Questions and answers
Questions about Tolvi
Short, factual answers to what UK practices ask about Tolvi Working Papers, Tolvi Meetings and Tolvi Books. If your question isn't here, email support@tolvi.co.uk and we'll answer it.
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About Tolvi
What is Tolvi?
Tolvi is software for UK accountancy practices that carries one set of figures from trial balance to approved return, on one sign-in. Tolvi Hub holds each client's central record and is where everyone starts. Tolvi Working Papers is for the year-end file, from trial balance to sign-off. Tolvi Accounts prepares year-end accounts for companies, LLPs, sole traders, partnerships and charities. Tolvi Corporation Tax and Tolvi Self Assessment produce draft returns for your review and your partner’s approval. Tolvi Meetings takes notes in client meetings and files them to the client. Tolvi Books is bookkeeping for your clients, with your practice in the same books. A firm admin runs it all from the Admin console. Tolvi is hosted on Amazon Web Services in London.
What is Tolvi Working Papers?
Tolvi Working Papers is cloud working papers software for UK accountancy practices. It brings a client's trial balance, lead schedules, tickmarks, journals, reconciliations, review points, sign-off and the corporation tax computation into one year-end file.
Do we need a separate account for each Tolvi product?
No. Your practice has one Tolvi account, and everyone signs in once at app.tolvi.co.uk. You land on Tolvi Hub, your home in Tolvi, and the app switcher moves between the products a person can use. In the Admin console, a firm admin chooses which products the practice has and whether each one is for everyone or only for the people they pick. Clients are shared, so a meeting and a year-end file for the same client sit on the same client record.
Does Tolvi replace our accounts production software?
It depends on the client. Tolvi Accounts prepares accounts for limited companies and LLPs under FRS 105, FRS 102 Section 1A and full FRS 102, non-statutory accounts for sole traders and partnerships, and charity accounts, as PDF, Word and, for companies and LLPs, iXBRL. It doesn't prepare group accounts, public companies' accounts or IFRS accounts, so keep your existing software for those, and it doesn't file anything. Tolvi Working Papers works either way: it replaces the spreadsheet working papers and the review notes in emails, and you can take the final figures into Tolvi Accounts or your own accounts production software.
Does Tolvi produce and file statutory accounts?
It produces them, and doesn't file them yet. Tolvi Accounts produces statutory accounts for limited companies, LLPs and charities, and non-statutory accounts for sole traders and partnerships. Tolvi Corporation Tax produces the CT600 and its supplements, the computation and iXBRL files. Tolvi doesn't file anything with Companies House, HMRC or the charity regulators today: you deliver the accounts yourself, and file returns through your existing tax software.
Can I sign up for Tolvi now?
Not yet. Tolvi is in early access and is opening to a small number of UK practices. Email support@tolvi.co.uk with your firm name, roughly how many year-end clients you have and the bookkeeping software they use, and we'll be in touch.
Is Tolvi audit software?
No. Tolvi Working Papers is built for year-end accounts preparation and review: preparing the file, reviewing it and signing it off. Tolvi doesn't provide a statutory audit methodology. Tolvi Accounts holds an auditor's report as the auditor supplies it.
Who makes Tolvi, and what happens if you disappear?
Tolvi is made by Tolvi Software in the United Kingdom. Tolvi is in early access. Support is by email to support@tolvi.co.uk. It's right to ask about the risk of a small supplier. You can export each working paper file as a PDF at any time, the API gives you your own copy of your data, viewing and exporting are never blocked, and the terms allow the business to be transferred to a company later.
Getting the numbers in
Which bookkeeping software does Tolvi connect to?
Tolvi connects to Xero, using its own sign-in, and pulls the trial balance at the period end and the prior period end. Connections to QuickBooks Online, Sage Business Cloud Accounting and FreeAgent are coming. For those and any other system, upload the trial balance as a CSV or Excel file.
Can I import a trial balance from Excel or CSV if the client uses desktop software?
Yes. Tolvi imports a trial balance from a CSV or Excel file exported from any system, including desktop packages. Tolvi reads the current and prior year figures, warns you if either year is out of balance, and keeps the upload as its own fixed TB version.
How do we move our practice to Tolvi from other software?
