Updated October 2026
Karbon data and AI licensing: an accounting practice's work timelines
Karbon's Customer API Terms, updated 2026-05-08, say customers must not use data obtained through the API to train or develop any AI model.1
Karbon sits where an accounting practice talks. Client email arrives in a shared triage inbox, staff leave notes on a message for a colleague before anyone replies, a work item for a monthly close carries its checklist and comments, and the client request for missing statements sits on the same timeline as the chase emails that followed. For a practice that has run on Karbon through several tax seasons, that timeline is a written record of how accountants gather, question and finish work for clients.
Buyers ask for this shape of data. micro1 names professional services and wants task histories and internal communications; Polyshares buys email from professional services firms. Karbon itself has drawn a firm line in its API terms on AI training.
This page sets out what Karbon holds in writing, what Karbon's own export covers and what it does not, the published lines in Karbon's API and service terms quoted with their dates, and the questions an owner or practice administrator should put to any buyer before data moves.
Worth
What a practice's data may be worth
Pre-set for a typical practice: 25 staff and 8 years of records. No buyer publishes pricing by industry, so industry does not move the band. Our estimate, not a buyer quote.
Buyers
Which buyers want this data
Each reason is the buyer's own published statement about the tools, data or industries it takes, matched to how Karbon accounting practices work.
Featured partners
micro1
Names professional services and financial services, and asks for internal comms, task histories and project management workflows, which is what a Karbon timeline records.10,11
- $100K to $2M+, micro1 says7
Watch out for: Says it removes personal details only "when relevant", so ask exactly how.12
Polyshares
Buys email and tickets from professional services firms, but excludes data held on behalf of clients, which in a practice covers most client files.13,14,15
- $100K to $2M+, Polyshares says8
- None, Polyshares says16
- An offer in 1 to 2 weeks, then paid in 30 to 60 days17
Watch out for: Exclusive by default, and every deal it lists is exclusive with no end date.18,19
Everyone else we reviewed
By score, with full reviews. We have no referral agreement with these companies, so we do not link out to them.
Buyer demand
How buyers' own tools rate Karbon accounting practices
No buyer publishes a price list by industry. These are settings inside buyers' and brokers' own estimators and intake forms, read from their public pages on 2026-10-14. They show how each company sorts industries, not what any practice was paid. The category shown is the one a practice would most likely pick; that match is ours.
| Company | Its category | How it rates the industry |
|---|---|---|
| Troveo | Accounting, tax or bookkeeping | Tier 1 of 4: "Buyers pay a premium for data from your industry." Price factor 1.3 in its estimator.27 |
| Polyshares | Accounting and tax | Marked premium in its intake list28 |
| VMS | Accounting | Standard weight in its estimator (factor 1.12)29 |
| Ventra | Legal, healthcare, financial services or accounting | Says it cannot take these industries right now30 |
Size rules buyers publish
Checked against 25 staff, the typical practice size this page's calculator is set to. Ask each buyer whether contractors and part-time staff count.
Polyshares
No headcount rule; the length and texture of the record matter more31
Mercor
None stated32
Troveo
No minimum stated; its estimator starts at 2033
Nyne
20+ US W-2 employees and 3+ years34
Handshake AI
20+ full-time employees and 3+ years35
micro1
Pewter
20+ staff and 3+ years38
Endless
Roughly 30+ employees39
Ventra
30+ US employees and 3+ years of records40
Supersoniq
50+ employees and 5+ years41
What buyers value
What in a practice's records buyers value
The column on the right is not legal advice: it lists what to raise with the buyer before anything is exported.
| Data | Where it lives | Why a buyer values it | Raise with the buyer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shared inbox threads with internal notes | Karbon triage and shared inbox | A client email, the staff discussion about how to answer it, and the reply, kept together. | Taxpayer details and attachments inside client emails. |
| Work item checklists and comments | Karbon work items and tasks | The steps of a close, a return or a payroll run, with comments where something went wrong. | Nothing specific |
| Client requests and follow-ups | Karbon client requests | What a practice asks clients for, in what words, and how many reminders it takes. | Documents clients uploaded against each request. |
| Activity timelines per client | Karbon contact and work timelines | Years of emails, notes and tasks per client in date order, a long view few systems keep. | Nothing specific |
| Work templates | Karbon work templates | The practice's written method for each service line, closest to the SOPs and templates micro1 names. | Nothing specific |
| Time and budget entries | Karbon time and budget | How long each kind of engagement actually took against its budget. | Fees and rates attached to named clients. |
A week of records
A week of data at a practice
- Monday: the shared inbox holds overnight client email; a manager notes on one thread that the client's payroll changed and assigns it.
