out for them, and the database refuses changes from them anyway, so nothing can slip through. The one exception is the level you give them, below: categorizing expenses.

They can look at a subcontractor's or vendor's whole tax ID for a 1099. When they click Show on it, that's recorded in your Recent Activity as Tax ID viewed, with who did it: "by your accountant" and their name (or their email, if they haven't given a name).

If your plan ends, the books turn read-only for everyone, so nothing changes for your accountant: they can still read, print and export. Inviting and removing wait until the plan is picked back up.

Questions and messages#

You and your accountant have one conversation, in the header beside the bell: yours is Your Accountant, and theirs is under your business's name. A number on it counts what you haven't read. Writing there changes no record.

To ask about one record, click the question mark on its row: an expense, or any line of the General Ledger (an invoice, a bill, other income, a payroll, owner money). On an expense you have open, it's Ask a Question. The question is pinned to that record, with its name, amount and date, and is marked Open until either of you clicks Resolve. Replies go under it. A record has one open question at a time, so asking again adds to it. A reply to a resolved question opens it again, and so does Reopen.

The conversation is one chat, oldest at the top: whatever happened last (a message, a question, a reply, a resolve) is at the foot, above the box you write in, and each message shows its date and time. A resolved question is tucked to one line that says who resolved it and when; click the line to read its thread or reopen it. Above the chat, Open shows only the open questions and proposed changes, with a count, and All shows everything. An open question is marked Your turn when the other of you wrote last, and those come first under Open.

Anything else goes in the box at the foot: Send, or Enter. Shift+Enter starts a new line.

EscBooks emails you when messages are waiting: one email for a run of messages, about ten minutes after the last, and no more than one an hour for a business. Nothing is emailed about what you've already read. Month-End says how many questions are open.

The question mark shows on your records once an accountant has access. The conversation is part of your backup.

Changes your accountant proposes#

At View Only, your accountant can't change your books, but they can propose a change, and you decide. Two kinds: a new category for an expense, and closing the books through a day.

• A category: on an expense's question mark, they choose Propose a Category, pick the new one and add a note if they like. Not for mileage, a voided expense, or a payroll's own lines.
• Closing the books: on Month-End, once a month is over, they click Ask to Close and the month. Only forward: reopening closed days stays yours, in Settings → Business.

Each one waits in your conversation, marked Proposed (and under Open), with what it changes from and to. Click Approve and the change is made as yours (a close shows in Recent Activity), or Decline. Either way a line goes under it so your accountant hears. Month-End says when closing is waiting. Your accountant can Withdraw theirs while it waits.

A change is checked again when you approve it. If you've changed the expense's category since, or closed the books further yourself, approving says so and changes nothing. An expense in closed books can't be proposed at all. One change waits per expense, and one close per business.

Letting your accountant make changes#

Each accountant seat has a level, in Settings → Accountant Access, on their row:

• View Only, where every seat starts: they read, ask questions and propose changes one at a time, as above.
• Edit with Approval: they set categories on expenses, and each change waits for your approval.
• Edit Directly: the categories they set are made right away, and you get a recap.

For now the change there is to make is an expense's category. On Expenses, each row's category is a dropdown: they pick another and it's made, or at Edit with Approval sent to you. For several at once, they tick the expenses and click Set Category (at Edit with Approval, Submit for Approval, with a note if they like). You can do the same with your own expenses. Expenses whose category follows something else have no dropdown and are left out, each with the reason: mileage, a voided expense, anything on an invoice, a payroll's lines, the fees kept from a payout, a gift of goods or services, a loan payment's interest, a bill's payment and a trust bank charge. So are expenses in closed books.

Edit with Approval and Edit Directly need your accountant to have two-step verification on. Until they do, they can't change anything, and Settings → Accountant Access says so on their row. Allowing more asks you to confirm it's you; allowing less takes effect at once. Each change of level shows in your Recent Activity and in your conversation.

What they do shows on the bell as one line for each run of changes, such as Morgan Ellis categorized 14 expenses. Click it to see the list in the Changes tab of your conversation: each expense, its category before and after, and Undo. Changes waiting for approval are at the top of that tab, with Approve and Decline for each, or for all of one person's at once. Each also shows on its expense's row on Expenses, highlighted, with the category it would change to and the same two buttons. A change is checked again when you approve it: if the category was changed since, or the books are closed, it stays waiting and says why.

Undo puts the category back while it still matches what the change made and the books are open. If you changed it again since, undo the newer change first. Anything that can't be undone says why.

Your accountant can also open Settings → Categories, to see your categories and the tax line each is reported on. At Edit Directly they can add, rename, archive, restore and delete your custom categories there (see Expenses); each of those shows on your bell and in the Changes tab, and is put right in Settings → Categories, not undone. At Edit with Approval they use the custom categories you have, and send one for approval like any other category. Hiding a standard category is yours alone.

