Twelve ideas for AI in a small or medium accounting practice.
Practical starting points, not finished products. Each one is a job most practices already do where AI is genuinely worth piloting. Pick the one that matches a workflow your team quietly loses hours to, and use it as a brief for what the work could look like instead.
Use cases
Year-end advisory reviews
The workflow drafts the advisory summary against every year-end file. The partner signs off.
Advisory letters and client queries
The workflow drafts the letter, the email reply, the follow-up. The partner signs, the client gets a same-day response.
Client bank reconciliation
Hand the workflow the month's export and the bank feed. It matches, flags, and drafts correcting journals.
AML and client onboarding
Identity documents, Companies House data, risk questions. The workflow assembles the onboarding pack.
Client retention, not client acquisition
The workflow builds a five-year practice revenue projection. Retention rate, average client value, acquisition rate. Drag either lever and the curve redraws.
Practice budget scenarios, side by side
Type the practice cost split and the variable that might change. The workflow draws three scenarios side by side with a toggle between pounds and percentages.
Tax planning options in one view
The workflow plots every planning option for a client against four axes. Tax saving, implementation complexity, HMRC risk, partner time required. The client sees the reasoning alongside the recommendation.
Chart practice data before you commit
Upload a CSV of time recording, client profitability, recovery rates, or WIP. The workflow builds the correlation grid inline and flags the patterns worth a second look.
Visualise a tax calculation in the client meeting
The workflow builds the interactive visual inline as you talk through the client's position. Sliders the client drags. Marginal rates, dividend versus salary, pension, Business Asset Disposal Relief thresholds.
Review a commercial contract for a client
Upload the contract. The workflow flags clauses affecting the client's tax position, commercial risk, and reporting obligations. Redlines, negotiation points, HMRC citations. Formatted for the client.
Explain a tax concept once, reuse forever
Work through how you explain payments on account, AIA, or MTD ITSA. The workflow sketches the visual as you talk. First time for the advisory call. After that, a reusable asset every client handler drops into the next conversation.
Map HMRC guidance on a contested point
Attach the HMRC manuals, case law summaries, and ICAEW guidance. The workflow draws the argument structure inline. Clusters by position, tension lines where views disagree, blind spots per camp.