The Accountant’s AI Toolbox
In the fast-paced world of accounting, artificial intelligence (AI) is starting to shake things up, offering new tools to make accountants' jobs easier and more efficient. While many of these cutting-edge tools are still in the testing phase or mainly available in places like the UK and US, it's only a matter of time before they reach South Africa. This article dives into several AI-driven tools that promise to help accountants everywhere. Whether tackling tax issues, streamlining office tasks, or sorting through financial data, these AI solutions are gearing up to transform the way accountants work, making everyday tasks quicker and more accurate.
Key AI Tools for Accountants
Tax-Related AI Tools
Tax on Demand: This innovative tool extracts tax and accounting data from year-end accounts and runs it through decision engines to conduct ongoing tax reviews across a client base. Currently in beta testing, Tax on Demand utilises a large language model trained on UK tax guidance, making it easier for accountants to stay updated with compliance and optimise tax strategies.
Example Usage: An accountant could use Tax on Demand to automatically review a client's financials and identify potential tax savings or discrepancies before filing, ensuring compliance and maximizing deductions without manual oversight.
Tax Terrapin: Developed by ANNA Money, Tax Terrapin is a chatbot trained on the UK tax laws and notices. This tool provides instant, accurate responses to business tax queries, helping accountants quickly resolve common issues without sifting through manuals or online resources.
Example Usage: When an accountant receives a query about VAT rates for a new product line, they can use Tax Terrapin to get immediate, authoritative answers without searching through the revenue service's manuals.
TaxAI: Powered by Adsum, TaxAI is another chatbot that answers a broad spectrum of tax-related questions. By linking directly to the guidance it uses, TaxAI ensures that accountants have access to the latest information, enhancing decision-making and client service.
Example Usage: When a UK accountant receives a query about zero rated VAT rates for a new product line, they can use Tax Terrapin to get immediate, authoritative answers without searching through HMRC's manuals.
Wolters Kluwer CCH: Their intelligent automation system for personal tax products automates the extraction and categorization of tax data from client documents. This reduces the time advisors spend on manual data entry, significantly boosting productivity.
Example Usage: An accountant could leverage this system to process multiple client tax returns at once, reducing the manual data entry and increasing the accuracy of the processed returns.
CustomGPTs: Leveraging OpenAI's GPT technology, accountants can upload governmental documentation and query it for specific insights. This custom approach allows for efficient analysis of extensive documents, such as the Treasury's Autumn Statement, without manual review.
Example Usage: After a new budget release, an accountant could use Custom GPTs to analyse the document and prepare a summary of impacts for all clients, identifying specific changes in tax laws that affect different sectors.
Practice Management Tools
Pixie: Both in the UK and US, Pixie's cloud-based practice management tool includes an AI-driven Co-Pilot. This feature can draft email responses, extract relevant documents, and create workflows, significantly reducing the administrative burden on accountants.
Example Usage: An accountant could use Pixie's Co-Pilot to automatically draft and send follow-up emails to clients who haven't provided necessary documents, saving time and ensuring consistent communication.
Karbon: With Karbon AI, this tool drafts client responses, auto-prioritizes inboxes, and modifies the tone of communications. It represents a step forward in using AI to enhance client interactions and streamline daily tasks.
Example Usage: An accountant overwhelmed with emails could use Karbon AI to prioritize client messages by urgency and draft preliminary responses, streamlining their workflow and reducing response times.
Canopy: Integrating with ChatGPT, Canopy allows users to draft emails by adding keywords and adjusting formality with a single click. It also offers quick rephrasing and grammar corrections, enhancing communication efficiency.
Example Usage: An accountant could use Canopy to draft a professional email to a new client, using specific keywords to customize the message while maintaining a formal tone, all within a few clicks.
Accounts Receivable
Chaser: This AR platform uses AI to determine the best times to contact clients via email or text, optimizing collection efforts. By predicting optimal contact times, Chaser helps businesses improve their collection rates and maintain better cash flow.
Example Usage: An accountant managing several overdue accounts could use Chaser to schedule reminder emails or texts when clients are most likely to respond, improving the chances of collecting overdue payments efficiently
Transaction Coding
Clearbooks: Clearbooks employs an AI-powered engine to suggest the appropriate accounting treatments for receipts captured by its Auto Bills function. This facilitates accurate and efficient transaction categorization, streamlining the bookkeeping process.
Example Usage: An accountant could use Clearbooks to automatically categorize hundreds of uploaded receipt images into the correct expense categories, ensuring accurate and consistent bookkeeping with minimal manual intervention.
Data Analysis
Silverfin: This tool embeds an AI assistant within its platform to run automated checks on accounting data, highlighting outliers or potential opportunities. Silverfin’s proactive approach allows accountants to address issues or capitalise on insights quickly.
