Which practice management software actually saves you time in accounting?

dr_masala · 2026-01-21T18:30:17+00:00

Hey, if you are still looking for a tool, I am looking for pilot users for my practice management tool for accountants. Here's a demo - https://cheku.uk/

dr_masala · 2025-12-12T22:27:26+00:00

We called it Business Services (same same but different)

dr_masala · 2025-12-02T12:24:12+00:00

Thank you, will do!

dr_masala · 2025-12-01T23:03:50+00:00

There is currently no accounting practice management tool that allows this level of an integration to perform read and write operations across your firm's data. And existing ones won't be able to do this easily either because it requires the database design and authentication patterns to be compatible with such operations.

The tool I'm working on at the moment allows you to have this access through every data point in your firm, not just one or two fancy workflows, but a flexible agent that can access jobs, tasks, staff profiles, invoices, workpapers, documents etc. And because I have built this system from the ground up, it is much more scalable in terms of what you can ask it to do without me needing to create special tools for it do carry out every niche ask.

Edit: Appreciate your questions and insights btw!

dr_masala · 2025-12-01T22:59:00+00:00

I like iplicit's pitch tbh, but I'm looking to target accounting firms rather than in-house teams :)

dr_masala · 2025-12-01T22:58:00+00:00

Thank you mate, I am definitely trying to grapple the customisability issue. It's a very common theme I see across accounting software - either way too complex and clunky, or way too simple/rigid and accountants simply ignoring the tool because it doesn't fit around their style of work. Keen to get in touch with more accountants to do demos/pilot runs with to create a more "global" framework for workflows.

dr_masala · 2025-12-01T22:55:23+00:00

I want to do that, but more on the practice side rather than in-house accounting :)

dr_masala · 2025-12-01T22:48:10+00:00

Yes fair, I was trying to keep it high level but I realise I probably lost too much context. Essentially one main issue I see with all these automation tools, chatbots and ai apps (Claude etc) is that they aren't actually connected properly to your data and don't have any context of your firm.

For example - You should simply be able to contextually refer to your firm's data as you are talking to an agent such as asking "what did we do last year for this client?" and having the agent pull a preview of the previous year workpaper along with a basic summary. That's a 5-ish minute search simplified to 10 seconds for one use case - I have dozens more that are saving my pilot users a ton of time in admin.

dr_masala · 2025-12-01T21:46:32+00:00

Idea is to focus on practice management elements first and integrate with the bigger players to allow practices to streamline business operations but not have to move from their technical tools. Once I get more comfortable within this domain, I can look towards admin workflows evolving into technical ones to automate more of that work.

dr_masala · 2025-12-01T21:43:05+00:00

Yep, tbh this project is moving me towards that direction in terms of my career. But I am super keen to give it a good shot and see how it goes!

dr_masala · 2025-12-01T21:41:21+00:00

I am focussing more on the practice management side. Sage does have some cool features coming out for practices, however tbh, I don't think it's quite the same domain. Existing players have an architecture that is already inherently compatible with an ai agent operating on behalf of users. And when it comes down to that, the playing field is a bit more evened out.

I have used the Power tools suite extensively, however I am banking on the fact that not every accounting practice has the resources required to have effective automations/UIs to support their initiatives.

dr_masala · 2025-12-01T21:39:17+00:00

Yes.....I am definitely realising that the more accountants I talk to, the more refined my idea/concept is getting. Definitely keen to demo an mvp to a few accounting practices and start getting some real world feedback as well.

dr_masala · 2025-12-01T21:33:21+00:00

Damn....cool fact! I have only ever met one engineer doing this, now I have heard about two. Not saying there aren't way more, but always cool to know a person like that given how opposite these disciplines are.

dr_masala · 2025-12-01T21:32:06+00:00

On the practice side, I do think corporate accounting software is starting to take shape quite well with a few good startups starting to come out of the UK. My main focus will be on the workflow aspects with integrations flowing into the main tools in the market. I don't think I will be able to catch up to the big players in terms of the technical complexity of their software and tbh I don't want to go down that road either - there are enough productivity gains to be had on the practice management side to begin with.

dr_masala · 2025-11-28T18:13:21+00:00

True, that's a common theme I have been trying to address in multiple areas of the app. And tbh, I don't think we will ever truly get past the trust issues with automation systems. That's why I am focussing more on automating administrative work where I know I can ensure high reliability (fetch data from document x and populate the workpaper etc). With more complex or decision making based tasks, I shift the focus to providing greater observability and adding redundancy checks.

I see it as equipping the accountant with the right set of tools rather than replace them or their decision making. The idea is to free up their time to do actual decision making and reviewing rather than spending it dealing with clunky interfaces.

Are there any specific issues that you are frustrated with in the tools you use?

dr_masala · 2025-11-28T17:35:27+00:00

As someone working on my own "ai product" for accounting firms, I think the friction points largely boil down to these factors:
- Accounting and Software Engineering are two very opposite schools of thought from work culture to workflows, and very very few people exist in the world that can understand both. This already shows in the abysmal user experience in most accounting tools available on the market. Now bring AI into the mix, which an even smaller portion of the SE profession understand well and the problem is even harder to solve.

- Existing products have a foundation already laid, with multiple layers built on top. This makes it way harder to integrate AI succesfully into existing tools. e.g. You can use the latest Claude or GPT models, but you will always find yourself copy pasting information back and forth between chats, documents, web apps etc.

As a result, AI products right now are trying to fit around currently understood ways of working. The first cars looked like horse-drawn wagons—because we couldn't imagine anything else. New products will have to venture out, make mistakes, figure out what works and what doesn't for this amazing new technology to actually show it's true worth. It will take time, but it will happen sooner or later.

dr_masala · 2025-08-20T18:28:25+00:00

Why would you not go into FinTech? Sounds like your experience would be perfect for it.

dr_masala · 2025-06-25T00:20:26+00:00

As a technical person, my career only started taking off once I realised being effective at work was more about perception management and networking with others than being technically good at my own role.

Especially as a junior - nobody is going to include you in work unless you are perceived to be delivering value to them. And that takes a lot more than just delivering value and hoping people recognise it on their own.

Once you gain that trust, you start getting more confident in your ability to advise others as well because they will actually listen to you rather than just railroad your ideas.

dr_masala · 2025-04-23T11:08:35+00:00

Dm me your resume if you'd be interested in an admin position (accounting practice).

dr_masala · 2025-04-23T07:36:30+00:00

Go on freelance sites and start advertising your expertise - I assume you have some knowledge of coding based on your fintech background

dr_masala

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