SECURITY, WITHOUT VAGUE SUPERLATIVES
ConsulBooks handles sensitive financial records. We publish the concrete safeguards in the current product, distinguish provider responsibilities, and do not claim certifications or absolute security that we have not earned.
Email and password authentication is handled by the configured identity provider. ConsulBooks then requires an authenticator-based second factor before the financial workspace or Plaid Link can open.
Plaid Link handles institution discovery, bank authentication, consent, and account selection. ConsulBooks receives a protected access token—not the customer's bank username or password.
Plaid access tokens are encrypted before database storage with AES-256-GCM, a random 96-bit initialization vector, and a server-side 32-byte key. Secrets never ship to browser code.
ConsulBooks checks the signed Plaid webhook JWT, timestamp, key identity, signature, and raw-body SHA-256 before accepting an event. Body size, key fetching, and connection requests are bounded.
Bookkeeping reads and writes are resolved through the authenticated owner's business ID. Connected items, accounts, transactions, rules, journals, and audit events are scoped to that workspace.
Customers can export records, disconnect an institution, or permanently delete a workspace. A disconnect revokes the future feed while retaining imported ledger history; full deletion attempts revocation before local removal.
FINANCIAL DATA FLOW
The institution authentication and account-selection experience is provided by Plaid.
The server encrypts the token; the browser never receives the long-lived access token.
Pending items are skipped until posted. Updates are deduplicated and tied to the selected financial account.
Human decisions and important changes remain in the workspace audit history.
WHAT WE DO NOT CLAIM
ConsulBooks does not currently claim SOC 2 certification, ISO 27001 certification, PCI certification, “unhackable,” “zero-knowledge,” “bank-grade,” or categorically stronger security than QuickBooks, Xero, or another provider.
Security is a continuing operating program, not a landing-page badge. The service may change as controls, independent review, incident processes, vendor management, and customer access mature.
To report a potential vulnerability or security concern, email security@consulbooks.com. Do not include bank credentials, passwords, access tokens, or unnecessary personal data.
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