Staff spend the first two weeks of every month chasing clients for documents and re-keying what arrives. The requests and reminders run on a schedule, documents land where they belong, and the team closes books instead of collecting paper.
A firm with 80 monthly clients sends 80 sets of document requests and follows up on most of them. Statements, receipts and reports arrive by email, portal and text, in every format, and get filed by hand. Month-end runs from a checklist in a spreadsheet, and the checklist is only as current as the last person who updated it.
Client reports are built the same way every month and sent one at a time. Engagement renewals, tax deadlines and estimated payments are tracked in a calendar someone maintains by hand.
Call a fully loaded staff accountant $45,000 a year, as an illustration. Three staff spending a third of their month on collection, filing and checklists is about $45,000 a year of work with fixed rules and fixed dates.
We build document collection that runs itself. Each client has a list of what is due and when. Requests go out on schedule, reminders follow at the intervals you set, and the list updates as documents arrive. Staff see who is late, not who to email.
Arriving documents are filed to the right client and period based on the sender, the filename and the contents. Bank statements and receipts feed the bookkeeping system's import. Anything the rules cannot place goes on a short review list.
Month-end checklists live in a small web app instead of a spreadsheet. Tasks are assigned, dependencies are enforced, and the partner sees which clients are closed, which are stuck and why. Recurring client reports are generated and sent when the close is marked complete.
This is plain automation and a small app. We use newer tools only where they clearly earn their place, such as reading receipts that arrive as photos, and we tell you when we do.
The shape of a typical engagement, with the names left out. Hours are illustrations of what a team this size usually gets back.
Scenario 1
About 16 hours a week back
Before
Two staff spend the first week of the month emailing 80 clients for statements and receipts, then chasing. About a third of clients need three reminders. The close for those clients slips into the next month.
After
Requests and reminders go out automatically per client, and stop when the documents arrive. Staff get a daily list of who is still missing what. The close starts a week earlier.
Scenario 2
About 10 hours a week back
Before
Documents arrive by email, portal and text. Staff save each to the client's folder for the period, rename it, and import statements into the bookkeeping system by hand.
After
Every channel is watched. Documents are filed to the client and period by rule, and statements are imported. A short list of files that could not be placed waits for review.
Scenario 3
About 8 hours a week back
Before
The close runs from a shared spreadsheet. Nobody is sure which client is at which step. Reports are built and emailed by hand once a client is done, and a few go out late every month.
After
A small app tracks each client's close, step by step, with owners and due dates. When the last step is checked, the client's report package is generated and sent. The partner sees the whole firm's status on one screen.
Plain automation
Automate chasing invoices, statements and signatures
Reminders go out on schedule. The team sees only the accounts that need a conversation.
Automation, AI where needed
Automate renaming, sorting and filing documents that arrive by email
They land in the right place, named the right way, the moment they arrive.
Plain automation
Automate anything your team does from a checklist every day
The routine steps run on their own. The person handles the two that need a decision.
Plain automation
Automate the weekly report that only one person knows how to build
It builds itself every Monday at 6am. Nobody has to know how anymore.
Set to a typical team doing this work by hand. Change it to match yours.
People doing this work
3
Hours each, per week
Half an hour counts. 40 is a full week.
12
Fully loaded cost per person, per year
Salary, benefits, taxes, overhead. $45,000 is an illustration; set it to yours.
$45,000
Time spent on this task
36 hrs / week
About 1,872 hours a year of a person's time.
These figures show the value of time spent on the task, not a project quote or guaranteed cash savings. We will help estimate what can realistically be automated.
Not sure which task first?
Half a day with your team. Every task, ranked by what it costs you.
The Automation Inventory. $500, credited in full toward your first build. Optional: if you already know the task, the evaluation and the quote are free.
Every morning, every Friday, or every time an order comes in. Small tasks and larger workflows are both welcome. The evaluation is free, and if we take it on, the first deliverable is running in your operation within 14 days, guaranteed.
Free evaluation. Fixed quote before work begins.