Export a CSV or Excel file, and use “Bring your practice to Tolvi” in Tolvi Hub. It takes clients, trial balances, a company’s losses, pools and director’s loans brought forward, and last year’s self assessment figures to compare against. A manager or above confirms the columns and rows. Figures already there are never overwritten, the whole file can be undone, and National Insurance numbers, dates of birth and bank details are dropped when the file is read.
How does Tolvi handle trial balance mapping?
You map each nominal code to a lead schedule once. Tolvi applies your firm's mapping rules and remembers each client's mappings, so the next import maps itself, and new codes are left for you to place. Tolvi AI can suggest a mapping, which you accept or change.
What happens if the client changes their books after we've signed off?
Nothing in Tolvi changes silently. Each pull or upload creates a new, fixed TB version, and the final TB is always the draft TB plus posted journals. After sign-off, the sign-off check looks at the client’s books on a schedule and flags any balance that has moved, with the transactions behind it, so you can accept the change, acknowledge it or reconnect.
Preparing and reviewing the file
What is in a Tolvi lead schedule?
Each Tolvi lead schedule has its W/P ref, the current and prior year figures, the variance, a variance note and tickmarks. You attach evidence to the line it supports. Final balances are always worked out from the imported trial balance plus posted journals, never retyped.
Which reconciliations does Tolvi include?
Tolvi has reconciliations for bank (to the statement), VAT (to Box 5 of the return), PAYE/NI (to the P32), pension (to the provider schedule), CIS (to the CIS300), loans (to the lender's statement), and the director's loan account or partners' and members' current accounts. When a reconciliation agrees, Tolvi ticks the matching checklist step. An overdrawn director's loan account is left for a person to assess under s455.
How do review points and sign-off work in Tolvi?
In Tolvi, reviewers raise review points as threads against the exact line. Preparers answer them, and reviewers clear or reopen them, with every amendment round recorded. Each firm sets its own workflow stages, such as prepare, review and partner approval. Tolvi won't approve a file with review points still open, can require different people at different stages, and locks the file's journals after review.
Will Tolvi stand up at a practice assurance or file review?
No software can promise that, and Tolvi doesn't. What Tolvi gives you is the evidence a file reviewer asks for: who prepared and reviewed each section and when, every review point with its replies and who cleared it, evidence attached to the balance it supports, a record of changes, and the whole file as a PDF with its review history and workflow timeline. Your firm's own judgement and methodology are still what's being reviewed.
Can I export the working paper file?
Yes. Tolvi exports the working paper file as a PDF with a cover, index, sections, review history, workflow timeline and an evidence appendix. Each export is versioned and is marked Outdated if the file changes or is signed off again. Merging the evidence documents themselves into the PDF is coming next.
Tax and fixed assets
Does Tolvi do tax computations?
Tolvi prepares the corporation tax computation from the final trial balance, with capital allowances from the fixed asset register, losses and a deferred tax working, and posts the tax journal back to the trial balance. For sole traders, partnerships and LLPs, Working Papers prepares the self assessment computation: adjusted profit, basis periods and the tax-year basis, and each partner’s share. Tolvi Corporation Tax and Tolvi Self Assessment then produce the draft returns. Filing from Tolvi is coming.
Does Tolvi have a fixed asset register?
Yes. The Tolvi fixed asset register records assets brought forward, additions, disposals with proceeds and depreciation, and produces the fixed asset journal. Tolvi checks that the register agrees to the TB and feeds capital allowances, including AIA, full expensing, the main and special rate pools, cars by CO₂ emissions and SBA, into the tax computation. Part disposals, revaluations and transfers are coming next.
Tolvi AI and the API
What does Tolvi AI do, and does it change my figures?
Tolvi AI can explain movements, suggest mappings, assist the reviewer, check evidence and draft client queries. Every result is only a suggestion: nothing changes in the file until a person accepts it, and Tolvi AI can never sign off or approve. Your data isn't used to train AI models, each action shows its estimated token use first, and your firm can switch AI features off.
Does Tolvi have an API?
Yes. Every Tolvi feature is available through a versioned REST API (/api/v1) with an OpenAPI specification, and signed webhooks tell your own tools when something happens. API access has the same permissions as the person using it. The API reference is at tolvi.co.uk/developers/api. A connection for AI assistants (MCP) is coming next.
