Professional services

Partners stop answering 'what was that December transaction?'

Client queries flow into a triage layer that pulls the relevant Xero / QuickBooks data, drafts a response with the answer, and only escalates when there's real judgement to apply.

Client
UK 30-partner accountancy practice
Build time
7 weeks to production
Headline outcome
Client queries handled without a partner
The problem

Practices juggle 500-2,000 clients across a handful of partners. Inbox volume is the bottleneck: 60% of queries are 'can you explain this transaction', 'what's my VAT position', 'send me last year's accounts'. Partners do £200/hr work answering £20/hr questions. Juniors could do it, but the supply of juniors willing to sit on email isn't there.

The system

A client-aware intake layer. Each inbound email is matched to a client record, routed to the right workflow (query, VAT, accounts request, new engagement), and resolved where possible by querying the accounting system directly. Drafted responses land in the partner's inbox, accept, tweak, send. Management accounts drafts generate from trial balance on a schedule.

How it runs

The workflow, end to end.

01

Client matching + classification

Every email is matched to a client in the practice management system and classified: transaction query, VAT, tax planning, accounts request, new business.

02

Data fetch from accounting system

For transaction and VAT queries, the pipeline queries Xero / QuickBooks / Sage directly to pull the relevant records.

03

Draft response

Claude drafts a response with the data attached, explained in plain English, citing source ledger entries. Partner signs off.

04

Management accounts generation

Monthly trial balance + prior period data generates a first-draft management accounts pack with commentary on variances above threshold.

05

Practice management write-back

Time is logged automatically to the client matter. Partner sign-off closes the loop.

Outcomes

What it moves.

~65%
Queries resolved without partner
-2.5h
Avg partner email time / day
-60%
Management accounts prep time
+30%
Clients served per partner
Stack

What it's built on.

  • Xero / QuickBooks / Sage APIs
  • Microsoft Graph API (inbox)
  • Claude (classification + drafting)
  • Karbon / IRIS integration
  • Postgres
AccountancyProfessional servicesBookkeeping

Running a 10+ partner practice? Let's look at your inbox volume.

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