Your accountant never changes your time, your invoices and payments, your clients' details, payment instructions or bank details, tax IDs, payroll, trust accounting or any other setting, and never deletes a record or sends anything to anyone.

Client Books, for accountants#

An accountant with clients has Client Books in the sidebar, under Dashboard. It's theirs, not a client's, so it reads the same in any tab. Before any client has given you access, turn it on for your own practice in Settings → Terms & Features (Client Books, or the Accounting preset), and invite your first clients from it. Clients lists each business they look after: how it files and when that return is next due, how far its statements go and how many are waiting for approval, the day its books are closed through, and its questions and unread messages. The ones with something waiting come first. It shows no amount from anyone's books, and never sets one client beside another.

Changes they've proposed and a close they've asked for show on the row until the owner decides. Clicking a client opens their books in that tab; the … menu also opens them in a new tab, goes to their messages, or Leave This Client, which ends your access to their books until they invite you again.

Messages has every conversation in one place: clients down the side (All, Unread or Open Questions), and the one you choose beside them. You reply, resolve and write there without opening the client's books, and it's marked read as you look. A question's record opens in a new tab, in that client's books. In your own business, the header's conversation lists the clients with something waiting and opens each here.

Keep your own practice's books in EscBooks too, and each client's books can be linked to the client you bill there: Link to a Client on the row (it suggests the one with the same name). Client Books then shows your own billing for them under Your Billing: what they owe you and the time you haven't invoiced yet, with Start Timer in the … menu when your own business is open. Those are your figures, not theirs, and the client sees none of it. A link goes on its own if you stop being their accountant; the client in your books stays. Two businesses can be linked to one client you bill together.

Return due dates are the usual federal ones for a calendar year: March 15 for Forms 1065 and 1120-S, April 15 for Form 1040 and Form 1120, May 15 for Form 990, moved to the next business day when one falls on a weekend or holiday. Extensions aren't counted.

The Accountant Packet#

On Reports → Taxes, Accountant Packet opens the tax year as a few printable pages: income, costs, net profit and estimated tax paid; the profit and loss on your business's accounting method for the year, cash or accrual, with EBITDA beneath it; the figures by line of your tax form (Schedule C, Form 1120-S, Form 1120 or Form 1065, whichever you file, as set in Settings → Business); income by client; estimated tax payments; equipment write-offs; mileage; subcontractors for 1099-NEC; and, on a page of its own, the year's trial balance before the closing entries (as of today, while the year runs). Print / Save PDF prints it or saves it as a PDF.

For a C corporation, the profit and loss ends with Income before income taxes, the corporation's Income tax paid, and Net income, and the tax figures read Income tax paid and Income tax payments. State income tax paid in the year is part of Form 1120's line 17, Taxes and licenses.

Your accountant can open it themselves, and the spreadsheets beside it, any time. See Reports for each part.

When your accountant asks first#

An accountant who keeps their own practice in EscBooks can ask you for access instead of waiting for an invite. You get an email from them with a link. It says who's asking and what they'd be able to do, and nothing is shared until you say so.

• New to EscBooks: Create Account, with your email filled in. Once you've confirmed it, the link brings you back to the request.
• Already use EscBooks: sign in, or open Settings → Accountant Access, where it waits under Requests.

Give Access asks you to confirm it's you, then gives them the same access an invite from you would: a seat, a line in Recent Activity, and an email to every owner. Decline ends it, and your accountant isn't told. During the beta, a request can come with the beta itself: giving access starts it on a business with no plan yet, free until January 1, 2027.

For accountants: on Client Books, Invite a Client takes their email, the name of their business for your list, and, if you like, the client in your own books to link them to. The answer is the same whether or not they already use EscBooks. Each invite in the beta carries a code while you have some to give (five to start); an invite that's out holds one, gets it back if it expires or you cancel it, and spends it when they give access. Invites lists what you've sent: waiting, access given, cancelled or expired.

A free month each: if a client you invite is new to EscBooks, you and they each get one free month after their first payment, as a credit on your own bills, at your own price. Twelve clients, a free year: a business can earn up to 12 free months a calendar year, and clients you invite after that still get theirs. If that payment is refunded, both free months are forfeited: one not yet used is removed, and one already used comes back on the next bill. Don't take a free month for this client, when inviting, leaves yours out; theirs stays. Each side sees its own under Settings → Plan & Billing, Free Months, and a month earned before you've added a card waits for one.

Removing access#

1. In Settings → Accountant Access, open More Actions (⋯) on their row and click Remove Access.
2. Click Remove Access again to confirm (Keep leaves it as it is). If you haven't proved it's you in the last 10 minutes, Confirm It's You asks first.

It ends at once: they can't open your books anymore. Their own sign-in stays, along with any other businesses they look after. If yours was their only one, they see You're Not in a Business Right Now the next time they open EscBooks. Their seat is free again at once, and you can invite them again anytime.