Yearly running cost Assuming 1,440 client months a year
By hand $86.4K / year 2,160 hours of work
Hosted service $185.8K+ / year
This workflow $164 / year Machine usage only; setup, hosting and review are extra. Should it write codes into your books? Review suggested codes from uploaded records, or post approved codes to your ledger.
One client month includes up to 400 bank and card transactions.
Suggest codes for review Upload records; review codes and client questions. $1,008 – 3,000 setup Connect my ledger Also read ledger records and post approved codes. $1,656 – 4,920 setup
Which ledger do your clients use?QuickBooks Online Xero Sage Intacct Other Your bookkeepers approve the codes, answer for the books and send client questions. It never reconciles, closes a period, pays or messages a client on its own.
What is included Read a client’s bank and card exports, suggest an account, class and vendor for each transaction with the reason, send uncertain items to a review list and draft the questions for the client.
Start with each client’s chart of accounts, your firm’s coding rules and a few months of transactions your bookkeepers already coded. The connected option reads uncategorised transactions from your ledger and posts the codes a bookkeeper approves.
How reliable should the coding be? Set targets for correct coding, fewer manual corrections and spotting items that need client input.
Standard Correct codes on familiar vendors and patterns, with new or unusual items left for a bookkeeper. Suggested codes accepted: ≥95% Coded without review: ≥75% Included Strict A second check on uncertain and large items and more tests on coded client months. Suggested codes accepted: ≥98% Coded without review: ≥75% Setup +$288 – 840 My own targets Agree your own acceptance requirements with the provider. Quote separately
How these standards are measured Test on held-out client months your bookkeepers already coded, across several clients and industries, including new vendors, transfers between the client’s own accounts, owner payments, refunds and split transactions. Measure accepted codes separately from the share coded without review. A code without a stated reason counts as a failure.
Targets for your selected standard What is checked Target Suggested codes acceptedTransactions where the suggested account, class and vendor match the bookkeeper’s labelled coding, divided by all transactions the workflow coded without sending them to review. ≥95% Coded without reviewTransactions given a suggested code without being sent to the review list, divided by all transactions in the test client months. Reported together with suggested codes accepted, so a high share cannot hide wrong codes. ≥75% Client questions foundLabelled transactions that need information from the client, such as an unexplained transfer or a payment with no matching vendor, that appear on the client question list, divided by all such labelled transactions. ≥90% Codes with a reasonEvery suggested code must state the rule, past coded entry or transaction description it relies on. ≥100%
Suggested codes are prepared work for a bookkeeper to approve. Your firm still owns the books, the reconciliation and the client relationship.
How quickly should a client’s month be coded? Choose how soon after the transactions arrive the suggested codes, review list and client questions are ready. Bookkeeper review time is separate.
Within 10 minutes Included Within 5 minutes Setup +$144 – 480 Within 2 minutes Setup +$288 – 840
Timing details Time from receiving a client’s month of transactions to the coded list, including rules, model calls, queueing and retries. Unusually busy months may need agreed limits. Confirm client count and hardware with your provider.
The target applies to at least 95% of agreed test runs, with 4 in progress at a time.
How much do you want to spend per client month? Set the AI processing budget for one client's monthly transactions.
Up to $1.00 Included Up to $0.60 Setup +$72 – 360 Up to $0.35 Setup +$216 – 600
Cost details Includes model calls, retries and a shared hosting allocation. Ledger subscriptions, bank feeds, your bookkeepers’ review time and the calling agent are separate. Re-coding a month after the client answers is another run.
Reference machine cost: $0.31 – 0.61 per client month at 120 client months a month. The selected cap is a target to test, not a replacement for this estimate.
Where do you want it to run? Run it in your cloud or on your own server. Choose whether transaction descriptions may go to an approved AI service.
Run it onYour cloud Local environment AI model accessApproved model API Private model only
Data and access details Runs in a cloud account your firm controls, with access by client team and access logs.
Only the transaction lines and chart of accounts needed for a suggestion go to the selected external model. Agree retention and confirm this fits your engagement letters and security plan.
Keep client ledgers, bank exports and coding history inside your environment. Send only the transaction lines and chart of accounts needed for a suggestion to the approved model, under agreed retention terms. Private model only keeps client data on your hardware; the connected option still reaches your own ledger.
How do you want to use it? Choose where you want to use it. You can select more than one.
A review web page Upload a client’s bank and card exports, accept or change the suggested codes and download the import file and client questions. Included My existing AI agent Let your current agent code a client’s month and read back the codes, the review list and the client questions. Setup +$72 – 240 A dedicated agent Use a dedicated agent that your bookkeepers ask to code a client, explain a suggestion or list open questions. Setup +$144 – 480