Every month the same pile of receipts, and every month the same client who takes three weeks over it.
At a bookkeeping or accountancy firm the work is cyclical: every month, every quarter, every year the same rhythm. That is precisely what makes it suitable for automation. Not the assessment itself, which remains human work with a signature underneath, but everything around it: getting documents in, recognising them, preparing them, following up and accounting for them. Take that away and you keep the hours for advice, and that is where the margin is.
A bookkeeping or accountancy firm with five to fifty staff, handling dozens to hundreds of client files per period.
Sound familiar?
- Client submissions are all over the place: one delivers everything neatly via the app, another turns up in March with a shoebox.
- Reminders to request documents are sent by hand, or forgotten.
- Receipts and invoices are recognised, but the exceptions take more time than the scanning saves.
- Time is logged after the fact, so structurally fewer hours are recorded than were worked.
- Work in progress and budget overruns per file only become clear after month-end close.
- The same client question about VAT deadlines or payroll tax returns comes back every period.
- The knowledge of a technical specialist lives in his head and in old emails, not in a manual.
What usually runs here
That does not have to go. We build in between and around it.
Where the gains are
Document requests that chase themselves
Each client and each period has a set list of what needs to come in. The client gets an overview of what is still missing, plus reminders that go out by themselves. Whatever comes in is recognised and ticked off.
files complete sooner and nobody chasing documents by phoneCatching exceptions in the posting flow
The invoices your scanning package doesn’t recognise properly land on one pile with a proposal for ledger account, VAT code and cost centre, with the reasoning alongside. The employee approves or corrects.
the exceptions take seconds instead of minutesProposing hours instead of reconstructing them
From diary, email and file activity comes a proposal for time recording per file. The employee approves; whatever is wrong, he adjusts.
fewer hours you forget to record, no Friday-afternoon reconstructionInternal knowledge assistant on your own technical expertise
An assistant that knows your own manuals, memos and previous advice and answers with the source attached. When in doubt it refers to the technical specialist instead of guessing.
juniors search further themselves, specialists are interrupted lessSignals from the figures for the advisory meeting
Unusual margins, rising receivables or a dip in turnover surface as a signal as soon as they arise, with the question you would ask the client alongside.
you call the client before he calls youThe honest bit
- A proposal from a model is not a journal entry and not a judgement. The employee remains responsible and signs. Anyone who approves blindly will soon have an audit problem instead of a time saving.
- The professional rules and the requirements of your professional body determine what is allowed, certainly around file documentation and audit work. We adapt the solution to that; we don’t ask whether the rules can bend.
- Client data is financial and personal at the same time. We set out up front where it’s stored and what happens to it. Some applications run only within your own environment or don’t go ahead.
- Most of the return is internal, not in a chatbot for clients. That’s less visible and it delivers more.
How we start
The core session lasts one half-day of four hours and costs €596 excluding VAT and travel costs. With a few people from the firm we walk through one period: where submissions get stuck, which exceptions take time, what doesn’t get recorded. Usually document requests come out first, because that works within weeks and changes nothing about your technical work.
Further reading
From our insights
Most businesses start with the tool and then get stuck. It is better to start with one piece of work that comes back every week and nobody enjoys.
The build costs are usually the easiest part of the bill. The surprises are in the clean-up beforehand, the monthly usage and the maintenance afterwards.