One agreement, in the order it matters.

These terms of service are the agreement between you and Goatkeeper. They cover the service, what it costs, what each of us is responsible for, and, in the Service terms section, exactly what work we do and what we need from you. Our privacy policy explains what we do with your information. The tax information consents are not part of this agreement: federal law says they must stand on their own, so you sign them separately.

1. Who this is between

This agreement is between you and High Leverage, LLC, which operates Goatkeeper (“Goatkeeper,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). “You” means the person who signs it, and each business and household you sign up. If you sign for a business, you confirm that you have the authority to bind it. You must be at least 18.

You agree by checking the box and typing your full name in the app. Your typed name is your electronic signature and has the same effect as signing on paper. You agree to receive this agreement, notices about it, and copies of what you sign electronically. This agreement starts on the day you sign and runs month to month until either of us ends it.

2. The service

Goatkeeper is done-for-you bookkeeping and tax preparation for small businesses and their owners. It includes:

• A named bookkeeper on our team who keeps each business’s books every month, from the statements and bank connections you give us.
• An accountant’s review of each month before it closes.
• On the books and taxes plan, each business’s federal income tax return and one state return, for each year we keep its books, prepared and signed by an accountant on our team.
• Your personal federal return, once per household, with your first business on the books and taxes plan, or on its own on the personal plan.
• The Goatkeeper app, where you see your numbers, send documents, answer questions, and message your team.
• Gus, a helper in the app that answers questions from your own books.

Section 9, Service terms, says exactly what is and is not included.

3. Gus

Gus answers questions using the numbers in your own books and the help pages on our site. Gus can be wrong. A person on our team reviews what Gus suggests about your books and steps in whenever an answer needs one. Gus’s answers are information about your books, not legal, tax, or investment advice for a decision you are about to make. Before you act on something important, ask your bookkeeper.

4. Your account

Give us accurate information when you sign up and keep it current. Keep your sign-in to yourself, and we recommend turning on two-step sign-in. You are responsible for what happens under your account, including what anyone you invite does. If you think someone else got in, tell us right away at hello@goatkeeper.io.

5. What it costs

It starts at $197 a month. Every business is priced on its own revenue, measured over the last twelve months, or annualized from what it has done so far if it is younger than a year. Under three months old, your own estimate stands until the first quarterly review.

Books and taxes: $197 a month up to $100,000 of revenue, $297 up to $200,000, $397 up to $600,000, $497 up to $1.5 million, and $597 up to $3.5 million. Books only, with no returns: $179, $247, $347, $447, and $497 at the same revenue levels. A personal return with no business behind it is $179 a month. Past $3.5 million, the price is settled with you on a call.

Some returns cost extra each month because they are extra work. On the first three revenue levels each of these is $50 a month, and on the top two it is $80: a business that files its own return (an S corporation, C corporation, partnership, or multi-member LLC), a rental property or side business folded into the return, and a partner who needs their own personal return prepared. Each state return past the first is $25 a month on the first three levels and $40 on the top two.

Two or more businesses are each priced on their own. More than three businesses, over $800 a month, over $5,000 of back work, more than 24 months behind, or open letters from the IRS or a state: any of these and a person settles the price with you on a call before anything is billed. A price you agree to in writing with us, such as a quote, replaces these numbers for your account.

No setup fee, no hourly billing, and no contract term.

6. Billing, failed payments, and no refunds

Billing. The subscription bills monthly through Commas, our payment processor, starting on the day you pay and renewing each month on that date until you cancel. By paying, you authorize Commas to charge your card or bank account each month for your current price. Commas holds your card or bank details; we never see them. Back work and any extra work you agree to are separate one-time charges through Commas. If a state requires sales tax on our service, it is added and shown to you before you pay.

When a payment fails. If a payment fails, your access to the app pauses that day, and so does the work. Nothing is deleted: your books and records are kept as they are. When the payment goes through, access comes back right away and the work picks up where it stopped. If a payment is still unpaid 30 days after it was due, we may end this agreement as section 8 says.

