Tota is a Mac dictation app that transcribes file notes, suitability reports and client emails on the Mac itself, so clients' financial details never pass through a cloud transcription service.
A client meeting ends and the file note has to capture what was advised, what was disclosed and why. It is the document the regulator will read if anything goes wrong, and it contains the client's income, assets and plans. Typing it properly takes twenty minutes; dictating it takes four. Tota does that dictation on your Mac, with nothing sent to a vendor, and the note lands in your practice system or Word document ready to tidy.
Why client finances should not transit a vendor's servers
A file note or an advice letter contains the kind of information that identity fraud is built from: names, addresses, dates of birth, account details, holdings and intentions. Cloud dictation apps send the audio containing all of that to their own servers, often on to a third-party AI provider, and retain it under their own policy.
Firms respond with vendor due diligence, data-processing agreements and a line in the privacy notice. That is a lot of paperwork for a dictation tool, and it still leaves client data on infrastructure the firm does not control. On-device dictation removes the processor from the picture: there is no third party, so there is nothing to diligence.
Tota transcribes on the Mac using OpenAI's Whisper model, formats with a local language model and never uploads audio or text. No account, no subscription, and it works on the train home.
What accountants and advisers actually dictate
- Meeting file notes. The record of advice and disclosures, written immediately after the client leaves.
- Suitability reports and advice letters. Long, structured documents where speaking the first draft saves the most time.
- Client emails. Explanations of a tax position or a recommendation, dictated into Outlook or Apple Mail.
- Review notes on accounts and returns. Points for a junior or a client, spoken into the review field or a document.
- Working-paper narratives. The commentary that explains a judgement, dictated where the cursor is.
What leaves your Mac, and what doesn't
This is the whole list. Every row is checkable from the app's own behaviour, and the security page explains how to watch its network activity yourself.
| Data | Leaves your Mac? | What actually happens |
|---|---|---|
| Your voice while dictating client financial information | No | Recorded to a temporary file, transcribed on your Mac by Whisper via WhisperKit, then deleted. |
| The transcript | No | Typed into the app you are using. Kept in a local history for three days, then archived as Markdown in a folder you choose. Entries can be deleted. |
| Text on your screen | No | With “Spell what’s on your screen” on, the visible text of the window you are dictating into is read once, to bias spelling. Never stored or sent. Can be turned off. |
| Glossary terms and learned corrections | No | Stored as JSON files in Tota’s folder in Application Support. |
| Smart Formatting | No | Runs a local Qwen 3 language model via MLX. Off by default. |
| Audio files dropped in for transcription | No | Transcribed and speaker-labelled on your Mac. |
| Licence key and a machine identifier | Yes | Sent to api.lemonsqueezy.com at activation and validation. Never any content. |
| Update check | Yes | A download request to github.com at launch. Can be disabled in Settings. |
| Model downloads | Yes, one-way | Speech, formatting and speaker-ID model files from huggingface.co, once, on first use. |
| Usage analytics or crash reports | Never | There is no analytics or crash-reporting SDK in the app. |
How Tota works for accountants and financial advisers
Install the app, grant it microphone and accessibility access, and press Cmd+Shift+R wherever your cursor is. Tota records until you press it again, transcribes the audio on your Mac with OpenAI's Whisper model running through WhisperKit, and types the result into the field. There is also a hold-to-talk key for short entries and a “Hey Tota” wake word for hands-free use. It behaves like a keyboard, so it works in browser-based systems, Word, email, Notes and anything else with a text field, with no integration to request from IT. After the one-time model download it needs no internet at all.
Three optional layers sit on top. Smart Formatting runs a small local language model that fixes punctuation, turns “new paragraph” and “new list” into structure, and corrects stutters without rewriting what you meant. The auto-learning dictionary remembers the corrections you make. And Audio Drop transcribes audio files you already have, with automatic speaker labels, also on-device.
Workflows for an advice practice
- The post-meeting file note. Cursor in the note field, shortcut, speak. 'New paragraph' and 'new list' structure the note when Smart Formatting is on. The audio is deleted once transcribed.
- The suitability report. Dictate section by section into your template. Tota's dictionary learns the client and product names you correct, so they are right next time.
- Sensitive references by snippet. Tota's secure snippets store a value encrypted in the macOS keychain and insert it with Touch ID when you say the trigger phrase, so a reference you use often is never typed in the clear.
- Busy season, offline. Dictation works the same at a client's premises with no guest network.
A glossary for accountants and financial advisers
Financial vocabulary is full of acronyms and product names that general speech recognition mangles. A Tota glossary is a short list of terms the speech model is nudged towards while it transcribes, with sound-alike matching afterwards for anything it still mishears. A glossary for an advice practice might hold:
- client and company names
- HMRC
- self-assessment
- capital gains
- ISA
- SIPP
- drawdown
- EBITDA
- IFRS
- amortisation
- VAT
- fund and platform names
The live hint has room for roughly 70 to 90 words, so keep it to the terms that get misheard. Tota can switch glossaries by app, so the list for Outlook can differ from the one for your practice software.
The glossaries guide covers set-up, the hint budget and per-app switching.
What Tota does not do
- It is not a practice-management or document system. Tota types where the cursor is. Filing, retention and access control stay with the system you dictate into.
- It has no compliance certification. Tota is not SOC 2 or ISO 27001 audited and offers no data-processing agreement, because no Tota server processes your content. The transcripts are files on the Mac, under your firm's device policy.
- It does not record meetings. Tota transcribes your dictation, or audio files you already have. Recording a client meeting needs consent and a separate recorder; Audio Drop can then transcribe the file on-device.
- Transcripts are files on your Mac. Nothing is synced or backed up by Tota. FileVault, your backup tool and your device policy are what protect them.
Pricing for an accountancy or advice practice
Tota is a one-time purchase of £19.99, with two seats per licence, after a 14-day free trial of every feature. There is no subscription, no per-minute transcription fee and no word limit, because local processing costs us nothing per word. Larger teams buy additional licences. Pricing is the same worldwide; see the pricing section for what the licence includes.
Frequently asked questions
Does client financial information leave my Mac?
No. Audio is transcribed on your Mac by OpenAI's Whisper model via WhisperKit, deleted once transcribed, and the text is typed into the app you are using. The only network calls are a licence check, an update check and one-time model downloads, none of which carry content.
Do I need a data-processing agreement with Tota?
Tota does not process your client data, so there is nothing for a processing agreement to cover. The security page lists every network call the app can make, and you can verify them with a firewall tool such as Little Snitch.
Does it work with my practice software, Excel and Outlook?
Yes. Tota types into any text field: browser-based practice systems, Word, Excel cells, Outlook, Apple Mail and Notes. No integration is needed.
What are secure snippets?
A snippet is a trigger phrase that expands into longer text. A secure snippet stores its value encrypted in the macOS keychain and inserts it only after Touch ID, so references and identifiers you use often are never shown or typed in the clear.
Where are transcripts stored?
In a local history on your Mac for three days, then archived as Markdown files in a folder you choose. Entries can be deleted at any time and nothing is synced anywhere by Tota.
What does it cost?
£19.99 once, after a 14-day free trial, with two seats per licence. No subscription and no word limit.
Write the file note while the meeting is still fresh
Download Tota and dictate the next file note on a Mac that keeps client finances to itself. Two seats, £19.99 once.
14-day free trial · macOS 14 or later · No account needed
