AI and Bookkeeping
As artificial intelligence finds its way into almost every aspect of business and society, it can feel overwhelming and exciting in equal measure.
The opportunities seem almost endless. At the same time, many of the claims around AI tend to sit at the extremes — either a future where technology solves everything, or one where it replaces people altogether.
The reality, particularly in bookkeeping, is likely to sit somewhere in between.
At O’Malley Books, we keep a close eye on developments in AI, automation and accounting technology — particularly where they can improve the way bookkeeping is delivered to Australian small businesses.
We believe AI will have a significant impact on bookkeeping. But we don't believe that means removing people from the process.
Instead, the role people play will change.
Transaction coding is a good example. Increasingly sophisticated software can already identify patterns, learn from historical transactions and suggest — or automatically apply — accounting treatments with a high degree of confidence.
As these systems improve, the amount of routine manual processing required should continue to fall.
But automation isn't the same thing as assurance.
A transaction being automatically categorised doesn't necessarily mean it has been categorised correctly. Unusual transactions, new suppliers, GST treatment, duplicates, missing information and changes in the way a business operates can all create exceptions that require judgement.
That's where we see the human bookkeeper role becoming increasingly important.
Rather than spending time manually processing every transaction, the modern bookkeeper increasingly becomes the supervisor of the process — reviewing exceptions, reconciling accounts, investigating anomalies, performing quality assurance and ultimately making sure the books make sense.
In other words, AI can increasingly do the heavy lifting.
Good bookkeeping still requires someone to make sure it lifted the right thing. That distinction matters.
At O’Malley Books, our focus isn't on using AI simply because it's new. It's on understanding where automation genuinely improves bookkeeping, where human oversight remains important, and how the two can work together to deliver accurate, efficient and dependable books.
Technology will continue to change.
Our job is to stay on top of it — so our clients don't have to.
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