How do I pay?
One card payment at checkout for 12 months of Essential. Nothing monthly. No invoice, no call.
What happens after 12 months?
Your access runs 12 months from the day you buy, with the rule updates for that time. Before it ends we remind you, and you can renew for another 12 months at the price you first paid. Your briefs and open items stay with your account.
When do I get it?
Right after checkout you choose your password and you are in, with the three tools, the Balance Sheet Reconciler and the classes. Your first client can run the same day.
Can I move up to a bigger tier later?
Yes. Monthly Bookkeeping and Close & Advisory open later this season. You pay only the difference between the two tiers, and you upgrade from your SmartAccountant login.
A $20 ChatGPT subscription does this.
A chat subscription is an engine with no rules. The checks, the known-answer test and the row citations are what make the output something you can sign. Every check in Essential runs as code that does the math. The explanation and the next steps are written around numbers that are already right. Language models misadd columns. Code does not.
My clients' books are a mess.
That is the file to run first. The scan counts the exceptions by type and cites the rows, so the mess becomes a list and the list becomes a priced cleanup. Moment 04 above is that run. A clean file takes 20 minutes; a messy one takes 20 minutes and gives you the quote.
My client data cannot go into AI.
Your client files never leave your computer. You open the export in your SmartAccountant login, the ledger math runs on your computer as code, and nothing is sent to us. Every flag cites the transaction row so you check it yourself. We keep your logins, your plan and your client codes. Real client names are kept only if they are locked with your firm's own key. We keep a run log only if you switch it on, and it holds counts, not dollar amounts. Everything is held with Supabase (US) and Vercel. One part is AI, and it stays off until you switch it on: the AI review runs Jan’s own prompt on your firm’s own AI account. When it runs, client names, owners’ names and ID numbers are taken out first, and the cleaned ledger goes to the AI company you picked, never to us. Jan's Red, Yellow, Green rule governs what goes into AI: client names anonymized, SSNs, EINs and bank numbers never entered, a human reads every output. The kit includes the de-identification steps, sample consent language and WISP wording for this use, so it fits inside the written security plan the IRS and FTC already require of you.
AI makes things up.
The checks are not AI. Every GL check is a fixed rule written in software, tested against Jan’s answer key (all 16 planted errors caught, and every finding in her example report) and re-tested on every update. Every flag cites the row. If you switch on the optional AI review, every row it cites is checked against your file. You check it. The tool screens, it never signs.
Who is this for?
Bookkeeping firms, CAS teams and advisory firms that close the books for other people: from a solo bookkeeper to a partner. No class needed first: the checks run on your exports the day you buy. If you took Jan's year-end class, these are the same three, in your own login.
What does it not do?
It does not file, post or sign. Tax strategy, client relationships and judgment calls stay with the licensed professional. The tool screens an export and shows its work.
QuickBooks already has AI.
QuickBooks' own AI works inside the company files you are connected to. This checks any QuickBooks Online export you are handed, including a prospect's file you have no access to, and adds the payroll tie-out and 1099 readiness that QuickBooks does not do. Desktop, Xero or Sage: ask us.
I already use Xenett, Double or Financial Cents.
Keep them. This runs on exports alongside them, with no per-client fee, and covers the payroll tie-out, which none of them do.
I am not technical.
Export a report. Open it in your SmartAccountant login. Each tab's guide links a short video. There is nothing to install and no new software to learn.
No time before tax season.
That is why the pre-launch price ends 14 November, with December still ahead of you. You are in your login minutes after checkout, and the first run on a client takes 20 minutes. The hours it gives back are counted in section 01.
What happens after I pay?
Five steps, in section 04: checkout, your password and your login, the guides, the first run, and ready before January.
What happens when it breaks?
Updates are included for your 12 months and the rules are versioned. Are you an accountant or a software developer? Let us be your maintenance.
Who is behind it?
Jan Haugo, SmartAccountant: twenty years in accounting operations, former CEO of ICB USA, named to the Top 50 Women in Accounting, author of Intuit's AI Certification course. The tools are the ones she built for her own January.
I could build this myself.
You could. Then you maintain it, update it for the 2026 1099 rules, and test it against files with planted errors. Tools need owners. Botkeeper shut down this year.