Automating bookkeeping: receipts, invoices, workflows

Automating bookkeeping means that software takes over the recurring capturing and transferring work: receipts are read, invoices are created and assigned, payments are matched and data is handed to the tax advisor in a structured form. It is used wherever data is retyped, copied and sorted by hand today, from the small trade business to the growing mid-sized company. Companies gain time, make fewer transfer errors and get a clean, traceable flow of data between tool, bank and advisor.

Which bookkeeping tasks can be automated?

Automation is worth it wherever data is captured or transferred by hand today. In bookkeeping, four areas are the biggest lever.

The common thread: automation does not replace bookkeeping, it replaces the dull capturing work. Receipts have the biggest effect here, because this is where most of the manual typing and sorting sits. Anyone who digitises the capture not only saves minutes per receipt but also avoids the typical transfer errors that later have to be searched for and corrected laboriously. How such workflows shed paper altogether is described in our guide to the paperless office.

What stays with the person?

Automation prepares, it does not decide. The professional check and responsibility stay with the person. The correct account assignment in doubtful cases, the judgement on unusual transactions and the sign-off remain in the hands of bookkeeping and the tax advisor. The software takes over the busy work and lays everything out cleanly prepared, so the actual professional work is done faster and with less searching.

The interplay with the tax advisor benefits the most here. Cleanly structured data saves the advisor re-entry work and often part of the fee, because fewer receipts have to be prepared by hand. Instead of handing over a stack of receipts at month end, the data flows continuously and in the same form. That reduces queries, shortens the monthly close and makes the collaboration more predictable for both sides.

Is automating bookkeeping worth it?

Whether the step pays off is decided less by the price of the software than by the ratio of effort to time saved. The benefit grows with the volume of similar receipts. Anyone processing incoming invoices, till receipts or delivery notes daily saves only seconds to minutes per case, but over the month that quickly adds up to hours freed for more valuable work.

Against this stands a manageable effort. Setup costs time once, running it stays cheap afterwards. In practice the costs usually take the form of a monthly fee for the receipt and bookkeeping software, often in the low double-digit euro range per user, plus the one-off setup of the flows and the coordination with the advisor. Anyone who weighs this effort against the working time saved and the error costs avoided ends up in the black almost every time with a regular flow of receipts. How workflows can be digitised and automated sensibly in general is placed in context by our overview on digitising and automating processes.

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In bookkeeping, reliability counts more than speed. That is why we automate the reading and assigning, but build in clear checkpoints when something is unclear. Better a receipt lands on the desk for review than that it runs through incorrectly. Coordinated with the tax advisor, that saves a lot of time without risk.

How do you start automating bookkeeping?

• Choose a receipt type or flow. Where does the most capturing work happen today, for example with incoming invoices?
• Automate reading and assigning. Capture receipts digitally, check them and assign them to the right cases.
• Connect the handovers. Data flows without retyping between tool, bank and tax advisor.
• Set checkpoints and expand. Unclear cases go for review, the rest runs, then the next flow follows.

In practice this start can be rolled out step by step. First one receipt type, then the next flow. That keeps the effort manageable and you see early whether the chosen path holds before you extend it to further areas. For how we implement the creating and processing in practice, see our pages on invoice automation and document automation.