Frequently Asked Questions

CAFirmHQ is a cloud platform built for Chartered Accountancy firms, their company clients, and Solo Accountants in India. It automates the monthly GSTR-2B reconciliation process — matching your Tally purchase register against the GSTR-2B download from the GST portal — and gives CA teams a structured, collaborative workspace to review exceptions, track pending ITC, and export clean results.

The Document Vault (available as a paid add-on) lets CA firms and their clients securely exchange financial documents — purchase invoices, bank statements, Tally exports, and more — replacing email attachments and WhatsApp files.

Existing tools are built for one side of the process:

• SPEQTA / CompuTax — desktop software on the CA's PC. No cloud, no collaboration, no client handoff. Great for filing, not for team workflows.
• ClearGST / ExpressGST — enterprise cloud tools priced and built for large internal finance teams, not mid-tier CA multi-client practices.

CAFirmHQ is the layer between company and CA. Company accountants upload their Tally data and run a first-pass reconciliation. The CA receives structured, already-processed results — no re-keying, no email attachments. Both sides work in one shared platform, and CA remarks persist across months for every invoice.

No. CAFirmHQ is entirely cloud-based and runs in your browser. No installation, no desktop client, no IT setup required. It works on Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari — on desktop and laptop.

CAFirmHQ is designed for three types of users:

• CA firms — CA Admins invite their team (Articles, Assistants) and optionally their company clients' accountants. Manage all clients from one dashboard.
• Company accountants — Invited by the CA firm. Upload Tally data and run first-pass reconciliation on behalf of their company. CA sees results immediately.
• Solo Accountants — Independent accountants managing GST compliance for a small number of entities on their own (up to 3 companies on the ₹299/month plan).

Yes. Every plan includes a 90-day free trial with no credit card required. You get full access to all features during the trial — upload real data, run reconciliations, invite team members, and evaluate whether CAFirmHQ fits your workflow before committing.

Not currently. CAFirmHQ focuses on the reconciliation and ITC tracking workflow — the step before filing. You continue to use your existing tool (SPEQTA, CompuTax, or the GST portal directly) for GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B filing. CAFirmHQ's Excel export gives you the clean, reviewed data your filing tool needs.

GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B preparation is planned for a future phase.

You need two files each month:

• Inwards Register — your Tally purchase register export in the standard GSTR-2A reconciliation Excel format. This is the file your accountant exports from Tally each month.
• GSTR-2B — the Excel download from the GST portal for that month. Go to GST Portal → Returns → GSTR-2B → Download as Excel.

JSON format for GSTR-2B is also supported.

CAFirmHQ uses three matching strategies, applied in sequence:

• Strategy 1 — Exact invoice number match. Matches Tally invoice numbers directly against GSTR-2B invoice numbers. Covers ~97% of normal Purchase voucher entries.
• Strategy 2 — Supplier name + taxable amount fallback. For Journal entries in Tally, the invoice number field contains Tally's own sequential voucher number (e.g. "52"), not the supplier's real invoice number. Strategy 2 correctly resolves these by matching on supplier name and taxable amount instead — invoices that would otherwise be wrongly flagged as Missing in 2B.
• Strategy 3 — Excess in 2B identification. Invoices present in GSTR-2B but not yet in your Tally books are flagged as potential unclaimed ITC for your team to verify.

A tolerance of ₹1 is applied to taxable values to handle rounding differences.

Every invoice in your books is assigned one of seven statuses:

• Matched ✓ — Invoice found in GSTR-2B and all values agree. ITC is claimable.
• Amount Mismatch — Found in 2B but taxable value differs beyond tolerance. CA review required.
• GST Mismatch — Found in 2B but tax amounts (CGST/SGST/IGST) differ. CA review required.
• Missing in 2B — Invoice is in your books but not in the current month's GSTR-2B. Moved to Pending ITC register automatically.
• Timing Difference — Invoice is in your books and was found in a prior month's GSTR-2B. ITC claimable with a reversal note.
• Pending — Not found in any month's GSTR-2B yet. Carried forward to the next month.
• Excess in 2B — In GSTR-2B but not yet entered in your books. Potential unclaimed ITC.

The Pending ITC Register is a carry-forward register for invoices that are in your Tally books but have not yet appeared in any GSTR-2B. These invoices must be monitored every month until the supplier files and they show up in 2B.

Without CAFirmHQ, CA teams maintain a manual pending sheet that grows over time and is easy to lose track of. CAFirmHQ automates this: every month when you run reconciliation, pending invoices are automatically re-checked against the new GSTR-2B. When they're found, the status updates to "Timing Difference" and the ITC becomes claimable.

Check these in order:

• Your Tally export should be the standard GSTR-2A reconciliation format — not a plain purchase ledger export.
• Your GSTR-2B should be the Excel download from the GST portal for the correct month — not the GSTR-2A, and not a JSON download if you're uploading Excel.
• Confirm the period matches — both files should be for the same month and financial year.
• Check that the GSTIN in your upload matches the company GSTIN registered in CAFirmHQ.

If results still look unexpected, submit a support ticket with the period and company name and our team will help.

Yes. The reconciliation grid supports inline editing. CA team members can override the system-assigned status for any invoice, add 2B Remarks (which map to your existing workflow taxonomy — Reflecting, Not Reflecting, etc.), and add free-text notes per invoice.

Remarks are stored against the invoice (keyed on company + period + invoice number) so they persist even if you re-upload and re-run the reconciliation.

Yes. From any Month View, click the download icon to export a formatted Excel reconciliation report. The export includes all columns from your Inwards Register plus the auto-filled 2B Remarks and reconciliation status for every invoice row.

