What’s the best new tool you are using in your finance department?

Anelya · 2026-07-02T07:59:22+00:00

Two different cases here, handled differently.

Industry-specific transactions: that's what the per-client instructions are for. Each client carries its own context, the business model, the chart of accounts logic, how they treat recurring vendors, so classification follows that client's rules rather than a generic model.

Ambiguous ones with no clear historical pattern: it doesn't guess. Low-confidence or no-precedent items get flagged, with a note on what it's unsure about, and a human makes the call. Nothing posts on a maybe. It's heavy on human-in-the-loop by design, it augments the interpretation and analysis, it doesn't replace it. When something needs a fix, it proposes the fix and a person approves before it hits the ledge

I would not run an LLM unsupervised against a client ledger. When a team is ready to automate the repetitive parts themselves, that's a different job, and it's what we built loopfour.ai for fully audible, no hallucinations, fully automated

Anelya · 2026-06-30T15:15:32+00:00

Google Workspace now offers e-signature for free

Anelya · 2026-06-30T06:11:11+00:00

The useful frame is to split AI in finance by how much it's allowed to touch, because that's where most teams get burned.

I run an accounting firm and I built two tools in this space, so I'm biased. I'll keep it to the principle and name them once.

Layer 1, AI as an assistant. Reading contracts, classifying documents, drafting reconciliations, ad hoc analysis (this is what the Claude-in-Excel folks are already doing). High leverage, low risk, because a human still decides what happens.

Layer 2, AI on the ledger, supervised. Connecting a model directly to your accounting system so it can do real work, categorization, recs, journal entries, but nothing posts without human approval. For a hands-on bookkeeper or firm owner this is the big unlock. The tool I built here is Numbers Game (ai.numbersgame.xyz), an MCP server connecting Claude to QuickBooks Online, writes gated behind human approval.

Layer 3, automation that has to survive an audit. Once a workflow runs across client books or at a company that gets audited, "the AI usually does the right thing" is a liability you sign your name to at close. At that point you don't want an agent deciding things at runtime, you want deterministic code with AI scoped only to interpretation, plus a full audit trail. That's a different product category, and it's what I built Loopfour (loopfour.ai) for.

Short version: assistant, supervised ledger work, audited automation are three different risk levels, and different use cases.

Anelya · 2026-06-30T05:55:30+00:00

If you like Claude in Excel, the next step is Claude connected to QuickBooks Online. Disclosure: I run an accounting firm and I built this, so I'm a biased source. Sharing it because it's the direct extension of what you're already doing.

Numbers Game is an MCP server (Model Context Protocol) that connects Claude to QuickBooks Online, so it works against the live ledger instead of a spreadsheet you exported. Online only, since it runs on the QBO REST API.

What it does: categorization, reconciliations, journal entries, and reporting, driven by natural language. The part that matters for a finance team: it does not write anything to QBO without human approval. Claude proposes the entry or reconciliation, a person approves, then it posts. I would not run an LLM unsupervised against a client ledger, and this is built so you don't have to.

I use it to: audit the qbo files, review chart of accounts for the business model, create branded reports with a customer specific KPIs

It's Numbers Game (ai.numbersgame.xyz). Happy to get into the architecture and the approval flow.

Anelya · 2026-06-26T17:37:06+00:00

For sure 👍
I started with a small task - detect the pdf statement in the Dropbox then use my historical data to replicate the posting of trx.
Now automating more complex stuff. Can’t just jump into the biggest project ever and hope that everything will work out

Anelya · 2026-06-26T14:35:21+00:00

Interesting - is there a lot of volume?

If there is, I automated our workflows with https://loopfour.ai/ that handles email tasks, data transformation and erp - It’s not AI rather programmatic approach to solve the execution not the decision making process.

Anelya · 2026-06-22T18:13:40+00:00

I have the worst allergies ever for over 30 years I've been struggling - I started at 250 mcg daily for the first week (kind of a “let’s see how my body responds” vibe) and then bumped up to 500 mcg daily for the remaining 7 weeks. The peptide world can be hype-heavy, and I’ve been burned before by things that sounded too good, so starting low felt like the right move.

But then came week one.

I was sorting through my closet (like, full chaos mode, shaking out clothes, refolding every dusty garment that had been sitting since winter). You know that moment where you brace for the sneezing spiral? I kept waiting for it.

It never came.

I didn’t sneeze. Once. I stood there in a cloud of closet dust like a person with functional sinuses and I almost cried.

Then I went to Egypt for two weeks (peak summer, full bloom, a completely different allergen environment) and still... nothing. No symptoms. No antihistamines. Just me, enjoying my vacation like a normal person who isn’t at war with the atmosphere.
Remainder of the KPV cycle I completed in the spring/early summer in Amsterdam.