No refunds. All payments are final. We do not refund a monthly payment, back work, or extra work, in whole or in part. That includes a month you did not use, work you decided you did not need, and the rest of a month when either of us ends this agreement. If we charge you by mistake, such as twice for the same month, we fix it. Nothing here takes away a right to a refund that a law gives you and does not let you waive.

When the price changes. We look at each business’s revenue after every quarter closes. If it has grown into a higher level, the new price starts with your next monthly payment, and we tell you before it does. If it has dropped to a lower level, the price comes down after two quarterly reviews in a row say so. If we change the prices themselves, we tell you at least 30 days before your price changes.

7. No guarantees

We do the work carefully, but we do not guarantee any tax outcome. That includes the size of a refund or a balance due, that the IRS or a state will accept a deduction or position, that a return will not be examined, and that you will save any amount. Results depend on your facts, the records you give us, and decisions the IRS and the states make.

Apart from the promises this agreement makes in words, the service, the app, and Gus are provided as is and as available. To the extent the law allows, we disclaim all other warranties, express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not promise that the app will always be available or free of errors.

8. Canceling, and when we would end it

You can cancel any time, from the app or by writing to us. There is no call, no fee, and no penalty. You are not charged again after you cancel. The work runs to the end of the month you have already paid for, and that month is not refunded.

We may end this agreement with notice if a payment is unpaid 30 days after it was due, if you ask us to record something that is not true, if you do not send what we need for 60 days after we ask, if you break section 12, or if you are abusive to someone on our team. We may also end it for any other reason with 30 days’ notice. Either way, we tell you why, stop billing you, and send you your records.

Sections 5 through 7, 9.8, 10, and 13 through 17 still apply after this agreement ends, along with anything you still owe us.

9. Service terms

This section is the engagement: the work we do for you, the work we do not, what we need from you, and who signs your returns.

9.1 The work we do

Monthly bookkeeping for each business you sign up. We sort every transaction from the statements and bank connections you give us into your books, reconcile each account to its statement, have an accountant review the month, and close it. You get your numbers each month in plain English. Books are kept on the cash basis unless we agree otherwise in writing.

Business tax returns, on the books and taxes plan. Each business’s federal income tax return for each year we keep its books, and one state income tax return for it. If the business files its own return (an S corporation, C corporation, partnership, or multi-member LLC), we prepare that return and the owners’ Schedule K-1s. If it rides on your personal return (a sole proprietorship or single-member LLC), its Schedule C is part of your personal return.

Your personal return. Your personal federal income tax return (Form 1040), once per household, as section 2 says. A spouse filing jointly with you is part of that return. A partner who needs their own personal return is added and priced as section 5 says.

Extra returns. State returns beyond the first for a business, rental properties and side businesses folded into a return, and partners’ personal returns, each priced as section 5 says.

Letters about our returns. When the IRS or a state writes about a return we prepared, we read the letter, tell you what it means, and draft or send the routine response.

Back work, when you have it. Months before we started that nobody booked are booked and reconciled the same way, and returns nobody filed for those years are prepared. Back work is priced at the business’s own monthly price for each month behind, 20% off, and billed once. You see the number on your checklist before we start on it. If the books turn out different from what you told us, your bookkeeper tells you and changes the number before you pay. Back work is never folded into the monthly price.

9.2 Work that is not included unless we quote it

Some work takes a different kind of time or a different license, so it is not part of the monthly price. If you want any of it, ask. We tell you whether we can take it on and what it costs before we start, and it becomes part of this agreement only once you accept that quote in writing.

• Running payroll, filing payroll tax returns, or issuing W-2s.
• Collecting, filing, or paying sales and use tax.
• Preparing or filing 1099s for the contractors you pay. We tell you who in your books looks like they need one.
• Representing you in an audit, an examination, an appeal, or a collection case, or anything else that needs a power of attorney. Answering a letter about a return we prepared is included; standing in for you before the IRS or a state is not.
• Amended returns, including for years before we started.
• Accrual-basis books, invoicing your customers, tracking what customers owe you, or paying your bills.
• Returns for trusts, estates, gifts, or anyone other than the people and businesses you sign up.
• Financial statements that a lender or anyone else relies on as audited, reviewed, or compiled. Goatkeeper is not a CPA firm.
• Legal advice, investment advice, or planning for a business sale, a divorce, or an estate.

