How the desk works
Every number, in plain sight.
XP, levels, topic marks, badges, Morning Mail and the streak, exactly as the site counts them. This page is built from the same rules the code uses, so it cannot drift.
Where XP comes from
XP is feedback for learning something new or remembering it later. It shows after you do something, never as bait before it. Page views, time on the site, coming back, sharing and anything involving another person earn nothing.
| What you do | XP | The limit |
|---|---|---|
| Finish a lesson (watched or read to the end, then the one-question check) | 20 | Once per lesson, ever |
| A question, first time you get it right | 10 | Once per question, ever |
| A question, right on the second try | 5 | Counts toward the same cap: a question gives 10 at most, in its whole life |
| Finish a quiz | 10 | Once per quiz per day |
| A topic moves to Posted, Reconciled or Carried forward | 25, 50, 100 | Once per mark per topic (Drafted gives 0) |
| A Morning Mail card, right | 3 | Up to 10 cards a day |
| Finish Morning Mail | 10 | Once a day |
| An In-Tray shift | 15 + 2 per note sorted right | The first 2 shifts a day; after that, practice still counts for your marks |
| A badge | 0 | Badges are their own thing; they never stack XP |
Replaying a finished quiz earns no question XP, only the daily quiz line. Nobody gets more by playing longer; you get more by learning more topics and coming back to review them.
Levels
| Level | Title | Total XP | On your desk |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Intern | 0 | A plain desk |
| 2 | Staff | 150 | Your nameplate |
| 3 | Senior | 450 | A desk lamp |
| 4 | Supervisor | 900 | Your pen colour |
| 5 | Manager | 1,600 | A window office |
| 6 | Senior Manager | 2,600 | The brass in-tray |
| 7 | Director | 4,000 | The Broadsheet desk |
| 8 | Partner | 6,000 | The Riso desk |
| 9+ | Partner ↳1, ↳2 … | +1,500 each | One more carry-forward tick on the nameplate |
Levels never go down. These are game ranks. They don't mean you're qualified to do anyone's taxes, including mine.
Your mark on each topic
| Mark | How a topic gets there |
|---|---|
| Open (blank page) | Where every topic starts. |
| Drafted (pencil tick) | Finished the lesson, or answered any three questions in the topic. |
| Posted (ink tick) | A topic quiz at 70% or more, first try. |
| Reconciled (double tick) | Every core question right at least once, and a topic quiz at 90% or more. |
| Carried forward (carry-forward stamp) | Reconciled, then right on three of the topic's cards in Morning Mail at least a week later, with no more than one miss. |
Marks never drop. If a topic's cards fall due, you see a paper clip, not a downgrade. When a topic's figures are re-checked for a new tax year, its updated questions come back to Morning Mail; your mark stays.
Morning Mail
Every question you answer becomes a review card. A right answer in Morning Mail moves the card to a longer gap: 1, 3, 7, 16 and then 35 days. A miss brings it back tomorrow, and is never held against you. After the longest gap the card rests 35 days and comes round again.
The mail holds up to ten cards a day (five or twenty if you prefer), mixed across topics, and then it ends. There is no "keep going" button until tomorrow.
Weeks at the desk (optional)
Off unless you switch it on. You pick a target of 1 to 7 days a week. A day counts when you finish a lesson, a quiz, Morning Mail or an In-Tray shift. You start with 2 "Out of office" cards; a missed week uses one automatically, and you get one back every 4 weeks you meet your target. With none left, the next week is a catch-up week at double your target; meet it and your run stays. Holiday mode pauses it for up to eight weeks. The site never sends reminders.
Badges
Twenty-six rubber stamps for ways of learning. None is hidden, random, or about volume, money or other people.
| Stamp | Badge | How to get it |
|---|---|---|
 | First Tick | Get any answer right. |
 | Letter Opener | Post every IRS letters topic (70% or more on its quiz). |
 | Vesting Schedule | Post every stock pay topic. |
 | On Call | Post every doctors' topic. |
 | Payroll Day | Post every owners topic. |
 | The Walkthrough | Post every property topic. |
 | The Numbers | Post every numbers topic. |
 | Reconciled | Reconcile one topic: its core questions right and a quiz at 90% or more. |
 | Carried Forward | Carry one topic forward: right again in Morning Mail a week after it was reconciled. |
 | Five Ticks | Carry five topics forward. |
 | General Ledger | Carry every topic forward. |
 | New Year, New Numbers | Pass a topic again after its figures are updated for a new tax year. |
 | Red Pen | Spot the error first time on ten questions. |
 | Half True | Stamp ten Half True claims right first time. |
 | The Missing Condition | Pick MISSING A CONDITION correctly five times. |
 | Well Calibrated | Tap 'Sure' on twenty answers and be right on at least 80% of them. |
 | Honest Guess | Tap 'Guessing' on five answers, then get each one right later in Morning Mail. |
 | CHECKED | Open the source behind ten different figures. |
 | Footnote Reader | Follow five links from an explanation to the video moment or the article. |
 | First Review | Finish one Morning Mail. |
 | Month-End Close | Finish Morning Mail on twelve different days. |
 | In-Tray Zero | Finish an In-Tray shift with eight of eight sorted right. |
 | One More Question | In the In-Tray, pick NEED MORE FACTS correctly ten times. |
 | Four Weeks at the Desk | With the weekly streak on, reach four weeks at the desk. |
 | Welcome Back | Come back after thirty days or more and finish anything. |
 | Audit Trail | Make a progress export code. |
Fair play
Points and badges are for fun. Nothing is ever won, bought or redeemed, and there are no leaderboards. Your progress lives in your browser. You could edit it, and that would hurt nobody, so there is no anti-cheat. The only person you are compared with is your past self.
The point is the understanding, not the score.