The software accounting and bookkeeping firms run on, covered honestly: what changed, what it costs, and whether it is worth switching.
Updated 7 October 2026
AI for accountants and bookkeepers: what actually works Our evergreen guide: the stacks compared, a playbook and the rules.
A bookkeeper's post about accounting software vendors that stopped listening, and about years of unpaid beta testing, community support and partner-tier downgrades, drew near-total agreement in a practitioner group.…
More clients are connecting their Xero files to Claude, ChatGPT and home-built AI tools, and practitioners are split between "their data, their risk" and cleaning up the journals. The three kinds of connection and where…
As AI tools increasingly intersect with client information, firms must establish a clear AI policy to navigate compliance risks. The Tax Practitioners Board's guidance highlights that even firms not using AI need to…
A major model now ships every few weeks and assessing each one properly is not sustainable without a fixed process. Six checks, run in about two hours, produce a decision rather than an opinion, and GPT-6 Astra is the…
GPT-6 Astra, released on 3 September 2026, operates software through the interface instead of through an API, which puts every system in your firm in reach whether or not it has an integration. The capability is real,…
The Firm's AI in Practice Summit is back on 11 and 12 November 2026: two days, twelve sessions, one track, free and online. Day one is what firms actually built with AI in 2026 and what it returned. Day two is what to…
A meeting notetaker for accountants passed 100,000 recorded hours in June 2026. What firms now hand over after the meeting: follow-up emails, notes filed to Karbon or FYI, missed service work.
Anthropic's introduction of a digital watermark for AI-generated content through Claude Sonnet 4.6 significantly impacts tax practitioners, enhancing the visibility of AI involvement in their work.
A beta integration turns a recorded client meeting into a draft Ignition proposal in one click, built from the firm’s own service library and pricing. How it works and how it is rolling out.
The decision to build AI systems in-house rather than purchasing them has proven invaluable for my Brisbane firm. By developing our own solutions, we retain ownership of critical context, leading to enhanced operational…
Australian firms must now include an AI clause in their engagement letters to comply with the Tax Practitioners Board's latest guidance.
In every client meeting lies an untapped advisory opportunity, as illustrated by a £24,000 chance discovered in a simple conversation. By focusing on key signals such as client goals, pain points, and emotional cues,…
In just forty minutes, the author transformed a complex tax intake tool into an efficient app using Lovable, demonstrating how practice owners can quickly develop their own workflows with just eleven prompts.
Successfully scoping an AI project requires clarity in problem definition and realistic expectations in project scope. Many AI initiatives fail not due to inadequate models, but from unclear objectives and overly…
The Tax Practitioners Board's recent guidance mandates that tax practitioners must uphold their Code of Professional Conduct when using AI tools, ensuring accountability for outputs and maintaining confidentiality.
Why Onside’s owner sold the UK firm to Multiplier Holdings to hedge its AI risk and stayed on, and the three questions to answer first: client expectations, equity and a ten-year view.
In a recent panel at The Firm's AI in Practice Summit, three accountants shared their journeys of creating effective internal tools using AI vibe coding, despite initial coding challenges.
