Automate the preparation. Keep the professional judgment.
Automation for accounting firms, starting with the document chase
We automate the work around your client files: intake and document requests, reminders for missing records, sorting what arrives, and preparing year-end files. Your team spends less time chasing and re-keying, and more on review and clients.
Where the hours go before anyone does any accounting
Your staff are trained accountants. A lot of their season still goes to fetching, chasing and re-keying, and much of it happens before the year-end file is even opened.
- Copying last year's document request into an email for each client, then tracking replies in a spreadsheet or someone's head.
- Chasing the same missing bank statement three times, by hand, while the file sits.
- Clients sending phone photos, forwarded emails and one 40-page PDF with six statements and a lease inside it.
- Renaming and filing every document into the right client folder before anyone can use it.
- Mapping the accounts that are new or renamed this year, and checking the rest still land where they should.
- Re-keying the same figures from the client's books into working papers and again into tax software.
- Writing the same questions for the client and the manager every year, from scratch.
- Handing a partner a file that is complete but has no trail showing where each number came from.
Collect, chase, sort, prepare
The first four are the client-document pipeline, in the order we usually build it. The last two are the work it feeds. Each is built around your files and your review process, not bought off a shelf.
1. Collect: client intake and document requests
When an engagement opens, the automation builds the request list from the engagement type and last year's file, and sends it through your portal, a secure upload link or email. New clients get an intake checklist instead of a blank email.
- Request lists built from last year's file
- Connected to your practice tool, such as Financial Cents, where it allows it
- Uploads land in the right client folder in SharePoint
- Wording and timing your firm has approved
2. Chase: reminders for missing records
The system compares what arrived with what you asked for, and only chases what is still missing. Reminders follow your schedule and your wording, escalate to the staff member when a client goes quiet, and can wait for a partner's review before they go out.
- Reminders only for what is actually missing
- Firm-approved wording and schedule
- Partner review before sending, if you want it
- Status your team can see without asking around
3. Sort: classify and split documents
AI reads what came in, splits combined PDFs into separate documents and classifies each one: bank statement, loan statement, invoice, tax slip, CRA notice. Software names it, files it and ticks it off the request list, whether it came from email, a scanner or a capture tool like Dext.
- Combined PDFs split into separate documents
- Consistent names and folders for every client
- Request list updated as documents arrive
- Anything unreadable goes to a person, not a guess
4. Prepare: year-end files
With the documents in place, preparation starts from a clean base: the trial balance imported from QuickBooks Online or Xero and balance-checked, new accounts flagged for mapping, balances tied to statements, schedules rolled forward and questions drafted for the preparer.
- Trial balance checked before anything moves
- Only new and changed accounts need a mapping decision
- Balances tied to statements, with the source recorded
- Client and manager questions drafted in one batch
Review packages and handoff
Exceptions first, then supported balances, then explanations, so a manager's review starts with the judgment calls. Checked figures move toward CaseWare or CCH iFirm through the imports those products support, and are prepared for TaxCycle, with less re-keying.
- Exceptions and open questions up front
- Every figure traceable to its source
- Less re-keying into working-paper and tax software
- Reviewer status tracked item by item
Engagement letters and file documentation
CSRS 4200 added paperwork to every compilation: an engagement letter with specific acknowledgements, a documented understanding of the client and a minimum documentation file. Software can prepare the letter from your template, track signatures and assemble the file as the work happens.
- Letters prepared from your firm's own template
- Signature status tracked, signed copy filed
- Last year's documented understanding carried forward for review
- Documentation assembled as the work happens
How It Works
Our proven process gets you from discovery to deployment efficiently
Discovery Sprint: learn how a file actually moves
A paid, fixed-price deep dive ($3,000 to $5,000 CAD). We sit with your preparers and managers, walk through real engagements and map what arrives, where it goes and what gets re-keyed. You keep the prioritized roadmap and build plan whether or not you build with us.
