Your clients' books,
without the shoebox
A practitioner login into each client's business, the returns computed from their own ledger, a filing calendar across the whole book of clients, and an export whenever you need the numbers in your own working papers.
Scoped access, not the owner's password
Three of the twelve built-in roles exist for people outside the business. Each is a real permission set the server enforces, so what a client grants you is exactly what you get — and their audit log shows precisely what you did with it.
Tax Practitioner
Full access to the SARS returns centre, view and export across the financials, the ability to create reports — and no ability to alter users or permissions.
- VAT201, EMP201, EMP501, IRP6, ITR14 and the rest
- e@syFile Employer import files for IRP5 and IT3(a), reviewed per employee first
- A filing register: mark a return filed on eFiling and keep the reference against the client
Accountant
The working role: reconcile, correct the coding, run the reports and export, without touching user administration or the security policy.
- Banking, expenses, invoicing and the ledger
- Month-end reports and exports
- Payroll access only if the client grants it
External Auditor
Read and export across the financials and the audit log. Nothing is editable, which is the point — independence you can demonstrate rather than promise.
- Every module readable, none writable
- Audit log with actor, resource and severity
- CSV export for working papers
Your access counts against the client's user limit — one on Free, three on Starter, ten on Business, twenty-five on Professional, unlimited on Enterprise. That is worth knowing before you onboard a client on Starter and find their bookkeeper cannot get in. The plan comparison has the seat counts, and the roles guide covers invitations and the permission matrix.
Returns built from the client's ledger
The SARS returns centre computes each return from the transactions already posted, so the number on the form is traceable to the invoices behind it rather than typed in from a spreadsheet you have to keep. Ledgr then hands you the file — you capture it on eFiling, or import it into e@syFile Employer.
Seven return types
VAT201, EMP201, EMP501, IRP5, IRP6, ITR14 and the dividends tax return (DTR01), each with its filing frequency and last submission date on the card.
A calendar that counts down
Deadlines sorted by urgency with a countdown badge on each, so each client's month is laid out for you and you do not have to keep the diary.
The workings, visible
Output and input VAT broken out into the VAT201 boxes; EMP201 broken out per employee. When SARS queries a figure, the ledger behind it is one click away.
Validated before it downloads
A return that does not balance will not produce a file — you get the reasons instead, so a wrong return never reaches eFiling in your name.
A filing register you keep
Note each return as filed on eFiling and the reference stays against the client, so "did July's VAT201 go?" is answered in Ledgr rather than in somebody's inbox.
A multi-client view
The practitioner portal lists your clients with their compliance state, so the answer to "who still owes a VAT201 this month" is on one screen, not a round of phone calls.
Clients with more than one entity
A holding company with three trading subsidiaries and a dormant shell is a common SME structure, and it is usually where cloud accounting stops being cheaper than a desktop package. Multi-company is one plan, not one subscription per entity — 2 companies included and R249 a month for each further one, with every module you already have on all of them.
- Switch between entities from the header, or open the consolidated group view
- Consolidated income statement and balance sheet with inter-company revenue, expenses, receivables and payables eliminated
- An inter-company transaction log and a cross-entity balance matrix, so the eliminations are evidenced rather than asserted
- One contact database shared across entities, with a badge showing which entity each relationship belongs to
- A group structure chart — the diagram you would otherwise draw on a whiteboard
Month end, and then year end
- Reconcile the bank
The client imports the statement, or you do. Suggested matches carry a confidence score; recurring transactions become bank rules and no longer need anyone's attention.
- Clear the approval queues
Expense claims, mileage at the SARS rate and per diem sit in a queue until someone signs them off, so nothing posts to the ledger unreviewed.
- Run payroll and file the EMP201
PAYE on the current brackets with the primary rebate, UIF at the cap, SDL at 1%. The EMP201 totals come straight from the approved run.
- Review the returns before they go
VAT201 from output and input VAT, with the transactions behind each box available if a figure looks wrong.
- Report and export
Income statement, balance sheet and cash flow on IFRS for SMEs, plus budget versus actual, aged debtors and the B-BBEE scorecard. Schedule the recurring ones to arrive as PDF, Excel or CSV.
- Take a working copy at year end
Settings → Data → Export all data gives a ZIP of CSVs — contacts, invoices and lines, expenses, bills, products and time entries — for your files or your audit pack.
