Frequently Asked Questions

CountBot is an AI-powered office management platform designed specifically for bookkeeping firms and outsourced accounting providers. It automates the operational work that surrounds bookkeeping — client onboarding, document collection, month-end close tracking, client communications, quality review, and billing. It is built for firms that manage monthly bookkeeping for multiple clients and want to eliminate the administrative overhead that eats into productive time. Whether you are a solo bookkeeper with 10 clients or a firm with 200 engagements, CountBot scales with you.

Most firms are up and running within 30 minutes. You create an account, connect your QuickBooks Online or Xero account, configure your close checklist templates (or use our pre-built ones), and add your first few clients. There is no software to install — CountBot runs entirely in the browser. The onboarding wizard walks you through each step, and most firms have their full client roster imported within a single business day.

Yes. CountBot supports bulk import via CSV for your existing client roster. You can upload client names, contact information, engagement details, and service tier assignments in a single file. The import wizard maps your columns to CountBot fields and lets you review before committing. Most firms complete their full import in under an hour.

CountBot connects to your QuickBooks Online account via the official Intuit API. Once connected, CountBot can read your chart of accounts, transaction data, bank feed status, and reconciliation state. This allows CountBot to track which clients have connected bank feeds, which accounts are reconciled, and whether there are unmatched transactions that need attention. CountBot does not modify your QBO data — it reads it to inform your close tracking and quality checks. You continue doing all actual bookkeeping work inside QBO.

Yes. CountBot supports both QuickBooks Online and Xero. The Xero integration connects via the official Xero API and provides the same capabilities: bank feed monitoring, reconciliation status tracking, transaction counts, and account balance visibility. You can manage a mixed portfolio where some clients are on QBO and others are on Xero — CountBot normalizes the data so your close dashboard shows consistent status regardless of the underlying accounting platform.

No. CountBot is not accounting software. It is the office management layer that sits on top of your accounting platform. You continue doing all bookkeeping work — categorizing transactions, reconciling accounts, generating financial statements — inside QBO or Xero. CountBot handles everything around the bookkeeping: collecting the documents you need, tracking whether the work is done, chasing clients for missing information, and managing the delivery process. Think of it as the office manager your firm needs but may not be able to afford to hire.

CountBot monitors your clients' bank feed connections in QBO or Xero and alerts you when feeds are disconnected, stale, or showing errors. This is one of the most common causes of month-end delays — a bank feed disconnects silently, and nobody notices until the bookkeeper sits down to work on that client and finds three weeks of missing transactions. CountBot catches this early and can automatically notify the client to re-authorize their bank connection.

No. CountBot tracks the status of your reconciliations — which accounts are reconciled for the current period and which are not — but the actual reconciliation work is done by your bookkeepers inside QBO or Xero. CountBot's role is to make sure you know which clients have unreconciled accounts, which accounts have unmatched transactions, and which clients need to provide additional information before reconciliation can be completed.

Each client engagement has a customizable close checklist — a sequence of tasks that must be completed before that client's books are considered closed for the month. Common checklist items include: bank statement collection, transaction categorization, bank reconciliation, payroll entry, accounts receivable review, accounts payable review, journal entries, financial statement generation, quality review, and client delivery. CountBot tracks which items are complete, which are in progress, and which are blocked, giving you a portfolio-wide view of your entire practice at any moment.

Yes. You can create multiple checklist templates for different engagement types. A simple bookkeeping client might have 8 steps, while a full-service client with payroll, sales tax, and advisory needs might have 15 steps. You assign the appropriate template when you onboard a client, and you can modify individual client checklists at any time. CountBot also supports dependent tasks — for example, financial statements cannot be generated until all reconciliations are complete.

CountBot tracks document collection timing over time and can identify clients who consistently delay your close process. You will see this in your analytics dashboard as average collection time per client. CountBot's automated chase sequence sends escalating reminders — a polite initial request, a follow-up after a few days, and an urgent final notice if documents are still outstanding. If the client remains unresponsive after all automated attempts, CountBot notifies you so you can intervene personally or flag it for an engagement conversation.

No. Your clients interact with CountBot through email and an optional upload portal accessed via a secure link. They can respond to document requests, upload files, and answer transaction questions without creating an account or installing anything. The experience is designed to be frictionless for clients who are already busy running their own businesses.

Yes. All client-facing communications are customizable. You can set your firm's name, logo, colors, email signature, and preferred tone. CountBot's AI drafts emails that match your communication style, and you can edit any email before it sends. For automated sequences (document collection reminders, status updates), you can customize the templates at the firm level so every communication looks and feels like it came from your team — because it did, with AI assistance.

Firm plan and above include a branded upload portal. Each client gets a unique secure link where they can drag and drop documents — bank statements, receipts, payroll reports, loan statements, and anything else you request. Uploaded files are automatically matched to the client's engagement and marked as received in your document collection checklist. Clients can also forward documents via email to a client-specific email address, and CountBot will process them the same way.

CountBot uses bank-grade encryption for all data in transit (TLS 1.3) and at rest (AES-256). Our infrastructure runs on SOC 2 compliant cloud providers. All client documents are stored in encrypted vaults with access controls tied to user roles within your firm. We perform regular security audits and penetration testing. Your client data is never shared with third parties or used for AI training.

Yes. You can export your complete client data, documents, communication history, and engagement records at any time. If you cancel your account, we retain your data for 90 days for recovery purposes and then permanently delete it. Enterprise customers can request immediate deletion with written confirmation.

Yes. Every plan includes a 14-day free trial with full access to all features in that tier. No credit card is required to start. At the end of 14 days, you can choose a paid plan or your account will be paused. Your data is preserved for 90 days so you can reactivate anytime without losing your setup.

Absolutely. You can upgrade or downgrade your plan at any time. When you upgrade, you get immediate access to the new tier's features and pay a prorated amount for the remainder of your billing cycle. Downgrades take effect at the start of your next billing cycle. Your data and configuration are preserved regardless of plan changes.

If you approach your plan's engagement limit, CountBot will notify you. You can either archive completed or inactive engagements (archived clients do not count toward your active limit) or upgrade to a higher tier. We never lock you out mid-month — if you are slightly over the limit, you can finish your current month-end close before adjusting your plan.