ACCOUNTANCY
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AUTOMATION FORACCOUNTANCYPRACTICES
You rarely need another system. You need the ones you have to talk.
THE ANSWER
I automate the work a practice repeats every month. Chasing records, deadline reminders, engagement letters and fee notes sent and tracked. I connect the practice software you already run, rather than replacing it. Process automation: €1,500–€10,000, VAT excluded, two to six weeks.
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IN SHORT
Process automation: €1,500–€10,000, VAT excluded.
Above €8,000 a definition sprint comes first.
Two to six weeks for a single process.
Your practice software stays yours: I connect, not replace.
THE WORK TODAY
A CALENDAR THAT NEVER STOPS
A practice does not run one process: it runs twenty. VAT returns go out quarterly under Making Tax Digital, payroll on every pay run. Self assessment builds towards January, statutory accounts and the confirmation statement towards their own dates. Around all of it sit the records clients send when they remember. Client due diligence to refresh, engagement letters to draft, fees to raise. (The practice software covers part; the rest sits in a spreadsheet and a head.)
WHERE IT GOES
THE HOURS NOBODY BILLS
The technical work is not what eats the week. What eats the week is everything around it, and none of it is billable.
Chasing records
A file closes when the last document lands. The last document lands after three reminders typed by hand. Asking is not billable, but it is still time.
A deadline list in one head
The dates all exist, but they sit in a spreadsheet one person maintains. The week that person is away, the practice finds out how fragile that was.
Engagement letters rebuilt each time
Every new client gets a document rebuilt from scratch, with the fees copied across by hand. Then nobody can say who received it, or who never signed.
The same detail keyed three times
Names, VAT numbers and addresses go into the practice system, the deadline sheet and the onboarding form. Three copies that disagree the moment one changes.
The question «where are we»
Which clients still owe records, against which deadline, and for how long. Finding out means opening three tools and comparing them by eye.
HOW I WORK
THE HEAVIEST PROCESS FIRST
The order matters. Choosing a process before watching a real month means automating somebody’s habit.
I watch one real month
Who does what, how often, with which tools. Which deadline generates the most chasing. Not as a procedure describes it, but as the week before a filing date actually goes.
I pick a single process
The one that repeats for every client and ties up a person for days. One process finished properly beats five half connected.
I connect what you already run
Practice software, mail, spreadsheets, onboarding forms, signatures. If a system offers no way to read or write its data, I say so first and we change the scope.
I write the rules, not just the link
What happens when a document is missing, a figure does not reconcile, a send fails. Who is told, and after how long. That is the difference between an automation and a new risk.
I hand it over to the practice
With short documentation and accounts in the practice’s name. And one person inside who knows where to look when something stops.
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THE DELIVERY
WHAT THE PRACTICE KEEPS
The process, running
The automation works on your tools, under your accounts. On real files, not on a demonstration.
A view of what is outstanding
One place says which clients still owe records, against which deadline and since when. Without opening three systems.
The exception rules, written down
What the system does when data is wrong or missing. Who it hands over to. (Written, so it can be checked.)
The process map
How it went before and how it goes after, with the automated points marked. It is also for whoever joins the practice after me.
Access and ownership
Accounts in your name, code that reads, few and declared dependencies. Nothing that works only while I am around.
THE TERMS
RANGES, TIMING AND LIMITS
- Process automation
- €1,500–€2,500 Essential, €2,500–€5,500 Standard, €5,500–€10,000 Advanced. VAT excluded.
- Timing
- Two to six weeks, depending on how many tools I connect and how clear the process is.
- If the problem is reading the data
- A dashboard sits between €2,000 and €14,000, VAT excluded, in two to six weeks. That is for «show me where we are», not «do it without me».
- Definition sprint
- €800–€2,000, VAT excluded. It comes first with sensitive data, several integrations, or an undocumented scope above €8,000.
- What I need from you
- One person who can answer for the process and decide. Plus access to the tools I connect.
- Work in this sector
- No accountancy practice is a client of mine yet. This page describes capability and method, never a case.
- What I do not do
- I give no tax advice. I do not judge whether an obligation is met. Professional judgement stays with whoever signs.
I do not touch your practice software. I take away the work around it.
QUESTIONS
- Where does our client data end up?
- Where it already is. I work on the practice’s own tools, under accounts in the practice’s name. The system reads only the fields the work needs. After handover I keep no copies of your records.
- Do we have to change our practice software?
- No. I start from the opposite assumption: the system you file with stays yours. I automate what surrounds it, from collection to chasing. If it exposes no way to read its data, I say so first.
- Can engagement letters go out automatically?
- Yes, and it is one of the quickest to close. The letter assembles from details you already hold and goes out tracked. The follow-ups run on a rule you set. The wording and the fees stay yours.
- What do you refuse to automate?
- Professional judgement. I write no rule that decides whether a document is acceptable, or how a case is treated. The system prepares, sorts, reminds and alerts. What gets signed stays with whoever signs it.
- Does this work for a two-partner practice?
- Often better. Fewer people means a steadier process and fewer exceptions to map. The useful question is not how many of you there are. It is how often a month you repeat the same step.
- Which process should we start with?
- The one that returns for every client on a fixed date. Usually chasing records before a VAT filing. High volume, stable rules, and a precise moment when you see whether it worked.
If one deadline costs the practice a week of chasing every month, that is where to start. Tell me which one. I will say whether it can be automated.