Last updated · Peter Baker
Short answer: automate the chasing before the thinking. Records requests, missing documents, onboarding paperwork and deadline reminders take hours every week and need no professional judgement. Keep advice, reviews and anything filed with HMRC in front of a qualified person.
Your clients already judge how modern your practice is. This is how you look like the practice that has it handled, without betting the budget on hype.
Where the hours go
Every practice is different, and a real audit measures yours. These are the places we look first in a UK accountancy firm:
- Chasing records and documents: the same reminder emails, every client, every period.
- Client onboarding: engagement letters, ID documents and the missing items that hold everything up.
- The client inbox: routine questions about deadlines, payments and what's needed next.
- Deadline tracking: knowing which clients are behind before it becomes a penalty.
- Reporting packs: pulling numbers into the monthly or quarterly update a client actually reads.
Why this matters more from 2026
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax became mandatory on 6 April 2026 for sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000. It extends to those over £30,000 from April 2027 and over £20,000 from April 2028, according to HMRC's policy paper.
For a practice, that turns an annual records chase into a quarterly one for every affected client. Doing that by hand is where the hours disappear.
Three pilots we'd start with
Each one is a 30-day pilot on a single workflow with one owner, measured before and after. Pilots start from £2,500.
- Records chasing that runs itself. Requests go out on schedule, replies are tracked, and only the clients who haven't sent anything reach a person.
- Client onboarding pack. Engagement letter, ID documents and missing items collected and chased automatically. The identity and anti-money-laundering decisions stay with a person.
- Inbox triage. Routine client questions sorted and answered in draft for a person to check and send. Anything unusual goes straight to the right person.
Automate the chasing. Keep the judgement.
What we'd leave alone
- Unreviewed tax advice. A model can draft; a qualified person decides what the client is told.
- Filing without sign-off. Nothing goes to HMRC without a person approving it.
- Client data in public AI tools. See the ICAEW guidance below.
- Replacing your practice management software. It's rarely the bottleneck. The manual work around it is.
Confidentiality and ICAEW
ICAEW's generative AI ethics guidance is clear that respecting confidentiality means "not loading confidential information into public Generative AI tools". It also expects members to review AI output with professional scepticism.
So everything we build keeps client data in tools with proper data-handling terms, keeps a person on anything that becomes advice or a filing, and logs what ran. We're not your regulator or your compliance officer, and we'll flag where your own sign-off is needed.
How to start. Run the free website report if you want something now with no call. If the problem is operational, the AI Opportunity Audit is from £750, takes one to two weeks, and is credited in full against a pilot started within 60 days.
Frequently asked questions
What should an accountancy practice automate first?
Usually the chasing: records requests, missing documents and deadline reminders. It is repetitive, it touches every client, and with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax it now happens quarterly for affected clients rather than once a year. A person still reviews anything that becomes advice or a filing.
Can accountants put client data into ChatGPT?
ICAEW's generative AI guidance says respecting confidentiality means not loading confidential information into public generative AI tools, because there is limited control over who it is shared with, how it is secured and how long it is kept. Use tools with proper data-handling terms, or keep client data out.
How much does AI automation cost for an accountancy firm?
Ishigai's AI Opportunity Audit is from £750 and is credited in full against a pilot started within 60 days. Pilots on a single workflow start from £2,500, and larger builds across several systems typically run up to £15,000, fixed-price.
Will it work with our practice management software?
We build on top of the practice management, bookkeeping and email tools you already use rather than replacing them. The audit confirms what your current systems can connect to before anything is quoted.
Related reading
- AI Opportunity Audit: from £750, credited against a pilot started within 60 days.
- Process Automation: 30-day pilots from £2,500.
- AI for law firms: what to automate first, and what the SRA expects.
- What an AI audit costs in the UK: 2026 price ranges, with sources.
- AI for web agencies: automate the agency, not the craft.
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