A practice does not have one set of books. It has dozens, each with its own GST dates, TDS quarters, month-end and year-end. The accounting software keeps each client's books well enough, but nothing keeps the firm: which return is late, who is working on it, whether the fee was ever charged. That usually lives in a partner's memory and a spreadsheet that is out of date by the second week of the month.
The Accountants app gives your firm one desk for every client company. It builds the compliance calendar for you, tracks each filing from start to acknowledgement, reads the state of each client's books from its own ledger, and turns finished work into a real sales invoice.
Who it is for
Chartered accountants, tax consultants and accounting firms that look after several client companies, and resellers who look after their own. It installs in the firm's own company, the one that manages the others. Each client keeps its own separate books, and your staff reach only the clients you allow.
What is inside
| Tab | What you do there |
|---|---|
| Overview | Overdue filings, what falls due in 7 days, open work, unbilled fees, filings by status, workload by staff, the next 14 days, and client health |
| Clients | Every engagement: partner, manager, country, open and late filings, open work, unbilled fees, and a one-click way into the books |
| Filings | The compliance calendar for the whole firm, earliest due date first, with filters by client, status, person and period |
| Work | The small jobs around a return, each with an owner, a due date and a priority |
| Team | Each person's clients, open filings, late filings, open work, and how many clients they can open |
| Billing | Unbilled fees by client, retainers, and raising the invoice |
The compliance calendar builds itself
Every client follows a rule book for its country. Each rule says how often a return falls due and on which day, with exceptions where the law has them. When you add a client, its calendar appears at once, and it keeps rolling forward by itself.
The app comes with rule books filled in for India, the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Botswana. Here is part of the Indian one.
| Filing | How often | Due |
|---|---|---|
| GSTR-1 outward supplies | Monthly | 11th of the next month |
| GSTR-3B summary return and payment | Monthly | 20th of the next month |
| TDS / TCS payment (challan) | Monthly | 7th of the next month, with a later date for March |
| TDS return 24Q / 26Q / 27Q | Quarterly | End of the month after the quarter, 31 May for the last quarter |
| PF ECR, ESI contribution | Monthly | 15th of the next month |
| GSTR-9 annual return | Yearly | 31 December |
The rule book is yours. You can change a due day, add an exception, add a rule of your own or switch one off, and you decide which filings apply to each client. Dates change, and they vary by state and by case, so treat the rule book as a starting point and review it for your own practice.
How to turn it on
- Sign in to your firm's company and open Apps.
- Find Accountants and press Install.
- Open the app. The companies your firm manages are already listed as clients.
- In Settings, set your fee on each rule and your retainers in Fee Templates.
- Open each client, press Edit, and choose its partner, manager and the filings that apply.
Adding a client
A new client is a customer of the firm, given its own company. On the Clients tab press New Client, enter the customer as usual, choose your firm's Pack, fill in the company details and press Add New Customer. The client's own company is created with its own books. It appears in Clients with its customer already linked, so it can be billed straight away.
Its calendar starts from the date in Client Since, so a new client does not begin with a page of overdue returns the firm never held. Move that date back to bring in last month's filings.
A filing, from start to finish
Open a filing and its actions show what can happen next. Those actions are the only way its status moves, so every change is recorded.
| Status | Action | What it records |
|---|---|---|
| Not started | Start Work | Tells everyone it is being handled |
| In progress | Mark Filed | Filing date, acknowledgement number, tax paid. A future date is refused. The fee becomes one unbilled line |
| Filed | Mark Paid | Closes it. No second fee is added |
| Not started or In progress | Not Applicable | Needs a reason, such as no employees this month |
| Filed, Paid or Not applicable | Reopen | For a correction or a revised return. An unbilled fee is removed and comes back when it is filed again |
Something that is not on the rule book, such as a stock statement for the bank, is added with New Filing and sits on the same calendar.
