How AI automation tools help you build a more effective accounting firm

Technological change is nothing new in the accounting world. We’ve seen the progressions that cloud and digital technology have brought to practice management and the overall efficiency of your firm. But are you up to speed with the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) tools?

AI solutions and process automation sit at the heart of an effective digital practice in 2023. With your manual workload reduced, your practice team has more time for building client relationships, analysing client information and offering the very best advice. 

So, let’s see some of the key ways that AI can help you run a smoother practice. That's where Pixie accounting practice management software comes in. Pixie has been adopted by 20,000 accounting practices across the globe. That’s because it enables you to gain visibility over your staff's work, boost efficiency, and empower your team to work smarter. 

Here we’ll explore three ways Pixie helps you get a better understanding of your staff's work and enhances their productivity.

1. Automatic task creation and team to-do lists

Managing the workload for each engagement can be a time-consuming and complex business. With deadlines to meet, and accounts and returns to be filed, there’s a constant need to have a clear view of progress on a job, and an easy way to manage the completion of tasks.

Pixie’s practice management platform has built-inbuilt in smart automation tools that use AI to automate the whole process of task creation and workflow management.

Pixie’s automation tools will:

• Auto-generate all of your recurring to-do lists for each client engagement
• Set-up a task list with all the relevant tasks, deadlines and compliance steps
• Tie the tasks to the when the workflows need to happen, based on the dates you set
• Give each team member a clear view of their current tasks and progress.
• Everyone who needs it has visibility of it. It’s nicely linked to client deliverables
  
  

2. Automated client notifications and reminders

Your business clients are busy people whose focus is on managing the day-to-day operational running of their business. To get these clients up to date with their deadlines and compliance responsibilities, you’ll end up spending a lot of time sending out manual reminders.

Our automatic client reminders make Pixie your smart reminder centre, making it easier to send notifications re client tasks, without the time-consuming sending of manual emails.

Pixie’s client notification tools will:

• Allow you to add auto-email templates into your workflows for each client
• Send out automated reminder emails to clients on the appointed date
• Request client feedback and satisfaction scores at the end of an engagement
• Save you hours of time by automating the entire client notification process.
  
  Related: How Pixie helped Innoventum to standardise their client communication and cut the time to do things by up to 50%

3. Populate and update client records automatically

Updating your client records, engagement notes and sales/marketing notes can be a laborious task for your team. But with the power of AI automation, you can let the software take care of the data entry. This keeps your customer relationship management (CRM) system up to date and provides the best possible overview of your interactions with each client.

The automation of data entry, document filing and recordkeeping is an enormous boost for your practice efficiency, with the software taking on most of the heavy lifting.

Pixie’s automated client recordkeeping tools will:

• Automatically save client emails and files to the relevant client records
• Directly integrate with Companies House to automatically import data into client records
• Give you a central place to add notes, comments and other important information
• Provide a centralised cloud-based CRM hub to view all client information, in one place
  
  

4. The evolution of AI tools, digital assistants and automation

Smart automation of recurring tasks and functions is a game-changer for a busy accounting firm. But this automation is only the beginning when it comes to the value that AI may be able to bring to your practice management and firm efficiency in the future. 

As the evolution of AI progresses, your firm will be able to:

• Automate your practice management with smart assistants – Co-pilot is Pixie’s new AutoGPT-powered AI assistant. This smart AI assistant can automatically gather client information, respond to client queries and send out reminders or tax forms etc. 
  
  
• Automate your marketing content and client communications – natural language engines like ChatGPT and Google Bard help you write professional-sounding emails, marketing materials and client-facing communications, in an instant. 
  
  
• Automate your client support with voice AI assistants – voice AI tools like Alex from Curious Thing can take client calls, answer FAQs and record queries. Instead of your practice team answering the phone, AI can become your first-tier client support. 
  
  
• Automate your supplier bill payments – tools like Weel or Soldo makes it incredibly easy to automate your billing and staff expenses. AI takes care of processing the invoice and making payment, and staff can use cards to pay for ad-hoc expenses.  
  
  
• Automate clients’ bookkeeping and document saving – using AI apps like Dext Prepare or Docyt helps you automate the clients back-office recordkeeping and bookkeeping. Paper receipts are digitised and e-invoices processed in an instant. 

Pixie: putting practice automation tools at your fingertips

At Pixie, our goal is to get your firm running like clockwork, with all the tools you need to run your practice available in one simple, flexible practice management tool. We’ve already added a host of smart automation and AI features to our software – but there will be more to come.

As AI technology advances, you can be sure that we’ll be first to bring the newest AI tools and assistants to the Pixie platform, helping you get the very best from your accounting firm. Try Pixie today and unlock the power of accounting productivity workflow management.

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