Digi-Tools In Accrual World

Indi Tatla, Ryan Pearcy, John Toon
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The go-to place for all things cloud accounting and digital. Find out the latest in accounting app news and exclusive interviews with cloud pioneers in the accounting industry.

  1. 1d ago

    Practice management, data privacy and why the Maple Review matters for accountants

    ohn Toon, Eriona Bajrakurtaj, and Leigh Stallard cover FYI's first AI features, two separate Xero conversations, BrightPay Oscar, Sodium, Record OS and the Maple Review.   FYI has added its first AI features, built around the existing automation layer rather than added on top as a chatbot. Firms that have properly embedded the product will benefit most. It runs on AWS Bedrock, which doesn't retain data or train models, which the hosts consider important for client confidentiality.   Xero comes up twice. First, incremental bank rec improvements: view, add and delete files and change account codes in the reconcile screen, search by payment reference, and upload multiple files through the accounting app. Then a more uncomfortable story: Xero sent an email to all users saying "your Xero numbers are now in Claude," which alarmed a lot of people. The hosts work through what the integration actually means, who owns client data when it flows through a third-party LLM, and what the GDPR implications are. John explains the difference between read-only MCP connections and write access, using the example of a US marketing company whose entire database was deleted by Claude Code overnight. Eriona raises what happens when Xero moves from sharing insights to taking actions - she has already seen Claude ask to take control of her computer mid-session.   BrightPay's Oscar gets a revisit after Accounting Web covered early adopter feedback. Mark Francis of Francis Bookkeeping Solutions reported that onboarding which previously took one to two weeks now takes five to ten minutes. Eriona is cautious about how this translates for small-client practices where the business owner, not an HR team, is handling the process. Leigh then covers Sodium adding billing and walks through the commercial logic: a slice of payment processing interchange could nearly double their average revenue per customer. John uses it to open a debate on why practice management has never been solved - and all three agree it probably never will be.   Record OS has launched publicly after raising £2 million in pre-seed funding. The model pairs AI data capture with a qualified tax professional reviewing the return before submission, priced at £125 for a standard self-assessment filing. Eriona's concern is whether the economics hold when cases get complex. John is more optimistic, arguing it represents a shift from human capital cost to product cost in compliance work. Leigh adds the sharpest point: Record OS is one government policy change away from not having a business model, and the same risk applies to any practice built mainly on compliance.   Also covered: FreeAgent's new landlord statement upload feature ahead of MTD; Plaid opening its MCP server to AI agents for bank feed diagnostics, with Eriona and John debating how comfortable they are with AI that close to financial infrastructure; Brief's latest update, including a UI overhaul, AI client profiles, two-way client scoring and automated group check-ins; and the Maple Review, a government report on barriers to entrepreneurship in the UK. All three back its recommendations on financial and business education in schools, and Xero gets a namecheck for supporting the report.   00:00 Intro and Disruptor Awards 01:54 Episode preview 02:52 Check-ins 06:35 FYI: First AI features 09:52 Xero: Bank rec improvements 11:45 Xero meets Claude: Data, privacy and agentic risk 15:09 BrightPay Oscar: AI employee onboarding 18:58 Sodium: Practice management and billing 24:30 FreeAgent: Landlord statement upload 26:19 Plaid: AI agents and bank feed diagnostics 28:23 Brief: Client relationships, scoring and check-ins 31:48 Record OS: Self-assessment productised 38:13 The Maple Review 46:12 Outro