Build around your systems
We build the first workflow around your practice tool, SharePoint and your clients' bookkeeping software. We usually recommend starting with requests and reminders. APIs where they exist, exports and imports where they don't. Fixed price, no hourly billing, 60 days of monitoring included.
Pilot on real engagements
The first clients run with your team watching. Reminders can stay in review mode until partners are happy with the wording and timing, and we compare the output with how the work would have been done by hand before it touches more clients.
Operate and improve
Managed Automation, from $1,000 a month: we host, monitor and maintain it. When a bookkeeping export changes format or a client adds twelve accounts, handling it is our job. Each season, exceptions that keep recurring become rules.
The Transformation
See the difference automation makes
Year-end today
- Request lists rebuilt by hand from last year's emails
- Missing records chased one client at a time, from memory
- Uploads renamed, split and filed by hand before anyone can use them
- New accounts mapped and roll-forwards checked by eye
- Balances tied in a spreadsheet, with the support somewhere in a folder
- Manager review starts with 'where did this number come from?'
With the pipeline automated
- Requests go out when the engagement opens, on wording you approved
- Reminders go out on schedule, and everyone can see who is waiting on what
- Documents arrive split, classified, named and filed
- Only new or changed accounts need a mapping decision
- Every tied balance carries its source document and page
- Review starts with exceptions and judgment calls, not archaeology
How we think about AI in an accounting file
AI is good at reading and suggesting. It is the wrong tool for arithmetic and the wrong party to make an accounting or tax decision. So we split the work three ways.
Reads, classifies, drafts
- Reads statements, invoices, slips and agreements
- Splits and classifies what clients upload
- Extracts dates, amounts, parties and terms
- Summarizes the activity behind a balance
- Suggests mappings for new or ambiguous accounts
- Drafts requests, questions and explanations
Calculates, checks, follows your rules
- Does every calculation deterministically
- Ties balances to statements and support
- Checks what arrived against what you asked for
- Sends reminders on the schedule and wording you approved
- Records the source of every figure
- Logs every step for review
Judge, approve, sign
- Exercise professional judgment
- Decide accounting and tax treatment
- Approve what clients receive, and when
- Resolve the exceptions the system surfaces
- Approve adjusting entries
- Review and sign off on the file
This is the same split behind all of our finance automation work: AI reads and classifies, deterministic rules execute, and checks prove the result reconciles. Nothing we build makes a professional decision. Requests and reminders go out only on rules and wording your firm has approved, and partners can review anything before it's sent.
The tools accounting firms run, and how we work with them
We build around your environment instead of replacing it. Where a tool has an API, we use it. Where it only imports and exports files, we work from the files. We don't have native connectors for CaseWare, TaxCycle or CCH iFirm: we build custom automation that works alongside them.
Don't see your system? If it has an API, a CSV export, or an email inbox, we can probably work with it.
Guardrails built for a professional practice
The controls we put around AI in a file, so the firm stays in charge of the work it signs and the messages its clients receive.
No AI on the numbers
Language models never do the arithmetic. Every calculation, tie-out and check is deterministic code you can inspect.
Your wording, your rules
Client requests and reminders use templates and schedules the firm approves. Partners can review any message before it goes out.
Provenance on every figure
Each prepared amount carries its source document, page or row locator, related ledger balance and any difference.
Data can stay in Canada
Client data can stay in Canadian data centres when your firm requires it, and AI models can run through a private endpoint in a Canadian cloud region, on our infrastructure or yours. We document where everything goes before anything is deployed.
Why Choose Us
Built on expertise, trust, and proven results
In use at an Ontario CPA firm
A 40-person Ontario CPA firm uses it today. We keep client names private unless they tell us otherwise.
We've automated work for an accounting firm
Davis Martindale, an accounting firm in London, Ontario, had us automate their HR reporting, using RPA so it could work with their existing software without an API. Different department, same discipline: learn the real process, work with the software already in use, hand back a result the team can check.
