Karbon Practice Management

Use this guide when your firm runs practice management in Karbon and wants each client's monthly close to be visible and manageable from the Karbon board without leaving Kraal's close behind.

The division of responsibility is deliberate:

• Kraal is the accounting and close authority. It decides whether reconciliations are complete, whether evidence is accepted, whether adjustments are approved, and whether the period is finalized and locked.
• Karbon is the practice-management cockpit. It shows where each close stands, who owns it, when it is due, and what was delivered.

Karbon never decides that a close is complete. Nothing you do on the Karbon board changes an accounting conclusion in Kraal.

What the integration does

For each client-month, Kraal maintains one Karbon Work Item and keeps it current:

• the close status — planned, ready to start, in progress, waiting, completed, or reopened;
• a Kraal-maintained progress block in the Work Item description: required close items complete, reconciliation progress, outstanding client inputs, review and finalization state, the single next action, and current blockers;
• a per-entity breakdown for multi-entity clients;
• milestone notes at meaningful transitions;
• the final approved deliverables attached after the close is finalized.

One client-month is one Work Item, even when Kraal is closing several legal entities plus a consolidated scope. Kraal does not create a Work Item per entity or per reconciliation.

What Kraal never does in Karbon

• Decide or announce accounting completion ahead of Kraal's own finalization.
• Create, edit, or delete your Karbon work templates, work types, or status definitions.
• Create Karbon client records, or merge two of your Karbon clients.
• Create Karbon client requests or send client emails from Karbon.
• Write Karbon time entries.
• Overwrite text a person wrote in the Work Item description outside the Kraal block.

Before you start

You need:

• a firm administrator in Kraal;
• a Karbon administrator who can generate API credentials for your tenant;
• your Karbon work type for monthly close work (and a work template, if your firm uses one);
• your Karbon client records already set up — Kraal links to them rather than creating them;
• at least one client with an active close in Kraal, so mapping and preview have something to show.

Connecting Karbon

1. Enter your Karbon credentials

1. Open the Integrations page in the accounting workspace (under the Setup group in the sidebar) and select Karbon.
2. Enter the Karbon API application token and the Karbon tenant access key. Both are issued from Karbon's API access settings by a Karbon administrator; the token identifies the application and the access key identifies your Karbon tenant. If you cannot see that area in Karbon, ask your Karbon administrator or Karbon support to issue them.
3. Select Connect and verify. Kraal makes a read-only call to confirm the credentials work and stores them encrypted.

Enter credentials in Kraal only. Do not paste tokens or access keys into support tickets, chat, shared documents, or screenshots.

Sync stays off and in dry run until you finish the remaining steps, so connecting cannot change anything in Karbon.

2. Configure the close work

Choose how Kraal should represent a close in your Karbon tenant:

• Work type — the Karbon work type used for monthly close Work Items.
• Work template (optional) — a Karbon template to apply when Kraal creates a new Work Item.
• Note author — the Karbon user that milestone notes are posted as.

Kraal also checks which secondary statuses already exist for that work type and tells you which of its recommendations are missing. Kraal only ever sends a secondary status that already exists in your tenant for that exact work type and primary status — it never adds one for you.

Recommended secondary statuses, if you want the full picture on your board:

Under primary status	Recommended secondary statuses
In Progress	Processing, Reconciling, Adjustments, In review, Reopened
Waiting	Waiting on client, Waiting on internal, Needs attention, Reconciliation blocked

Add them in Karbon before enabling sync if you want them used. Skipping them is fine — Kraal falls back to the primary status alone.

3. Map clients

Kraal lists your clients beside its suggested Karbon match, the basis for the match, and a confidence level:

Kraal client	Suggested Karbon client	Match basis	Confidence	Action
Acme Corp	Acme Corporation	External identifier	Strong	Confirm
Beta LLC	Beta LLC	Name	Ambiguous	Choose

Review every row. Confirm the strong matches, and pick the right record yourself where the match is ambiguous. Kraal never silently links an ambiguous client, and it never creates a Karbon client — if a client is missing, add it in Karbon and refresh the list.

A Kraal client can map to a Karbon organization, a contact (for individuals and sole proprietors), or a client group (where your firm already groups several organizations).

