Beta terms
Taking part in the beta
Last updated 29 October 2026
The beta is a small group of offices that use Textbook Accounting before its launch and tell us what to fix. The first businesses start in January 2027. These terms add to the main terms; where they differ, these apply during the beta.
What you get
- A beta licence with everything switched on, free until 30 June 2027.
- Help moving your Pastel company across, checked with you balance by balance.
- A direct line to the people building it, by email at support@pencilbooks.co.za.
What we ask in return
- About an hour a week of using it and telling us what works, what is missing and what goes wrong.
- Honest feedback, including when it is not good news.
It is still being finished
Beta software can have mistakes. Until you are sure of it, keep Pastel running alongside it and check what matters, especially the VAT201 and payroll, against Pastel before you file or pay. The tool that brings a Pastel company across is still being finished, which is why we do it with you. The main terms on your books and your data and on tax figures and returns apply in full.
Moving your Pastel company
To move your books across we need a copy of your Pastel company, which holds personal information about your customers, suppliers and, if you include payroll, your employees. Before we touch it, you and we sign a short agreement that says what we may do with the copy, where it is kept (encrypted, and never outside South Africa), and that we delete it within 30 days of the end of the beta or sooner if you ask. You decide whether payroll data is included.
After the beta
When the beta ends on 30 June 2027, you choose a plan, or stop. If you do neither, the program keeps working for 30 days and then becomes read-only, as the main terms say when a licence ends: your books stay yours, and you can still open, print, export and back them up.
Stopping
You can leave the beta at any time, by email. If we ever end the beta early, we give at least 30 days' notice by email. Either way, your licence then ends as the main terms say when a licence ends: 30 more days, then read-only. You keep your books and can export them, and we delete any copy of your Pastel data we hold, as the agreement says.