I have a feeling that there is a race to survive and consolidation on the market: accounting is the focus of many companies to automate.
There are a lot of repetitive tasks, all are structured, those are looking good for automation.
Also helps that accounting is not that liked of a job, and we have a shortage of accountants in the US.
But internally how do you talk to your team about bringing digital transformation?
I run a small accounting practice (about 300 clients, with team in the US and offshore)
We built a tool for our team that allows multi QBO connection to one Claude account, with custom SOPs, finance skills, and ability to post, update and delete transactions in the QBO without a need to login.
If I want to give it away for free for a month in exchange for feedback - is it allowed to post here?
It’s great if you are using Claude already, and have clients on QBO
Saw a few threads asking what tools other firms actually run day to day, versus what gets recommended in every "best accounting software 2026" listicle. We're a boutique SF firm, venture-backed startup clients, pre-seed through Series C, about 1,500 companies served over the years (Render, Veho, Chartio, OdysseyML, TaskRabbit, Segment, and so many others!). Here's what's actually in our stack and why, not a sponsored list.
ERP / books
We run three, split by client profile, not preference:
- QuickBooks Online for domestic-only companies. Still the fastest to onboard and the easiest for founders to poke around in themselves.
- Xero for anything cross-border, especially EU/UK/Australia. QBO's multi-currency and VAT handling is workable but Xero is just built for this from the ground up.
- NetSuite once a client carries inventory. QBO and Xero both get uncomfortable with COGS and inventory valuation at any real volume. NetSuite is overkill until it's suddenly not.
Spend management
- Ramp for card issuing and the machine learning categorization, which is genuinely good. I'd stay away from their AI agents specifically, the underlying ML is solid but the agent layer isn't there yet for how we work.
- Bill for AP. Cheap, easy, does the one job.
Practice and project management
- Double for practice management.
- Asana for project management and scope of work retention, this is where SOWs actually live and get tracked against, not just a task board.
- Slack for internal and client communication. Every client gets a shared channel instead of an email thread.
Reporting and AI layer
- NumbersGame AI to connect Claude directly to QBO data, this is the piece that's changed the most in the last year.
- Claude for Excel, used constantly for modeling and one-off analysis.
- Workflow automation layer we use Loopfour for the repetitive month end close work, the stuff that used to eat a staff accountant's Tuesday. Naturally I like the product, as we helped to design and build it.
- We still build financial models in-house rather than templating them, every startup's unit economics are different enough that templates cost more time than they save, but all our data updated through Numbers Game AI
Can answer questions on any of these, also curious what other firms are running for the AI-to-ledger connection piece, feels like everyone's solving that differently right now.