What to check before signing for accounting software

Contract negotiation for accounting software concentrates on price and term length. Those are the visible items and usually the least consequential.

The terms that matter are the ones nobody raises, because they only become relevant later — at which point you have no leverage at all.

Six of them.

1. Exit: what you get back, and in what form

The most important and the least discussed.

Your retention obligations outlast any software contract. If you leave in four years, you still need to answer questions about transactions processed today.

Settle in writing:

• What can be exported — transactions, documents, and crucially the processing records (rule versions, confidence levels, review records). Transactions almost always come; the processing records frequently do not, leaving entries you can no longer explain.
• In what format, and whether it is readable without their software. Proprietary formats are not a retained record in any practical sense.
• How long data is retained after termination, and at what cost.
• Whether you can export at any time, not only on exit. Regular exports are also a backup.

Ask for a sample export during evaluation. Open it. This takes an hour and tells you more than any contractual assurance.

2. Whether your data trains models serving other customers

A direct question deserving a direct answer in the contract rather than in a conversation.

Also: who at the vendor can access your data, under what circumstances, and whether access is logged. "Support may access data to resolve issues" is normal; unlogged access is not.

3. What happens when they change the product

Software changes. What matters is what happens when a change affects your processing:

• Notice of changes affecting accounting behaviour
• Whether you can defer an update through a period end
• What happens if a feature you depend on is withdrawn
• Whether configuration survives updates

The period-end one is practical and specific. An update landing on day two of your close is a bad day, and the right to defer briefly is easy to agree before signing and impossible afterwards.

4. Support during your critical periods

Finance has non-negotiable deadlines that are not evenly distributed.

• Response times, and whether they differ at month end
• Whether support covers your working hours and your time zone
• What counts as urgent, in their definition rather than yours
• Who you call when something is wrong during the close

A response time that is adequate on the 12th may not be on the 2nd.

5. Price mechanics over the term

Not the headline figure but how it moves:

• What drives the price — users, transaction volume, entities, storage
• What happens if volume grows. Transaction-based pricing during a growth year is a cost that arrives without a decision
• Increases at renewal: capped, indexed, or at their discretion
• What is included versus extra — implementation, support, training, additional integrations, data extraction

The last one matters. Charging for data extraction is a legitimate commercial position and an unpleasant surprise at exit.

6. What is actually promised

Sales conversations produce impressions. Contracts produce obligations, and only one of them is enforceable.

If something specific was demonstrated or promised — an integration reconciling to payout level, a particular accuracy on your documents, a migration timeline — get it written down. Not as a formality, but because a written commitment is a clear conversation now instead of an ambiguous one in six months.

The clause worth adding

Not standard and worth asking for: a defined initial period during which you can leave with your data if it does not work on your real data.

Reasonable, because it is limited in time and conditional on the product not doing what was demonstrated. A vendor confident in their product on real data has little to lose. A vendor who resists it entirely is telling you something about how often demonstrations do not survive contact with customer data.

The order of operations

1. Test with your own data before commercial discussions get serious
2. Ask the accounting-specific questions — see questions to ask an AI accounting vendor
3. Request a sample export and open it
4. Get the six items above in writing
5. Then negotiate price

Most buyers do this in reverse, settling price first and raising exit terms afterwards — at which point the leverage has gone.

Common questions

What should I check in an accounting software contract?

Exit terms covering what can be exported and in what format, whether your data trains models serving other customers, what happens when the product changes in ways affecting processing, support responsiveness during period end specifically, how the price moves with volume and at renewal, and whether anything demonstrated or promised is actually written down.

What is the most overlooked contract term?

Exit. Retention obligations outlast the contract, and while transactions almost always export, the processing records — rule versions, confidence levels, review records — frequently do not, leaving entries within your retention period that can no longer be explained. Requesting a sample export during evaluation and opening it reveals more than any contractual assurance.

Should I ask about updates during month end?

Yes, and it is easy to agree before signing and impossible afterwards. An update that changes accounting behaviour landing on day two of your close is a genuine problem, so the right to brief deferral through a period end is worth securing specifically.

What extra clause is worth requesting?

A defined initial period during which you can leave with your data if the product does not perform on your real data as demonstrated. It is limited and conditional, so a vendor confident in their product has little to lose by agreeing — and resistance to it is itself informative about how often demonstrations survive contact with customer data.

Related: record retention when records are generated · questions to ask an AI accounting vendor · red flags in an AI accounting demo