Accounting
The work is not closing the month. It is chasing documents.
The technical part takes the least time. The time goes on matching what came in against what was expected, and on asking clients, one by one, for what is still missing.
You know what is missing. Writing to ask for it is what takes the day.
05 / 8
Context
Where the information lives today
In a practice the information arrives from outside and arrives disorganised: invoices in a folder, a budget in a sheet, documents that some clients send and others do not. Matching this is mechanical work and it is where the time goes for people who should be analysing.
- The supplier invoices for the period, in the folder linked to the client’s channel
- The budget against which those invoices either make sense or do not
- The list of what is missing to close the period, per client
- The tone the practice writes to clients in, which is not the same for everyone
Action
What starts happening on its own
You ask for the match and you get a table of variances, supplier by supplier, with expected, actual and the difference, filtered above the threshold that matters. You stop reading everything and read only what falls out of line. And the email asking for the missing documents comes out drafted, in the practice’s tone, with the concrete list of what that client is missing.
- The variance table with expected, actual and the difference, per supplier
- Only what passes the threshold you set, and not the whole list
- The email to the client drafted, with the concrete list of what is missing
- The answer to "what is client X missing?", the moment you ask
Who answers
Who answers when it gets something wrong
A variance the agent points at brings the invoice it came from, to be confirmed before it is acted on. No email goes out without the accountant approving it, because the client relationship belongs to the practice. And each client is a separate context: what happens in one does not show up in another, and that is written into the agent’s rules.
- A variance pointed at brings the document it came from
- No communication goes out without the accountant approving it
- Each client is a context, and the separation is written into the rules
Two shapes
What comes off the ladder takes one of two shapes. We have built both.
Agent in the channel
Each client already has a channel and a folder. The agent lives in that channel, and that is what makes it answer about that client and not about another.
Archive with an agent
Earlier periods explain the current one. An archive with an agent on top lets you ask instead of reopening folders.
Where it starts
Start with one client and one match, and see how much of the close is analysis and how much is collection.
See the three stepsRelated questions
People who ask this usually ask as well.
- 04Is my data safe?The data stays in your company’s accounts, the agent only reads until a person authorises it, and everything it does is recorded.
- 08Is this going to replace people?The agent drafts, a person approves. During the pilot it writes drafts and sends nothing. The decision stays with whoever signs it.
- 06What if my team does not know how to use this?The team uses the agent in the chat where it already works, and training and support are part of the delivery.