    51 min

  2. Jun 15

    What the AI adoption numbers actually mean for your practice

    Indi and Ryan are joined by Kevin Fitzgerald covering VAT workflow improvements, AI payroll onboarding, the month-end close race, and a blunt conversation about why most accounting professionals still are not using AI at all. FreeAgent has shipped VAT return improvements timed to the April 2026 MTD rollout for sole traders and landlords. Kevin notes that FreeAgent's position within NatWest Group gives it a natural route to compliance ownership of the SMEs it serves. Ryan observes that FreeAgent and Sage are now competing on functionality that Xero and Intuit have largely left behind as they moved upmarket. Dext has added Core Guidance to AI Assist, a pre-configured library of compliance-aligned bookkeeping rules that firms can activate per client without any setup work. Indi argues that setup friction has been the real enemy of AI adoption, and Ryan, despite being the self-declared cynic, concedes it is a strong release. The conversation turns to a harder question: if firms are training the Dext engine through their own decisions, are accountants teaching the software vendor how to do their job? Bright has launched Oscar, an AI onboarding agent that contacts new starters via WhatsApp, collects P45s, bank details and right-to-work documents, and passes everything to BrightPay for review. A process that takes up to seven days is reduced to 1.5 hours. Kevin questions whether that saving justifies packaging as a chargeable service. Ryan challenges the WhatsApp security model before the source article confirms the interaction sits behind a Bright login. Kevin also explains how Employment Hero is building Hero AI, with compliance agents that can read employment contracts and surface risk across the business. MIMO has extended Associate into bank and balance sheet reconciliation. Indi explains the logic: to make its receivables financing work downstream, MIMO needed the upstream data layer to be reliable first. Ryan notes that period close is the story everyone in accounting tech is chasing, and the question is not who gets there first but who builds it well enough to change how accountants work. Kevin leads a direct conversation on the AI skills gap. Fifty-eight per cent of finance departments report skills gaps, 19% of accounting professionals use AI daily, and 70% have never used AI at work. Ryan offers four structural reasons: productivity targets that penalise learning time, the cost and data sensitivity of paid tools, centralised training cultures that resist independent exploration, and a shortage of accounting-specific AI guidance. Also covered: Zoho Books is bringing a summer roadshow to six UK cities covering MTD, corporation tax and AI for practices. Ryan highlights Trove, a bootstrapped Xero credit control app launched in late 2024, claiming a 60% reduction in overdue invoices. This episode is supported by Employment Hero, an AI-powered HR, payroll and recruitment platform for UK businesses. employmenthero.co.uk This episode is also supported by SuiteFiles, practice management and document automation software for accounting firms. suitefiles.com 00:00 Welcome to Digi-Tools in Accrual World 02:53 FreeAgent updates its VAT workflow as MTD for Income Tax goes live for the first wave of users 05:31 Dext adds a compliance-aligned baseline to AI Assist 11:51 Zoho Books brings a free summer roadshow to six UK cities for practices 14:27 Bright launches Oscar, an AI payroll onboarding agent that works via WhatsApp 19:49 Bright's CTO on why the firm mapped compliance workflows before shipping any AI 27:54 MIMO extends Associate into bank and balance sheet reconciliation 32:58 Trove cuts overdue invoices by 60% for early Xero adopters 36:05 SuiteFiles launches AI Smart Templates to automate placeholder field recognition 38:14 Only one in five accountants use AI daily.

    45 min

  3. Jun 8

    Starling Says 'Job Done.' The Accountants Disagree.

    Ryan Pearcy and Indi Tatla cover a big week in accounting tech, from Starling's contested MTD launch to Intuit cutting 3,000 jobs and Xero's push to own the workflow layer. Starling Bank launched Accounting Essentials in March, a free bookkeeping and MTD submission tool for sole traders and landlords built on its acquisition of Ember. Indi walks through Lucy Cohen's analysis, which found 18% of entries in a fully reconciled ledger had no corresponding bank entry for the same period. That raises serious questions about what happens when AI-categorised bank data is the primary input for MTD submissions. Ryan notes that Starling had built a strong accountant partner channel and the "job done" framing has damaged those relationships. Neither host disputes the product's convenience. Both dispute that convenience is the same thing as accuracy. Xero has announced XeroForce, a no-code agent builder that lets practices describe repeatable processes in plain English and run them as automated workflows across clients and connected apps. The ambition is to shift Xero from the ledger layer to the workflow layer, with audit trails and sign-off controls across an entire client base. Indi is sceptical about how it performs against messy real-world data and edge-case tax rules. Ryan raises whether XeroCon might be where Xero fills in the technical detail. Intuit has cut around 3,000 roles, 17% of its global workforce, across QuickBooks, TurboTax, Credit Karma and Mailchimp, announcing the cuts on the same day it raised its full-year revenue guidance. Indi frames it as AI shifting from feature roadmap to operating model, and notes that Intuit has a history of testing "you don't need an accountant" messaging in other markets before the UK. Also covered: Starling adds Tap to Pay via Adyen; Bokio exits the UK on 30 June with six weeks notice to users; Sage Copilot now included in Sage Business Cloud Accounting at no extra charge; Ignition launches beta integrations with Vinyl and FYI; a correction on Xero Workpapers access when clients disconnect; and Xero practitioner awards are not running in the UK this year. 00:00 Welcome to the Digi-Tools in Accrual World podcast 03:55 Starling says 'job done' on Making Tax Digital. Accountants have thoughts. 11:17 Starling adds Tap to Pay via Adyen, extending its accounting suite to contactless payments 13:10 XeroForce: Xero launches a no-code AI agent builder for financial workflows 19:18 Bokio exits the UK on 30 June, giving users six weeks to save their data 22:12 Intuit cuts 3,000 jobs and signs deals with Anthropic and OpenAI 25:42 Sage Copilot now available to all Sage Business Cloud Accounting users at no additional charge 27:40 Ignition launches Vinyl and FYI integrations 31:00 Xero Workpapers Correction 32:40 Xero practitioner awards skip the UK in 2026, with the programme running in other regions 36:33 Rate, Subscribe and Nominate for the Digital Disruptor Awards