Finance automation is what we do
Bank reconciliation, statement extraction, accounts payable and reporting are core DigitalStaff work. An accounting firm's document pipeline and year-end files use the same patterns inside a public practice.
Built and run by the same team
We don't hand you a script and leave. The team that builds your automation hosts it, monitors it and improves it season after season.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will the system contact our clients on its own?
Only in the ways your firm has approved. Document requests and reminders follow schedules and wording you sign off on, and partners can review any message before it goes out. You can start with every message held for review and loosen that later, or keep review on for good. Anything beyond routine requests, like a question about a balance, is drafted for a person to send.
What does document collection look like for our clients?
Not much different, which is the point. They get one request listing exactly what's needed, through the channel they already use: your portal, a secure upload link or plain email. Behind the scenes, each document is split, classified, named, filed and ticked off the list, and only what is still missing gets a reminder. If your practice tool already sends requests and reminders, we work with it rather than around it.
Does this replace Financial Cents, CaseWare, TaxCycle or CCH iFirm?
No. They stay your systems of record. We automate the work around them: collecting and sorting documents, preparing and checking the trial balance, tying balances to support, and moving data in and out with less re-keying. Where a tool supports imports and exports, we use them. We don't claim native connectors for these products.
Will AI be making accounting or tax decisions in our files?
No. We use AI to read documents, classify and extract information, and draft suggestions and questions. Calculations, reconciliations and rule checks run as deterministic software. Accounting treatment, tax positions and adjusting entries are decided by your professionals. The system is built to make review faster, not to remove it.
Where does client data go?
We map that during discovery and document it before anything is deployed, so you can answer the question for your own clients. Client data can stay in Canadian data centres when your firm requires it, and we can run AI models through private endpoints in a Canadian cloud region, on our infrastructure or yours, depending on what your firm needs.
Who owns what you build, and are we stuck depending on you?
Your data, your logins, your documentation: all yours, written down, not in my head. You get a licence to run it, and the code itself is an option if you ever want it. Everything is documented, so you're not depending on one person.
What does it cost, and how do we start?
Start with a free 25-minute intro call. If there's a fit, the next step is a paid Discovery Sprint ($3,000 to $5,000 CAD), where we sit with the people who prepare and review files and leave you with a prioritized plan. Builds are fixed price after discovery, with no hourly billing and 60 days of monitoring included. If you want us to run it, Managed Automation starts at $1,000 a month. The details are on our pricing page.
Our files and procedures vary by client. Does that break automation?
Variation is normal, and it's why we don't sell a packaged product. The automation handles the consistent mechanics: requests, sorting, balancing, mapping, tie-outs and provenance. Client-specific rules are configured, and anything that doesn't fit a rule goes to a person as an exception. Over a season, exceptions that keep recurring become rules.
Where should a firm start?
Usually at the front of the file: client intake, document requests and reminders. The work is repetitive, easy to measure (who is still missing what, and for how long), and every later step depends on it. Sorting documents comes next, then year-end preparation. We get there one proven step at a time.
Go deeper
Where to go from here.
Year-End File Preparation Automation
The prepare stage in detail: trial balance, tie-outs and review packages, with the human gates marked.
Compilation Engagements Under CSRS 4200
What software can and can't help with, requirement by requirement.
Pricing and the Discovery Sprint
Discovery Sprint $3,000 to $5,000 CAD, fixed-price builds, and Managed Automation from $1,000 a month.
Case Study: Davis Martindale
HR reporting automated for a London, Ontario accounting firm.
Bank Statement Extraction
PDF bank and credit-card statements turned into clean, verified transactions.
Managed Automation
We host, monitor and improve your automations as an ongoing service.
Start with a 25-minute call
Tell us what your season looks like and which tools you run. We'll tell you honestly whether automation would help, and if it would, what a Discovery Sprint would cover.