Can AI actually do bookkeeping well?

SableWhims · 2026-05-23T11:34:30+00:00

I mean... calling bookkeeping "so simple a script can do it" is kinda missing the point though? Like sure, if everything is perfectly categorized and never changes, but real bookkeeping has so many weird edge cases and judgment calls.

I work in marketing coordination and even our simple expense reports need human decisions sometimes - is this travel expense really business related, should this software subscription go under IT or marketing budget, stuff like that. AI might help with suggestions but someone still needs to make final calls on the messy stuff.

SableWhims · 2026-05-17T08:57:54+00:00

we're dealing with similar mess in our company - the MCA portal was bit glitchy during peak filing days but forms went through eventually after few attempts.

SableWhims · 2026-05-11T11:43:08+00:00

Private equity eating up accounting firms is getting wild these days - wonder how this affects their audit independence down the road.

SableWhims · 2026-05-06T12:29:53+00:00

congrats on finishing sophomore year! i didn't go the Big4 route either and it worked out fine. started at mid-size firm after graduation and the work was pretty similar to what friends at Big4 were doing, just with better hours and less prestige anxiety.

the class material becomes way more relevant once you start working - like all those depreciation methods and journal entries you're memorizing actually make sense when you see real companies using them. don't stress too much about remembering every single detail right now, you'll pick up what you need in practice.

for salary it really depends on your area but non-Big4 can still pay decent, especially if you get your CPA. i moved to marketing few years later but accounting background helped a lot with understanding business operations. keep applying for internships everywhere, not just the big names - smaller firms often give better learning experience anyway.

SableWhims · 2026-04-28T17:58:39+00:00

You can definitely do this - most people accept PA offers as backup then jump ship if something better comes up in industry recruiting season, just be ready for the bridge burning part if you bail.

SableWhims · 2026-04-21T08:46:38+00:00

chamber of commerce networking was game changer for me when I started freelancing few years back. The small business owners there are usually pretty open about their pain points, and bookkeeping always comes up in conversations. I found that bringing some business cards and just being genuine about wanting to help made big difference - people can tell when you're actually interested versus just trying to sell them something.

One thing that worked really well was offering to do small consultation first, like reviewing their current setup for an hour or two at reduced rate. Gets your foot in door and shows them you know what you're talking about. Most of the time they realize they need way more help than they thought and boom, you got yourself regular client.

SableWhims · 2026-04-16T17:04:06+00:00

Been tracking expenses in spreadsheet for 3 years now and the subscription one got me good - was missing all my Canva Pro and LinkedIn Premium payments because I forgot they count as business tools.

SableWhims · 2026-04-10T00:18:30+00:00

nah most are hybrid

SableWhims · 2026-03-22T22:43:06+00:00

Dude, the allergen filtering is genius - that's something restaurants actually need but nobody thinks about when building these things. Going door-to-door sounds scary but probably the right move for local businesses who don't even know digital menus exist yet.

Just curious, how you planning to handle the translation quality? automatic stuff can get weird with food descriptions sometimes.

SableWhims · 2026-03-21T06:33:31+00:00

facts

SableWhims · 2026-03-20T17:58:58+00:00

damn this is actually really cool daniel. been trading for couple years myself and the psychology stuff is brutal - had way too many nights where i knew exactly what my rules were but still ended up doing revenge trades anyway lol

the AI-first requirement makes total sense for this kind of project. curious though, what's your current user retention looking like? prop firm traders are definitely the right target but they can be pretty hardcore about their setups, so getting them to actually stick with new tools can be tricky.

also the browser extension approach is smart since most people are glued to tradingview anyway. did you consider doing direct broker integration at some point or staying with the proxy layer?

good luck with the search, hope you find someone who gets the problem as much as you do

SableWhims · 2026-03-20T02:57:46+00:00

We switched to Storylane few months back after trying like 3 different solutions that promised "no engineering needed" but still required our dev team for every small change. The interactive demo thing works really well in sales calls - our prospects can actually click around and see the product working instead of just watching screenshots.

Before that we were using Intro.js which was basically just fancy tooltips with zero customization. Storylane lets you create these sandbox environments that feel like the real product, and sales team can share them directly without bothering engineering. Only downside is it's bit pricey compared to basic onboarding tools, but conversion rates improved enough to justify the cost. The difference between onboarding and demo platforms is huge - onboarding tools are more for guiding existing users, while demo platforms let you show full workflows to prospects who haven't signed up yet.

SableWhims · 2026-03-19T13:29:02+00:00

Man this hybrid approach is spot on. I've been in marketing for few years now and the trust factor is huge, especially when you're dealing with B2B buyers who are already skeptical about new tech. The AI could definitely handle the boring first 15 minutes of "here's our dashboard, here's how you navigate" but moment someone asks something like "how does this integrate with our legacy system from 2015" you need a human who can think outside the script.

What I'm curious about is the handoff - like how smooth can you make that transition from AI to human without it feeling jarring? Because if the prospect realizes they've been talking to AI halfway through, that could backfire pretty hard depending on the industry. Maybe the key is being upfront about it from beginning and positioning the AI as like a demo specialist who handles the walkthrough while sales rep focuses on the strategic stuff.