    37 min

  4. Jun 1

    What Accountex, Hg's write-down and Sage's CEO tell us about where accounting tech is heading

    Indi Tatla, Ryan Pearcy and guest host Alastair Barlow are in the chair this week, with John Toon taking the week off. The episode opens fresh from Accountex, comparing notes on the talks, the vendors and what the arrival of a dedicated FD show on the floor might mean for the direction of the market. The Xero conversation is substantial, and not entirely kind. Alastair, who built his firm on Xero, gives a candid view of a product he thinks is well-intentioned but slow and lacking cohesion. The team work through a refreshed app navigation, Xero Coaches launching in the US, the new benchmarking tool built on Sift Analytics data, and the replacement of Xero HQ with Partner Hub from 15 June. Ryan's concern about Coaches is pointed: he does not want Xero going the way of QuickBooks Live, where Intuit's move into the advisory space caused serious conflict with the accountant community in the US. Alastair covers Socket's new feature, which ingests a call transcript from any note-taker and produces a first-draft client proposal with a confidence rating on each point. Indi is broadly positive but flags that AI note-takers still miss commercial nuance, so the 20% that matters most still needs human judgment. Ryan runs through the Intuit Enterprise Suite spring 2026 update: inter-company eliminations, enhanced board reporting, Workforce Elite for HCM and deeper WIP reporting for construction. The team read it as Intuit pushing hard into mid-market territory. Indi takes both Sage stories. On the expanded MTD IT agent she argues the tool's complexity partly reflects Sage's own fragmented product estate. On Steve Hare's AI trust comments, she goes further than the auditability argument: the real test will come when firms understand the margin implications of AI-native versus AI-infused pricing. Alastair closes with Hg Capital, explaining why HG Trust's share price fell even as its portfolio companies improved, and introduces Damon Anderson's a2z AI Accounting report: 300-plus apps mapped, with the argument that accountants' defensible position is liability absorption, future value sits in the orchestration layer between tools, and 80% of point solutions are barnacles on the whale. Also covered: Xero Ultra, launching in Australia in late June targeting the 20 to 200 employee segment. 00:00 Reflections on Accountex 2026 01:14 The FD Show, fractional CFOs and where the market is heading 12:14 Xero refreshes its app navigation 16:53 Xero is hiring coaches to onboard small businesses in the US 19:45 Xero launches industry benchmarking inside Analytics 24:16 Xero is replacing Xero HQ with Partner Hub from 15 June 25:43 Socket can now turn a meeting transcript into a client proposal 30:23 Intuit Enterprise Suite spring 2026: inter-company, board reporting and HCM 35:10 Sage expands its MTD IT agent with automatic client matching 41:40 Hg marks down its software fund by 9% as valuations hit a 20-year low 47:01 Sage CEO: accountants won't trust AI they can't inspect 52:41 Damon Anderson's a2z AI Accounting report 56:45 Outro

