Welcome to Operations Mastery - the 3-minute email that teaches you how to scale your business, increase your profit margins, and save time by optimizing your internal operations.
Brought to you by Ed Axe, Founder & CEO of Axe Automation.
Does your team spend hours manually inputting data into Xero or QuickBooks?
There’s good news:
You can automate the whole thing.
This will work for CPA firms or just any B2B company that uses Xero or QuickBooks to manage their finances.
Here’s how to automate your bookkeeping in Xero or QuickBooks:
(if you’d prefer video rather than text, click here)
1️⃣ Automate data collection & entry
Use AI to extract data from financial documents and input it into your systems automatically.
For example:
- Set up automated email filters to sort and save client documents
- Use OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software to scan and extract data from PDFs, invoices, and statements
- Create custom integrations between your email, cloud storage, and accounting software
Here’s what this might look like in practice:
A client emails you their monthly bank statement. Your system automatically:
- Saves the PDF to the correct client folder
- Extracts transaction data
- Imports it into your accounting software
No manual data entry required!
2️⃣ Bank & credit card reconciliation
Let AI match transactions and reconcile accounts without manual intervention.
This process typically involves:
- Importing bank and credit card statements
- Matching transactions to existing entries in your accounting software
- Identifying and flagging discrepancies for review
With AI-powered reconciliation:
- The system automatically matches 90%+ of transactions
- It learns from your corrections over time, improving accuracy
- You only need to review flagged items, saving hours of tedious work
3️⃣ Expense categorization
Train AI to identify and categorize expenses, including recurring ones.
Here’s how it works:
- Set up initial categorization rules based on common expenses
- The AI learns from your manual categorizations
- Over time, it can accurately categorize even complex or unique expenses
For example:
- “Office Depot” purchases are automatically categorized as “Office Supplies”
- A recurring monthly charge from “Adobe” is categorized as “Software Subscription”
- The system learns that “Joe’s Diner” should be categorized as “Client Meals” based on your past actions
4️⃣ Invoice generation & sending
Create templates and rules to automatically generate and send invoices on schedule.
Implement this by:
- Setting up invoice templates for different services
- Creating rules for recurring invoices (e.g., monthly retainers)
- Automating the sending process based on predefined schedules
Here’s a sample workflow:
- System detects completed work for Client A
- Generates invoice using the appropriate template
- Sends invoice to the client on the 1st of each month
- Records the sent invoice in your accounting system
5️⃣ Accounts receivable management
Trigger updates when payments are confirmed and set up automated reminder sequences for overdue invoices.
This automation can:
- Update AR records when payments are received
- Send polite reminders at set intervals for overdue invoices
- Escalate to different team members if an invoice remains unpaid
Example reminder sequence:
- Day 1 after due date: Friendly reminder email
- Day 7: Follow-up email with invoice attached
- Day 14: Phone call reminder scheduled for account manager
- Day 30: Escalation to senior management for review
6️⃣ Accounts payable management
Implement reminders for bill payments to ensure timely settlements.
Set up a system that:
- Tracks incoming bills and their due dates
- Sends reminders to the appropriate team member for approval
- Schedules payments to optimize cash flow
Here’s how it might look:
- Bills are automatically entered into the system upon receipt
- Approval requests are sent to the right person based on amount and department
- Payments are scheduled to go out just before the due date
- You get a weekly summary of upcoming payments for cash flow planning
7️⃣ Financial report generation
Automatically create and send P&Ls, balance sheets, and custom reports to clients.
This can involve:
- Setting up report templates for different client types
- Scheduling automatic report generation (e.g., monthly, quarterly)
- Creating custom dashboards with key metrics for each client
Example:
- On the 1st of each month, the system generates a report pack for each client
- It includes a P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow statement
- For retail clients, it also includes a sales by product category report
- Reports are automatically emailed to clients and saved in their folder
These automations saved our clients an average of 40+ hours per week.
That’s time they now spend on strategic planning and client relationships.
Want to see how we can build custom automation systems for your firm?
Watch the video below:
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One more thing - We have helped 60+ businesses save $1m+ in labor costs & over 50,000 hours using Automation & AI.
If you’re looking to:
- Save 100+ hours per month
- Increase profit margins by 20%
- Remove yourself from daily operations
Book your 30-minute consultation here to learn more about how we can help: https://www.axeautomation.co/
Here are some other articles you might find useful:
See you next week!
Best,
Ed Axe