Terms of Use

1. Who these terms apply to

These terms apply to every person given an account on Bookkeep (“you”, “a user”). Accounts are created by invitation from an administrator only. You may use the software solely for the bookkeeping, VAT and payroll affairs of the companies you have been granted access to, and for no other purpose.

In these terms, “we”, “us” and “Syntaxion” mean Syntaxion Ltd, the operator of the software — a company registered in England and Wales, company number 12604886, with its registered office at Lytchett House, 13 Freeland Park, Wareham Road, Lytchett Matravers, Poole, Dorset, BH16 6FA.

2. What the software does

Bookkeep records transactions, invoices and bills, calculates VAT, submits VAT returns to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) through the MTD VAT API, runs PAYE payroll with Real Time Information (RTI) submissions, imports bank transactions, and produces reports.

Bookkeep is independent software that connects to HMRC’s published APIs. It is not produced, endorsed, approved or accredited by HMRC, and nothing in the software or on this site should be read as suggesting otherwise.

3. Your account

• Accounts are personal. Do not share your password, your two-factor authentication device or your recovery codes with anyone, and do not let another person use your account.
• Two-factor authentication is required and must stay enabled.
• Choose a password you do not use anywhere else.
• Tell us immediately at info@syntaxion.co.uk if you believe your account has been accessed by someone else, or if a device holding your credentials is lost or stolen.
• Administrators can disable an account at any time, including when someone leaves the group or no longer needs access.

Actions taken under your account are attributed to you in the audit log, so keeping your credentials to yourself matters for more than security alone.

4. Your responsibilities

The software calculates from the records you give it. It cannot know whether those records are complete or correct, so responsibility for what is filed stays with you and with the company concerned.

• Enter transactions accurately and keep records up to date, including the digital records HMRC requires you to keep under Making Tax Digital.
• Review every VAT return and payroll submission before it is sent. Nothing is transmitted to HMRC until a user confirms it.
• Check that the VAT registration number, PAYE reference and accounting periods held against each company are correct.
• Meet your own filing and payment deadlines. The software does not do this for you and does not guarantee reminders.
• Do not use the software to submit anything you know or suspect to be inaccurate.

Bookkeep is not a substitute for professional advice. It does not provide tax, accounting or legal advice, and you should take advice from a qualified accountant where your circumstances call for it.

5. Submissions to HMRC

Authorising the software

Before Bookkeep can file VAT returns for a company, a user must authorise it through HMRC’s own sign-in and consent screens. That grant is limited to reading and writing VAT information for that company. We never see or store your HMRC sign-in credentials — HMRC issues the software an access token instead. You can withdraw the authorisation at any time through your HMRC online account, and doing so stops the software filing on that company’s behalf.

PAYE RTI submissions use Government Gateway credentials held per employer. Where you supply those credentials, you confirm you are entitled to use them for that employer.

Fraud prevention data

HMRC requires the software to send technical information about the device and connection used to make each submission. This is a condition of using the API and cannot be turned off. What is sent is described in section 3 of the privacy policy. By making a submission you accept that this data is transmitted to HMRC.

Submissions are final

A VAT return that has been accepted by HMRC cannot be withdrawn or amended through the software, and the transactions behind it are locked so that the filed figures cannot be altered afterwards. If you discover an error in a submitted return, correct it through HMRC’s error correction process or in a later return, as HMRC’s rules require. Contact HMRC directly about anything to do with a return once it has been received by them.

6. Bank feeds

Where you connect a bank account through open banking, you authorise that connection with your bank, not with us. You must only connect accounts belonging to the company you are working in — the software asks you to select each account explicitly and never adopts one automatically. Under the payment services regulations your consent lapses after 90 days and must be renewed; until it is, no new transactions are retrieved. You can disconnect an account at any time, though transactions already included in a finalised VAT return will be retained.

Imported transactions are a convenience, not a reconciliation. Check them against your own bank statements before relying on them.

7. Availability and support

Bookkeep is self-hosted internal software. It is provided on an as-available basis with no service level agreement and no guaranteed uptime. We may take it offline for maintenance, upgrades or migrations, usually without advance notice. Features may change or be removed as the needs of the group change.

HMRC’s APIs may themselves be unavailable, rate-limited or withdrawn. Where a submission cannot be made because of an HMRC outage, you remain responsible for filing by the deadline through another route.

8. Security

We take the measures described in the privacy policy to protect the software and its data, including encryption in transit and at rest, hashed passwords, mandatory two-factor authentication, role-based access and an append-only audit log.

You must not attempt to access data belonging to a company you have not been granted access to, probe or test the security of the software without written permission, interfere with its operation, or attempt to extract credentials or encryption keys. If you discover a vulnerability, report it to info@syntaxion.co.uk rather than exploring it further.

9. Your data

The accounting records you enter belong to the company they relate to, not to us. You can export transactions, trial balance, profit and loss, balance sheet and corporation tax figures as CSV at any time, so you are never dependent on the software to get your records out.

We keep records for as long as tax law requires — generally at least six years — and cannot delete them earlier even on request. Retention and your rights over personal data are set out in sections 8 and 10 of the privacy policy.

10. Liability

The software is provided without warranty that it will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that its calculations will suit every circumstance. To the extent permitted by law, we are not liable for losses arising from your use of it, including tax penalties, interest, or losses caused by inaccurate records, missed deadlines, or unavailability of the software or of HMRC’s services.

Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited. Nothing in these terms affects your statutory rights.

11. Intellectual property

The software, its source code and its design belong to Syntaxion. Your account grants you permission to use it while you are authorised to do so; it does not transfer any ownership. Do not copy, redistribute or reverse engineer the software except to the extent the law permits regardless of this restriction.

12. Changes and termination

We may update these terms as the software or HMRC’s requirements change. The date at the top of this page shows when they were last revised, and continued use after a change means you accept the revised terms. We will tell affected users directly about material changes.

We may suspend or withdraw access to any account at any time, including where these terms have been broken or where access is no longer needed. Your obligations in sections 4, 8 and 10 survive the end of your access.

13. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising from them.

14. Contact

Questions about these terms, or about the software, go to info@syntaxion.co.uk, or by post to Syntaxion Ltd, Lytchett House, 13 Freeland Park, Wareham Road, Lytchett Matravers, Poole, Dorset, BH16 6FA.