    58 min

  5. May 25

    Sodium, William AI and Xero Claude Integration, QuickBooks MTD Checker, Combinely and FreeAgent Ecommerce

    Leigh Stallard is joined by Lara Manton and Robbie White for a packed episode recorded in the wake of Accountex 2026. Between them they cover eight stories spanning practice management, bookkeeping automation, MTD, AI strategy and the long-running question of what an accountant is actually for. Duane Jackson's Sodium has moved to general availability. It is API-first, built around a single client record and designed with AI integrated from the start rather than bolted on later. Leigh frames the real challenge not as product quality but as firm inertia: practice management is the Lego wall nobody wants to dismantle, and a golden brick is only useful if someone is prepared to pull the old ones out. Lara and Robbie both know from experience how painful that process is, and the conversation turns quickly to whether AI-assisted migration might eventually lower the barrier. Apron's William AI is now generally available, having launched in beta in March. Lara walks through what it actually does: connecting to client email inboxes, extracting and categorising documents, publishing to Xero or QuickBooks, and flagging anything it is not confident about. The auto-publish toggle defaults off and needs firm-specific guidance rules to reach its potential. The beta hit 50% autonomous publish rate; the GA pitch is 90% for firms that put the configuration work in. Robbie leads on the Xero and Claude integration, which went live globally on 12 May. Early practitioner testing found it read-only, limited to account-level data and prone to missing transactions. Leigh and Lara discuss what it means that the major general ledgers are simultaneously embedding AI inside their own products and surfacing their data inside the large language models. Intuit's intelligence layer across QuickBooks covers AI-powered chat, portfolio benchmarking and a capability that appears pointed directly at end clients. Lara raises the concern that clients with incomplete books could get confident-sounding answers to questions they should be asking their accountant instead. Lara covers the QuickBooks AI-powered MTD checker, which flags duplicates, missing transactions and non-trading income sources before submission. QuickBooks claims the highest cumulative MTD pilot sign-ups during HMRC's testing period. Robbie welcomes it as a live use case rather than a theoretical one. Robbie covers Combinely, the browser-based AI co-worker backed by YC and OpenAI. Early UK adopters include Burgess Hodgson, where it handled 2,600+ tasks across December and January with a reported 75% reduction in income and expenditure creation time. Leigh raises the structural tension: a tool that sits on the periphery of a workflow is easy to adopt and equally easy to quietly drop. Lara covers FreeAgent's integration with Equali, pulling e-commerce data from Shopify into FreeAgent for reconciliation and categorisation, and notes FreeAgent's incoming Apron partnership as part of a broader push beyond its freelancer roots. The episode closes on the Accountex panel from ICAEW, ACCA and IFAC. The fat middle concern runs through the final section: AI handling transactional work, hollowing out the junior pipeline and, with it, the intuition that comes from years of doing the basics. Robbie's view is that AI will eventually learn the human stuff too. The question is what accountants do with the time that creates.   Chapter list 00:00 Introduction and Overview of Topics 04:00 The Launch of Sodium: A New Practice Management Tool 08:25 Apron's William AI: Enhancing Document Management 12:44 General Ledgers and AI Strategies 23:31 QuickBooks AI-Powered MTD Checker Flags Errors Before Submission, Not After 27:18 Combinely's AI Co-Worker Handles 2,600+ Tasks in a Month for Early UK Firm Adopters 30:45 FreeAgent's E-Commerce Expansion 36:09 The Future of Accountancy: AI and Brand Perception

    38 min

  6. May 18

    Is HMRC about to spot your clients' problems before you do?