- Tuesday: client requests go out for bank statements on ten monthly closes, each with a due date.
- Wednesday: a senior comments on a work item that a reconciliation is off and tags the preparer.
- Thursday: reminders chase the requests still open, and two clients reply with uploads.
- Friday: work items move to review, the timeline shows who did what, and next month's work rolls forward from the template.
Process
How it works with each buyer
In each buyer's own published words. Where a buyer publishes nothing, we say so rather than guess.
micro1
- Internal docs, SOPs and playbooks, knowledge bases, project management workflows, internal comms, templates, CRM and workflow metadata, task histories11
- 30 to 200 employees37
- $100K-$2M+ per data package; over $1M for unique data7
- PII removed "when relevant"12
- The company keeps ownership of its data and reviews samples before release42
- Not published
Polyshares
Selling or closing
Selling or closing your practice? License its data first
Practices are bought and sold on their client books, and a Karbon account has a short tail when it ends: the service terms give 30 days after termination to ask in writing for the most recent back-up, after which Karbon deletes the data. If a practice sale is coming, settle what is exported, and how, before the subscription closes.2
FAQ
Karbon data: questions, answered
Karbon's help center describes an admin export of contact data to a spreadsheet, one row per contact card, and says to contact Karbon Support for further data. We found no official article on exporting emails, notes or tasks in bulk.45
Karbon's Customer API Terms, last updated 2026-05-08, say customers must not use data obtained through the API to train, fine-tune or otherwise develop any AI model, machine learning tool, large language model or predictive analytics tool. We quote the clause; we do not interpret it.1
Read the API terms with the buyer first. They limit API use to supporting the customer's own accounting firm, restrict API access to Business and Enterprise tiers, and say customers must not resell or license API data or give it to a third party for that party's own commercial benefit.5
Karbon's Premium Customer Service Terms, dated 2025-02-13, say in section 8.1 that the customer will own all right, title and interest in all of the Customer Data. Karbon's general Terms of Use say Karbon does not claim ownership of the user's content.46
Most buyers want 20 to 30 or more: micro1 and Return My Time look for 30+, while Nyne, Cognor Labs and Goldmined.ai start at about 20. Mercor, Troveo and Jottings AI state no minimum. In 2022 there were 6,631 US CPA offices with 10+ employees and 1,383 with 30+, and bookkeeping and other accounting services add 3,859 with 10+.36,48,34,49,50,51,33,52,3,4
We do not answer legal questions. Ask the licensing company: their team reviews this with you before anything is signed.
We do not answer legal questions. Ask the licensing company: their team reviews this with you before anything is signed.
Before you sign
Legal questions go to the licensing company
We do not answer legal questions. Ask the licensing company before you sign: their team reviews these with you.
Questions for this kind of business
- How will you receive our Karbon data, and does that route fit Karbon's Customer API Terms?
- How are taxpayer identifiers and client names removed from emails, notes and requests?
- Would you take only practice-owned templates and checklists if we exclude client files?
- How do the AICPA Code and IRC 7216 fit into your process for accounting firms?
- Do customer, vendor or platform contracts, NDAs or API terms restrict this?
- Do professional rules apply (AICPA, IRC 7216, HIPAA, ABA Model Rule 1.17, insurance agency contracts, adviser rules, state boards)?
- How is the payment taxed?
Questions for any buyer
- Is the license exclusive, and for how long?
- Can you sublicense the data, and to whom?
- Which AI labs will receive it, and will you tell us?
- How long do you keep it, and how is it deleted?
- What is your liability cap, and who indemnifies whom?
- Will the contract ban re-identification of people in the data?
- Who removes personal data, by what method, and do we approve it first?