Drag dimensions and measures into a live preview, save it, and schedule it. Most of the spreadsheets a practice rebuilds every month for every client are one saved report.
From their old system to a clean opening balance
The migration itself is on its own page, because it is the same job whether a business does it alone or you do it for them. The difference when a practice runs it is that someone checks the opening position against the old trial balance rather than assuming it is right.
What the client does
- Creates the account and owns it — the business belongs to them, not to your practice
- Fills in registration and VAT details, financial year end, logo and banking details
- Invites your practice from Settings → Accountant access, which puts them on your client console once you accept
- Adds you as a user with the Accountant or Tax Practitioner role, for the hands-on work in their books
- Imports their contacts, products and bank statements from CSV
Those are two separate invitations because
they do two different things: the first puts the client on your console, the second
gives you a login in their books. A Ledgr login belongs to one business, so use your
practice address for the console and a per-client address — acme@yourfirm.co.za
— for the login. Most practices already work that way.
What you do
- Agree the cutover date — ideally the start of a financial year
- Set bank opening balances and check the open invoices imported with the right dates
- Reconcile cash, debtors, creditors and stock against their old trial balance
- Note what the trial balance carries that Ledgr cannot hold yet — see below
- Set up the reports the client actually reads, and schedule them
Opening balances come across as one opening journal: import the chart of accounts, then the trial balance as at the day before cutover, and fixed assets, accumulated depreciation, loans, equity, retained income and the VAT control account all land in it. You can post your own journals under Reports → Journals → New journal for accruals, prepayments, reclassifications and year-end entries, and close a period once it is agreed. Annual financial statements are still yours to prepare, from Ledgr's reports and exports. The opening balances section sets out exactly what moves and how.
What a client needs on their side
Priced per business, not per user, so a client's bill does not go up because you have a login.
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
| If the client needs… | Minimum plan | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Invoicing and a contact list only | Free | 5 documents a month, one user — which leaves no seat for your login, so in practice Starter. |
| Unlimited invoicing, expenses and bank reconciliation | Starter | 3 users, which covers an owner, a bookkeeper and you — and bank reconciliation is where most of your month goes. |
| Financial statements, inventory and multi-currency | Business | 10 users, the full statement set — income statement, balance sheet, cash flow, trial balance and general ledger — and API access (1 API key). |
| Payroll and SARS returns | Professional | The plan most clients with staff need, and the one you will want them on. |
| Multiple entities and consolidation | Enterprise | Unlimited seats, group view, eliminations, workflows and 10 API keys. 2 companies are included and further entities are R249 each, carrying every module already licensed. |
| Bills of materials, planning, procurement or a fleet | Manufacturing | For a client that manufactures rather than resells, or runs its own deliveries rather than using a courier. Logistics and proof of delivery are also sold as an add-on from Business. |
The most common onboarding surprise is a one-person business on Free discovering that their single seat is already used. Starter at R229 solves it. Full detail on the pricing page.
Nothing
Your practice does not pay Ledgr. Your clients pay for their own books — which is what keeps those books theirs — at the ordinary published price, and your practice earns a share of every one of those plan fees.
Practice
- Unlimited users — your whole team, at no charge
- Your own firm's books free, on the full Enterprise module set: complete books, payroll, SARS returns, consolidation, workflows and the API
- A client console over every client who has invited you, ordered by which needs attention most
- Client queries anchored to the document they are about, and an adjusting-journal review queue
- No minimum client book, no term, nothing to cancel
You apply for it rather than buy it. Tell us about your firm below and we review every application ourselves. If we accept you, your practice licence key arrives by email — it never expires and there is nothing to cancel.
Apply to the programme See the partner ladderApply to the partner programme
Only three fields are required: your practice name, your name and your email address. Everything else is optional, but helps us understand your practice. We review every application ourselves and usually reply within one working day.
Thank you — we have received your application
While you wait, you are welcome to create an ordinary Ledgr account and start setting your firm up. When we accept you, the practice key applies to that same account under Settings → Billing & Plan.
Create your accountList price to them, a share to you
Every client keeps their own account and their own subscription, at the ordinary published price. The more paying clients you carry, the bigger the share your practice earns on every one of them — including the ones you already had.