Worked example: from a filed return to an invoice
Sri Murugan Traders pays per filing. Four returns are already filed and unbilled, and the firm now files the September GSTR-3B.
| Fee line | Source | Amount (INR) |
|---|---|---|
| TDS / TCS payment (challan), Sep 2026 | Filed return | 500.00 |
| Month-end close and bank reconciliation, Sep 2026 | Filed return | 2,000.00 |
| GSTR-1 outward supplies, Sep 2026 | Filed return | 1,000.00 |
| TDS return, Jul to Sep 2026 | Filed return | 2,500.00 |
| GSTR-3B summary return and payment, Sep 2026 | Filed just now | 1,500.00 |
| Total before tax | 7,500.00 | |
| GST at 18%, from the service item and the customer | 1,350.00 | |
| Invoice total | 8,850.00 |
Pressing Bill and then Raise Invoice creates one sales invoice in the firm's books, posted to the ledger, with one line per fee. The lines are marked billed and cannot be billed twice. An invoice you already raised by hand can be tied to the fees by its reference instead, with Mark Billed.
The ledger entry for that invoice in the firm's books:
| Account | Debit (INR) | Credit (INR) |
|---|---|---|
| Accounts Receivable, Sri Murugan Traders | 8,850.00 | |
| Sales, professional fees | 7,500.00 | |
| CGST at 9% | 675.00 | |
| SGST at 9% | 675.00 |
Worked example: a client on a retainer
Nila Textiles pays a flat monthly fee. Link it to a fee template of 5,000.00 a month, without per-filing charges, and each month gets one unbilled line of 5,000.00. Its filed returns add no separate fees, and the calendar still tracks every one of them.
The books, without opening them
Client health reads each client's own ledger: cash at bank, receivable, payable, this month's sales and the date of the last posting. Each client is shown in its own currency.
| Client | Cash at bank | Receivable | Payable | Sales this month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sri Murugan Traders | INR 925,000.00 | 179,648.00 | 138,000.00 | 48,750.00 |
| Sea Breeze Trading LLC | AED 342,000.00 | 49,350.00 | 61,000.00 | 14,200.00 |
The list refreshes once a day, and a press of Read the books again refreshes it now. Opening a client reads its books fresh. When you need to go inside, Open takes you into that company with no second login, and the visit is logged.
Your team, and who sees what
Each client has a partner and a manager. Open filings land on the manager, and the Team tab shows who holds how much. Access is set in two places:
- Which clients: in Users, Allowed Companies lists only your firm's clients. A person keeps the firm itself and can open only the clients chosen there. Anyone else's companies never appear.
- Which work: permissions separate clients, filings, work, billing, settings and reports. Someone with only filings and work sees no fee column, no billing tab and no unbilled total.
Reminders and reports
Once a day, each person gets one reminder of what they hold that is late or due soon: as a browser notification, in their To-Do inbox when that app is on, and by e-mail if you switch it on. You choose how many days ahead to remind, and how many months ahead the calendar reaches.
Three reports are ready for the partners' meeting, as PDF or Excel: Filing Status, Fee Register and Staff Workload.
Frequently asked questions
Does it file the returns for me?
No. It tracks them. You file on the government portal as usual, then record the date, the acknowledgement number and the tax paid.
Do clients have to change anything?
No. Each client works in its own company as before. Figures are read from its ledger, and nothing is written into its books.
Can a client be in another country?
Yes. Each client follows its own country's rule book and its own fiscal year, and its figures show in its own currency.
What happens when a client is on hold?
No new filings are created for it until you make it active again. Closing the engagement stops the calendar and keeps the history.
Can a filing be billed twice?
No. A filed return makes one fee line, marking it paid adds nothing, and a billed line cannot be billed again.
What if the invoice is voided?
Its fee lines come back as unbilled, so you can bill them again.
Can I change the due dates?
Yes. The rule book belongs to your firm. Please review it for your own practice, because dates change and some vary by state or by case.
