OpenBooks Terms and Conditions
Last updated: 19/6/26
These Terms and Conditions apply to your use of OpenBooks.
1. About OpenBooks
OpenBooks is desktop spreadsheet-based bookkeeping and Making Tax Digital software. It is designed to help users keep digital accounting records and submit supported in-year VAT and Making Tax Digital for Income Tax quarterly updates to HMRC.
OpenBooks is supplied by:
OpenBooks Software Ltd
Website: www.openbooks.uk
Contact email: [email protected]
2. What OpenBooks does
Depending on the edition supplied, OpenBooks may help you:
keep digital bookkeeping records;
record sales, purchases, cash book entries, journals and ledger transactions;
prepare reports from the bookkeeping records;
prepare VAT return figures;
submit VAT returns to HMRC;
prepare Making Tax Digital for Income Tax quarterly update figures;
submit supported in-year MTD Income Tax quarterly updates to HMRC;
keep submission logs.
3. What OpenBooks does not do
OpenBooks is not a full tax return program.
Unless expressly stated otherwise, OpenBooks does not:
submit the MTD Income Tax final declaration;
replace tax return software;
calculate your final personal or business tax liability;
deal with all personal income sources, reliefs, allowances, capital gains, pension contributions, student loan repayments or other tax return entries;
provide tax, accounting, legal or financial advice;
guarantee that figures entered by the user are complete, accurate or tax-deductible;
guarantee that HMRC will accept a submission where incorrect data, credentials, authorisation, dates, settings or HMRC service issues apply.
You remain responsible for ensuring that your accounts, VAT returns, MTD quarterly updates, tax returns and other submissions are complete and accurate.
Where appropriate, you should obtain advice from a suitably qualified accountant, tax adviser or other professional adviser.
4. Use alongside accountant or tax return software
OpenBooks is intended to support digital bookkeeping and in-year submissions. It may be used alongside separate tax return software or an accountant’s tax return software for year-end finalisation and final declaration work.
For MTD Income Tax, the final declaration and any end-of-year adjustments may need to be completed using separate MTD-compatible tax return software.
5. Licence
OpenBooks is licensed, not sold.
You are granted a non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use the supplied copy of OpenBooks for your own internal business or bookkeeping purposes, subject to these Terms and Conditions and any licence details shown in the workbook.
You must not:
copy, sell, resell, distribute or sublicense OpenBooks without permission;
remove or alter licence information;
attempt to bypass licence or protection features;
reverse engineer, adapt or commercially exploit the workbook or VBA code except as permitted by law or expressly authorised.
6. Licence number and authorised user
Your workbook may contain licence details, including customer name, licence number, workbook ID, issue date, edition and version.
You must ensure that these licence details are not altered except by the OpenBooks provider or as expressly authorised.
7. Customer data and local storage
OpenBooks is desktop software. Your accounting data is stored locally in your workbook and in your own computer, network or storage environment.
The OpenBooks provider does not host your bookkeeping records and does not normally have access to them.
You are responsible for:
saving and backing up your workbook;
protecting it from unauthorised access;
maintaining appropriate computer, network and Microsoft 365 security;
ensuring that only authorised users can access the workbook;
keeping your own copies of submitted returns and accounting records.
8. HMRC authorisation
OpenBooks uses HMRC’s OAuth authorisation process to communicate with HMRC.
OpenBooks does not store your HMRC username or password.
When you authorise OpenBooks, HMRC may issue access and refresh tokens. These may be stored locally in your workbook to enable submissions and token refresh.
You are responsible for ensuring that HMRC authorisation is granted by an appropriate person and that authorisation is revoked when no longer required.
9. HMRC submissions
Before submitting any VAT return or MTD Income Tax quarterly update, you must check that:
the correct taxpayer or business is selected;
the correct VAT registration number, National Insurance number or business identifier is used;
the correct period is selected;
the figures are complete and accurate;
the return or update is ready to be submitted.
Once a return or update has been submitted to HMRC, it may not be possible to withdraw or amend it through OpenBooks.
OpenBooks may retain a local submission log, but you should also retain any HMRC confirmations and your own accounting records.
10. Making Tax Digital and HMRC recognition
OpenBooks may be designed to work with HMRC Making Tax Digital APIs.
OpenBooks must not be described as “HMRC approved”, “HMRC accredited” or “HMRC endorsed”. If applicable, it may only be described using HMRC’s permitted terminology, such as “HMRC recognised”, once recognition has been granted.
HMRC systems, APIs, rules, guidance and requirements may change. The OpenBooks provider may issue updates, but it cannot guarantee that an old version will continue to work indefinitely.
11. Updates and support
The OpenBooks provider may provide updates, fixes or revised versions from time to time.
Support arrangements, if any, will be as agreed separately or as described at the time of purchase.
The provider may need information from you to provide support, such as screenshots, error messages, workbook version, licence number or example data. You should avoid sending unnecessary confidential information.
12. No professional advice
OpenBooks is a software tool. It does not provide professional advice.
Any headings, tax categories, validation checks, warnings or default mappings are provided to assist users, but they do not replace professional judgement.
You should obtain professional advice where needed, especially where tax treatment is uncertain.
13. User responsibility
You are responsible for:
entering data correctly;
reviewing reports and submissions before use;
maintaining digital links where required;
keeping adequate accounting and tax records;
complying with VAT, MTD Income Tax and other tax obligations;
making backups;
installing updates where required;
using the software only for lawful purposes.
14. Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, the OpenBooks provider is not liable for:
incorrect data entered by the user;
user error;
incorrect tax treatment selected by the user;
failure to keep backups;
unauthorised access to the user’s workbook or computer;
HMRC service outages, API changes or rejected submissions;
loss of profit, loss of business, loss of data or indirect losses.
Nothing in these Terms excludes liability that cannot legally be excluded.
15. Security incidents
If you become aware of a security issue affecting OpenBooks, HMRC authorisation, licence data or customer data, you should contact:
You should also take appropriate steps to protect your own workbook, computer systems and HMRC account.
16. Termination
The licence may be terminated if you materially breach these Terms and do not remedy the breach within a reasonable time after being asked to do so.
On termination, you must stop using OpenBooks, but you remain responsible for retaining any accounting and tax records required by law.
17. Governing law
These Terms are governed by the law of Scotland.
The courts of Scotland will have jurisdiction, subject to any mandatory legal rights that apply.
18. Entire agreement
These Terms, together with any licence details and any order or purchase terms agreed at the time of supply, form the agreement between you and the OpenBooks provider for use of OpenBooks.