Organization Settings

Open Settings from the sidebar footer. General holds your organisation's details; Members, Roles and Advisors control who can see and do what.

General

Banking details

Tell customers how to pay you. Enter your bank, account holder, account number, and branch code or SWIFT as free text; line breaks are kept.

Placeholders: {{invoiceNumber}} on invoices; {{contactCode}} and {{contactName}} on invoices and statements, e.g. Reference: {{contactCode}}.

If the default invoice document template has its own bank details, invoices use the template's text instead.

Changing the banking details

Wrong banking details make customers pay someone else, so a change is checked and delayed:

1. Only an owner can change them, here or on a document template.
2. When you save new details, Anchor asks for your current password, and your 2FA code if two-factor sign-in is on. If you sign in with Google or Apple, sign in again first; you then have 10 minutes.
3. The new details reach invoices and statements 24 hours later. Until then customers keep seeing the current details, and a note under the field says when the change applies.
4. Every owner and admin, and the organisation's contact email, get an email saying who asked for the change, when, and from which IP address, with the current and new details (account numbers partly hidden).
5. Any owner or admin can cancel the change until it applies, under Settings → Bank details changes. That page also lists earlier changes. The email also has a This wasn't me button: it opens a page that shows the change (account numbers partly hidden) and cancels it without signing in, which helps when someone has taken over an owner's account.

A change asked for through an AI assistant (MCP) or an API key waits until an owner opens Settings → Bank details changes, checks it and clicks Confirm change; the 24 hours start then.

If you get the email and did not expect the change, cancel it, change your password, and check Members for people you don't know.

For 14 days after a change applies, and while a change is waiting, the Send invoice screen and customer statements show a note so you can check the document has the right account before it goes out.

Require two-factor authentication

Under Security, an owner can turn on Require two-factor authentication for sensitive changes. Then nobody without 2FA can:

• change the banking details, or the bank details and payment instructions on a document template, or confirm such a change;
• invite people, change someone's role or remove them, or create, change or delete roles;
• create API keys;
• delete the organisation.

People without 2FA can still use the books. Owners and admins without 2FA see a banner with a Set up 2FA button. Requests from an AI assistant (MCP) or an API key count as the person who created the connection or key.

Turn on 2FA for your own account first; Anchor asks for your password and 2FA code to turn the setting on or off. It can only be changed in the app, not over MCP or an API key.

Lock past dates

After you have submitted a VAT return or your accountant has signed off a period, lock it so nothing in it changes by accident. Under Lock past dates, choose Lock everything up to and including a date and confirm. Nothing dated on or before that day can then be added or edited: invoices, bills, payments, bank categorisations and journal entries are all refused.

Only the owner can change the lock date. Move it back if you genuinely need to correct a locked period.

Fiscal years

Under Fiscal years, click Add fiscal year and enter a name, Start date and End date.

• Close a fiscal year to post the year-end closing journal (profit or loss for the year into retained earnings) and lock dates through the year end.
• Reopen a closed year to cancel its closing journal; this may also remove the matching lock.

Reports already carry an unclosed prior year's profit into retained earnings on the balance sheet, so closing is for locking and a clean ledger rather than for correct reports.

Copy organization

Copy… starts a new organisation from this one, with its setup only or the complete books. See Copy organization.

Delete organization

Owners see Delete under Danger zone on Settings → General.

1. Download your data from Settings → Import & Export if you still need the books. Keeping those records for SARS and the Companies Act stays your responsibility.
2. Confirm that you understand that duty, type the organisation name, and enter your password (and a 2FA code, if you use one).
3. The organisation is hidden for every member immediately. An owner can restore it for 30 days from the link in the email, or by opening /organizations/restore while signed in.
4. After 30 days the organisation and its books are permanently deleted. Emails and files already sent to other people stay where they are.

Admins and members cannot delete an organisation. Closing your own login is separate: see Delete my account.

Members and roles

Settings → Members lists who has access, pending invitations and invite links.

Invite someone

• Invite Member: enter their Email and Role. They get an email with a link to join. The link is valid for 7 days.
• Cancel an invitation with the ✕ next to it under Pending Invitations. The emailed link stops working, and the invitee sees that the invitation was cancelled.
• Invite again with Invite Member if an invitation expired or was cancelled. They get a new email, and links from earlier emails stop working.
• Create Link: a shareable link anyone can use to join, with a Default Role, optional Max Uses and Expires In (days). You can disable or delete a link at any time.

Accepting an invitation

The invitee opens the link from the email. If they are not signed in, they can Create account or sign in, and Anchor brings them back to the invitation to accept it. They must use the email address the invitation was sent to; if they are signed in with a different one, the page offers to switch account. Invitees can create an account even when registration is invite-only.

Roles

Everyone has one of three base roles:

From the ⋯ menu next to a person you can also give them a ready-made access level:

Custom roles

Settings → Roles lets you build your own access level. Click Create Role, give it a Name (for example Bookkeeper) and a Description, and tick exactly the Permissions it should have. Assign it to a person from Members. System roles cannot be edited.

You can only give a role, or a person, permissions you have yourself. So an admin cannot hand out owner-only permissions such as banking details or deleting the organisation, including the Advisor access level. Nobody can change their own role; ask an owner.

Advisors

Settings → Advisors gives your accountant, auditor, tax advisor or bookkeeper access to your books without making them a member. Click Invite Advisor, enter their Email and choose their role (Accountant, Auditor, Tax Advisor or Bookkeeper). The advisor must already have an Anchor account.

Advisors can read all financial data, view and export all reports, create and edit journal entries, and manage period locks. Revoke access at any time from the list.

The public accountants directory is a discovery list of people who use Anchor. Being listed there does not grant access; you still invite them here.