Run a representative company through a real close workflow and inspect the resulting books. Do not buy from a chat transcript or a benchmark that omits accounting controls.
1. Verify the accounting spine
Confirm how charts, journal entries, registers, bank activity, reconciliation, periods, and reports relate. Ask whether bank-feed state is the source of truth or whether posting creates proper ledger records.
Test balanced entries, account types, period boundaries, and report drill-down. AI cannot compensate for an accounting model that is unclear.
- Double-entry records
- Company and account scope
- Posting and register behavior
- Reconciliation and report calculations
2. Inspect what the AI can actually access and do
List the tools available to the agent, the data each tool returns, and the actions each tool can take. Distinguish read-only explanation, prepared work, confirmed execution, and standing authority.
Ask how the agent resolves the active firm and company, what happens when a user lacks permission, and whether the model can ever receive raw secrets.
- Typed tools
- Role and company access
- Action-specific authority
- Secret-free model context
3. Test the failure and exception paths
Include pending transactions, ambiguous transfers, a missing statement, a period lock, a duplicate, an unbalanced import, and an external request. Observe whether the product stops appropriately and whether the next action is clear.
A polished happy path is not enough. Bookkeeping quality is determined by exception handling.
- Warnings remain visible
- Confirmation conditions
- Period and posting validation
- Pause, retry, and recovery behavior
4. Require proof of prepared and completed work
Ask the agent to identify what needs attention, prepare a task, perform an authorized task, and explain how the firm can verify each result. The answer should point to records, actions, approvals, jobs, or activity—not only prose.
Review the ledger and reports after completion. A useful activity log should help answer who or what acted, on which company, at what time, and with what result.
- Prepared action or approval
- Resulting accounting record
- Activity or audit evidence
- Report and reconciliation impact
5. Evaluate migration, security, cost, and support
Understand the source formats, preview process, replacement safeguards, bank provider, mobile support, API access, export options, security controls, data retention, and support path.
Calculate cost per company, connected account, AI allowance, overage, migration, review labor, and any second system that must remain. Compare the cost of accurate reviewed output, not the cheapest displayed subscription.
- Migration preview and proof
- Security and data boundaries
- Full package and usage cost
- Support and exit/export path
Related reading
Put the workflow into practice