Lawyers and small law practices
A law practice fills in standard agreements, sends them to sign and bills its hours.
Accountants and bookkeepers
Clients sign your monthly fee, send their statements and pay by card. You keep their books beside them.
The practice and its staff work in one Magpie team. Each client has a portal. Clients who keep their books in Magpie can invite you in.
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This combination of six Magpie areas fits an accounting practice.
- Proposals
- Proposals quotes your fixed monthly fee in packages, and the client signs it online.
- Client Portal
- Client Portal collects each client's paperwork and lists what is still outstanding.
- Accounting
- Accounting lets a client who keeps their books in Magpie invite you in.
- Invoicing
- Invoicing bills each client's fixed fee every month, charged to their card on file.
- E-Signatures
- E-Signatures sends your engagement letter or a return as a PDF to sign.
- Meetings
- Meetings lets clients book a call with you at your free times.
Your client chooses a fixed-fee monthly package and signs it online.
Proposals turns your fees into a quote the client reads and signs. Magpie's bookkeeping starter prices each month by transaction volume, in three packages. Catch-up work and payroll are optional add-ons.
When the client signs, Magpie will start the monthly invoices. The starter asks the client to put a card on file, which each invoice will charge.
Each client sees the paperwork you need this month, and uploads it to their portal.
Client Portal gives each client a private page of their own. A plan lists the month-end steps, such as sending the bank statements. The client ticks theirs off, and their files appear beside yours with who uploaded each.
You can save a month's plan as a starter, with each step's due date. Their Overview also lists the invoices to pay and the documents to sign.
A client who keeps their books in Magpie can invite you to work in them.
Accounting is Magpie's double-entry bookkeeping. A client can add you as their accountant. You then open their books and nothing else of theirs. You switch between clients in turn.
You import bank statements as CSV files, code each line and reconcile the account. Every report exports as a PDF or a CSV file. You can close a period so nothing changes before a date.
Magpie bills each client's fixed monthly fee, and charges the card on file.
Invoicing turns an accepted proposal's monthly lines into a recurring invoice. Each invoice is charged to the card the client saved when they signed.
For out-of-scope work, you add your unbilled hours to an invoice as lines. Card payments go to your own Stripe account, with no Magpie fee.
Your engagement letter and other documents go out as PDFs to sign.
E-Signatures sends a PDF you already use to each person who signs. You place their signature, date and name fields. Saved as a starter, the letter is ready for the next client.
Signers get a reminder every 3 or 7 days until they sign. When everyone has, Magpie will email them the signed PDF and a certificate.
Clients book a call with you at the times you are free.
Meetings gives you a page where clients book time with you. You choose the kinds of call and your weekly hours. Times busy in Google Calendar are not offered.
With Zoom connected, each new meeting gets its own Zoom link. A meeting you share in a client's portal shows there with Join meeting.
Six more areas cover hours, large files, email, reviews, your clients and your own books.
- Time Tracking
- Time Tracking records your hours on each client's project, at its rate. Rounding can be exact, or to 5, 6, 10 or 15 minutes.
- Secure Files
- Secure Files sends one file of up to 2 GB by a link that expires. The link can need a passphrase.
- Mail gives the practice addresses at its own domain. A shared mailbox, such as hello@, opens for every member.
- Documents
- Documents lets a client review a letter or a report, with comments and suggested changes.
- Contacts
- Contacts keeps each client's proposals, invoices, signed documents and portal on one page.
- Forms
- Forms takes enquiries from new clients, with the questions you choose. Magpie will email you each answer.
Each month-end goes from the client's bank statements to closed books and a paid invoice.
The client's portal shows them where each month stands.
The month's plan
A new plan from your starter lists the month's steps, each with its due date. Magpie emails the client when you share it.
The statements
The client uploads their statements to the portal and ticks the step.
The books
In their Magpie books, you import the statements, code each line and reconcile.
The reports
You export the month-end reports as PDFs and share them in the portal.
The close
You close the month, so nothing changes on or before its last day.
The invoice
The month's invoice will be charged to the client's saved card.
Setting up takes five steps.
Make a team for the practice
You create a team and invite your staff. Help: Create and manage a team.
Connect Stripe
You connect your Stripe account, so clients can pay by card. Help: Connect Stripe to receive money.
