AI workflow assessment for UK accountants - find the admin draining your billable hours.
We sit down with your practice for 60 minutes, diagnose where the unbillable hours actually go - records chasing, onboarding, software switching, the quick-question emails - and hand back a report built around how you work: named tools, step-by-step recipes, and a prioritised plan to reclaim the time. Not a template.
The admin that never makes it onto a timesheet.
You bill clients at senior rates. Then half a day of every week disappears to the work in between: three follow-ups to chase a missing year-end record, an onboarding that should take 90 minutes stretched to three, context-switching between four bookkeeping platforms, and a steady drip of quick-question emails that each take 20 minutes and never get billed.
None of it lands on a timesheet, so none of it is visible - but it is the reason January runs long, the reason you cannot take on the next client, and the reason the evenings vanish. You know AI could help somewhere in there. You just need someone to show you exactly where, and in what order, for a practice that runs the way yours does.
That is what the assessment is for. Not another course, not a generic tool list - a 60-minute diagnostic of your practice and a plan built around what will genuinely give you the hours back.
UK accountants lose around £62,000 a year per fee earner to unbillable admin.
The median UK accountancy or bookkeeping practice loses 12 hours per fee earner per week to admin. At a blended billing rate of £112 an hour across the 46-week UK working year, that is £61,824 of unbillable time every year - for each fee earner in the practice.
£41,400
Bookkeeper / junior rate - 12 hrs/week × £75 × 46 weeks
£55,200
Senior rate - 12 hrs/week × £100 × 46 weeks
£82,800
Partner rate - 12 hrs/week × £150 × 46 weeks
The 12-hour benchmark is the median from HoursBack assessment data (n=20+) across UK accountancy and bookkeeping practices, cross-checked against published UK SME productivity research. Your practice will differ - run your own numbers in the admin cost calculator for accountants, or read the full breakdown in AI workflows for UK accountants.
The assessment is £799 - the billable-hours equivalent of less than a working day at a senior rate.
Your six biggest time sinks - and what we do about each one.
We map your whole practice in the 60-minute session, then work backwards to the drains worth fixing first. Here is how that lands on the specific admin accountants feel.
Chasing year-end records
Three, sometimes five follow-ups per missing item, across every client at year-end. We map how the chase actually runs in your practice and show where AI drafting and reminders take it off your plate - with the exact recipe and prompts in your report.
Client onboarding
Engagement letters, AML checks, software access, opening balances, the intro call. We identify the repeatable steps AI can template and flag whether a bespoke onboarding agent would pay back for the volume you take on.
Switching between Xero, QuickBooks, Sage and FreeAgent
Different clients on different platforms means context-switching all day. We look at your actual stack and show which built-in AI reconciliation and bank-rule features you are leaving switched off, client by client.
Quick-question emails that eat an afternoon
The five-minute query that turns into 25 minutes of digging, written off because it felt too small to bill. We give you a prompt library and a workflow for pricing the interaction, so advisory time stops leaking.
Manual receipt and bank statement processing
Even with Dext or AutoEntry there is still a categorisation and query layer. We assess your current setup and the parts AI can genuinely shrink - not the parts it cannot.
The capacity ceiling
New clients you cannot take on because nobody has the hours. Your report prioritises by hours reclaimed, so you can free the capacity to grow without hiring first.
What this is - and what it isn’t.
The assessment is a diagnostic and a plan. Within two working days of your call you get a passcode-protected report: the AI and automation opportunities we have found for your practice, named tools with costs and setup time, step-by-step recipes, a prompt library, an impact-versus-effort ranking, and ROI worked out on your real numbers. It is written in plain English so you can act on it - no technical background needed.
It is guidance, not us doing the work for you. If the report flags something worth building - an onboarding agent, say - the Custom AI Agent Build is a separate product from £2,500, scoped case by case. If you would rather implement the report’s quick wins yourself with someone beside you, the Implementation Kickstart (£349, 90 minutes) is there for that. The assessment always comes first.
Questions accountants ask us.
Will this work for a practice with clients on different software?
Is client data safe if we start using AI tools?
We already use Dext and Xero. Is there anything left to save?
Is £799 worth it for a smaller practice?
One payment. A written plan,
a video walkthrough, and someone
checking in to make sure it happens.
A diagnostic session, personalised report, video walkthrough, and follow-up support. One payment, no ongoing costs.
Find out where your practice's hours actually go.
Book a 60-minute diagnostic. Get a report built around your practice within two working days, a video walkthrough, and follow-up support. Money back if it doesn't show at least 5 hours a week worth reclaiming.
Book your assessment →Not ready to book? Take the free 2-minute AI readiness quiz to see where your practice stands.