AI tools are now providing tax advice, often without qualified accountants behind them, raising concerns about accountability and reliability. As AI's influence grows, the accounting profession must step up to ensure…
A tool-agnostic, day-by-day walkthrough of a month-end close with AI folded into the steps where it genuinely earns its place: reconciliation triage, accrual prep, variance commentary drafts and checklist automation.…
US firms can use AI in tax practice, but Section 7216 makes unauthorized disclosure of client tax return information a crime, and the IRS made clear in June 2026 that Circular 230 duties apply in full to AI-assisted…
Canada has no dedicated AI law, so Canadian accounting firms using AI answer to PIPEDA, provincial privacy statutes like Quebec's Law 25, and their provincial CPA code of conduct. This guide explains what the regulators…
Whether you need client consent to use AI depends on where you practise and what data you feed the tool: US tax preparers face a criminal statute, while AU, UK and Canadian firms mostly work from professional codes and…
UK accounting practices have more official AI guidance available than most realise: ICAEW has published a full generative AI guide, ACCA has a formal position paper, and the ICO has detailed guidance on AI and data…
In between "learn to code" courses and app-building platforms sits a middle layer almost nobody covers: tiny, single-purpose scripts that kill the 20-minute weekly chores in a tax practice. Practitioners are already…
Modern AI dictation tools like Wispr Flow and superwhisper turn messy speech into clean, formatted text in any app, and speaking is roughly three times faster than typing. This guide compares the main options on price,…
Every accounting software keynote now says "agentic," and most of the audience is nodding along without a working definition. Here's what an AI agent actually is, which agents are real in accounting today versus…
Every client meeting creates unbilled work: the file note, the follow-up email, the actions somebody promised. The right AI meeting assistant for an accounting or bookkeeping firm is the one whose output lands in your…
Working AI prompts for accountants, led by the one firms search for most: a client letter about a tax change, with a checklist for reviewing what comes back. The rest are organised by the real jobs in a firm (GST…
The AI commentary crowd treats Microsoft Copilot as the boring choice, yet it keeps winning accounting firm deployments, often for rational reasons. This piece makes the honest steelman case: where Copilot genuinely…
ChatGPT is the AI most accountants actually use, usually on a personal free account their firm's policy has never heard of. Here's what it's genuinely excellent at, the specific ways it will bite you on numbers, tax and…
Most accounting firms don't need an AI beyond Claude, ChatGPT or Copilot, but if your firm runs on Google Workspace, Gemini isn't a fourth option, it's your first. We take an honest look at Gemini's in-suite case,…
A structured, practitioner-first comparison of Claude, ChatGPT and Microsoft 365 Copilot for accounting firms: pricing, business-tier data terms, real strengths and weaknesses, and firm-type recommendations. The honest…
Nearly every accountant is already using AI, but only about one in five firms has a written policy governing it, which means the real policy is whatever each person quietly decides at their desk. This walkthrough gives…
The honest answer to whether accountants can use AI with client data: yes, if you use business-tier tools and a handful of non-negotiable rules. The real risk is your process, not the model. We break down what ChatGPT,…
A practical, step-by-step walkthrough for accounting and bookkeeping firm owners setting up Claude Cowork: from choosing the right plan and settling your client-data policy to connecting the first folders and…
MCP is the plug standard that lets AI assistants like Claude and ChatGPT talk directly to the software your firm already runs, which is why Xero, Ignition and half your app stack suddenly mention it. Here's what it…
A Newcastle firm owner shows five Karbon jobs AI can take on. Two need only a spreadsheet export. With an MCP connector built from Karbon's published spec, Claude reassigned a staff member's work and turned one client…
Dave Sellick and Jonathan Gaunt build AI tools every day and still tell most firms to wait: why the code needs rewriting, why client data stays out, and where AI earns its place.
While many firms are captivated by Claude's innovative features, the majority remain loyal to Copilot for its security and structured environment. Both tools offer similar capabilities, but Copilot prioritises data…
An accountant with no coding background built more than 40 apps to stop being the bottleneck in the firm. The idea, prompt, paste workflow, what to buy, what to build and what it costs.
Most AI money in accounting goes into the wrong part of the job. Why apathy, fear and liability matter more than data, and why clients pay for trust, not software.
Despite 98% of accountants using AI, only 21% have a formal strategy or policy in place, leading to inefficiencies. This article explores how firms can optimise AI use, highlighting the importance of structured SOPs and…
This article reveals how a chartered accountant, with no coding skills, successfully built 17 apps in a year by leveraging AI and simple planning techniques.
Many accounting firms struggle with pricing, often undervaluing their services due to a lack of structured frameworks. This article highlights the importance of building a comprehensive pricing tool that incorporates…
Using Ignition’s MCP with Claude to build a branded proposal from one prompt, apply conditional price rises, update 300 proposals and turn a meeting transcript into a draft.
From 1 July, firms providing a designated service must risk-assess clients. How AI can draft the assessment from a recorded onboarding call in about ninety seconds instead of a long form.
The AI in Practice Summit offered 18 hours of transformative learning for Lorraine Ellison, a seasoned practice owner who found practical insights on leveraging AI tools for her firm. This free event challenged her…
Kayley Perry's article highlights how AI, specifically Claude, is revolutionising the month-end close for a $20 million manufacturing business using NetSuite.
Intuit's recent layoff of 3,000 employees raises concerns about the future of accounting roles in light of AI advancements. However, the cuts primarily affected middle management, not those directly involved in AI…
XeroForce is Xero's no-code AI agent builder: describe a workflow in plain English and it builds an agent that runs across Xero and connected apps, with every action logged. As at September 2026 it is in early access…
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