Automation
Bookkeeping automation: what is worth automating, in what order, and what stays with your accountant
For most UK businesses the order that returns the most is: bank feeds and rules first, then sales invoicing, then payment chasing, then purchase invoice capture, then reporting. The first three are usually already included in the accounting package you pay for.
Automating chasing starts at £650. Joining your accounting package to the systems where the work actually happens starts at £1,950. Your accountant is not the thing being automated, and a business that thinks otherwise is about to have an expensive year.
Start with what you already pay for
The single most common finding here is that a business is paying for an accounting package and using perhaps a third of it. Bank feeds, transaction rules, recurring invoices, automatic payment reminders and reconciliation suggestions are included in most current UK packages and are switched off or unconfigured.
Turning those on is free, takes an afternoon, and removes more manual work than anything you could buy. Do it before you buy or build anything. Any supplier who skips past this step to sell you something has told you what they are.
The order that returns the most
1. Bank feeds and rules
Transactions arrive automatically and the repetitive ones categorise themselves. Free, included, and the foundation for everything after it, because reporting built on a messy ledger is confident nonsense.
2. Sales invoicing
Invoices raised from the thing that caused them rather than typed again: the job, the order, the completed booking, the signed contract. If somebody is reading one screen and typing into another, that is the join to fix. Connecting them starts at £1,950 and it removes a whole class of error as well as the typing.
3. Chasing what you are owed
The highest return per pound on this list, and the one most businesses do worst. Polite, scheduled, escalating reminders that stop the moment payment arrives. Most accounting packages do a basic version; where it needs to be cleverer, or to escalate to a person, that is a single automation from £650.
The reason it is worth doing properly is not the admin time. It is that being consistently and unemotionally chased moves you up somebody's payment run, and nobody is offended by a system.
4. Purchase invoices
Reading supplier invoices so nobody types them. Worth it above roughly 50 to 100 a month, and covered properly in invoice OCR and data capture.
5. Reporting
Last, deliberately. A dashboard built on a ledger nobody trusts produces confident wrong answers faster, which is worse than no dashboard. Once the first four are in place, reporting is genuinely useful and usually cheap, because the data is finally in one shape. Where three systems disagree about the same number, joining them starts at £1,950.
What stays with a person
Judgement. What is capital and what is revenue, whether a cost is allowable, how to treat something unusual, and every decision that has a right answer only in context. Software categorises what it has seen before, confidently, including when it is wrong.
Your accountant is not the process being removed here. What automation removes is the low-value preparation that currently fills their time and your bill: chasing receipts, correcting categories, reconciling things that should have reconciled themselves. Businesses that automate the preparation usually get better advice for the same money, because the person is spending their hours on the part that needed a person.
And month-end review stays human. Something looking at every ledger and saying nothing is not the same as somebody looking once a month and asking why that number moved.
What it costs
| Step | Cost | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Bank feeds, rules, reminders | Included | In most current UK packages. Configure before buying anything. |
| Payment chasing, done properly | From £650 | Best return per pound on this list. |
| Joining accounting to your job or order system | From £1,950 | Removes retyping and a whole class of error. |
| Reporting across systems that disagree | From £1,950 | Only worth doing after the ledger is trustworthy. |
Who this is not for
Very small businesses, where the whole finance function is two hours a month and automating it is a hobby. Businesses mid-way through changing accounting package, who should finish that first. And anyone hoping to replace an accountant, which is not what this does and not what you want it to.
If you want the order worked out for your business specifically, that is what the free systems audit produces: where the hours go, what to automate, what to buy, and what to leave alone.
Questions I get asked about this
What should a business automate first in bookkeeping?
Bank feeds and transaction rules, which are included in most current UK accounting packages and are frequently left unconfigured. Then sales invoicing raised from the job or order rather than retyped, then payment chasing, then purchase invoice capture, then reporting.
How much does bookkeeping automation cost?
The first steps are usually included in the accounting subscription you already hold. Automating payment chasing properly starts at £650. Joining your accounting package to the system where the work actually happens, so invoices are raised from the job, starts at £1,950.
Will automation replace my accountant?
No, and it should not try to. Automation removes the low-value preparation that fills their time and your bill: chasing receipts, correcting categories, reconciling what should have reconciled itself. Most businesses get better advice for the same money afterwards.
Why is reporting last?
Because a dashboard built on a ledger nobody trusts produces confident wrong answers faster than no dashboard at all. Once feeds, invoicing, chasing and capture are in place the data is in one shape, and reporting becomes both useful and cheap.