Client chatbot and onboarding automation for UK accountants
FlowGenix Automations is a UK AI automation consultancy based in Basingstoke, Hampshire, building client-facing chatbots, onboarding pipelines and document chase workflows for small and mid-size UK accountancy practices — from sole practitioners to 20-partner firms.
This page is for practice partners and operations leads whose fee-earners lose hours a week answering the same 30 questions ("when is my Self Assessment due", "have you got my receipts", "what's my UTR"), and whose January is destroyed chasing documents. We deploy the AI that answers the questions and does the chasing.
How much fee-earner time do repetitive client queries actually consume?
We survey every accountancy practice during the free audit and the number lands consistently: partners and senior accountants at UK SME practices spend 6–10 hours a week on questions a well-scoped chatbot can answer instantly — deadlines, filing statuses, dividend limits, mileage rates, VAT thresholds, and "where is my refund". At £120–£200 blended hourly cost that is £30,000–£100,000 a year of fee-earner time.
What we build for accountancy practices
- Leo — RAG client chatbot. Trained on your engagement letters, standard client comms, HMRC deadlines, and firm-specific FAQ. Answers client questions 24/7 in your firm's voice, hands off to the account manager for anything genuinely non-standard. Same pattern that cut Legacy Autos' support costs by 78%.
- Onboarding automation. New client signs engagement letter → AI triggers 64-8 request, ID verification, opening balances capture, engagement checklist. Partner sees a clean file, not a to-do list.
- Document chase. Missing receipts, bank statements, or self-assessment records? The AI chases the client with escalating urgency on a schedule you set, accepts secure uploads, and files them against the client record. January panic goes down measurably.
- Deadline and filing reminders. Personalised SMS and email reminders tied to each client's actual filing calendar — CT600, VAT, PAYE, Self Assessment, Confirmation Statement — with links to the exact information you need from them.
- Onboarding pipeline for enquiries. Website and referral enquiries triaged by the AI, unqualified fee shoppers filtered out, qualified prospects booked into a partner's calendar with a pre-call brief.
Which tools does this run on?
Chatbot on OpenAI or Anthropic models with a retrieval layer over your firm's content (Supabase pgvector). Orchestration on n8n. Messaging on Twilio and email. Integrations to Xero, QuickBooks, FreeAgent, Sage, Iris, and CCH Central via their public APIs. Document storage in your existing SharePoint / Google Drive / Dropbox — we don't force a new document platform on you.
How much does this cost a small practice?
Sole practitioner: £1,500 build. 2–5 partners: £2,000–£3,500. 6+ partners with deep practice management integration: £3,500–£6,000. Monthly retainer covers hosting, model usage, prompt tuning, and support. Payback for most practices is under 3 months on partner time saved alone.
Is this compliant with ICAEW / ACCA and UK GDPR?
Yes. Client data stays in UK/EU regions. We provide a data processing agreement and a ROPA entry for your practice's compliance file. The chatbot never gives regulated tax advice — it answers factual, procedural, and administrative questions and routes anything advice-adjacent to a fee-earner.
Frequently asked questions
Will the chatbot ever give tax advice?
No. Prompt design explicitly prevents it. Questions that require regulated advice — anything that changes a client's tax position — are routed to the account manager with the client's context attached.
Which practice management systems do you integrate with?
Xero, QuickBooks, FreeAgent, Sage, Iris, CCH Central via API. For anything else we use webhook triggers or a Supabase mirror during onboarding.
How does the chatbot stay current with HMRC changes?
The retrieval layer is refreshed against HMRC's published deadlines and rate tables on a scheduled n8n workflow. Firm-specific content (fee schedules, engagement wording) is versioned so you approve any change before it goes live.
Can it handle Making Tax Digital queries?
Yes — MTD deadlines and filing status are common queries and the chatbot handles them well, including telling a client which quarter they are currently in and what evidence you still need from them.
How long does deployment take?
Sole practitioner: 2–3 weeks. Larger firm with practice management integration: 4–8 weeks.
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Book your free 20-minute automation audit
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