9.3 What we need from you

• Statements by the 5th. Last month’s statement for every business bank account and credit card, by the 5th of each month, unless that account is connected through the app and its feed is working. We close the month once we have them.
• Answers when we ask. When a transaction needs you to tell us what it was, it shows up in the app under Needs you. Please answer within a week. Anything still open when a month closes is booked on our best reading and marked for you to check.
• Tax documents early in the year. Everything we ask for the year’s returns (W-2s, 1099s, K-1s you receive, mortgage and loan statements, and anything else on your checklist), by February 15 for a business that files its own return, which is due March 15, and by March 15 for your personal return and any other return due April 15.
• The truth, and all of it. Complete and accurate information, including income and accounts we might not otherwise see. You are responsible for the facts on your returns. We do not audit or verify what you tell us, though we ask when something does not add up. We build your books from what you give us, and we are not responsible for a number you never sent us or sent us wrong.
• Your records. Keep the receipts and documents behind your books. We keep the books; you keep the originals.

If what we need for a return is not in by those dates, we file an extension for that return by its due date, without asking first, so you are not late to file. An extension gives more time to file, not more time to pay. Any tax you owe is still due on the original date, and we tell you our best estimate of it before then.

9.4 Who prepares and signs your returns

Your returns are prepared and signed by a credentialed tax preparer on our team who holds a current Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN) from the IRS. We tell you who that is, by name and credential, before we prepare your first return, and we tell you if it changes. Your bookkeeper keeps your books; the preparer reviews them and is responsible for the return.

9.5 Reviewing and filing

Before we file any return, we send it to you in the app to review. You read it, ask us anything, and then sign the IRS e-file authorization (Form 8879, or the one for your kind of return) and any state authorization. We file only after you sign. By signing you are telling the IRS the return is true, correct, and complete to the best of your knowledge, so please read it.

Any balance due, and any refund, moves between you and the IRS or the state, not through us. We never hold your tax money.

9.6 Estimated tax payments

Through the year we tell you what we think you should set aside and, when you owe quarterly estimated tax, how much and when it is due. Making those payments is up to you, on time. We are not responsible for penalties or interest from payments that were not made.

9.7 Our judgment, and fixing our own mistakes

Where the tax law is unclear, we tell you the choices and the risk of each, and we do not take a position on a return that we do not believe the law supports. If a return we prepared is wrong because of our own mistake, we correct it at no charge and pay the penalty and interest that our mistake caused, up to the limit in section 14. Tax you would have owed anyway is still yours. This is a promise to fix our own errors, not a guarantee of any outcome.

9.8 Your records, and how long we keep them

When this agreement ends, and any time you ask, we send you the full record: your books, reconciliations, the returns we filed, and any original documents you gave us. We keep copies of your books, returns, and our working papers for seven years after the last return we filed for you, because tax law expects that, and then delete them. Our working papers are our own records, but we give you anything in them you need to prepare a later return.

9.9 When the work ends partway

A return we have already filed stays filed. If a return is partway done when this agreement ends, you choose whether we finish it (while you are still paying for that month) or hand over what exists. After this agreement ends, we are not responsible for deadlines, letters, or payments on your books or returns, even ones we would have handled.

10. Your data

Your books, documents, and records are yours. You can ask for a full copy at any time, before or after you cancel, and we send it within 30 days in common formats such as PDF and spreadsheet files. We do not hold your records back over a bill.

You give us permission to use what you send us, and what your bank sends us through connections you set up, to do the work in this agreement. We use and share it only as our privacy policy says, and we never sell it. Because we prepare tax returns, federal law (section 7216 of the Internal Revenue Code) limits how we use and share your tax return information, and the tax information consents you sign separately govern that. Nothing in this agreement expands them.

When you connect a bank account, you do it on Plaid’s screen, and Plaid’s own terms and end user privacy policy also apply.

11. Texts

If you agree to get texts from us, we text you about your books and returns, such as a statement we need, a question waiting on you, a month that closed, or a deadline. Message frequency varies. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to stop getting texts and HELP for help, or write to hello@goatkeeper.io. Agreeing to texts is never a condition of buying anything from us. Carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages. Our privacy policy says how we handle your phone number.

