The BookEnu client portal is now a free app for iPhone and Android. Clients of practices using BookEnu can download it from the App Store and from Google Play, sign in with the account their accountant invited them to, and do everything the portal already offers - from the phone, with one tap.
Nothing changes on the practice side. Clients are invited exactly as before, and the portal in the browser keeps working for anyone who prefers it. The app is simply the easiest way for a business owner to keep up with their paperwork.
Why an app, when the portal already works on a phone
Most clients already send their documents from a phone. The hard part is remembering: a receipt in a coat pocket is a receipt lost by the end of the quarter. The app closes that gap in three ways a browser tab cannot.
- It sits on the home screen. No bookmark to find and no password to type every time - one tap opens the portal on the Upload tab, ready to take a photo.
- It says when the accountant needs something. A message sent to the portal shows up as a notification on the client's phone, and the app icon shows how many messages are unread. A reminder about missing bank statements no longer waits in an inbox until the client happens to sign in.
- Files behave like files. An invoice PDF or a document from the library opens in the phone's own viewer and can be shared from there - to a customer, to WhatsApp, to email.
What the app covers
The app is the same portal, so everything in the client guide applies:
- Upload - "Take photo" opens the camera, "Choose photos" picks from the gallery, and "Or upload files" takes PDFs and spreadsheets. Several pages of one statement can go in as a single document.
- Documents - what has been sent and how far along it is, plus contracts, insurance and letters from HMRC under "Other documents".
- Invoices - raising invoices, emailing them to customers as branded PDFs and recording who has paid.
- Messages - reminders and notes from the accountant, with the unread count on the app icon.
- Settings - business details, logo, bank details and invoice numbering.
Getting started takes a minute
- Install BookEnu from the App Store or Google Play. It is free, and there is nothing to pay inside the app.
- Choose "United Kingdom" on the first screen. The same app also serves the Polish service, so it asks once and then remembers.
- Sign in with the same email and password as in the browser. An account that does not exist yet is created from the accountant's invitation email first - the app signs people in, it does not create accounts.
- Allow notifications when the phone asks, so messages from the accountant arrive as soon as they are sent.
The app stays signed in for as long as it is opened at least once a month, and it offers an optional 4-digit passcode, asked for when the app is opened or brought back after a while. Five wrong tries sign the client out, so the password is needed again. Deactivating a client or changing the password still ends the session at once.
Privacy, in plain terms
A notification shows the name of the practice and the subject of the message - never the message itself, which is read in the app after signing in. The app has no advertising, no analytics and no tracking across other apps, and it does not touch location, contacts or the microphone. The camera and photo library are used only when an upload is started. The details are in the mobile app privacy policy.
What it means for a practice
- A line about the app in the welcome message is enough. For example: "BookEnu is also available as an app for your phone". Clients find it by searching for BookEnu in their store.
- Messages and reminders reach the phone. One-off messages and the reminders scheduled under Communications both arrive as notifications for clients who use the app.
- The app is for clients. The practice team keeps working in BookEnu in the browser, where the review queue, the ledger and the reports have room to breathe.
Not using BookEnu yet? See how it works, or apply for early access as a founding accountant.