Comparison
Should my accounting firm wait for its software (a3, Sage) to add AI, or automate now?
Short answer
They aren't mutually exclusive. a3's or Sage's AI will improve what happens inside their software. What happens outside it (client email, missing documents, WhatsApp, other software) will stay the same, and that can be automated now without switching software.
Amud team · Reviewed on October 29, 2026 · 2 min read
It's a very reasonable question. The vendors of the software accounting firms use are already building AI in:
- In June 2026, Wolters Kluwer launched a3innuva Nómina Expert AI, an agent inside its payroll software that answers questions on contracts, payroll, contributions, holidays, sick leave and employment rules, and analyses the software's own data.
- Sage Iberia has made artificial intelligence the core of its innovation for its 2026 financial year.
And according to Wolters Kluwer's survey of Spanish professional firms, seven in ten already use AI in their daily work. If your software is getting AI, why automate now?
What your software's AI will do
What happens inside the software: answering questions about the data it already holds, helping with regulations, generating reports or reading documents that arrive through its own channels. It's a real improvement, and worth trying as soon as it's available.
What will stay outside
Much of an accounting firm's repetitive work doesn't happen inside the accounting software:
- Client email: invoices, questions and tax notices mixed in one inbox.
- Missing documents: requesting them, chasing them and knowing who has sent what before quarter-end.
- WhatsApp, where many clients send photos of receipts and invoices.
- Other software: the bank, each client's ERP or invoicing tool, the document manager.
A vendor improves its software, not the route data takes to get there. That route is exactly what can be automated now.
Waiting vs automating, point by point
| Wait for the software's AI | Automate what's outside now | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it works | Inside the vendor's software | Between email, WhatsApp, folders and your software |
| What it covers | Whatever the vendor decides, the same for every firm | Your process, with your rules per client |
| When | On the vendor's roadmap | Now |
| Cost | Included or as a paid add-on | Fixed-price project plus usage |
| If you switch software | You lose it | It's reconnected to the new one |
| Risk | Doing the outside work by hand in the meantime | Automating something the software later covers |
When waiting makes sense
If almost all your repetitive work happens inside the software (for example, because clients already upload everything to a portal and rarely email), waiting for the vendor's AI may be the most sensible choice. It's worth measuring before deciding.
When it pays not to wait
When the team loses hours every week on what happens outside: opening email, chasing documents, sorting what arrives on WhatsApp or moving data from one place to another. A software update won't fix that. The clearest examples:
- Getting quarter-end documents without chasing each client.
- Chatting with clients' spreadsheets and documents, without uploading them to personal accounts.
The best of both
Use your software's AI for what happens inside it, and automate what happens outside so data arrives in order. They don't overlap: a good automation leaves the information in your software, where its AI can work with it. We go into more detail in AI in accounting firms: from trying it to integrating it.
Sources
Frequently asked questions
What if my software does the same thing a year from now?
Then you switch off whatever is redundant. That's why automations should live in the firm's own accounts, documented and with no lock-in: if the vendor solves it better, nothing is tied up.
Does the automation connect to my software?
Through its API when it has one and, if not, through the most stable route it allows: file imports, watched folders or scheduled exports. The result shows up in your own software.
Where do I start if I want to do both?
Make two lists: what happens inside the software and what happens outside it (email, WhatsApp, folders, calls). Try the software's AI on the first. Measure how many hours the second takes: that's usually where the most repetitive work is.
Keep reading
Blog
AI in accounting firms: seven in ten already use it, now the challenge is integrating it
Wolters Kluwer's Foro Asesores wrapped up last week with a clear message: Spanish accounting and tax firms are moving from experimenting with AI to building it into their daily work. Industry data confirms the uptake, and also shows where it stalls. Here's how to go from a standalone tool to a process that works.
Industry
Automation and AI for accounting firms: invoices, client documents and deadlines
In an accounting firm, every quarter brings the same race: asking for invoices, waiting for them, posting them by hand and balancing before the deadline. We automate that chain on top of your accounting software, with a digital employee that collects, reads, checks and chases so your team spends its time advising.
Solution
Quarter-end client documents, without chasing each client
Before each quarter-end, a digital employee knows what each client is missing, asks for it through their usual channel, follows up until it arrives and files every document in its place. You see who's complete and who isn't, with no new portal and no software switch.
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Verifactu pushed back to 2028: what's settled, what's missing and what to do meanwhile
On 5 October the Spanish Ministry of Finance announced that Verifactu is moving to October 2028, but it did so in a press note. Until the change appears in the BOE, the binding dates are the 2027 ones. Here's what's settled, what's still to be defined and how to act without stopping the work or doing it twice.
Which task would you like off your plate?
Tell us how your team works. In a free 30-minute session we'll tell you what can be automated, how much you'd save and what isn't worth it.
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