Security and data
Where is my clients' data stored and how is it protected?
Tolvi's app, database, documents, backups and logs run on Amazon Web Services in London (eu-west-2). Data is encrypted in transit with TLS and at rest with keys held in AWS KMS. Each firm's data is separated by row-level security in the database itself, and uploaded evidence is limited to documents, spreadsheets, images and emails, and scanned for malware before it can be opened.
Has Tolvi been independently tested or certified?
Not yet. Tolvi hasn't had an independent penetration test or Cyber Essentials certification. Both are planned before launch, and the security page will say when each is done. Tolvi doesn't hold ISO 27001 or SOC 2.
Pricing and the trial
How much does Tolvi cost?
Each priced Tolvi product is priced on its own, so your practice pays only for the products it uses. Tolvi Hub and the Admin console are included for every practice. Tolvi Accounts, Tolvi Corporation Tax and Tolvi Self Assessment are free during the beta, and AI Mode in Self Assessment uses your firm’s Tolvi AI tokens. Tolvi Meetings is priced by minutes recorded a month, from £9 a month for 300 minutes. Tolvi Books is priced per business, from £10 a month. Tolvi Working Papers plans are priced by the number of year-end files a year, from Starter (12 year-end files, £5 a month) to Group Plus (24,000 year-end files), with Enterprise priced for each firm. Annual billing is 15% off. Every plan includes every feature, the API and a monthly allowance of AI tokens. A year-end file is one client's file for one accounting period. It counts when you start it.
What counts as a year-end file?
A year-end file is one client's file for one accounting period: for example the working papers and corporation tax computation for one limited company's year ended 31 March 2026, or one sole trader's, partnership's or LLP's year. It counts against your plan's allowance when it's started, whether in the app, in bulk or through the API. Each client's year-end is one year-end file, and next year's is a new one. A dormant company's accounts count as one year-end file. The VAT and payroll sections of a year-end file are part of that file. A quarterly VAT return or a payroll run isn't a year-end file. If you cancel a year-end file within 14 days of starting it, before any sign-off, it goes back into your allowance. Viewing, reviewing and exporting existing files never uses your allowance. A practice with 120 limited company clients and 40 sole traders needs about 160 year-end files a year: one for each client. The Practice plan, with 300 year-end files a year, covers that with room for new clients.
Is there a free trial?
Yes, when sign-ups open. The free trial will be 30 days with 5 year-end files, and you won't need a card. A year-end file is one client's file for one accounting period. Until then, Tolvi is in early access: email support@tolvi.co.uk to try it on a real year-end.
What happens if we go over our allowance?
Work never stops at the allowance. Each extra year-end file is billed at your plan's own rate per year-end file, and admins are notified at 80% and 100% of the allowance. The allowance is pooled across the plan year, and viewing and exporting files is never blocked.
Do Tolvi's prices include VAT?
Tolvi is not VAT-registered, so no VAT is added to the prices shown.
What if we leave Tolvi?
You can export each working paper file as a PDF whenever you like, and the API gives you access to your data. Monthly plans can be cancelled with one month's notice. When the agreement ends, you can export your data before it's deleted, as set out in the terms of service.
Getting started
What does setting up Tolvi involve?
Setting up Tolvi means inviting your team, choosing your workflow stages, checking the default checklists and mapping rules, and connecting your first client's bookkeeping software. A welcome tour and a getting-started checklist take you through it. Tolvi doesn't quote a set-up time, because it depends on how much your firm changes from the defaults.
Can we try Tolvi on a real client?
Yes, that's what early access is for. Email support@tolvi.co.uk with your firm name, roughly how many year-end clients you have and the bookkeeping software they use, and we'll talk about running one or two real year-ends in Tolvi.
Tolvi Hub and the Admin console
What is Tolvi Hub?
Tolvi Hub is the page everyone in your practice lands on after signing in, with their work and meetings today and the way into each app. It also holds one central record for each client: details, tax references, contacts, services and who answers for them. It’s included for every practice.
Is Tolvi Hub practice management software?
Only the basics. Tolvi Hub holds the client record and shows your work and deadlines. It has no client fees or invoicing, engagement letters, AML or KYC checks, client portal, tasks, time recording or email sync.
Can we bring our clients and figures in from other software?
