Small Business AI Bookkeeping Example
This example follows a small bakery processing about 80 invoices and receipts a month. Doing it herself costs the owner five-plus hours of evening time. An outsourced bookkeeper charges €250 a month. With Nika the same 80 documents are read, coded, and filed the same day at {price} per processed invoice — the owner reviews exceptions only, and the month-end summary is ready for her accountant.
Before: manual process
A neighbourhood bakery with four employees processes about 80 bookkeeping documents a month: 30 supplier invoices (flour, dairy, packaging, equipment repairs), 35 expense receipts (fuel for deliveries, cleaning supplies, small cash purchases), and 15 utility and service invoices (electricity, water, phone, insurance). The owner does the bookkeeping herself in the evenings — opening each email or sorting paper receipts, typing fields into accounting software, assigning categories. It takes five to six hours a month, unpaid, and she is a baker, not a bookkeeper, so miscodings happen. Alternatively, an outsourced bookkeeper charges €250 a month for the same volume.
After: with Nika
The same 80 documents flow through Nika. Supplier invoices emailed by the flour distributor and dairy supplier are read and coded to Cost of Goods Sold — Ingredients the day they arrive. Fuel receipts photographed at the petrol station are extracted and categorised as Delivery Expenses. The electricity bill is coded to Utilities. When a receipt is unclear — a smudged total on a cash purchase — Nika holds it in the approval queue instead of guessing. At {price} per processed document, 80 documents a month costs a fraction of the €250 retainer, and the owner spends ten minutes a week confirming exceptions instead of five hours typing.
Workflow
- 1
Supplier invoices (30/mo)
In: Emails from flour, dairy, packaging suppliers + PDFsOut: Invoices coded to Cost of Goods Sold — Ingredients / PackagingSaved: ~3 min/invoice vs. manual = 1.5 hours/month saved - 2
Expense receipts (35/mo)
In: Phone photos of fuel, cleaning, cash purchase receiptsOut: Receipts extracted, coded to Delivery / Cleaning / Misc ExpensesSaved: ~2 min/receipt vs. manual = 1.2 hours/month saved - 3
Utility invoices (15/mo)
In: Email and postal invoices — electricity, water, phone, insuranceOut: Each coded to Utilities / Insurance, filed same daySaved: ~3 min/invoice vs. manual = 45 minutes/month saved - 4
Month-end summary
In: 80 coded records across all categoriesOut: Categorised summary ready for accountant — no batch processing neededSaved: Replaces 5+ hours of owner evenings with a 10-min/week review
Cost comparison
| Method | Cost | Time |
|---|---|---|
| DIY — owner own time (unpaid) | €0 cash, 5–6 hours/month | Evenings, after closing |
| Outsourced bookkeeper (€250/mo retainer) | €3.13 / document average | Weekly or monthly batch |
| Nika (per processed document) | {price} / document × 80 | Same-day filing |
Key takeaways
- For 80 documents a month, Nika costs a fraction of a €250 outsourced retainer.
- The owner trades five hours of evening bookkeeping for ten minutes a week reviewing exceptions.
- Supplier invoices, receipts, and utilities each get the right category automatically — learned from history.
- Unclear receipts go to the approval queue instead of being guessed — you are not charged for those.
Questions
I am not very technical. Is this hard to set up?
No. You connect the inbox where supplier invoices arrive and install the phone app for photographing receipts. Nika starts processing the same day. There is no software to configure, no accounting knowledge required — she learns your categories from your confirmations.
What does the accountant receive at month-end?
A fully coded, categorised set of 80 records — every invoice and receipt filed with vendor, date, amount, tax, and expense category. Your accountant reviews and prepares the VAT return and financials from clean records, instead of spending hours on data entry first.