Telling clients about white label software without undermining your brand

Clients rarely expect an accounting firm to write its own software, just as they do not expect it to build its own office. What they want to know is that the firm chose the tools deliberately, controls their data and stands behind the results. A short, honest explanation answers those concerns before they turn into doubts.

Trouble tends to come from implying something untrue, such as claiming your firm engineered the platform. If a client later discovers the vendor, the issue is the implication, not the arrangement. Describe the software as your firm’s service, built on a platform you selected and manage.

Professional bodies and engagement letters may set expectations about disclosing third parties that handle client data or perform part of the work. Those rules vary by body and jurisdiction, and this page cannot tell you what applies to your firm. Review your professional-body guidance and your engagement letters, and take advice where needed.

Common areas to review include data processing and storage, subcontracted services, and how you describe the tools you use. Updating the engagement letter once, clearly, is usually simpler than answering the same question client by client. Keep a note of what you decided and why, so future staff describe the arrangement the same way.

• Professional-body guidance on third-party providers
• Engagement-letter wording on software and data
• Privacy notices describing where data is processed
• Any client contracts with vendor restrictions

A simple formula works: name the service, say it runs on a platform your firm selected, and explain who owns the data. With HelloBooks, clients sign in to software carrying your app name, logo and colors, HelloBooks bills only your firm, and your firm owns and can export client data.

Nothing in that arrangement requires you to hide the vendor. Some firms mention it in the engagement letter and never again; others name it when a client asks. Choose an approach consistent with your obligations and apply it to every client the same way.

One flat license covers your brand, unlimited staff and the firm console. Your clients stay on published HelloBooks plans, and your firm gets 20% off each one. Founding firms go live first on a firm subdomain; your own domain and email from your domain follow at full launch.