Yes, from a CSV or Excel file you export yourself. “Bring your practice to Tolvi” takes clients, trial balances, a company’s losses, pools and director’s loans brought forward, and last year’s self assessment figures to compare against. A manager or above confirms the columns and the rows, existing figures are never overwritten, and the whole file can be undone.
What is the Admin console?
It’s where a firm admin chooses which Tolvi products the practice has and who can use each one, manages people and capacity, and reads the audit log. It’s included for every practice.
Tolvi Accounts
What accounts does Tolvi Accounts prepare?
Accounts for UK limited companies and LLPs under FRS 105, FRS 102 Section 1A and full FRS 102, non-statutory accounts for sole traders and partnerships, and charity accounts under the Charities SORP or on receipts and payments, in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It doesn’t prepare group accounts, public companies’ accounts or IFRS accounts.
Do we need Working Papers to use Tolvi Accounts?
No. Start from a typed or imported trial balance, or link a Working Papers file. If you link one and its figures change, the set is flagged and can’t be approved until someone refreshes it.
What can we download?
A PDF and a Word document of every set, with a filleted version for small companies and small LLPs. Companies and LLPs also get an iXBRL file. Charities’ and sole traders’ and partnerships’ accounts have no iXBRL file, and nobody outside Tolvi has checked one yet.
Can we file accounts with Companies House from Tolvi?
Not today. Filing from Tolvi is coming. Tolvi doesn’t file anything with Companies House or the charity regulators today, so you download the accounts and deliver them yourself.
Tolvi Corporation Tax
What does Tolvi Corporation Tax cover?
Company Tax Returns for UK limited companies and charities, for accounting periods starting on or after 1 April 2023, with the CT600, the CT600A, C, E, J, L and M, amendments and the computation. Consortium relief, overseas branches and other supplements are named on the return and blocked from filing.
Does it handle groups?
It handles group relief between clients in your firm: claims, surrenders and notices of consent on the CT600C. The 75% test is the facts a person gives, and there’s no group computation, so a person works out what each company can claim. Consortium relief and overseas group relief aren’t supported.
Can we amend a return?
Yes, as a new draft with its own review, approval and client’s confirmation. A partner can record that the original went in through your existing tax software.
Can we file a Company Tax Return from Tolvi?
Not today. Filing from Tolvi is coming. Tolvi produces the draft for your review and your partner’s approval, and gives you the CT600, computation and iXBRL files to download. You file through your existing tax software.
Do we need Working Papers or Tolvi Accounts to use it?
No. Corporation Tax works from a Working Papers file, a Tolvi Accounts set or figures you type, and needs neither product.
Tolvi Self Assessment
What does Tolvi Self Assessment do?
It helps accountants prepare clients’ returns from tax year 2025/26: the SA100 and supplementary pages, the SA800 and the SA900, with the tax calculation as you go, review points, partner approval, the client’s confirmation, and an SA302 and the full return to download. It also gives you R185 statements and informal estate breakdowns to check.
Does it cover partnerships, trusts and estates?
Yes, for preparing the return. The SA800 is for partnerships and LLPs, and the SA900 for trusts and estates in administration, with R185s for trust income, estate income and settlors. There’s also an informal estate breakdown.
Does Tolvi do the R40?
Only as a PDF schedule of the figures for a repayment claim. It isn’t HMRC’s form, and it doesn’t work out the repayment.
Does Tolvi do Making Tax Digital for Income Tax?
Not today: it’s coming. What exists isn’t complete: it covers self-employment and UK property updates only, so most real returns can’t be finished with it, and nothing can be sent to HMRC.
Can we file self assessment returns from Tolvi?
Not today. Filing from Tolvi is coming. Tolvi produces the draft for your review and your partner’s approval, and you file through your existing tax software.
Does the AI fill in tax returns on its own?
No. In AI Mode, which is for the SA100, Tolvi AI fills boxes on a draft from evidence it cites. Tolvi copies the figure from the words the AI quotes, and refuses anything else. A person checks each one. Send for review is refused until a person has checked each AI figure, and AI can never approve or file. It runs through Amazon Bedrock in AWS London and uses your firm’s Tolvi AI tokens.
Tolvi Meetings
What is Tolvi Meetings?
