Finance admin that quietly eats the week
Most small businesses do not have a finance problem. They have a finance admin problem. The invoices go out late because someone has to pull the hours or the job details together first. Payment reminders depend on whoever remembers to send them, and they tend to be sent in a hurry or not at all. Receipts sit in inboxes and coat pockets until the end of the quarter, when somebody loses an afternoon matching them up.
None of this work is difficult. It is just repetitive, easy to put off and surprisingly expensive when it slips. A late invoice usually means late payment, and an unchased debt can drift for weeks before anyone notices. Approvals for purchase orders bounce around email chains and hold up suppliers.
Invoice automation takes the routine steps off your plate and leaves the decisions with you. Your accounting software stays the single source of truth, and the automations simply make sure the right thing happens at the right time.
What we automate
Invoices raised from the work you have already logged
When a job is marked complete, an order is fulfilled or a timesheet is approved, a draft invoice is created in Xero or QuickBooks with the right customer, items and terms. You can choose to review drafts before they go, or let routine invoices send on their own.
Payment reminders on a schedule
A friendly reminder a few days before the due date, a polite nudge once it is overdue and a firmer note later on. You set the timing and the wording, and the sequence stops as soon as the invoice is marked paid.
Receipts and bills captured from email
Supplier bills and receipts that arrive by email are picked up, read and passed to Xero or QuickBooks, or to a tool such as Dext, ready for your bookkeeper to check and publish.
One-click purchase order approvals
Instead of a chain of emails, the person who needs to approve gets a short message with the key details and two buttons: approve or query. The decision is logged automatically.
A weekly aged debt summary
Every Monday, a short email shows who owes what, how overdue it is and which reminders have already gone out, so you only step in where a personal call will make a difference.
New customer and supplier setup
Details collected through a simple form are checked and added to your accounts system, so contacts are created consistently and nobody types the same information twice.
Bank feed suggestions for review
AI can suggest how regular transactions should be coded, based on how you have coded them before. Every suggestion is there for a person to accept or change. Nothing is posted without review.
Example workflow. This shows the kind of thing we build. It is not a client result.
Before: invoices are checked by hand at the end of each week. Reminders go out when someone has time, the wording changes every time and overdue accounts are only spotted when cash feels tight.
After: an invoice passes its due date and a friendly reminder is sent from your own email address, with the invoice attached and a payment link. If it is still unpaid a week later, a firmer reminder follows. If the customer replies, the sequence pauses and the reply lands with the right person. Each Monday you get a one-page summary of anything still outstanding, with a suggested next step for each account.
Built around the tools you already use
We connect Xero or QuickBooks to your email, your job or order system and, where it helps, a receipt capture tool. The automations run on platforms such as n8n or Make, which means you can see every step, and they can be changed as your process changes. Where possible we keep everything inside your existing accounts so that you own the setup and the data.
How it works
- Kickstart audit. We look at how invoices, reminders, receipts and approvals work today and where the time actually goes.
- Pick the quick wins. Together we choose the one or two automations that will save the most effort with the least disruption. For many businesses that starts with payment reminders.
- We build it and train your team. We set it up, test it with real but low-risk examples, and show your team how to check, pause and adjust it.
- Monthly support and improvement. As the first flows settle in, we add the next one, and we keep an eye on anything that needs attention.
Which package fits
AI Kickstart (£495 one-off) is the right place to start if you want to scope the work properly. You will come away with a clear picture of what to automate first.
AI Team Upskill (£795/month, 3-month minimum) includes one quick-win automation plan for you to implement a month, so you could start with payment reminders, then receipt capture, then the weekly debt summary, while your team learns to use AI in the rest of their work.
AI Partner (from £2,500/month, 3-month minimum) suits businesses that want a complete finance admin setup built and maintained for them, including reporting dashboards that show cash flow and aged debt at a glance.
Your accountant stays in charge of the numbers
Invoice automation is about the admin around the accounts, not the accounting itself. Your bookkeeper or accountant still reviews, reconciles and advises. In practice, they usually find the books are tidier and more up to date, because receipts are captured as they arrive and invoices go out on time. We are happy to talk your accountant through what has been set up before anything goes live.
If you are not sure where to begin, tell us which part of your finance admin you put off most. That is usually the best first automation.