SortKai is a bookkeeping subcontractor for accounting firms. We process, reconcile and quality-check the records of the clients you choose, and deliver a completed bookkeeping pack to your firm — not to your client. The client relationship, the review and the sign-off stay with you.
This page is written for partners and practice managers weighing up outsourced or white-label bookkeeping. It covers how access works in QuickBooks Online Accountant and Xero, what the audit trail shows, who reviews what, how client data is handled, and how you leave. It ends with a due-diligence checklist you can use on any provider, including us.
“White-label” is used loosely in this market, so here is exactly what it means here. SortKai works for the practice and delivers to the practice. You hand us the bookkeeping layer for the clients you choose: document intake, coding, matching and reconciliation. The work runs on per-client coding rules set to your chart of accounts and your conventions.
Anything unclear comes back to your firm as a short written question. Nothing is guessed. The reconciled trial balance and P&L go to your firm for review before anything reaches the client. In our own words from the FAQ: your client, your sign-off, your letterhead — we do the data entry.
One thing to be clear about: “white-label” covers what your client receives, not what the ledger records. Kai, our AI agent, posts under its own login, so its entries show under that user name in the platform's audit log. We treat that as a feature. It is how your reviewers can tell our work from anyone else's.
For each client in scope, the pack contains:
Not in the pack: tax filing, payroll, audit, and CFO or advisory work. SortKai keeps the books only; that work stays with your firm.
Between closes, Kai posts daily, so the client file is current when you open it mid-month. If a correction is needed, the posting is fixed in the ledger and the rule that caused it is fixed too. Corrections are listed in the close notes. Nothing is silently rewritten.
Kai works inside the client's own QuickBooks Online or Xero file as a named user with its own login. Other platforms are available on request. Both platforms have standard, documented ways to give an outside accountant or bookkeeper access. Which route suits your firm is settled during onboarding.
QuickBooks Online. A client invites an accounting firm from Settings → Manage users → Accounting firms → Invite firm. Intuit says accountant users “have access to specific accountant tools to review your books and make corrections”, and that an invitation made this way “does not count toward your subscription's user limit.” A company can invite up to two accounting firms before Intuit suggests QuickBooks Online Advanced. Inside the firm's own account, Intuit's instructions for adding team members are to go to All Apps → Team → Users. There, in the Client access section, you grant access to a client by assigning the team member a role. So access is granted, and withdrawn, client by client.
Xero. Users are added from Settings → Users → New user, and Xero states that adding users, including your accountant, is free of charge. Xero describes the administrator role as giving “full access to all areas of Xero”, including reconciling bank transactions, entering manual journals and setting lock dates. Because that is broad, decide deliberately which role the bookkeeping user gets and who controls lock dates. For client organizations on the Xero Ledger plan, one of Xero's partner plans, Xero advises managing practice staff access from Xero HQ in order to give staff the advisor role.
If a client has no platform yet, SortKai can set one up on QuickBooks Online or Xero during onboarding.
Both platforms keep a record you control, not us. Intuit states that the QuickBooks Online audit log records “the date of the change, the user who made it, and any original transaction details”. It also says that “for audit and security reasons, you can't turn off the audit log.” Xero's History and notes report shows changes to transactions, contacts, inventory and fixed assets. Xero says changes are date-stamped “and also show which user made the change.”
Because Kai posts under its own login, every action it takes is logged against that user. Your reviewers can filter the log to our entries, see what changed, and check each posting against the source document attached to it.
There are two sign-offs, and they do different jobs:
| Stage | Who | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Daily posting | Kai (AI agent) | Reads each document, checks the numbers, codes it to your chart of accounts, and records it. Anything it isn't sure about waits for a person. |
| Exceptions | SortKai person, or your firm | A person decides the unusual items. Questions only the practice can answer go to you in writing. |
| Month-end close | SortKai person | Every bank, card and POS settlement is matched. The trial balance and P&L are reviewed and signed. |
| Professional review | Your firm | You review the pack and decide what goes to the client, under your name. |
Our review is a bookkeeping quality check. It is not an audit or an assurance engagement, and it does not replace your firm's own review.
Client documents are used to keep the client's books. They are not used to train anything. They are attached to their transactions in the client's platform. As an option, the complete set can also be filed by year and month in a dedicated Microsoft SharePoint folder. Access is limited to bookkeeping, every action is logged, and access can be switched off in about a minute.
Your firm's own duties are yours to weigh: confidentiality, data protection, and whether your engagement letters or professional rules require you to tell clients you use a subcontractor. Nothing on this page is legal advice.
Service is month to month. You can cancel any month, with no notice period. The books already sit in the client's platform. If we run a client's books under a SortKai-managed subscription, it transfers into the client's name whenever you ask. The complete document archive is handed over when you go, and nothing is held back. When you remove Kai's user from a client file, our access ends.
If you are moving work from another provider, we can run in parallel for a month so you can compare closes before anyone is switched off.
Ask any outsourced bookkeeping provider these questions and get the answers in writing. Our answers are in the middle column. The right-hand column shows where you can check them yourself.
| Question to ask | SortKai's answer | How to verify |
|---|---|---|
| Who is the client of record? | Your firm. We deliver to the practice. | The engagement terms |
| How do you log in? | As a named user with its own login, in the client's file | The platform's user list |
| Can we see every action you take? | Yes. Every action is logged against Kai's user. | QuickBooks Online audit log / Xero History and notes |
| Is every entry supported? | Every entry is linked to its source document | Open any posted transaction |
| What happens to unclear items? | A written question to your firm. Nothing is guessed. | The close notes |
| Who reviews before we see it? | A person reviews and signs every close | The signed pack |
| When do we get the pack? | Trial balance and P&L by the tenth business day | Delivery dates, month by month |
| Is client data used to train AI? | No. Documents are used to keep the books only. | Ask for it in writing |
| How fast can access be removed? | About a minute | Remove the user yourself |
| What do we get back if we leave? | The books stay in the client's platform, plus the complete document archive | Exit terms; month to month, no notice period |
| How is the fee set? | A fixed monthly fee sized to document volume, quoted in writing | The written quote |
Platform mechanics above are taken from the vendors' own help documentation:
Kai records your clients’ documents daily in their QuickBooks or Xero, and a person signs every close before the pack reaches your firm. A fixed monthly fee, quoted in writing.
The pack is delivered to your firm, and what reaches the client goes under your name after your review: your client, your sign-off, your letterhead. Kai does post under its own login, so its entries show under that user in the platform's audit log. Whether you tell clients you use a subcontractor is a matter for your engagement letters and professional rules.
As a named user with its own login in each client's QuickBooks Online or Xero file, using the platforms' standard access routes. In QuickBooks Online Accountant, access is granted per client through your team settings; in Xero, the user is invited from the organization's user settings, or through Xero HQ for organizations on the Xero Ledger partner plan.
No. SortKai keeps the books only. Tax filing, payroll, audit, and CFO or advisory work stay with your firm, which receives a reconciled trial balance and P&L with every entry linked to its source document.
It comes back to your firm as a short written question. Nothing is guessed. Corrections, open questions and anything flagged are listed in the written close notes, and we give written answers to your questions about the books we keep.
A fixed monthly fee sized to document volume, quoted in writing after a free consultation, plus a one-time onboarding fee also quoted in writing. There is no hourly billing, the fee does not rise because a client's revenue grows, and service is month to month.