Tolvi Meetings is a note-taker for client meetings at UK accountancy practices. It joins a call on Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex or GoTo Meeting, and afterwards Tolvi AI writes up a summary, key points, next steps, open questions and a draft follow-up email, filed against the client. It's part of Tolvi, so it uses the same sign-in and the same clients as Working Papers.
Which meeting apps and calendars does Tolvi Meetings work with?
The note-taker joins meetings on Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex or GoTo Meeting: paste the meeting link. You can also connect a Microsoft Outlook calendar (Microsoft 365 or Outlook.com) and tick the meetings you want recorded. Nothing needs installing.
Does Tolvi keep the meeting recording?
No. Recall.ai records and transcribes the meeting in the EU (Frankfurt, with transcription in Dublin). As soon as the transcript and summary are saved with the rest of your data on AWS in London, Recall.ai deletes the recording.
Does Tolvi email the client after the meeting?
No. Tolvi AI drafts a follow-up email, and a person copies it, checks it and sends it. Tolvi never sends it.
How much does Tolvi Meetings cost?
Tolvi Meetings is priced per practice by minutes recorded a month, pooled across everyone who uses it: Starter, 300 minutes for £9 a month; Solo, 1,200 minutes for £29 a month; Team, 3,000 minutes for £69 a month; Practice, 6,000 minutes for £129 a month; Firm, 15,000 minutes for £319 a month. Pay annually for 15% off. Minutes over the allowance are 3p a minute, and the AI write-up is included. Tolvi is not VAT-registered, so no VAT is added.
Tolvi Books
Where do I sign in to Tolvi Books?
At app.tolvi.co.uk, the same place as the rest of Tolvi. Tolvi works out what you use and opens it, so a business goes straight to its books. If you also work at an accountancy firm on Tolvi, you can move between the two without signing in again.
What is Tolvi Books?
Tolvi Books is bookkeeping software for practices and their clients: UK small businesses, with the books run by their practice or by the business itself. It has an inbox of bank lines and receipts to confirm, invoices drafted from a sentence, VAT worked out on every line, and the practice working in the same books. It's made by Tolvi Software in the United Kingdom, and hosted on Amazon Web Services in London.
Can my business sign up for Tolvi Books now?
Yes. Every business starts with a 30-day free trial, without a card.
How much does Tolvi Books cost?
Tolvi Books is priced per business, by what the business is: Sole trader, £10 a month; Limited company, £20 a month; VAT-registered, £25 a month. Pay annually for 15% off. AI is included within fair use, so there are no tokens to buy. Tolvi is not VAT-registered, so no VAT is added. The price follows what the business is: Sole trader is for sole traders not registered for VAT. Limited company is for limited companies, LLPs and partnerships not registered for VAT. VAT-registered is for any business registered for VAT.
Does Tolvi Books connect to my bank?
Not yet: bank feeds are coming next. Tolvi doesn’t have its agreement with a provider yet. Until then you upload statements from your bank as CSV, OFX, QFX or QIF files, and Tolvi Books skips any lines it already has.
Can I file my VAT return with HMRC from Tolvi Books?
Not today. Filing VAT returns with HMRC through Making Tax Digital from Tolvi Books is coming. Tolvi Books already works out your return from your books, shows the lines behind each box and checks it, so you can send the figures to HMRC another way until then.
Does the AI change my books?
No. Tolvi AI reads receipts and drafts invoices, and you check what it suggests: nothing is posted until a person confirms it or a rule you set applies. Your data isn’t used to train AI models, and the AI runs through Amazon Bedrock in AWS London.
Can my accountant use it with me?
Yes. Invite your accountant by email and choose their access: full bookkeeping, year-end adjustments only, or read only. They work in the same books, every change shows who made it, and you can end their access at any time. If their practice uses Tolvi Working Papers, they take your year-end trial balance straight from your books.
What happens to my books if I stop paying or change accountant?
Your books belong to your business. If you change accountant, you end the old practice’s access and invite the new one, and nothing moves. If your trial ends without a plan, your books become read-only: you can still see them and download your reports.
Can our practice pay for clients’ Tolvi Books?
Yes. A practice can pay for a client’s Tolvi Books at 30% off the list price, monthly, on its own Tolvi subscription, or the client can pay for itself. At the year end, Working Papers takes the trial balance straight from the client’s books, already mapped, with no import.