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, Apple's refund process is at reportaproblem.apple.com.

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

2What Closebooks is

Closebooks is an iOS app 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 charges in the US storefront. Elsewhere Apple sets the local equivalent, and the price shown in the app at the moment you subscribe is the price that applies.

• Free trial. New subscribers get a one-month free trial. Apple grants that trial once per subscription group, 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 at confirmation of purchase, and for each renewal within the 24 hours before the current period ends.
• Auto-renewal. Subscriptions renew automatically unless you cancel at least 24 hours 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. In Settings → your name → Subscriptions on your iPhone, or from Account → Manage subscription in the app, which opens the same place. 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.
• Refunds are handled by Apple, not by us, at reportaproblem.apple.com.
• Restoring. Signed in on a new device, use Restore purchases on the paywall.
• Price changes. If we change the price, Apple notifies you and asks you to consent before any higher amount is charged.

5Your account

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

Keep control of the device and Apple 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. 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, and delete your account in Account → 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 Apple in-app purchase, we cannot issue refunds ourselves; if we end your account without cause, contact us and we will support your refund request to Apple.

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

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.

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 Aaron Rasmussen, a sole proprietor in the United States. 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.