4. Link or create close Work Items

For each client with an active close, Kraal searches the mapped Karbon client for a plausible existing Work Item — same work type, dates matching the close period — and shows the candidates:

Acme Corp · September 2026
  Candidate: "Monthly Bookkeeping — Acme — Sep 2026"
  [Link existing]  [Create new]

Choose Link existing to adopt the Work Item your team is already using, or Create new to have Kraal create one. A title that looks like a close is never enough for Kraal to adopt a Work Item on its own; adoption is always your explicit choice.

5. Preview with a dry run

Before anything is written, Kraal shows exactly what it would send for each linked Work Item:

Primary status:    In Progress
Secondary status:  Reconciling
Description:       preview of the Kraal block
Notes:             none
Files:             none

Read the preview against your board conventions. If a secondary status is missing, or the wrong work type is selected, fix it now — this is the cheapest place to catch it.

6. Enable sync

Select Enable Karbon sync. Only an administrator can do this, and it is a deliberate action: until you take it, Kraal keeps writing nothing.

From here on, Kraal keeps each linked Work Item current as the close moves.

What the Work Item shows

Status

Kraal maps its own close state onto Karbon's five primary statuses:

What is happening in Kraal	Karbon status	Secondary status, if configured
Close scheduled but not yet actionable	Planned	—
Close ready to be started	Ready To Start	—
Close work underway	In Progress	Processing, Reconciling, or Adjustments
Human review underway	In Progress	In review
Waiting on client input	Waiting	Waiting on client
Waiting on your team or a prerequisite	Waiting	Waiting on internal
A required reconciliation is blocked	Waiting	Reconciliation blocked
The close hit an error that needs attention	Waiting	Needs attention
Close finalized and period lock verified	Completed	—
Close reopened after completion	In Progress	Reopened
Close cancelled in Kraal	Waiting	Cancelled, where your tenant has it

Karbon's Completed has exactly one cause: Kraal's finalization succeeded and the period lock was verified. Checked-off close items, matched reconciliations, an approved workpaper, or a generated package do not move a Work Item to Completed. Kraal's own close status Completed is a different word. It means the steps are done and the package can be built. It is not locked.

The progress block

Kraal maintains one clearly marked block inside the Work Item description and leaves everything outside it exactly as your team wrote it. The block reads roughly like this:

September 2026 close · Acme Corp

Close work:        14 / 22 required items complete
Reconciliations:    8 / 10 passing · 1 stale · 1 awaiting sign-off
Client inputs:      2 outstanding
Review:             Not ready
Finalization:       Not started

Next: Complete required reconciliation
Owner: Preparer
Blocked by: AR reconciliation awaiting review; prepaid schedule stale

Entities:
  US Operating Co   10/12 items · 4/5 recs
  Canada Ltd          4/4 items · 4/4 recs
  Consolidated        0/6 items · 0/1 recs

Updated by Kraal: 3 Oct 2026, 14:22 UTC

Write your own notes above or below the block — Kraal preserves them. Text you type inside the block is replaced on the next update.

Kraal deliberately does not publish a single "percent complete" figure. One number hides the gates that actually matter — reconciliation sign-off, review, and finalization — so the block reports those counts separately alongside the one next action.

Milestone notes

Kraal posts notes at transitions worth a person's attention, not a running log:

Transition	Note posted to the Work Item
Close kicked off	Close started
All required client inputs received and accepted	Required client inputs complete
A major reconciliation family completes	Bank and card reconciliations complete
A new blocking client request	Waiting on client — n items
A reconciliation becomes blocked or stale after passing	Reconciliation requires attention
Close ready for review	Close ready for review
Finalization succeeded and lock verified	Close finalized and period lock verified
Close reopened	Close reopened, with the reason category

Notes are posted once per event. A retry never produces a duplicate note.

When Kraal is waiting on a client, the request itself stays in Kraal and its client portal — Kraal posts an internal note in Karbon so the board reads correctly, but it never creates a second request or email path in Karbon. See External Client Portal.

Final deliverables

After finalization succeeds, Kraal attaches the deliverables your firm configured — typically:

• the approved financial package released by that close;
• the trial balance, if your firm wants it in Karbon;
• the reconciliation summary, where configured for delivery;
• the close binder, only if your firm explicitly asks for the internal evidence archive to be attached.

Kraal does not upload every source document, workpaper, interim report, or superseded package. Karbon holds the final artifacts; Kraal holds the evidence.