    Indi and John are joined by Kendrick from Fishbowl, inventory and manufacturing software for businesses that have outgrown spreadsheets but aren't ready for a full ERP. Kendrick brings a US perspective to a week dominated by AI agent launches, a major tax authority investment and a string of Sage announcements. Anthropic has launched ten ready-to-run agents aimed at finance operations, covering general ledger reconciliation, statement review, journal preparation and KYC screening. The hosts debate whether these genuinely displace specialist close management tools or simply make existing model capabilities more accessible, and where the line between "human in the loop" and "human who gets sued" actually sits. Campfire has officially opened its first London office, adding VAT support and UK-specific functionality as it builds out boots on the ground ahead of the conference season. John covers the story and explains why a US ERP with existing UK clients making this move matters for the market. HMRC is rolling out 28,000 Microsoft Copilot licences with a target of 50,000, positioning itself as the world's most AI-enabled tax authority. Kendrick contrasts the approach with a far more cautious IRS, while Indi makes the point that a faster, sharper HMRC changes the maths for accountants who rely on year-end reconciliation as a safety net. Sage had a substantial week. Indi covers the expansion of its developer platform across Intacct, X3 and Sage Active, including the launch of Sage Agent Builder, an AI gateway and usage-based revenue sharing for partners. John follows with Sage's acquisition of Doyen AI, a data migration tool founded in 2024 that Sage moved quickly to bring in-house. NetSuite has released SuiteCloud Agent Skills, knowledge packages that help AI coding assistants build and customise inside NetSuite without breaking things. Kendrick, coming from the ERP world, gives his take on why guardrails in AI-assisted development matter more than the speed gains. Digits has launched an MCP server connecting its agentic general ledger to tools including Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor on a read-only basis. John and Kendrick discuss what the read-only decision signals about where Digits thinks the value of its product still sits. The episode closes with a story that cuts against the week's optimism: Google's AI overviews are serving UK users outdated government information pulled from unmaintained gov.uk pages. One example, the cost of registering a charity, returned answers ranging from free to over £183, against an actual fee of £100 online. Indi makes the case that before anyone hands autonomous agents the keys, it's worth checking whether they're working from data that should have been retired years ago. This episode is sponsored by Advancetrack, the outsourced accounting and tax service trusted by UK practices for over 20 years.  00:00 Introduction to DigiTools and Fishbowl 03:27 Claude Coming for Accountants? 10:30 Campfire opens in London 12:43 HMRC rolls out 28,000 Copilot licences 17:43 Sage expands developer platform for AI tools 26:21 Sage acquires Doyen for data transfers 28:30 NetSuite brings AI speed for SuiteCloud developers 32:11 Digits MCP expands AI utilisation 36:16 AI giving wrong Gov data to UK users 38:00 Nominate your candidates for a Digital Disruptor award!

    39 min

  7. May 11

    What iplicit's fraud detection, Intuit's Anthropic deal and Xero's bill capture mean for your firm right now

    Ryan Pearcy is joined by Eriona Bajrakurtaj from Majors Accountants and Ian Gregory, CTO of Advancetrack, for a week dominated by Intuit news, a quietly significant iplicit release and a pointed question about who controls your data as AI agents become the new interface for everything. iplicit's May 2026 release introduces AI Detect, real-time fraud and anomaly detection built into the core of the platform rather than bolted on. It flags unusual transactions, out-of-hours activity and VAT mismatches before they become problems. The same release adds 4-4-5 period support and extends AP automation with improved supplier matching and automatic VAT status flagging for non-registered legal entities. Intuit had a busy week. Eriona covers the May Accountant Suite feature drop, including proactive bank feed alerts, plain-English AI querying of live client data and a confirmed sunset date for QuickBooks Online Accountant in December. Ian picks up the Anthropic partnership, framing it less as an AI story and more as a distribution one: Intuit products are now available directly inside Claude. The panel debates whether that is a smart channel play or a quiet concession that the AI interface is winning. Eriona also covers Intuit for Education's UK launch, which kicked off with a financial literacy forum at the London Stadium with West Ham United Foundation. Only 26% of young adults in the UK say they received financial education at school. Ian covers Fivetran's Open Data Infrastructure benchmark, which names Workday, Rippling and Slack among the worst performers for data portability, and the panel debates whether regulation will eventually force openness the way open banking did. Also covered: Xero extends AI document extraction to bills with line-item capture and automatic reconciliation matching. A real-world example of Claude rebuilding a Sage invoice as a working Xero template in minutes. The NCSC's push for passkeys over passwords, and the operational headaches that creates. Ryan rounds off with Xero Small Business Insights showing sales holding firm across all five tracked markets despite the fuel crisis, with Australia leading at just under 11% growth. Sponsored by Employment Hero. AI-powered HR, payroll and recruitment that integrates with your accounting software. employmenthero.com 00:00 Introduction & Accountex Preview 06:46 Employment Hero (Sponsor) 07:25 iplicit's new AI Detect brings real-time fraud spotting to mid-market finance 13:26 Intuit pushes a wave of new Accountant Suite features as Accelerate launch looms 18:57 Intuit and Anthropic partner to bring QuickBooks data and AI agents directly inside Claude 22:00 Intuit for Education brings financial literacy programme to UK schools via West Ham partnership 27:56 Workday, Rippling and Slack named as the worst platforms for data access 30:04 Xero's AI document extraction now covers bills, with duplicate detection and auto-reconciliation 33:31 How one firm used Claude to rebuild a Sage invoice template for Xero in minutes 37:33 NCSC says passwords are done — passkeys are the way forward, but the practicalities are messier than they sound 40:01 Xero small business data: UK sales held firm in March despite the fuel crisis   🎧 Listen to our latest episode - https://digitoolsinaccrual.world/ 🔗 Follow Digital Disruptors on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/thedigitaldisruptors/ 🏆 Join the Awards waitlist - https://forms.gle/scwgDkL7Tjj56MDFA 🗞️ Subscribe to the AppNewsLetter on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7420780382737866752