Example Usage: An accountant could use Silverfin to automatically scan a client's ledger for unusual transactions that could indicate errors or fraudulent activity, allowing for quick corrective action.
Rows AI: Described as a "number-crunching sidekick," Rows AI integrates the power of ChatGPT into spreadsheets without the need for scripts or add-ons, making complex data analysis more accessible.
Example Usage: An accountant could use Rows AI to analyze complex financial models and forecasts in spreadsheets, asking natural language questions to explore various scenarios and their impacts on the financial projections.
Audit Tools
Mindbridge: This tool uses AI to analyze entire datasets, identifying transaction patterns and risk levels across accounts. By providing a comprehensive view of transactional risk, Mindbridge helps auditors make more informed decisions.
Example Usage: During an audit, an accountant could use Mindbridge to review all transactions for a given period, quickly identifying high-risk transactions that require further investigation, thus streamlining the audit process.
Datasnipper: Positioned as an intelligent automation system within Excel, datasnipper allows users to extract and validate data across various documents, enhancing the audit process.
Example Usage: An accountant could use datasnipper to extract and cross-reference invoice information against payment records within Excel, ensuring accuracy and identifying discrepancies without manual checks.
Engine B: This tool automates the standardisation of client data, sorting and formatting it for analysis. Engine B enables auditors to efficiently map client data to financial statements from the start of an audit.
Example Usage: An auditor could use Engine B to standardize various client data formats into a unified model, simplifying the initial stages of an audit and reducing the time spent on data preparation.
Circit: An audit confirmations platform that verifies assets directly at the source. Circit ensures that auditors have accurate and reliable data for their analyses.
Example Usage: An accountant performing an audit could use Circit to directly confirm bank balances and investments with the respective institutions, ensuring the reliability of the audit evidence.
Excel and Big Players in the AI Scene
Excel Integration with AI: Excel MVP Leila Gharani demonstrates how to connect Excel to OpenAI's ChatGPT, enabling users to create chatbots, write formulas, and analyse financial statements directly within Excel.
Intuit: Intuit Assist, a generative AI-powered financial assistant, helps users identify cash flow issues, top-selling products, and spending anomalies across QuickBooks Online and other Intuit brands.
Xero: Announced at its global conference, Xero's AI-driven products enhance predictions in bank reconciliation and provide faster support solutions through Xero Central.
Sage: Sage is developing AI tools not just to automate but to transform how accountants interact with software. Upcoming products include a digital assistant for various tasks and tools to detect duplicate or fraudulent transactions.
FreeAgent: Using AI since June 2020, FreeAgent helps accountants save time and improve accuracy in explaining bank transactions.
Miscellaneous and Content Writing Tools
AzoraOne API: This API learns data entry patterns, including account coding, for integration with any accounting software, aiding in the automation of routine tasks.
Example Usage: A large accounting firm could use the AzoraOne API to customize and automate the data entry process for all incoming documents, significantly reducing the time spent on manual coding.
Hyperwrite: As an automated AI personal assistant, Hyperwrite organises emails, books flights, and even finds job candidates on LinkedIn, streamlining administrative tasks for accountants.
Example Usage: An accountant could use Hyperwrite to manage their email inbox efficiently, automatically drafting responses to common queries and scheduling appointments without leaving the email interface.
ChatGPT and Jasper AI: These tools are used for drafting emails, writing blogs, creating imagery, and more, based on user prompts. They help in preparing initial drafts and refining content.
Example Usage: An accountant might ask ChatGPT to draft a client letter about an upcoming fee increase due to inflation, ensuring the message is clear, professional, and empathetic.
Grammarly: Known for correcting typos and grammatical errors, Grammarly now includes an AI co-creator to compose, rewrite, and reply to texts efficiently.
Example Usage: An accountant writing a report could use Grammarly's AI co-creator to enhance the clarity and impact of their writing, ensuring the final document is error-free and easy to understand.
Video and Audio Tools
Veed: This tool adds subtitles, transcriptions, and extracts blog posts from recorded videos, enhancing content creation.
Fireflies.ai: An AI assistant for meetings, Fireflies.ai generates transcripts, summaries, and action points for virtual meetings, improving record-keeping and follow-up.
Otter.ai: Otter.ai records audio, writes notes, and captures action items, aiding in efficient meeting management.
Synthesia: An AI video generator that allows users to create customized videos by typing scripts and choosing avatars, facilitating personalized video content creation.
Scribe: Scribe turns any process into a step-by-step guide using AI, helpful for writing instructions for staff or clients.
Conclusion
AI tools are redefining the accounting profession, making tasks quicker, more accurate, and less cumbersome. By adopting these tools, accountants can focus on strategic activities and provide higher value services. As the technology evolves, staying updated with these tools will be key to maintaining a competitive edge in the accounting field.