Plain language on who works on your file and where it lives.
Knotledger is a flat-fee bookkeeping catch-up service staffed by vetted contractors — not a CPA firm, not a bonded agency. This page says what we actually do: how contractors get on engagements, what they can see, what happens at hand-back, and what we are not claiming to be.
How contractors get on Knotledger engagements
Vetting and training, in three stages.
The path from “applicant” to “solo on an engagement” is screening, a written skill check against a mocked catch-up file, and a shadowed first engagement with a lead reviewer. Nothing on this list is a marketing claim — it is what the workflow actually does.
Background checks before anyone touches a client file.
Identity verification, criminal background, and a basic financial-context check run through a third-party screening service before a contractor is ever added to a workspace. The same check is re-run on renewal. Nobody reaches a client file until the screening is back and signed off.
A reconciliation skill check on a mocked catch-up file.
Every contractor sits a written assessment against a mocked shoebox file of the kind /sample-deliverable shows — out-of-balance trial balance, duplicate Stripe payouts, vendor-truncation, an owner using the office-supplies account for personal spend. Only contractors who close the trial balance to the cent AND write a repair log a CPA can read back qualify.
The first live engagement runs under a lead reviewer.
A new contractor shadows their first engagement with a lead reviewer — same workspace, same file, the reviewer signs off before anything is handed back to the client. If reconciliation accuracy on the engagement sits below the internal threshold in review, they do not get a second live engagement unsupervised.
To be plain about what this is not: Knotledger is not a bonded firm, not a licensed CPA practice, and not a substitute for your auditor. The vetting above is the workflow we run — it is not a certification, and it does not make a Knotledger engagement an audit or a review.
What happens to the file
Data handling, named plainly.
Where the file sits, who can reach it, what gets purged at hand-back, and what is not happening with your data. Four cards — one question each — so a reviewer can read the list and check it against what their CPA told them to expect.
Where the file lives.
In your existing QuickBooks / Xero / Wave licence — never migrated to a separate system. The file sits on the vendor platform’s own US-hosted infrastructure, encrypted at rest (AES-256) and in transit (TLS 1.2+). Knotledger staff reach it over role-scoped vendor logins that audit every read and write.
Who can see it.
Only three people per engagement: the lead contractor, the reviewer assigned to the engagement, and the engagement manager. Access is role-scoped — a reviewer on a current engagement cannot reach workspaces from prior engagements, and nobody outside the engagement has read access to client files. Vendor-side role changes are logged.
What happens at engagement end.
Your licence, your file. The clean file and the hand-back memo are returned to you; contractor access is revoked within 24 hours of sign-off; working copies and the engagement workspace are purged on a short window measured in days, not months. The vendor login you hold for QuickBooks / Xero / Wave is untouched throughout.
No data sold to third parties.
The Knotledger business model is the flat fee on the engagement, not monetising client data — so there are no marketing lists, no analytics run on client files, and no third-party ad networks or data brokers fed from the workspace. Vendor platform analytics are switched off for client workspaces.
What clients say
Real quotes land here once engagements close.
The first round of Knotledger engagements is finishing. We’re collecting written permission to share names and quotes before publication, so the cards below drop in filled as soon as we have them — no fake-by-default filler, no name on a card until consent.
Client · engagement
— Quote forthcoming. First round of engagements closes soon.
Client name forthcomingBusiness forthcoming
Ready when you are
Send the intake, get a written scope inside 48 hours.
Six short fields, a flat-fee quote, and a written scope with no sales call required. Knotledger cleans the file; your CPA opens it on day one.