An accounting firm gets the quickest return from AI on admin around the work: chasing client documents, reading and coding invoices, answering status questions and preparing deadline reminders. Accountants keep the review, the advice and anything that goes to HMRC. Piloting one of them costs £2,900 (£2,030 with the launch offer) and takes 2–4 weeks. Prices exclude VAT.
Why the workload is growing
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax started on 6 April 2026 for sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000. The threshold drops to £30,000 from April 2027. For a firm with these clients, one deadline a year becomes four quarterly updates plus the final declaration. That means four rounds of chasing records a year, with the same staff.
AI will not do the accounting for you. It can take over the admin that surrounds each deadline, so the extra rounds do not land on your accountants’ evenings.
The 7 workflows, in the order we would start
- Chasing missing documents. The system knows which client owes which records for which period and sends polite, specific reminders by email or WhatsApp, then escalates to a person after the second one.
- Reading and coding invoices and receipts. Documents from email, uploads and photos are read, matched to the client and coded into Xero, QuickBooks or Sage as drafts. Your team approves them.
- Answering “where is my return?” questions. A chat or phone assistant checks the status in your practice software and replies, or books a call with the right accountant.
- Bank transaction matching. Unclear lines are grouped and sent to the client as one short list of questions instead of a dozen emails.
- Onboarding new clients. The engagement letter, ID checks and the first document request go out in one sequence, with reminders until everything is in.
- Preparing deadline reminders. Each client gets their own dates and their own list of what is still missing.
- First drafts of routine letters and summaries. Year-end summaries and standard responses are drafted from your templates for an accountant to edit and sign.
What stays with your accountants
- Advice, judgement calls and anything that changes a client’s tax position.
- Submissions to HMRC and Companies House.
- Payments and any change to supplier or client bank details. A request to change bank details is flagged as a fraud risk and goes to a person.
- Final review of coded transactions. The system prepares drafts; it does not post them on its own unless you approve a rule for a specific, low-risk type.
Where to start
| If your main problem is… | Start with | What we measure |
|---|---|---|
| Clients send records late | Document chasing | Documents received before the deadline week |
| Staff retype invoices | Invoice reading and coding | Hours of data entry per accountant |
| The phone rings all through January | Status answers | Calls handled without an accountant |
| New clients take weeks to set up | Onboarding sequence | Days from signed letter to first records |
What it costs
A pilot on one workflow is £2,900 (£2,030 with the launch offer) and takes 2–4 weeks, including tests on last season’s real documents. Connecting several workflows with agents that read, check and draft across systems starts at £6,500 (£4,550). After launch, ongoing care costs £350 a month (£245). AI usage runs on your own accounts at provider cost.
A quick check: take the hours your team spends on chasing and data entry in a filing month, multiply by their hourly cost, and compare with the pilot price. The calculator on our pricing page does this for you.
Data protection
Client records are personal data under UK GDPR. We keep them in your accounts and your accounting software, limit access to what each workflow needs, keep a log of every action and sign a data processing agreement before launch. Your data is not used to train public models.