Manage the businesses you keep books for

Clients in the sidebar lists every business you keep books for. It appears only on the Partner plan.

Add a client

1. Open Clients and choose Invite a client.
2. Enter their name and email, and their business name if you have it.
3. Choose Create and invite.

They get an account of their own, with their own books, and a link to set a password. HQ emails that link, and it is also shown on screen so you can send it yourself. It works once and expires after 48 hours. Until they set a password the account exists but nobody can sign in to it.

The link in the email also confirms their email address. The copy on screen does not, because anyone you pass it to can use it: after setting a password with it, they are sent a confirmation email and need to open it before they can use HQ.

Until they set a password their row reads Invited rather than Active. If the link runs out, or the email never arrived, open their row and choose Resend invite. HQ emails them a fresh link and shows it on screen again so you can send it yourself. It also works for 48 hours, and an earlier link keeps working until they use one of them. Once they have set a password there is nothing to resend.

If their address has bounced before, the row shows a red Bounced pill (or Blocked, or Marked as spam) and HQ does not email it again. It still shows you the link, so send it to them another way.

They can also choose Forgot your password? on the sign-in page and set one from the email that sends.

Their books are set up while you wait, so you can choose Open and start work straight away, without waiting for them to set a password. If setting up fails, nothing is created and you can simply try again.

Work inside a client's books

Choose Open on their row. The whole app switches to that client: their mail, their books, their reports. A bar across the top names the client you are inside, and Back to my clients returns you to your own account. If HQ cannot confirm you left, for example with no signal, the banner stays and says it couldn't confirm you left, and you can try again. If the next answer from the server shows you had left after all, the banner goes on its own; nothing you capture on that page is saved until you reload it.

The other way round can happen too: you choose Open, the signal drops, and the app stays in your own account while the server has already moved into the client's. On the phone, the capture screens then say This session is working in another account's books. and save nothing. Choose Leave those books (the capture screen links to it, on More) to bring the session back to your own account; then open the client again if you meant to.

Everything you do while you are in there happens in the client's own account, which is also where their data stays.

Their mail is read-only to you. You can read it, but sending, replying, drafting, filing, filtering and deleting stay with the client, the same as for a bookkeeper they invite in themselves. HQ does not show you the buttons for those: no archive, delete, star, snooze, filter, move or mark read on a message, no tick boxes on the list, and no keyboard shortcuts for them. On the phone the message screen offers View original and nothing else, and an action item card offers Open only: no Done, Archive or Snooze, and no swipes. The books are yours to work in as usual. To use your own mail, choose Back to my clients.

Their contacts are read-only to you too. You can look people up, but adding, editing, pinning or deleting a contact stays with the client, so those buttons, the tick boxes and Build profile are not shown to you.

Connect a store while you are inside a client and it connects to the client's books, under the client's account, not yours. It never lands on your own books. If you switch back to your own account before you finish connecting in HQ, the connection is refused; start again from the right account. A connection finished outside that window, by a WooCommerce store itself or in your browser from an older desktop app, still goes to the client's books. A Shopify or WooCommerce store your own account already holds is refused inside a client too, and the reminder to reconnect one of your own stores waits until you are back in your own account. Square, Stripe and PayPal name the account only after you sign in to it, so sign in to the client's account there, not your own. If the store or account you sign in to is already connected and live on another HQ account (your own, another of your clients, or anyone else's), HQ refuses the connection and changes nothing. The message says where it is connected without naming anyone else; disconnect it there in Ledger › Setup first if it really belongs here. A store that was disconnected elsewhere can be connected here.

Connect a bank while you are inside a client and it works the same way: the bank lands in the client's books, under the client's account and the client's plan, not yours. You can sign in with the client's bank login yourself; the client does not have to do anything, and HQ sends them no notice that a bank was connected. The two-factor check is yours: your own HQ account needs two-factor authentication turned on. The connection shows in the client's Ledger › Accounting › Activity with your name on it. Either of you can disconnect it later. If you switch back to your own account before the bank finishes connecting, the connection is refused rather than landing on your own books; start again from inside the client.

What the list tells you

Each row carries the client's email, how many books they have, when they last signed in, and what their assistant use has cost this month. Open a row for their books, what they have connected, and their activity over the last 30 days.

Last signed in is when the client themselves last signed in to HQ. Work you do inside their books does not count, and neither does their mail syncing, so a client who has never claimed their account reads Never.

If HQ could not read a client's books when you opened the list, the book count shows a dash and the open row says so, instead of showing zeros. That is different from a client who simply has nothing yet. Try again in a moment.

The cards at the top total it: how many clients you have, how many signed in in the last 30 days, and this month's assistant cost across all of them. The count of client places used beside your client total is how many clients your plan holds right now.

Add a client place

Your Partner plan includes a set number of clients. To take on more, buy extra client places. The Client places card under the totals shows how many your plan includes, how many you have bought, and how many are in use.

1. Open Clients and choose Add a client place on the Client places card.
2. Check the price shown on the screen. Each extra place costs that amount a month, plus tax, and your next bill also carries a prorated charge for the rest of the current billing period.
3. Choose Add a client place to confirm.

The new place arrives once Stripe confirms the change, usually within a minute. Until then the card says it is waiting, and Remove a place waits too. If your client places changed since the page loaded, for example in another tab, HQ shows the new figures and asks you to try again instead of buying.

