Books settings — entities, mandates, automation

Books › Settings is the desk's control room, in four tabs: Entities & jurisdictions, Mandates & policy, Automation and Connections. Every save, removal and toggle here is versioned and logged; removals offer Undo on the toast.

Add or manage a legal entity

Each entity card shows its legal name, jurisdiction and tax office, registrations, base currency and consolidation, who keeps the books, and office / financial-year / retention details.

1. Add the entity

   Click Add entity and fill the fields — legal name, jurisdiction and tax office, registrations, base currency, books keeper, office details.

2. Let the desk scaffold

   On create, Cohort scaffolds the chart of accounts, the registrations checklist and the filing calendar. Nothing files without your signature.

3. Manage later

   Manage on a card edits the same fields; Archive entity… retires it (undoable). Changes version to the ledger and filings continue uninterrupted.

The footer notes the consolidation rules: consolidated in the base currency, intercompany eliminated, FX at RBA/ECB daily rates.

Set who signs what

Mandates & policy lists approvals and mandates — each row names a person or agent, what they sign or approve, and the limit or scope.

• Add mandate creates one (who, what they approve, limit). New mandates take effect immediately and are versioned.
• Editing a mandate re-routes approvals in flight.
• The charter-locked mandate — the human signature on lodgements, floors, contracts and pay runs — cannot be edited or delegated here. Changing it is a charter amendment: drafted, signed by the founder, and logged.
• The books agent's own row routes you to the playbooks on Today — its authority is the floors and ladders you set there.

Tune books policy

Three policy rows sit under the mandates:

Pause all autonomous execution

The red switch at the bottom of Mandates & policy is the kill switch (PB-B0). While paused, drafting and queueing continue, but nothing posts, pays, chases or files until you resume. The desk status flips to "Automation paused", and resuming restores only what the switch paused.

Schedule automation

Automation lists the desk's scheduled tasks with their cadence. Per task:

• The switch pauses or resumes it — pausing holds its queue, loses nothing.
• The pencil edits name and cadence (cadence changes apply from the next run).
• Add scheduled task creates one; new tasks draft-run once for your review before going unattended.

Scheduled tasks run as their seat and log like any colleague.

Connect feeds and gateways

Connections lists the bank feed and the filing gateways (SBR, ELSTER, DATEV and any others), each with status. Gateway credentials are machine-held: changes and renewals are prepared for you to authorise.

• Renew refreshes a credential that is due.
• Manage edits a connection; Disconnect… removes it (undoable).
• Connect a feed or gateway adds one — the credential is prepared and scoped read-only where possible; you authorise the grant.