The agreement, in plain English.

This is the agreement between you and Closebooks. The two sections that actually matter are the subscription terms and the one explaining that Closebooks is not your accountant. Both are near the top.

1Agreeing to these terms

By downloading or using Closebooks you agree to these terms. If you don't agree, don't use it — and if you have already subscribed, section 4 says how refunds work on each store.

You need to be at least 16 and able to enter a contract.

2What Closebooks is

Closebooks is an app for iPhone and Android, for independent (1099) real-estate agents. It records commissions, mileage, expenses, receipts and fees, applies published IRS rules for the tax year, and organises the result to match Schedule C. It also exports a package you can hand to a CPA.

3What Closebooks is not

Closebooks is not tax, legal, accounting or financial advice. Specifically:

• It does not file anything. It prepares no return and submits nothing to the IRS or to any state. You or your preparer do that.
• Every figure is an estimate. Deduction totals and projections are calculations based on what you entered and on published rates.
• The quarterly set-aside is self-employment tax only. It is not your quarterly tax bill. Closebooks does not model income tax at all — that depends on your filing status, your other income, your spouse, your credits and your state, none of which the app knows. Treat the set-aside as a floor, not a total.
• Tax rules change. We build against the rules as published for the tax year and cite them in the app. Rules get amended and guidance gets reinterpreted; we do not promise the app reflects every change on the day it happens.
• Your records remain your responsibility. The IRS requires you to substantiate what you claim — a contemporaneous mileage log, receipts, a business purpose. Closebooks helps you keep those records; it cannot vouch for them, and it cannot know whether a deduction genuinely qualifies. Whether your home office meets the regular-and-exclusive-use test, for instance, is a judgement only you can make.
• Confirm with your CPA. Before you file, have a qualified professional review your numbers.

If Closebooks gets a calculation wrong, tell us and we will fix it. But you are responsible for what you file, and for any tax, interest or penalty that results.

4Subscriptions

Closebooks Pro is an auto-renewing subscription, and it is required to use the app.

Prices are in US dollars and are what Apple and Google Play charge in the US storefront. Elsewhere the store's local price applies, and the price shown in the app at the moment you subscribe is the price that applies. You subscribe through the store of the phone you are using — the App Store on iPhone, Google Play on Android.

• Free trial. New subscribers get a one-month free trial. Each store grants it once — Apple once per subscription group, Google Play once per subscription — so if you have used it before you will be charged immediately, and the app will say so rather than promising a trial you cannot have.
• When you are charged. Payment is charged to your Apple Account or your Google Play account at confirmation of purchase, or when a free trial ends. Apple charges each renewal within the 24 hours before the current period ends. Google Play charges at the start of each new period, and may place an authorisation hold on your payment method up to 48 hours before it.
• Auto-renewal. Subscriptions renew automatically unless you cancel — on Apple, at least 24 hours before the current period ends; on Google Play, before the current period ends.
• Starting a subscription during a trial. If you subscribe while a free trial is still running, any unused part of that trial is forfeited.
• Cancelling. On iPhone: Settings → your name → Subscriptions. On Android: Google Play → your profile → Payments & subscriptions → Subscriptions. Or Account → Manage subscription in the app, which opens the same place on either. Cancelling stops the next charge; you keep access until the end of the period you have paid for. Deleting the app does not cancel a subscription, and neither does deleting your account.
• Refunds are handled by the store you bought through, not by us: Apple at reportaproblem.apple.com, Google Play at support.google.com/googleplay/answer/2479637.
• Restoring. On iPhone, signed in on a new device, use Restore purchases on the paywall. On Android, Google Play recognises a subscription bought with the same Google Account on its own.
• Switching between iPhone and Android. Today a subscription bought through one store is recognised only on that platform. If you move from one to the other, cancel on the old store and subscribe on the new one; your books follow your Closebooks account either way.
• Price changes. If we raise the price, Apple asks you to consent before any higher amount is charged, and Google Play does the same with at least 30 days' notice — if you do not agree, the subscription ends instead of renewing at the new price. A lower price simply applies at your next renewal.

5Your account

An account is required, so your books survive a lost phone. Sign in with Apple on iPhone, with Google on Android, or with an emailed sign-in link on either.

Keep control of the device and the Apple Account or Google Account you sign in with. Tell us at hello@closebooks.app if you think someone else has access.

6Your data is yours

Everything you enter belongs to you. We claim no ownership of it. You grant us only the permission needed to run the service — to store your records, sync them between your devices, and process them to produce your totals, your exports and, if you use Casey, your answers. That permission ends when you delete your data.

You can export a tax year at any time — a PDF and a CSV, from Account → Export my data — and delete your account from inside the app, or without it at closebooks.app/delete-account. For a copy of everything held, including earlier years, email us. The Privacy Policy sets out exactly what is held and where.