When every place is in use, Invite a client is unavailable and the card says to add a client place first. If the card says client places can't be added right now, this account can't buy extra places at the moment, for example while the plan is not selling them.

To give a place back, choose Remove a place. It appears once you have bought at least one. Stripe credits the unused part of the billing period on your next bill. A place a client is still using cannot be removed: revoke that client or move them to their own plan first, and the screen says so if you try. While a removal is waiting for Stripe to confirm the change, adding a place waits too.

Ask a client a question

When you need something from a client, such as what a charge was for or the receipt behind it, ask them in HQ instead of by email. Open their books with Open, then:

• On Ledger › Banking, choose Ask the client on the line, or on Ledger › Expenses, on the bill or receipt. HQ attaches the line's name, date and amount for you. On a bank line, choose What was this? or Do you have the receipt?.
• For anything else, choose Requests on the bar across the top, then New question.

Write the question, and if it helps, add up to four answers they can tap with Add an answer they can tap. Choose Ask. Don't keep passwords or logins in a question. Once you have asked about a line, it shows Asked, and Answered once they reply; you can ask about it again only after that question is closed.

The client gets one notification on their phone, however many you ask at once, and answers from their own account: a tap, a few words, or a photo of the receipt. HQ does not email them. Requests on the top bar counts your questions that are not closed yet, waiting or answered, and says how many of them are answered. On Clients, a row shows answered with a count while answers are waiting on you, and opening the row lists your recent questions; to act on them, choose Open in their books.

In Requests, each question says whether it is Waiting or Answered, and Not seen yet until the client has opened it. For each one you can:

• Resolve an answered question once you are done with it.
• Ask a follow-up, which closes the question and asks a new one about the same thing.
• Withdraw a question you no longer need.

An answer never changes the books. Use it to do the bookkeeping yourself, through the usual screens.

When they send a receipt photo, it waits for you and does not appear in the client's own scans. Choose one:

• File as a receipt, check what HQ read from the photo, and choose File it. The date must be filled in: if HQ could not read it, the box is empty and says so, so enter it from the photo. On a book that charges or claims QST there is a QST box too. This makes a receipt waiting for review in Ledger › Expenses. Nothing is posted until you approve it there.
• Discard the photo to delete it and close the question.
• Resolve to hand the photo back: it becomes one of the client's own receipts.

If you withdraw a question, or ask a follow-up, while it holds a photo you have not filed, HQ asks whether to Hand it back or Discard it. If the client sent a newer photo since you opened the question, HQ says so and shows the new one before you file, discard or hand back anything: choosing File it, Discard the photo, Hand it back or Discard it on the older photo does nothing to the new one.

Questions are the client's records and stay in their account. If the arrangement ends, your open questions close, the client can still read them, and a photo you had not filed becomes one of their own receipts.

Keep notes about a client

Open a client's row on Clients and use Notes to keep dated notes about them: what they told you on a call, how they like their books kept, what to check at year-end. Each note shows who wrote it and when, and edited if it was changed later. Only the person who wrote a note can edit or delete it.

Choose who can see a note when you write it: My firm or Only me. Today a Partner account has one sign-in, so both reach only you; Only me keeps a note private if you add people to your firm later.

Your notes are yours, not the client's. They are kept in your own account, and the client never sees them, even while you are working inside their books. Don't keep passwords or logins in a note.

When a client leaves your list, their notes stay with you under Former clients, below the list, where you can still read them and add more. Export notes downloads every note as a spreadsheet file.

If your account leaves the Partner plan, your notes become read-only: you can read and export them but not add or change them. Clients leaves the sidebar, but the page still opens at taliskhq.com/app/partner, where Former clients lists them and Export notes downloads them. If your subscription ended, that lasts as long as your account is kept.

When a client leaves

Two different things, on the expanded row:

• Move to their own plan emails them an offer to subscribe to Business themselves. Nothing changes until they do: they stay on your roster and your plan, and you keep access. Once they pay, they keep everything and leave your roster, which frees a seat, and you lose access. While you wait the button reads Offer sent · resend, and pressing it sends the email again.
• Revoke my access ends the arrangement without moving them to a plan. You can no longer open their books. They keep their books and can still sign in; for 14 days everything works for them as before, with the assistant at Free plan limits, and then their account moves to the Free plan unless they choose a plan of their own. They leave your list, and any paid client place you no longer use is removed and credited for the unused part, including one you bought ahead of time; buy one again before inviting another client. They are emailed either way.

A client can also move to a plan of their own without an offer: once they pay, they leave your list the same way, you are emailed, and unused paid places are removed and credited the same way.

Once they have been revoked or have moved, a set-up link they have not used yet stops working. A client who never set a password sets one with Forgot your password? instead.

When you leave the Partner plan

Leaving the Partner plan releases every client, whichever way you leave: a cancel, a change of plan, or a subscription that ends. Use Leave the Partner plan in Settings › Subscription to choose your new plan and offer clients their own; see the subscription article for the steps. Coming back to the Partner plan later does not bring released clients back.

Neither one deletes anything. A client's books live in the client's own account, so ending the arrangement is a change to who can open them, never an extraction of their data.

If you or a client deletes an account

If you delete your own account, your clients are released on the day it is erased, 7 days after you confirm, and keep their books and their sign-in. If a client deletes theirs, you can no longer open their books from the moment they confirm, and their place on your plan is freed when the account is erased.