If a close is reopened and re-finalized, Kraal uploads the new final version under a clearly versioned filename and posts a note. Earlier attachments are left in place rather than quietly removed, so the Work Item's history stays honest.

When someone marks the Work Item complete early

If a person moves a Kraal-managed Work Item to Completed before Kraal has finalized the close, Kraal:

1. re-reads the Work Item and the current close state;
2. records the discrepancy in the integration's health view and the audit trail;
3. changes nothing in the close — no approval, no lock, no completion;
4. restores the Kraal-derived status on the next sync, unless sync is paused or the Work Item is unlinked;
5. may post a single note naming the current blocker.

This is intentional. Two systems cannot both own completion, and the accounting conclusion stays with Kraal. If a close genuinely is finished, finalize it in Kraal and Karbon will follow within the same cycle.

Changes your team makes in Karbon

What changed in Karbon	What Kraal does
Text outside the Kraal block	Preserved — it is yours
Text inside the Kraal block	Replaced on the next update
Work Item status	Restored to the Kraal-derived status
Assignee	Read where assignee mapping is configured; a Karbon user with no matching Kraal user is reported for an administrator to map, never created automatically
Due date	Can update the operational close calendar where date sync is enabled; it never redefines the accounting period, and it cannot reopen a finalized close
Work Item deleted	The close continues unaffected. The link is marked missing, an administrator is alerted, and you can create a replacement or link another Work Item

Pausing, resuming, and disconnecting

• Pause sync — Kraal stops writing to Karbon and leaves every Work Item as it stands. The close continues normally in Kraal. Use this when your board is mid-reorganization, or while investigating a discrepancy.
• Resume sync — Kraal recomputes the current close state and brings each linked Work Item back in line on the next cycle. Anything that changed in Karbon while paused is treated as described above.
• Unlink a Work Item — the close keeps running in Kraal, and the Work Item is left untouched in Karbon. Use this when a client-month should no longer be tracked on the board.
• Disconnect Karbon — Kraal stops all Karbon activity and discards the stored credentials. Work Items, notes, and attached files already in Karbon stay in Karbon. Client mappings are retained so reconnecting does not mean mapping every client again.

Disconnecting Karbon never affects close work, finalization, locks, packages, or the Close Completion Report.

Sync health

The Karbon integration detail page shows:

• Connection status — whether the credentials are valid and when Kraal last reached Karbon.
• Sync state — enabled, paused, or dry run, per connection.
• Linked closes — which client-months are linked, and which are unlinked or missing their Work Item.
• Discrepancies — premature completions, unmapped assignees, and Work Items that no longer exist.
• Delivery problems — updates that could not be written after retries, so an administrator can retry them once the cause is fixed.

Karbon problems never block the close. If Karbon is unreachable, Kraal keeps closing books and catches the board up when the connection returns.

Limits and FAQ

Does Kraal sync my Karbon checklist tasks? No. Task-level sync is not available, so Kraal reports progress in the description block and milestone notes instead. Keep your Karbon checklist for practice steps, and use Kraal's close items for close work.

Will Kraal create client requests in Karbon? No. Document and information requests are created, delivered, chased, and accepted in Kraal, so there is one place where an outstanding item lives. See PBC Engagement Tracking.

Does Kraal write time entries or budgets to Karbon? No. Karbon time is read-only to Kraal. Recorded hours and budget can appear on the optional Team Effort card of the Close Completion Report, and nowhere else.

Will Kraal change my work templates or add statuses? No. Work types, templates, and status definitions are yours. Kraal reads them and works within them.

Can I get one Work Item per legal entity? Not today. One client-month is one Work Item, with entities broken out inside the progress block.

Do I need Karbon for Kraal's close to work? No. Karbon is optional. Every close feature, including the Close Completion Report, works with no practice-management system connected.

Someone completed a Work Item and it went back to In Progress. Why? Kraal restored the status because the close was not finalized. See When someone marks the Work Item complete early.

Related guides

• Integrations — every system Kraal connects to.
• Close Overview — the cross-client close queue the Work Item mirrors.
• The Close Sheet — working and finalizing a single close period.
• Close Completion Report — the permanent record of a finished close, and the optional Team Effort card.
• Troubleshooting — broader support patterns.