7Casey

Casey is the optional AI assistant. To answer accurately it is given your ledger, which means your figures are sent to Anthropic — the Privacy Policy explains precisely what.

Casey can be wrong. It is a language model reading your numbers, not a professional reviewing your return, and its answers carry the same caveat as everything else here: check before you file. There is a limit of 50 messages a day, to keep costs sane.

8Using it properly

Don't use Closebooks to break the law or to record fraudulent figures. Don't try to reach other users' data, overwhelm the service, reverse-engineer the app beyond what the law permits, or resell access.

Closebooks is for your own business records. Don't use it as a system of record for someone else's taxes without their knowledge.

9Availability

We aim to keep Closebooks working, and will not promise uptime we cannot guarantee — this is a small operation with an infrastructure provider behind it. Features may change as the product develops. If we remove something you rely on, we will say so in the app.

Your data is stored on the device as well as synced, so the app keeps working without a connection.

10Ending it

You can stop at any time: cancel through Apple or Google Play, and delete your account in Account → Delete account — or, without the app, at closebooks.app/delete-account. It removes your sign-in, your records and your receipt images from our servers straight away, and cannot be undone — export anything you want to keep first. Two things outlast it, and the Privacy Policy sets out both: a deleted record may sit in a short-term disaster-recovery backup until it ages out, and analytics events carry a random identifier rather than your account, so email us if you want those removed too.

We may suspend or end an account that breaches these terms or is being used unlawfully. Because every payment is an in-app purchase through Apple or Google Play, refunds go through the store; if we end your account without cause, contact us and we will support your refund request to Apple or Google.

If Closebooks ever shuts down, we will give as much notice as we reasonably can in the app, and keep the export working so you can take your records with you.

11Disclaimers

Closebooks is provided "as is". To the extent the law allows, we disclaim implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the app will be uninterrupted or error-free, or that every calculation will match your final return.

Some jurisdictions do not allow these exclusions, in which case they do not apply to you.

12Limitation of liability

To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages, or for lost profits or lost data.

Our total liability for any claim relating to Closebooks is limited to the greater of the amount you paid in the twelve months before the claim, or fifty US dollars.

Nothing here excludes liability that cannot legally be excluded — including for fraud, or death or personal injury caused by negligence. If you are a consumer you keep every right your local law gives you, and nothing in these terms takes those away.

13Changes to these terms

If these terms change materially we will update the date above and tell you in the app before the change takes effect. Continuing to use Closebooks after that means you accept the new terms.

14Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of New Hampshire, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. Any dispute that has to go to court goes to the state or federal courts located in New Hampshire.

If you are a consumer resident in the EEA or the UK, none of that deprives you of the protection of the mandatory laws of your own country, and you may bring proceedings in your local courts.

15Apple and Google Play

Apple requires the following, and it is accurate:

• This agreement is between you and Closebooks only, not with Apple. Apple is not responsible for the app or its contents.
• Scope of licence. We grant you a non-transferable licence to use Closebooks on any Apple-branded product you own or control, as permitted by the Usage Rules in Apple's Media Services Terms — including sharing through Family Sharing or volume purchasing where Apple allows it.
• Maintenance and support are our responsibility, not Apple's. Apple has no obligation to provide any support for Closebooks.
• Warranty. We are solely responsible for any product warranties, whether express or implied by law, to the extent they are not effectively disclaimed. If the app fails to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify Apple and Apple will refund the purchase price; to the extent the law allows, Apple has no other warranty obligation.
• Apple is not responsible for addressing any claim you or a third party makes about the app — product liability, a failure to meet a legal requirement, or a consumer-protection claim.
• Apple is not responsible for investigating, defending or resolving any third-party claim that the app infringes intellectual property.
• You confirm you are not in a country subject to a US Government embargo or designated as terrorist-supporting, and are not on any US Government prohibited-parties list.
• You must comply with applicable third-party terms when using the app.
• Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these terms and may enforce them against you.

Google does not require an equivalent section, but the same is true of the Android app: this agreement is between you and Closebooks, not Google, and Google is not responsible for the app, its contents, or its support. Your use of Google Play is governed by Google's own terms.

16Everything else

If a provision here is unenforceable, the rest stands. Not enforcing something once doesn't waive it. These terms and the Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between us about Closebooks.

17Contact

Closebooks is operated by Rasmussen Software LLC, a New Hampshire limited liability company. Apple's terms require us to give you a contact point for questions, complaints and claims about the app, including any claim that it infringes someone's rights.

Email hello@closebooks.app. It reaches one person, and he answers. Write to us there for a postal address if you need one.