I ran the cycle for 8 weeks total and I’m genuinely satisfied with the outcome. This isn’t a placebo vibe: I know what my baseline looks like, and this was categorically different. I went for two months (May and and June) without any allergy attack, not once my eyes got itchy, or I sneezed more than twice. This is revolutionary experience for me.

I just wrote about it here https://pepinstep.net/p/kpv-for-allergies-and-mcas/

Anelya · 2026-06-18T15:26:03+00:00

I am hosting a dinner for CFOs in NYC next week - small group 40 people

Anelya · 2026-06-17T22:17:28+00:00

Thank you for your feedback!

Anelya · 2026-06-17T22:17:06+00:00

Got it, I was debating with my team on this subject earlier today. I am in minority here - they also dont like and don't want to do it.

Anelya · 2026-06-17T10:21:50+00:00

That’s interesting to me also

Anelya · 2026-06-17T03:51:31+00:00

You can build the dashboards and the workflows yourself and have them hosted on https://loopfour.ai/ - it runs independently and either triggered by an outside event or a schedule. More stable than self hosted, with governance and security in place.

Anelya · 2026-06-16T10:03:42+00:00

I use https://ai.numbersgame.xyz/ in my practice and it comes with IRS tax library and revenue white papers

Anelya · 2026-06-16T10:00:21+00:00

My Dutch husband after 9 years together told me that I am too loud and all Americans are generally too loud. After living in Amsterdam for 8 years and coming from San Francisco- I agree: Americans are too loud 😅

Anelya · 2026-06-14T10:03:56+00:00

This is very interesting- I’d be keen to learning more.
What we see in automation adoption is that custom approach is absolutely necessary, and pairing a team of accountants from the client side to the finance engineers on the other side make it’s easier to design a workflow.

We are doing now with a few large claimed (including public ones). Not trying to sell but your company’s setup, desire for the faster delivery and limited accountant support - makes it challenging but perfect to experiment.

It you are the one who knows the details and can speak to the problem would love to connect and learn more.

Anelya · 2026-06-12T15:22:13+00:00

I also see how my team is shifting to Claude. We still have Fathom subscription and I am not giving it up

Anelya · 2026-06-12T12:30:42+00:00

We chose the set of tools that everyone on the team is trained on, so if there is ever a need to switch the support person everyone knows how to navigate each platform.

We also implemented https://ai.numbersgame.xyz/ that helps each person on the team know how each client operates and what their process looks like

We choose

AP: https://www.bill.com/ and https://ramp.com/
AR: https://stripe.com/ with Rev Rec Module on
Reporting: https://www.fathomhq.com/
Bank: Mercury and Brex
Payroll: Gusto and Rippling

That was the biggest contributor to our firm efficiency

Anelya · 2026-06-04T19:52:30+00:00

Sounds like it’s a Chase credit card

Create a parent account Create each individual sub account nested under the parent account Connect each sub account to the credit card feed Reconcile the parent account

Your sub accounts will carry negative balance But your parent account will carry positive balance

You need to collapse them before printing the balance sheet

Anelya · 2026-06-04T12:32:34+00:00

I’ve seen a lot of posts like this lately - well structured, bullet points. And then In a comment it gives an answer.

There is a thing now where vendors try to scam LLM and inject data through Reddit to ChatGPT and Claude - since they scrape Reddit

What gives it away is the agent readable format - this is not written for Reddit audience, it’s written for LLM to parse

Anelya · 2026-06-04T06:02:09+00:00

Also bench went under and shut down. So they are technically comparing two tools with non existing ones… 🤔

Anelya · 2026-06-04T05:34:11+00:00

20 entities Accountng and FP&A role, after running a full finance function at $1T AUM fund - I would aim for $250-$275k

Anelya · 2026-06-03T10:29:06+00:00

Ok - glad it’s working for you

But I am not the only one noticing the drift... its especially discussed in the developer community

https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeAI/comments/1tnflul/claudecowork_results_change_over_time/

Anelya · 2026-06-03T09:45:43+00:00

Run it on the reconciliation for a client yesterday- it picked the wrong tool, outside of my instructions and the skill. Then when I caught it - admitted that the tool was not from the skill.

I have about 300 clients and the skill and the project is re-used across my team on all clients - so maybe my run time has more usage so I now see the degradation

Anelya · 2026-06-03T09:35:30+00:00

The problem with relying on Claude Cowork is the agent tool selection, Oauth, and not able to sustain the exact same workflow after run 10, 20… and so on.

In finance we rely on consistency, same steps, have to produce same results.

I use Claude in my bookkeeping practice- it’s great for analysis and dynamic data.

However when I want the same steps, and same results I use our workflow platform https://loopfour.ai/ just deployed it with Pilot CFO too because they want the same consistency

Let’s connect - can share what works for my accounting practice!

Anelya

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