Bookkeeping data entry
Capture tools read the receipts and bank rules code the familiar suppliers, leaving the rest to fill a bookkeeper's week: payments with nothing behind them, a VAT treatment that needs thought, a client who has sent half of what was asked. An AI agent can work that pile, proposing a coding, chasing the gaps and putting the doubtful entries first.
The role in brief
Codes the lines your capture tool and bank rules leave, with a reason, chases missing documents and prepares the entries for a bookkeeper to approve.
Your bookkeeping software, such as Xero, QuickBooks or FreeAgent, a capture tool such as Dext, and wherever documents arrive.
The bookkeeper for that set of books. New suppliers, anything it cannot code with a reason, VAT questions and every reconciliation go to them.
Codings accepted unchanged, bank lines waiting for a document, and days from document to entry.
Exceptions crowd out the bookkeeper's review
A bookkeeper in a practice runs a portfolio of clients: posting invoices, coding bank lines, reconciling and preparing VAT returns. Dext and the bank rules in Xero or QuickBooks handle the suppliers seen before. Payments with no document, a subcontractor invoice with CIS and the reverse charge, and a client who sends nothing until the quarter is due are the hard part left and take the time meant for review.
The shoebox now arrives every quarter
Since April 2026 sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000 keep digital records and send HMRC an update every quarter. The threshold falls to £30,000 in April 2027 and £20,000 in April 2028. Records that used to turn up once, in January, are needed every three months.
A wrong code found at year end
A subcontractor's invoice keyed without its CIS deduction, or with VAT charged where the domestic reverse charge applies, looks fine on the day. It surfaces at the VAT return or the year end, when nobody remembers what they were looking at.
Bank lines with nothing behind them
A payment with no invoice or receipt cannot be coded honestly. Each one means a message to the client or the site manager, a wait, and an entry parked in suspense until someone answers.
From a document to an entry awaiting approval
Here an AI worker proposes codings and prepares the entries, working to coding rules settled with you before it starts. Your bookkeeper approves the coding, settles the VAT questions and reconciles the bank.
Reading
Picks up each line your capture tool and bank rules have not settled, with whatever document arrived with it, and notes what is missing or unreadable.
Nothing.
Coding
Proposes the account, VAT code and tracking category from how that supplier was coded before and from your own rules, and gives its reason.
New suppliers, and any line it cannot code with a reason.
Queries
Lists the bank lines with no document behind them and asks the client, in writing, what each one was.
Anything a client disputes, and any phone call.
Entries
Prepares the entries with the document attached, as drafts where your software allows, and puts the doubtful ones at the top of the review list.
Approval of every batch, the bank reconciliation and the VAT return.
Codings accepted unchanged
The share of proposed entries your bookkeeper approves without altering the account or the VAT code. Reviewed with you each month.
Bank lines waiting for a document
How many payments have no invoice or receipt behind them, how long each has waited, and for which client.
Days from document to entry
Counted from the day a document arrives to the day its entry is ready for your bookkeeper's approval.
Questions owners ask
Can it reconcile the bank in Xero?
No. Xero says bank reconciliation must be done inside Xero, and it does not let other software see unreconciled statement lines. So the agent would work from the documents and a bank export and prepare the entries, and your bookkeeper does the matching in Xero. Other packages differ: FreeAgent, for one, lets other software explain bank transactions through its API.
What does it do that Dext and bank rules do not?
It picks up what they leave, and they go on as now. Dext reads the document and applies the supplier rules you have set. The agent takes the line with no rule and no document, flags the VAT treatment that needs a judgement, queries the client and orders your review list, so your bookkeeper's time goes where the risk is.
Who is responsible for the VAT treatment?
Your bookkeeper or accountant. The agent proposes a VAT code and says why, and it marks the cases that need thought, such as a construction invoice where the domestic reverse charge may apply. It does not decide a VAT treatment and it does not submit a return.
How would it know how we code each client?
From the books themselves: how each supplier has been coded before in that client's ledger, plus the rules you give it, such as which costs you capitalise or which job a purchase belongs to. Where history and rules do not settle a line, it says so and leaves the line for your bookkeeper.