12. Using Goatkeeper fairly

Use Goatkeeper only for your own lawful books and taxes. Do not:

• Ask us to record something you know is false, or to help hide income or evade tax.
• Upload anything that is not yours to share, or anything that carries a virus or harmful code.
• Try to reach another customer’s information or any part of the app you were not given.
• Copy, resell, or take apart the app, or use it to build a competing service.
• Overload or probe the app, or run bots or scrapers against it.
• Harass or threaten anyone on our team.

We may pause your access right away to stop any of this, and we tell you why.

13. Our app and site

We own the Goatkeeper app, site, Gus, and the way we do the work. While this agreement is in force, you have a personal right, which you cannot transfer, to use them for your own books and returns. If you send us ideas or suggestions, we may use them freely without paying you. The app relies on other companies, such as your bank, Plaid, and Commas. We are not responsible for their outages or errors, but we help you sort them out.

14. Limits on liability

To the extent the law allows: neither of us is liable to the other for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue, or data, even if told they could happen. Our total liability for all claims about this agreement or the service is limited to the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the event that caused the claim. More than one claim does not raise that limit.

These limits do not apply to fraud or willful misconduct, or to anything the law does not allow to be limited.

15. If a claim comes from your information

If someone makes a claim against us because of information you gave us that you knew was false or incomplete, or because you broke this agreement or the law, you cover our reasonable costs of that claim, including reasonable lawyers’ fees. We tell you about the claim promptly and let you take part in how it is handled.

16. Disputes

Talk to us first. If something goes wrong, write to hello@goatkeeper.io with what happened and what you want. A person replies, and we both try in good faith to settle it within 60 days before either of us goes further.

Arbitration. If we cannot settle it, any dispute about this agreement or the service will be decided by binding arbitration with one arbitrator, administered by JAMS under its Streamlined Arbitration Rules, instead of in court. It takes place by video, or in the county where you live if you ask, unless we both agree otherwise. Either of us may instead bring an individual claim in small claims court.

One at a time. Claims are brought only on an individual basis, not as a plaintiff or class member in a class, collective, or representative proceeding. You and we each give up the right to a jury trial and to take part in a class action.

Opting out. You can opt out of arbitration within 30 days of first signing this agreement by writing to hello@goatkeeper.io with your name, your business name, and a clear statement that you are opting out. Opting out changes nothing else in this agreement. If this section cannot be enforced for a claim, that claim goes to the courts named in section 17.

17. Governing law

The Federal Arbitration Act governs section 16. Everything else in this agreement is governed by the laws of the State of South Carolina, without regard to its rules on conflicts of law. Any claim that goes to court is brought in the state or federal courts located in South Carolina, and you and we agree to those courts.

18. Changes to these terms

We may change these terms. When a change affects what you agreed to, we tell you by email or in the app before it takes effect, and the app asks you to read and sign the new version. If you do not want the new version, you can cancel before it takes effect and you are not charged again. Every version anyone has signed stays readable on our site, word for word.

19. The rest

This agreement, together with any written quote you accept, is the whole agreement between us about the service. It replaces the terms and the engagement letter you may have agreed to before. The tax information consents you sign stand on their own beside it. If one part of this agreement cannot be enforced, the rest still applies. If we do not enforce a part right away, we have not given it up. You may not transfer this agreement without our written permission. We may transfer it to a company that takes over Goatkeeper, and we will tell you if we do. Neither of us is responsible for a delay caused by events outside our reasonable control, such as an outage at a bank or a provider, a natural disaster, or government action, except for paying money that is owed. We send notices to the email on your account or in the app, and you send them to hello@goatkeeper.io; both count as written notice. We work for you as an independent business, not as your employee. Goatkeeper is not a CPA firm and does not hold itself out as one.

20. Reaching a person

Write to hello@goatkeeper.io or message your team in the app, and a real person answers. Goatkeeper is operated by High Leverage, LLC in the United States.

Parts of this agreement are adapted from templates that General Legal, PC published under the CC0 1.0 license. General Legal has not reviewed this agreement.