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
| Status | Paying clients | You earn |
|---|---|---|
| Registered | 1–9 clients | 5% of each plan fee |
| Bronze | 10–24 clients | 10% of each plan fee |
| Silver | 25–49 clients | 15% of each plan fee |
| Gold | 50–99 clients | 20% of each plan fee |
| Platinum | 100+ clients | 25% of each plan fee |
Your status is worked out from the clients who have accepted your invitation and are on a paid plan. It moves on its own as your book grows, and it applies to every client you carry, not only the new ones.
Compliance, R69 a client
Most of a practice's book is not a business running its own invoicing. It is a dormant company, a trust, a property entity, an annual-only client whose whole year is a bank statement you code at year end. Those have their own plan.
Compliance
- Complete books, bank statement import and reconciliation
- Trial balance, general ledger and the annual statement exports
- The full SARS returns centre — VAT201, EMP201, IRP6 and ITR14
- 1 user: yours. Nobody at the client signs in
- 2 GB storage
Already at our lowest price, so it earns no partner payout. A client who wants a login of their own moves to Starter — and that is usually your recommendation to make, not ours.
Placed on a client by your practice. It is not on the public price list and a business cannot buy it for itself.
A forty-client practice
Twenty compliance-only clients, twelve on Starter, six on Business and two on Professional. At forty paying clients you are Silver, so every one of those plans earns your practice 15% of its fee.
- Your practice pays Free — for unlimited staff, your own firm's books, and the console over all forty.
- Your twenty compliance clients cost R69 each. What you charge them for the bookkeeping is between you and them.
- Your other twenty pay their own subscriptions at list, and each one accrues 15% of its plan fee to your practice as it is paid.
Practice questions
Can I see all my clients from one login?
The practitioner portal gives you a client list with each one's compliance state and lets you work across them for filing. Each client's ledger is still their own business with its own subscription and its own audit trail — which is what keeps their data separated from another client's.
Can more than one of us work on a client?
Yes. A client invites one of you by name, and your practice then assigns whichever colleagues work on them — under Practice → the client → Who works on this. Each of them gets that client on their own console and can open the books the client shared, under the same access the client granted and never more.
Everyone works under their own name, so the client's audit trail records who actually did what rather than attributing a whole team to whoever was invited. The client is told: every colleague you assign is listed on their own Who can see my books card beside your practice's name. The person they invited stays theirs to remove — your practice cannot unassign them.
Who owns the client's data — them or the practice?
Them, unambiguously. The business is created under their account and they hold the Owner role. If they leave your practice they revoke your access; if you part ways on bad terms, nothing of theirs is tied to your subscription.
Is there a partner programme?
Yes — the ladder above, and it is the published one rather than a private rate card. Your practice pays nothing, your clients pay the ordinary published price for their own plans, and your firm earns a share of each of those plan fees that grows with the size of your book. There is no reseller tier to negotiate and no wholesale rate: what a client is charged is what is on the pricing page. Your share is paid once we have checked your practice's membership of a professional body — see below.
What does Ledgr check before it pays my practice?
Your membership of a professional body. Add the body and your membership number under Settings → Billing & Plan → Professional registration, and we check it against that body's own register by hand — usually within a working day. Until it is checked your share is held at 0%; the day it is verified, your whole client book earns at the status it has already reached.
Nothing else waits on it. Your console, your clients, your consolidated bill and your access to their books all work exactly as they do now, and anything already earned is unaffected. We can check a membership with SAICA, SAIPA, SAIBA (CIBA), IRBA or SAIT, because those publish a register. If your practice belongs to another body, or to none, you keep your practice account and everything in it — only the share waits.
Can I file directly to SARS from Ledgr?
No, and deliberately so. Ledgr computes every return from the books and hands you the file; you capture it on eFiling or import it into e@syFile. That keeps the last look at every figure with the person whose name goes on the return. The IRP5 certificate import and the DTR02 schedule are files SARS accepts as they are, so all you need to do is upload them — see the SARS guide.
Can I pull client data into my own systems?
Yes. API access is included from Business, and every plan includes the on-demand CSV export. The developer hub documents authentication, scoped API keys and the endpoint catalogue, with a sandbox to try it against your own books.
What can I show a client who is nervous about the cloud?
The security page — data in africa-south1,
per-business isolation, role-based access with 2FA, an audit log kept for seven years and a
one-click export they can take with them. It is written to be forwarded.
Try it on one client first
Pick the simplest set of books you look after, run one month in parallel, and judge it on the reconciliation rather than the brochure.