The Document Vault is a secure file exchange between CA firms and their company clients. Instead of emailing purchase invoices, bank statements, Tally exports, and GST downloads back and forth, both sides upload directly into CAFirmHQ — and both can access, download, and comment on files from a single organised location.

Files are organised into Inward and Outward tabs, with system folders (Purchase Invoices, Bank Statements, Tally Exports, Other Documents) and custom folders you can create. Every file has a period tag, a description, and a threaded notes section for CA-client communication.

No. The Document Vault is a separate paid add-on, billed per CA firm per month based on storage quota. It is not included in any GST Reconciliation plan. You can activate the Vault from within the app — look for the "Activate File Vault" button in the sidebar.

Vault pricing tiers: Vault Starter (10 GB, ₹499/month), Vault Growth (25 GB, ₹999/month), Vault Pro (100 GB, ₹2,499/month).

The Vault accepts: PDF, Word documents (DOC, DOCX), Excel files (XLS, XLSX, XLSM), images (JPG, JPEG, PNG, GIF), plain text (TXT), CSV, XML, and ZIP archives.

The maximum file size is 100 MB per file.

Both. CA Admin, CA team members (Articles, Assistants), and company accountants can all upload files. However, company accountants can only upload to the Inward tab — the Outward tab is read-only for them. This reflects the typical direction of document flow: companies send documents in (invoices, statements), CAs send documents out (reconciliation reports, notices, letters).

Deleted files are soft-deleted — they are hidden from view but not immediately removed from storage. CA Admins can see soft-deleted files (shown greyed out) and can restore them if needed. Other roles cannot see deleted files at all.

Deleted files continue to count toward your storage quota until they are permanently removed. Permanent deletion happens periodically as part of storage cleanup.

All successfully uploaded files count toward your storage quota — including soft-deleted files until they are permanently removed. Files that were uploaded but not confirmed (e.g. an upload that was abandoned halfway) do not count toward your quota.

Your current storage usage is shown in the Vault panel as a bar with a colour indicator: teal (under 80%), amber (80–90%), red (over 90%).

Yes. Every file has a threaded notes section — visible in the file list as a 💬 badge showing the note count. Click it to open a notes panel where you can read existing notes and add new ones. Notes are append-only (no editing or deletion) to maintain a clear audit trail of CA-client communication. Use Ctrl+Enter to submit a note quickly.

At the end of the trial, your account enters a restricted state. You can view your existing reconciliation data but cannot run new reconciliations or add new companies until you subscribe to a paid plan. Your data is never deleted during this period — everything you uploaded and reconciled during the trial is preserved.

Each GSTIN you add to CAFirmHQ counts as one company. A business group with three GSTINs (e.g. three separate registered entities) would count as three companies. Your plan limit applies to the total number of GSTINs active under your account at any time.

Yes. You can upgrade at any time from Settings → Billing inside the app. The new plan takes effect immediately and you will be billed at the new rate on your next billing date. There is no penalty or lock-in for upgrading.

Yes. GST at the applicable rate is charged on all subscription fees. A GST-compliant tax invoice is issued for every payment, which you can use for your own ITC claim or as a business expense record.

Yes. Go to Settings → Billing and click "Cancel Subscription". Your plan stays active until the end of the current billing period and will not renew after that. There are no cancellation fees. Your data remains accessible for a reasonable period after cancellation.

No password needed. CAFirmHQ uses two passwordless login methods:

• Google Sign-In — Sign in with your Google account in one click.
• Magic Link — Enter your email address and we send you a one-click login link, valid for 24 hours. No password to remember or reset.

If you do not receive the magic link email, check your spam folder — emails come from noreply@mail.cafirmhq.com.

From the Admin Panel (CA Admin only), click "Invite User" and enter the person's email address. They will receive an invitation email with a one-click login link. Once they log in, you can assign them to specific companies from the Admin Panel.

For company accountants, make sure "Company Login Access" is enabled on the relevant company (Edit Company → toggle on) before assigning them — otherwise they will not be able to see the company's data after logging in.

We understand CAs are cautious about client data in the cloud. Here is how CAFirmHQ protects it:

• Tenant isolation — each CA firm's data is completely separate. No CA can see another CA's data, and no company can see another company's data, at the database level.
• Encryption in transit — all communication is over HTTPS. No data is ever sent over plain HTTP.
• Encryption at rest — all data stored on our servers is encrypted.
• Excel files not stored — uploaded Tally exports and GSTR-2B files are processed in memory and deleted immediately after reconciliation. Only the structured results (invoice rows, statuses, remarks) are stored in the database.
• Vault files — stored on Cloudflare's infrastructure (India/APAC region) with private-access-only. Download links are time-limited and require authentication.

The reconciliation engine is deterministic Python logic — not an AI model. No invoice data, GSTINs, or financial figures are sent to any external AI service during reconciliation. The matching algorithms are rule-based and run entirely on our own servers.

When AI-assisted features are introduced in future (such as mismatch explanations), they will use anonymised or summarised data for prompts — raw invoice numbers, GSTINs, and supplier names will not be sent to external AI services.

Access is controlled by the CA Admin through role-based assignments:

• CA Admin — can see all companies in the firm's account.
• CA Team Members (Articles, Assistants) — can only see companies explicitly assigned to them by the CA Admin.
• Company Accountants — can only see their own company, and only if "Company Login Access" is enabled for that company.

No user can access data outside the companies assigned to them.

Reconciliation results (invoice rows, statuses, remarks) are retained for the duration of your active subscription and for a reasonable period after cancellation, giving you time to export your data. Vault files are retained per the soft-delete policy — deleted files are retained for recovery purposes before being permanently removed.

For specific data retention queries or a data deletion request, contact our support team.