How Bookkeepers and Accounting Firms Are Using AI & Automation

Nathan Lewis

Founder, Lewis Intelligence

Running a small accounting firm or solo bookkeeping practice means wearing every hat in the building. You manage tasks from onboarding clients to reconciling bank statements. You also need to chase down missing documents. You’re constantly context-switching and trying to stay a step ahead of deadlines.

You’re not alone. And no, you don’t need to overhaul your entire tech stack or learn a new system to make things easier.

You just need to stop doing the same task twice.

That’s where automation comes in, not as a buzzword, but as a quiet, behind-the-scenes assistant that handles the admin you shouldn’t be doing anyway.

The Hidden Cost of Manual Work

Even the most organized firms waste hours every week on things like:

• Sending out the same document reminder email to clients (again)
• Exporting reports from QuickBooks, cleaning up formatting, and emailing PDFs
• Rebuilding monthly spreadsheets from scratch
• Copy/pasting invoice data from one system to another
• Following up on timecards that are late (again)

Most of these aren’t difficult tasks, they’re just repetitive. And when they pile up, they eat into the time you could spend growing your business, or simply catching your breath.

What Can Be Automated (and How)

Let’s break down a few high-impact areas where automation can take over the admin, without disrupting the way you already work.

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Client Onboarding

The Pain:

Chasing intake forms, engagement letters, IDs, and document signatures across multiple emails or platforms.

The Automation:

Create a simple automated intake flow:

• New client signs a proposal
• They instantly receive a secure form to upload docs
• Once submitted, you get notified, and their folder is created in your drive

No back-and-forth. No reminders. Just a clean onboarding experience that runs itself.

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Document Collection + Follow-Ups

The Pain:

You’ve emailed three times asking for bank statements or receipts. Still nothing. Now it’s your problem.

The Automation:

Set up automated follow-ups that trigger every 3 days until the document is uploaded. Personalized, professional, and off your plate.

📤 

Monthly Report Delivery

The Pain:

You export reports from QuickBooks, clean them up in Excel, save as PDFs, write a custom message, and email it all out every single month.

The Automation:

• Auto-export reports
• Format and save them in the client’s folder
• Email the report with a personalized message, all on a set schedule
  Now it’s done by the 5th every month whether you’re working or not.

📊 

Invoice & Timesheet Reminders

The Pain:

Contractors forget to submit hours. Clients forget to pay. You get stuck being the reminder machine.

The Automation:

Trigger auto-reminders for:

• Unsubmitted time entries
• Unpaid invoices
• Missing documents before month-end close

You stay out of it, and the nudging still gets done.

🔄 

QuickBooks Export + Data Cleanup

The Pain:

You manually export, clean, and reformat QuickBooks reports for external clients or internal summaries.

The Automation:

Build a Power Automate flow (or similar) to:

• Export key reports
• Remove unnecessary columns
• Standardize formatting
• Drop the cleaned version in a shared folder
  This saves 10–20 minutes per report every month, across every client.

What You Gain (Besides Time)

✔️ 

More Hours Back

Even small automations add up. One automation saving 15 minutes a week per client across 10 clients = 2.5 hours/week you get back.

✔️ 

Consistency

Automation eliminates “oops, I forgot to follow up.” Your processes run the same way every time — even when you’re out sick or buried in tax season.

✔️ 

Professionalism

Clients notice when things feel seamless; like when reminders arrive on time and reports are delivered without fail. It creates trust.

You Don’t Need More Software. Just Smarter Systems.

If you’re already using tools like QuickBooks, Google Workspace, or Microsoft 365, you’ve already got the foundation. You don’t need to buy anything new, you just need to connect the dots.

Automation isn’t about replacing people. It’s about removing the admin that pulls you away from the real work.

Curious Where to Start?

If you’re wondering what you could automate first, start simple. Look for the task you’ve repeated three times this week and automate that.

Or if you want to skip the guesswork, I offer quick automation audits for bookkeeping and accounting firms. No obligation, just a clear picture of what’s possible in your business.

📩 Visit here to schedule a free workflow audit.