Terms of Service

1. Agreement and eligibility

By creating an account, selecting the signup acceptance box, connecting an institution, importing records, or otherwise using ConsulBooks, you agree to these Terms of Service and acknowledge the Privacy Policy. If you use ConsulBooks for a company or another person, you represent that you are at least 18 years old and have authority to accept these terms and handle every account and record you provide.

If you do not agree, do not create an account or use the service. Questions about these terms may be sent to support@consulbooks.com.

2. The current service

ConsulBooks is a subscription bookkeeping service for U.S. small businesses. Available features include eligible Plaid financial feeds, CSV/OFX/QFX statement import, bookkeeping categorization and review, double-entry records, private vendor rules, an audit history, read-only accountant access, and downloadable reports. Institution coverage, transaction history, balances, uptime, and plan capacity can change.

Payroll, tax filing, invoicing, bill payment, inventory, accountant editing, formal bank reconciliation, audited financial statements, and every feature offered by larger accounting suites are not part of the current service.

3. Your account and security responsibilities

Use accurate registration information and an individual account. Protect your password, authenticator enrollment, one-time codes, recovery links, devices, and downloaded files. Do not share credentials or let another person use your account. Notify security@consulbooks.com promptly if you suspect unauthorized access.

ConsulBooks requires authenticator-based MFA before financial features open. Account recovery does not automatically bypass MFA and may require identity verification. You remain responsible for activity performed through your account to the extent permitted by law.

4. Your data and the permission needed to operate the service

You retain your rights in the business information and records you provide. You grant Dr. Michael Lyons P.C. a limited, non-exclusive permission to host, copy, normalize, transmit, and otherwise process that information only as needed to provide, secure, maintain, troubleshoot, and support the requested ConsulBooks service.

You represent that you have the legal right and any required consent to connect, import, use, and share the information. Do not upload health records, Social Security numbers, bank passwords, full payment-card credentials, or information that is not needed for bookkeeping.

5. Plaid and connected institutions

Plaid Link provides institution discovery, authentication, consent, and account selection. Plaid and the selected financial institution operate under their own terms and privacy notices. ConsulBooks does not receive or store your online-banking password. By completing Plaid Link, you direct Plaid and ConsulBooks to retrieve and process the selected account and transaction data for your bookkeeping workspace.

Connections may be delayed, unavailable, incomplete, duplicated, or changed by Plaid or an institution. Disconnecting stops future synchronization but does not remove bookkeeping records already imported. Delete the workspace separately if you want those active records removed, subject to the Privacy Policy.

6. Categorization and optional AI

Saved rules and conservative software logic assist with categorization. External AI suggestions are off unless the workspace owner enables them. AI output may be incomplete or wrong. Model-only suggestions do not post automatically and do not determine deductibility, tax treatment, legal rights, or any similarly significant decision.

You must review categories, exceptions, opening balances, account mapping, and reports before relying on them. ConsulBooks may use your confirmed choices to create private rules inside your workspace; those rules can be changed or disabled.

7. Reports, exports, and professional review

The accountant package may include profit and loss, a ledger-activity-basis balance sheet, trial balance, general ledger, cash activity, transactions, exceptions, audit history, chart of accounts, connection summary, and integrity information. Export availability does not mean that a report is audited, certified, tax-ready, GAAP-compliant, or a substitute for a formal bank reconciliation.

ConsulBooks is bookkeeping software—not a certified public accountant, tax preparer, attorney, financial adviser, payroll provider, or auditor. You and your professional advisers are responsible for reviewing records, resolving exceptions, preserving required records, making filings, and deciding how output should be used. Once downloaded, export files are outside ConsulBooks' access controls; store and transmit them securely.

8. Accountant access

The workspace owner controls accountant invitations and revocation. Each accountant must use an individual, confirmed, MFA-protected account and may access only expressly permitted workspaces. Current accountant access is read-only and allows report downloads; it does not permit account connection or bookkeeping edits.

Invited accountants are independent from ConsulBooks. An invitation, listing, or download does not mean that ConsulBooks engaged, endorsed, supervised, audited, or certified the accountant or the customer's books.

9. Acceptable use

Do not use ConsulBooks to break the law, commit fraud, infringe rights, access another workspace, probe or bypass security, introduce malicious code, overload the service, scrape private information, reverse engineer protected portions, resell unauthorized access, or interfere with another user. Do not submit credentials, secrets, or sensitive data through support email.

10. ConsulBooks software and feedback

ConsulBooks and its software, design, text, and branding are owned by Dr. Michael Lyons P.C. or its licensors. Subject to these terms, you receive a limited, revocable, non-transferable right to use the service for authorized business bookkeeping. If you voluntarily send feedback, you permit us to use it without an obligation to compensate you, while we continue to protect personal and financial information under the Privacy Policy.

11. Suspension, termination, and deletion

You may stop using ConsulBooks, disconnect institutions, export records, or permanently delete the workspace using Business setup. Export anything you must keep before deletion. We may limit or suspend access when reasonably necessary to protect customers or the service, investigate misuse, comply with law, or address provider restrictions.

Provisions that by their nature should continue—including ownership, responsibility for downloaded records, disclaimers, and limitations—survive termination.

12. Subscription billing

Starter, Business, and Growth plans are offered as monthly or yearly subscriptions and are processed by Stripe. Before any charge, the checkout page presents the price, billing interval, taxes, renewal, cancellation, refund terms, and payment processor. Yearly plans are billed at 10% off the monthly rate.

13. Availability and warranties

The service is provided on an “as available” basis. To the extent permitted by law, ConsulBooks disclaims implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement. We do not promise uninterrupted service, complete institution coverage, error-free categorization, or that software output will meet every accounting, tax, or legal requirement. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain disclaimers, so they may not apply to you.

14. Limitation of liability

To the extent permitted by law, Dr. Michael Lyons P.C. and its service providers will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, exemplary, punitive, or consequential losses, lost profits, lost revenue, lost business opportunity, or loss caused by decisions made without reviewing software-generated output. Nothing in these terms excludes liability that cannot legally be excluded.

15. Changes and contact

We may update the service and these terms. We will change the effective date and, when reasonably practical, provide notice of material changes. Continued use after revised terms take effect means you accept them.

Contact support@consulbooks.com for service or terms questions, privacy@consulbooks.com for privacy requests, and security@consulbooks.com for security concerns.