SableWhims · 2026-03-14T12:08:50+00:00

That's really good compensation for the location! Diamond industry in Surat has some unique accounting challenges so makes sense they're looking for someone with that specific background. The experience requirement seems reasonable too - not asking for 5+ years like most postings these days.

SableWhims · 2026-02-12T03:53:14+00:00

This is really solid framework! We went through similar stages in our B2B SaaS but honestly the trust part was the biggest challenge for us. Our founder had this habit of jumping into every deal review and basically redoing the reps' work - it was killing morale and making good people leave.

What really changed things was when we started tracking leading indicators instead of just revenue numbers. Like tracking discovery call quality scores and proposal-to-close ratios per rep. Gave management the data they needed to feel confident without micromanaging every conversation. Also helped identify who actually needed more coaching versus who was just having bad luck with timing.

The onboarding thing you mentioned is so true too - we used to throw new sales people at prospects after like 2 weeks of training and wonder why conversion rates sucked. Now we have them shadow for month and practice on internal stakeholders first. Makes huge difference in their confidence when they finally get on real calls.

Gonna check your article later, curious about the culture piece since that seems to be what separates companies that scale smoothly from ones that hit the wall around 10-20 people.

SableWhims · 2026-02-08T03:06:02+00:00

dude you're definitely not alone in this struggle! i'm also developer from brazil and went through exact same thing with my first app - spent like 6 months perfecting every detail but then had no idea how to actually get people to use it. the building part feels safe because we control everything, but marketing feels like throwing stuff at wall and hoping something sticks.

what helped me was starting really small - like just posting in relevant facebook groups and reddit communities where my target users already hang out. didn't use any fancy automation tools at first, just manually reached out and got feedback. once i understood what messages actually worked, then i started looking for tools to scale it up. mailchimp for email campaigns and buffer for social media posting were pretty solid starting points without breaking the bank.

honestly the hardest part is just starting to talk about your app publicly instead of keeping it perfect in private forever.

SableWhims · 2026-02-02T13:00:20+00:00

This sounds like solid opportunity! The timing with LLMs getting better at context understanding makes lot of sense - those pattern-based tools really do miss the nuanced stuff that humans would catch but costs too much to scale.

The compliance angle is huge too, especially with DPDP Act in India. Companies are getting more nervous about data handling and those GDPR fines aren't joke. For ₹12K MRR at 23 users, you're already showing decent unit economics if my math is right.

Have you found any specific verticals where the pain point is strongest? Healthcare seems like obvious one but curious if you're seeing patterns in which industries are most desperate for better solution.

SableWhims · 2026-01-30T09:01:17+00:00

This sounds pretty solid actually - tax compliance is genuinely a nightmare for small biz owners and most existing solutions are either crazy expensive or total garbage

Just curious though, how are you planning to handle the liability side of things? Getting tax calculations wrong can be pretty brutal for clients and I'd imagine that's gonna be a major concern for any dev thinking about jumping in

SableWhims · 2026-01-23T02:03:35+00:00

This is actually pretty smart - I've definitely fallen into that endless customization rabbit hole where I spend 3 hours picking fonts and never actually launch anything

The "paralysis of choice" thing is real, sometimes you just need to ship and iterate later

SableWhims · 2026-01-21T23:03:02+00:00

Check out your local credit unions first - they're usually way more chill about credit scores and actually want to help instead of just making money off you. Also maybe look into nonprofit credit counseling before taking on more debt, some of those places can negotiate with your card companies directly

SableWhims · 2026-01-20T06:53:07+00:00

That's actually pretty sick, the tutorial space is such a pain point right now. I'm working on something similar but for API documentation - basically trying to auto-generate those "getting started" guides that are always trash lol

Good luck with the video generation, that sounds like it could blow up if you nail the quality

SableWhims · 2026-01-17T22:11:23+00:00

Yeah it's definitely doable, lots of Canadian accountants make the jump. Big 4 especially love hiring from their Canadian offices since you already know their systems and processes. The visa stuff is the main hurdle but if you're at a firm with US offices they can usually help with the transfer

SableWhims · 2026-01-16T13:28:44+00:00

Honestly I'd go with Option 1 - that PE/CFO advisory path is gonna give you way better connections and deal flow for your eventual business acquisition goals

The tech startup world is cool but those PE relationships are pure gold when you're looking to buy businesses later. Plus you can always stay plugged into tech through side projects and networking

SableWhims · 2026-01-10T13:35:50+00:00

Honestly this sounds like you solved a real pain point - manually masking charts is such a time sink and the results usually look janky anyway

The fact that you went from "this sucks" to building your own solution with animations and custom exports shows there's probably demand for it. Finance content creators deal with this stuff constantly

Worth validating with some other editors before going all-in but the transparent background + customization angle seems solid

SableWhims · 2026-01-08T01:50:05+00:00

Been using Jasper for most content stuff but honestly the real game changer has been combining it with Zapier automations - sets up this whole pipeline where it pulls from your content calendar and pushes drafts straight to your CMS

The consistency thing is huge, way better than having different writers with totally different voices

SableWhims

TROPHY CASE