    46 min

  8. May 4

    If the software doesn't automate your work, should you have to pay for it?

    Ryan Pearcy, Indi Tatla and John Toon are back together covering QuickBooks updates, a significant Active Workpapers release, and two AI stories worth your attention. QuickBooks has restructured its payroll offering into three tiers: Core for simple automated salary runs, Premium adding time tracking and self-serve tools, and Elite bringing in geo-fencing and project profitability. Indi covers Intuit Intelligence, a conversational AI built into QuickBooks that lets business owners ask questions about their own data. She makes the point that QuickBooks has always been more direct about going after the business owner than Xero — this is the latest iteration of that strategy. John adds the arrival of auto-save in invoices and estimates, though he and Ryan disagree on whether it genuinely qualifies. Tax Systems has launched an AI assistant for cross-border tax via its Loctax acquisition, covering 220 jurisdictions and drawing on verified content from the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation. Indi's take: the biggest problem with AI in tax is not speed, it's trust. John raises the billing question — if research time drops significantly, hourly-rate firms face a difficult conversation. John covers a LinkedIn video from Daryl Aw demonstrating the use of Claude to produce financial statements. Pretty much any accountant can do this. The harder question is whether you can do it reliably at scale. Digits has moved to outcome-based pricing. Firms pay only when 95% of transactions are fully automated with no human edits. Ryan thinks they're either very confident or making a desperate growth bet. John says he'd put all his most complex clients on it and never pay a penny. Also covered: WorkGuru's Easter release with new Sales and Operations Hubs, Certinia's Veda AI engine for professional services firms, and the Digital Disruptors Awards returning at Accountex North in Manchester. Advancetrack provides outsourcing and offshoring services for accounting firms, covering bookkeeping, accounts preparation, payroll, VAT and self-assessment. www.advancetrack.com 00:00 Introduction and Nostalgia 03:54 QBO launches new payroll stack 07:04 QBO launches Intuit Intelligence 12:02 QuickBooks adds auto-save to invoices and estimates 13:26 WorkGuru releases major Easter update 16:31 Ryan's AI reluctance 18:01 Active Workpapers drops April UK release 21:25 Nostalgia Trip 22:52 Tax Systems targets cross-border tax with verified AI 28:37 Wrap-Up and Community Engagement 29:37 Daryl Aw demonstrates building financial statements with Claude 33:30 Certinia launches Veda, an AI operations engine for professional services firms 36:54 Digits bets its revenue on whether its AI actually works 41:54 Register for the Digital Disruptor Awards

    43 min
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The go-to place for all things cloud accounting and digital. Find out the latest in accounting app news and exclusive interviews with cloud pioneers in the accounting industry.

Information

  • Creator
    Indi Tatla, Ryan Pearcy, John Toon
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    100
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2025 Digi-Tools in Accrual World Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Digi-Tools In Accrual World

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