Every BusinessSolvency user holds one of three roles. The role determines what a person can see and do — not just on one business, but as a general setting on their account.
- Can enter and edit all financial data
- Can run forecasts and breakeven scenarios
- Can add or remove other owners and the accountant on any business they belong to
- Reads the reports, makes the decisions and records them
- Can switch the accountant’s authorities off or on (Section 5.4)
- Sees only the businesses they are assigned to
- Can open every page, forecast and report
- Enters and saves figures, imports and runs the quarterly review, with data entry authority
- Does the year-end steps (Advance, Roll Forward, Clear), with year-end authority
- Both are switched on when the accountant is added; without data entry authority the accountant can only view
- Can create a business for a client, lead its setup and add its owners (Chapter 4, Section 4.2)
- With data entry authority, can use Edit Details (structure, tax, partners); cannot delete the business
- Cannot add or remove other users
- Sees only the businesses they are assigned to
A third role, Administrator, sits above both. There is normally only one — the person operating the BusinessSolvency platform itself. An administrator can see every business on the system regardless of assignment, approve new access requests, and manage every user's role.
Why "one business, several people" matters
Most businesses have more than one owner, and often an external accountant as well. BusinessSolvency is built so that several people can share access to the same business's data at once — an owner going on leave, for example, does not lock the rest of the business out. Each person sees exactly the businesses they have been added to, and nothing else.
New users do not create their own login directly. Instead, they submit a request, which is reviewed before access is granted — this is a deliberate safeguard, since BusinessSolvency holds sensitive business financial data.
The first time you log in, you'll see a short introduction screen asking how you'd like to proceed — stepping through a guided tour of the platform, or going straight to your businesses. You can choose either option; your choice is remembered for next time, so you won't be asked again unless you specifically ask to see it again.
"No businesses yet" does not mean something is broken
Being granted an Owner or Accountant account does not automatically give you access to any specific business. A separate step — being added to a business — is what makes a business appear on your "Your Businesses" screen. If that screen is empty, it simply means you haven't been added to a business yet. See Section 5.4 below for how that happens.
Once you are an Owner on at least one business, you can manage who else has access to it yourself — you do not need to ask the administrator for every change. Look for Business Owners & Partners, under Business Access in the hamburger menu while viewing that business.
Working with your accountant — data entry authority
The owners and their accountant work as a team. The accountant, or a person they authorise and supervise, usually enters the figures and runs the quarterly review; the owners read the reports, make the decisions and record them. The duty to keep the business solvent stays with the owners, directors or committee.
When the Admin adds someone listed as Accountant, two authorities are switched on: data entry authority (a blue “Data entry” badge) to enter and save figures, import and run the quarterly review, and year-end authority (below). The Admin can switch either off, or on again, with the buttons beside their name. Without data entry authority the accountant can open every page and report but cannot change anything, and sees a blue “View only” note. With data entry authority the accountant can also use Edit Details (structure, tax and partners). Deleting the business stays with the owners.
When the accountant sets the business up (Chapter 4, Section 4.2), they can add people to this list until the first owner is added; that owner becomes the business’s Admin, and from then on the owners manage the list.
Who controls the authorities? An “authority” is a permission, not a person. Both are switched on automatically when an accountant joins a business, so in practice the accountant has them from day one. The business’s Admin — the owner with the orange “Admin” badge on the access list — can switch either one off, or on again, for example for a junior helper who should look but not change anything. The administrator can do the same on any business. Deleting a business is not an authority anyone can be given: only the owners, or the administrator, can delete it.
Who saved last. With the owners, the accountant and the person they supervise all able to change figures, the header of the Data Entry and Forecast pages shows “Last saved: date by name” after every change. BusinessSolvency is plug and play, but it should be supervised.
Year-end authority — who advances, rolls forward and clears
Three steps change every year’s figures at once: Advance to Next FY, Roll Forward and Clear FY (Section 7.8). A mistake in any of them is hard to undo, and owners rarely have the time or training for year-end work. So these steps are done by the business’s accountant, or a person the accountant authorises and supervises.
That person holds year-end authority, shown by a purple Year-end authority badge. It is switched on when the accountant is added, it can only be held by someone listed as Accountant, and the Admin can switch it off or on with the purple button beside their name.
- Someone holds it: only they (and the administrator) can use those three buttons. Everyone else sees them greyed out, with a note naming who to ask.
- An accountant is listed but nobody holds it: the buttons are greyed out for everyone until the Admin switches it on.
- No accountant is listed: owners can still use the buttons, so the business isn’t stuck at year end, but they are warned to talk to an accountant first.
What to do at year end, step by step and in order: the July Year-End Checklist (Chapter 7, Section 7.12).
Two things an owner cannot do from this screen, by design: change someone's underlying role (Owner vs Accountant — that stays with the administrator, since it affects every business that person belongs to, not just this one), and remove an Administrator-level account (only the administrator can do that).
If your own involvement with a business ends — your work as the business’s accountant finishes, or you step down as an owner — you can remove your own access without waiting for the administrator. Look for Leave This Business in the hamburger menu.
If you are the only remaining owner on a business, you will not be able to leave until another owner has joined — the same safeguard described in Section 5.4 applies here too, and BusinessSolvency will explain this clearly rather than simply refusing without reason.
BusinessSolvency includes a self-service password reset — you do not need to contact the administrator to regain access.
A note on saved passwords in your browser
Most browsers (Chrome, Safari, Edge) offer to remember your password and fill it in automatically next time. This is normally convenient — but if you ever change your password, your browser may still try to fill in the old one without you noticing, which can look exactly like the new password being "wrong."
If a login fails right after you've changed your password, it's worth clearing the password field completely and typing the new one by hand once, rather than trusting what the browser has pre-filled — then let the browser save the corrected version afterwards.
If you follow a link or type a web address for a business you don't have access to — an old bookmark, a mistyped address, or a business you've since left — BusinessSolvency will quietly return you to your own "Your Businesses" screen. You will not see an error message, and you will not see any indication of whether that business exists at all.
If you believe you should have access to a business and keep being redirected away, the fix is always the same: ask an owner already on that business (or the administrator) to add you via Business Owners & Partners — see Section 5.4.