- Businesses on Xero with a bookkeeper, BAS agent or accountant
- Teams where coding transactions takes hours each month
- Bookkeepers who want the routine coding done before they start
- Owners who want a plain-English monthly summary
On Autopilot’s AI Bookkeeping Assist is an AI assistant for Australian businesses on Xero that helps your existing bookkeeper. It suggests codes for uncoded transactions, prepares a month-end draft pack and runs BAS-ready checks for your bookkeeper or BAS agent to review. It never lodges anything, and your registered agent stays responsible for your BAS. It costs $1,500 to set up and $399 a month (AUD, ex GST).
How much does AI bookkeeping help cost?
With On Autopilot, AI help for your bookkeeper costs $1,500 to set up and $399 a month, ex GST and month to month: $6,288 in year one, then $4,788 a year. That covers hosting, Claude API usage, the daily Xero check, the month-end pack, the quarterly BAS-ready checks, the owner summary and ongoing tuning. Your Xero plan and your bookkeeper’s fees are separate.
| What you pay for | Cost (AUD, ex GST) |
|---|---|
| Setup, one-off: Xero connection, learning your coding history, testing against your bookkeeper’s work | $1,500 |
| Monthly: daily suggestions, month-end pack, BAS-ready checks, owner summary, hosting, API usage, tuning | $399 a month |
| Year one in total | $6,288 |
What does AI Bookkeeping Assist do?
Every day, it reads new bank transactions in Xero and suggests an account code for each uncoded one, based on how your business has coded similar items before. Unusual GST treatment (overseas purchases, capital items, mixed business and private use) is flagged for your bookkeeper to confirm. Your bookkeeper accepts or changes each suggestion in Xero.
At month end, it prepares a draft pack for your bookkeeper: what is still uncoded, reconciliation status, likely duplicates, big movements against last month, debtors more than 60 days overdue and the cash position. It is a starting point for the close, not the close itself.
Each quarter, before your bookkeeper or BAS agent prepares the BAS, it runs BAS-ready checks: it compares this quarter’s figures with earlier quarters and lists anything that looks odd as questions. For example: “GST collected is well above the last four quarters. Is that a real increase or a coding error?”
For the owner, a short plain-English summary each month: revenue, cost of goods, the biggest expenses, margin and cash compared with last month.
What it does not do: lodge or sign anything, post journals, change reconciliations, give tax advice, or touch payroll, Single Touch Payroll or super.
Can AI do my BAS?
Not with us, and you should be wary of anyone who says otherwise without a registration number. In Australia, anyone providing BAS services for a fee must be registered with the Tax Practitioners Board as a BAS agent or tax agent (TPB: BAS agent registration; TPB: what is a BAS service). On Autopilot is not a registered BAS or tax agent and does not provide BAS services.
AI Bookkeeping Assist is a tool your bookkeeper uses. It prepares checks and questions; your bookkeeper or registered agent decides, prepares the BAS and lodges it. That line is built into how the assistant works: read-only access to Xero, and output that is always a suggestion or a question.
How do we build it?
AI Bookkeeping Assist goes live in 10–14 working days:
- Kick-off (days 1–2). A read-only connection to your Xero organisation, and a call with your bookkeeper about your chart of accounts and coding habits.
- Learning your file (days 3–5). We use your last six months of coded transactions to set up the coding suggestions. Every suggestion is produced in a fixed format with structured outputs and checked before anyone sees it.
- Testing (days 6–9). We run the assistant on last month’s transactions and compare its suggestions with what your bookkeeper actually coded. You see the match rate and the misses.
- Go live (days 10–14). Daily suggestions start, followed by the first month-end pack. We tune through the first month as new suppliers and items appear.
Because the assistant only reads figures from Xero and never types numbers of its own, the risk of it inventing amounts (AI hallucination) is designed out. It can still suggest the wrong code, which is why a person approves every one.
What is not included?
- BAS preparation or lodgement, tax returns and tax advice. These stay with your registered agent.
- Payroll, Single Touch Payroll and super. Xero handles these; the assistant does not touch them.
- A clean-up of a messy Xero file. If the file needs catching up first, that is quoted separately or done by your bookkeeper.
- MYOB or QuickBooks. Possible as a custom build.
- Your Xero subscription and your bookkeeper’s fees.
AI Bookkeeping Assist vs the alternatives
| Option | Cost | Good at | Not so good at |
|---|---|---|---|
| Xero bank rules | Included in your Xero plan | Identical repeat transactions | Anything irregular or new |
| More bookkeeper hours | Your bookkeeper’s rates | Everything, with judgement | Routine coding at professional rates |
| On Autopilot AI Bookkeeping Assist | $6,288 in year one | Irregular coding suggestions, month-end prep, BAS-ready checks, owner summary | Decisions and lodgement, which stay with people |
Who is it for, and who is it not for?
It suits businesses on Xero that already work with a bookkeeper, BAS agent or accountant, where coding and month-end checking take hours each month. It also suits bookkeepers who want the routine work done before they open the file.
It is not for businesses with only a handful of transactions a month (Xero’s own rules are enough), and it is not a way to do your BAS without a registered agent. If you want one small automation around your books instead, a Quick Start build at $497 may suit.
What rules apply in Australia?
- Tax Agent Services Act. BAS and tax services for a fee require TPB registration. The assistant supports registered people; it does not replace them.
- Privacy. Financial records are sensitive. Your privacy policy should say an AI service processes them overseas, under the Australian Privacy Principles. Under Anthropic’s commercial terms, API data is not used to train its models.
- Record keeping. Your records stay in Xero, where the ATO expects them to be kept.
Where does this come from?
We run the operations of our own virtual assistant agency, DotVA, on an internal platform built with Claude Code for invoicing, payroll and client onboarding, connected to Xero. AI Bookkeeping Assist uses the same approach: read the data, prepare the work, let a person decide. Want several systems looked after for you? See managed AI, or every price on the pricing page.