What AI gets wrong in an accountancy practice
The same request, answered twice by the same AI. The first answer is built only from what's on file: the client list, the bank feed, the engagement letter. The second also has what your team knows.
Most of what makes the second answer right lives in your most experienced people's heads, and it leaves with them unless someone writes it down.
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Chasing records
“Send the reminder to every client who hasn't sent their records for the January deadline.”
Without your context
One email to all 23 clients on the outstanding list, asking them to send everything by the end of the month.
With it
Not the Pattersons, or three others on that list: their records come through their bookkeepers, and they arrived last week. They're sitting in the shared inbox, unfiled. Send 19 reminders, and file the other four first.
- What it was missing
- Which clients' records arrive through someone else, and an inbox nobody owns.
- What it costs
- Nagging emails to clients who did everything right, while the real backlog stays out of sight.
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A worried client
“A client has forwarded an HMRC letter about a missing payment. Draft a reply.”
Without your context
Sorry for the worry. It looks like a payment may have been missed, so please pay the outstanding amount as soon as possible to avoid penalties.
With it
Nothing was missed. He's paying in monthly instalments under the Time to Pay arrangement we helped him set up with HMRC in March, and this letter crossed with his latest payment. Tell him not to pay again, and that we'll confirm it with HMRC.
- What it was missing
- The payment plan the practice helped him set up, and when the instalments go out.
- What it costs
- A client paying twice, and losing faith in the practice that told him to.
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Categorising transactions
“Categorise last month's bank transactions for the café.”
Without your context
£1,200 to J. Murphy: wages.
With it
J. Murphy is the landlord's son. That's the rent: the landlord asked for it to go to his son's account from August.
- What it was missing
- A change agreed on a phone call and never written down.
- What it costs
- Rent booked as wages, payroll figures that don't add up, and accounts that are wrong before anyone has looked at them.
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Extra work
“A client wants us to register her for VAT this week. Draft a reply confirming.”
Without your context
Happy to help. We'll get you registered for VAT this week.
With it
VAT registration isn't in her engagement letter, so it's extra at our hourly rate. Her turnover is well under the threshold too, so check she really wants to register voluntarily before we do anything.
- What it was missing
- What her engagement letter covers, and what her turnover actually is.
- What it costs
- Work done for free outside the agreed fee, or a client registered for VAT she didn't need.
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Preparing for a review
“Summarise what we need to cover at Mr Hale's annual review on Thursday.”
Without your context
Turnover is up 12% on last year. Suggested topics: pension contributions, next year's payments on account, and the van finance.
With it
He's planning to sell the business next spring. He told the partner in a phone call in August and asked us to keep it from his son, who does the books and will be at the meeting. Cover the routine items, and book the sale conversation separately.
- What it was missing
- A confidential phone call that never made it into the client file.
- What it costs
- Raising the sale in front of the one person he asked you not to tell.
More examples from other kinds of business → · Shop· Trades· Agency· Clinic· Hospitality
If any of those sound familiar, the fastest way to find your version of it is the Context Audit: one 90-minute session, a written brief back on what's going wrong and why.
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