Messages

Messages are short, two-way conversations attached to a specific record — an invoice, a bank transaction, a bank statement, a match, an entity, or a partner. They're how accountants and clients sort out the small questions that come up during the books ("What was this payment for?", "Can you send the missing invoice?") without leaving the app or starting an email thread.

A conversation always lives on the record it's about, so the context travels with it. Anyone on the other side of the workspace can read and reply.

Who can message whom

Messages run between the accountant side and the client side of a workspace:

  • An accountant (or accountant admin) writing on a record reaches the client team.
  • A client (owner or member) writing on a record reaches the accounting team.

There's no separate recipient to pick — you write on the record, and the people on the other side see it. Every message shows the sender's name and a role badge (Accountant, Accountant admin, Client owner, or Client member) so it's always clear who said what.

Writing a message about a record

Open any invoice, transaction, statement, match, entity, or partner. The Messages panel sits on the detail page (and in the transaction slide-over). To start or continue a conversation:

  1. Type in the box at the bottom of the panel — the placeholder reads "Write a reply…".
  2. Click Send.

That's it. The first message creates the conversation; every later message on the same record joins the same thread. Opening the panel marks the conversation as read for you, so the unread badge clears.

Messages are meant to be short — there's a 2,000-character limit per message.

Templates and "Draft with AI"

Accountants get two shortcuts in the composer when writing on an invoice or transaction:

  • Use a template… — a dropdown of pre-written messages for the most common situations (for example "Tax ID mismatch" or "Date unclear"). Picking one drops the text into the box with the record's details already filled in. Any placeholder chips that remain are clickable — click each placeholder chip to replace it with the right value before sending. You can browse the full set from Browse template library at the top of the Messages page.
  • Draft with AI — click it and the app writes a first draft for you, tailored to the record, streaming in as it's generated. It's a starting point, not an auto-send: read it, edit it, and click Send when you're happy. Nothing is sent on your behalf.

Templates and AI drafts are conveniences for the accountant side — the client side always has the plain composer.

Finding your conversations

Two places surface messages:

  • The bell in the sidebar header. It carries a red count when you have unread messages; opening it shows your Recent messages, and View all messages takes you to the full list.
  • The Messages page (in the workspace sidebar). It lists every conversation in the workspace, newest activity first. Each row shows the record it's about, a preview of the last message, when it happened, and who it's from. Unread conversations carry a count badge; ones marked done show a Resolved badge.

Click any row to jump straight to that record and its conversation.

Notifications

When you post a message, the people on the other side are notified by email as well as in the app, so a question doesn't sit unseen. Notifications are batched sensibly — a flurry of messages on one record won't send a separate email for each.

What Messages is not

  • Not for talking to your own side. Conversations are accountant ↔ client. Two accountants on the same firm, or two people at the client company, don't message each other here.
  • Not your incoming email. Documents you forward by email land in Intake, not here.
  • Not a substitute for editing the record. If the fix is "change the category" or "set the partner," make the change directly — use a message only when you need the other side to do or confirm something.