Set your fees in a starter
You open the bookkeeping starter and set your own packages and terms. Help: Proposal starters, saved sections and the price list.
Write a monthly starter plan
You list a month's steps, for you and for the client, with due dates. Help: Reuse your process with starter plans.
Open a portal for each client
You create the portal from the client's contact and invite them. Help: Create a Client Portal.
Plans
A practice with staff fits the Team plan, one price for up to 25 members. It has no limit on proposals or invoices. A bookkeeper working alone can use Pro, which removes the same limits.
Working in a client's books costs you nothing. You are their guest, and take none of their member places. A free team has room for 10 guests, and a paid one for 100.
Mail at your own domain needs Pro or the Team plan.
Magpie adds no fee to invoice payments. Stripe's processing fee is taken from each. Prices are on the Pricing page.
Other professional practices have pages of their own.
Consultants
A consultant quotes each engagement and shares an action plan with the client.
Virtual assistants and online business managers
A virtual assistant works in several clients' teams and bills the hours every month.
Questions accountants and bookkeepers ask
Can I work in my clients' books?
Yes, when a client keeps their books in Magpie. They add you under Accountants in Accounting's settings. You then open their books and nothing else of their team. You switch between clients from the team selector, where each is marked Guest.
What can I do in a client's books?
Everything Accounting does. You can import bank statements, code each line, reconcile accounts and enter bills and journal entries. You can run every report, record a sales tax return and close a period. Entries from the client's invoices and expenses show you a read-only summary.
Which month-end reports can I give a client?
Profit and loss, balance sheet, cash flow and trial balance. There are also aged receivables and aged payables. Income by customer, spending by supplier and profit by project are there too. Each exports as a PDF or a CSV file. Profit and loss can show each month, for up to 24 months.
Can a client move their books from QuickBooks or Xero?
Yes. You import the chart of accounts and a trial balance, each as a CSV file. The accounts are matched by number, then by name. Open invoices and bills come over as the totals owed.
How do bank transactions get into the books?
You import each statement as a CSV file, and Magpie guesses the columns. Overlapping imports are not added twice. Each line can be coded, matched to an existing entry or paid against an invoice. Bank rules code repeating lines for you.
Can I lock the books once month-end is done?
Yes. Closed through blocks any entry on or before the date you set, reversals included. Recording a sales tax return can close its period too. The books' activity shows who changed what.
Can clients send me their statements and receipts securely?
Yes, through their portal. Clients upload files on its Overview or Files section, up to 20 at once. Each upload shows who sent it and when. Only the client's portal and your team can see them.
Can I ask every client for the same paperwork each month?
Yes. You save a month's plan as a starter, with steps such as sending the statements. A new plan from it sets each due date that many days from today. The client sees their steps under For you to do.
Can I bill clients a fixed monthly fee?
Yes. An accepted proposal's monthly lines become a recurring invoice. Each one is issued on its date and charged to the client's saved card. You can change the lines, pause the schedule or end it.
Can I bill out-of-scope work by the hour?
Yes. You track your hours on the client's project, at its rate, rounded as you choose. Add unbilled time then puts those hours on the client's next invoice as lines. Time on an issued invoice is locked.
Can clients sign an engagement letter online?
Yes. You send your letter as a PDF, up to 25 MB, and place each signer's fields. Each signer gets their own link by email. When everyone has signed, Magpie will email them the signed PDF and a certificate of completion.
Can I send a large file securely?
Yes. Secure Files sends a file of up to 2 GB by a link. The link expires after 1 hour, 1 day, 7 days or 30 days. It can allow one download and need a passphrase. The file is encrypted in your browser before it is stored.
Can the practice have email at our own domain?
Yes. You connect the domain to Mail and add mailboxes, each with 5 GB of storage. A shared mailbox such as hello@ opens for every member. A private one opens for one person. Aliases deliver to one or several mailboxes.
Can clients book a call with me?
Yes. Your meeting page lists the kinds of call you offer, and clients choose a free time. Times busy in Google Calendar are not offered. With Zoom connected, each new meeting gets a Zoom link.
What does Magpie take from my clients' payments?
Magpie adds no fee to invoice payments. Stripe's processing fee is taken from each card payment. The rest goes to your own Stripe account. Each payment is added to the practice's own books in Accounting.
Set up your practice.
Create a Magpie account and make a team for the practice.