My Accountant is where you let your accountant or bookkeeper into your books. You generate a short connection code and read it to them; they type it into SeroBooks Accountant, the edition made for accounting practices, and your company appears in their list of clients. From then on they work in your live books, on your subscription, and every time anyone from their practice opens your books it is recorded for you to see. You can withdraw access at any moment.
If your accountant only needs a copy of a finished period and never needs to sign in, give them a download link from Set Closing Date and Year-End instead.
Opening the screen
- Company ▸ My Accountant
The window's tab is labelled My accountant (the page heading reads Clients). Its toolbar has Refresh, which reads the screen again.
On the web, a company administrator can do the same from Settings ▸ Invite Accountant (see On the web below).
Give your accountant access
- Phone your accountant, or sit with them.
- On the Give your accountant access card, choose Generate a connection code.
- Read out the code shown under READ THIS TO YOUR ACCOUNTANT. It is eight letters and digits in two groups, such as
K7QM-4RTX. - Your accountant types it in SeroBooks Accountant (Practice settings ▸ Enter a connection code) and chooses Connect. Your company appears in their client list straight away. Generating the code is your consent, so there is nothing further for you to approve.
- Choose Done to put the code away. Pressing Esc also puts it away.
About the code:
| Rule | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| It works once. | After your accountant uses it, nobody else can. |
| It expires after 30 minutes. | An unused code stops working on its own. |
| Only one code is live at a time. | Generate a new one retires the previous code, so pressing it twice never leaves two working codes. |
| It is shown only while this screen is open. | Leaving the screen, Done or Esc hides it for good; generate another if you need one. |
Anyone who has a live code can connect to your books, so read it directly to your accountant rather than sending it on.
When a practice asks you for access
A practice can also ask for access by your business ID. The request appears on this screen, and nothing opens until you agree:
- A red banner at the top says N accounting practice(s) have asked for access to your books and are waiting on you.
- The practice is listed under Practices with access to this business with Asked for access — waiting on you, and two buttons:
- Give access — the window Give practice access? explains that they will be able to open your books and see every figure in them (sales, purchases, payroll and the ledger), that every opening is recorded, and that you can withdraw access later. Choose Give access to agree.
- Refuse — the window Refuse practice**? says they will not get access and can ask again. Choose Refuse**.
See and withdraw access
Practices with access to this business lists every practice linked to your books, newest first: Access since date for one that has access, a pending request, or Access ended date for one whose access has ended (kept as a record, with no button). Choose Withdraw beside a practice with access to end it. It takes effect on the practice's very next click; the history of when they had access is kept. If no practice has ever been linked, the card says so and explains that a request would appear here.
Who has opened these books lists the last 50 times someone from a practice opened your books, newest first: the person and the practice, and under them when and on which screen. If nobody has, it says Nobody outside this business has opened them.
The note at the foot of the screen sums it up: an accountant seat is free, a practice sees only businesses that have agreed, and withdrawing access takes effect at once while the log stays.
On the web
On the SeroBooks website, a company administrator can open Settings ▸ Invite Accountant. The page, headed Your accountant, has:
| Section | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Connect an accountant | Generate a connection code (or Generate a new code while one is outstanding, with how long it has left) and Cancel outstanding code, which stops an unused code at once. The code is shown under Read this to your accountant. |
| What access means | That an accountant works inside your books on your subscription, gets no copy, sees your accounting, reports and payroll, and is not given your point-of-sale, staff roles or payment terminals. |
| Accountants with access | Each Practice with its email and phone, its Status (has access, asked for access, or ended), Since (and when it ended), and the buttons Allow (for a request) and Disconnect (with a confirmation). |
| Who has opened your books | When, Practice, Person and Screen for each opening. |
Only an administrator of the company can use this page. It is refused while you are signed in as a practice working inside a client's books: You are working inside a client's books. Stop acting for them before changing who has access.
What your accountant sees
Your accountant signs in to SeroBooks Accountant as their practice, not as your business. Nothing of yours is copied to their computer; every screen reads your books live.
- The client list. Their first screen is a tile for each client, sorted by what needs doing rather than alphabetically, with a search box once they have more than six clients. Each tile shows your company name, one state, and Books closed through date when you have set a closing date:
| State on the tile | What it means |
|---|---|
| Not posting to the ledger | Automatic posting is off or the posting accounts are incomplete, so invoices are not reaching the general ledger. See Accounting Setup. |
| N documents refused | The ledger refused some documents and recorded why. |
| No return filed yet | No sales tax return has been filed in these books. |
| Filed N days ago | The last filed return's period ended more than 120 days ago. |
| Up to date | None of the above. |
- Opening your books. Choosing your tile opens your company with the Accounting, Reports and Payroll areas: chart of accounts, journals, banking, sales tax, fixed assets, income tax, year-end, the reports and year-end payroll slips. Sales, purchasing, inventory and payment screens are not part of their edition, so they make corrections as journal entries.
- Everything they save is saved in your books, exactly as if you had entered it.
- Leaving. Clients in their side menu, or Switch client in Practice settings, takes them back to the list.
- Practice settings shows whose books are open, Enter a connection code with the number of clients connected, and their practice's name.
Messages your accountant may see when entering a code:
| Message | Meaning |
|---|---|
| That code is not valid. Codes expire after 30 minutes and can be used once — ask your client to generate a new one. | The code was mistyped, used, replaced or expired. Generate a new one. |
| Enter the code your client gave you. | The box was empty. |
| Only a firm owner or manager can take on a new client. | Someone more senior at the practice must enter it. |
| You do not belong to a practice. | They signed in with a login that is not a practice's. |
| Your company is now one of your clients. / …is already one of your clients. | Connected. |
Permissions
Generating a code, answering a request and withdrawing access are open to anyone who can open My Accountant in your company; Set Up Users and Roles decides who sees that screen. The web page is for administrators only.
Tips
- Close each finished period before your accountant starts, so their adjusting entries go in the period you intend. With a closing date password, they can still post to a closed period when you give them the password; each such change is listed on the Closing Date Exception Report.
- Check Who has opened these books after year end, then Withdraw access if the engagement is over.
Common problems
- My accountant says the code does not work. It has been used, replaced by a newer code, or is more than 30 minutes old. Generate a new one while they are on the phone.
- I pressed Generate twice. Only the newest code works. Read that one.
- The list of practices, or the list of who has opened your books, is empty although my accountant can open my books. Choose Refresh. If it is still empty, open Settings ▸ Invite Accountant on the website, which reads the same records.
- My accountant cannot see my invoices screen. SeroBooks Accountant shows accounting, reports and payroll only. Invoices appear in the reports and drill-downs.