Opportunity map
This is an example for an accounting firm. It is replaced by your answers as soon as you choose your first option.
Situation
- BusinessFinance and accounting
- People6–20
- Wants to changeA lot of manual routine, Customers wait too long for answers
- SituationsWe copy fields from documents by hand, We check whether document sets are complete, The same questions come again and again
- Works withEmail and messengers, Excel / Google Sheets, Accounting system / ERP, Documents, scans and PDFs
- Good resultFree up time, Fewer errors
All answers
- Starting point: Explore opportunities
- Field: Finance and accounting
- Team: 6–20
- Wants to change: A lot of manual routine, Customers wait too long for answers
- Familiar situations: We copy fields from documents by hand, We check whether document sets are complete, The same questions come again and again
- Works with: Email and messengers, Excel / Google Sheets, Accounting system / ERP, Documents, scans and PDFs
- Good result: Free up time, Fewer errors
A starting map for finance and accounting. Goals: free up time, fewer errors. 3 improvements are worth testing on one representative case before scope or impact is estimated.
Likely discovery scope: Not clear yetStatus: Preliminary hypothesis
What drives the scope: Not enough information yet: complexity depends on integrations, data, the impact of mistakes and hosting constraints.
Improvements worth testing
Prepare checked records from incoming documents
Workflow automationExtract draft fields, validate required values, and send uncertain entries to a person before approved records move into the next system.
Why it’s here:1- You want to change: A lot of manual routine
- Familiar situation: We check whether document sets are complete
- Familiar situation: We copy fields from documents by hand
What is needed
- Representative redacted documents
- Required-field and approval rules
- An approved export or integration method
What to check
- Layouts and missing values can vary
- Low-confidence fields still need human review
Turn incoming requests into reviewed next actions
AI-assisted workflowBring requests into one queue, recognise common questions, retrieve approved information and prepare replies or follow-ups for review, passing unusual cases to a person.
Why it’s here:2- You want to change: Customers wait too long for answers
- Familiar situation: The same questions come again and again
- Goal: Free up time
What is needed
- Approved answer material
- Rules for passing a case to a specialist and an accountable owner
- Access to the relevant inbox, messenger or CRM
What to check
- Drafts can rely on outdated information
- Replies to customers need approval until quality is shown
Connect the systems so data is entered once
Integration and reportingFind where the same information is typed or copied between programs, then connect them through exports, APIs or a small integration service with validation and an error queue.
Why it’s here:3- You want to change: A lot of manual routine
- Goal: Fewer errors
- You work with: Accounting system / ERP
What is needed
- The list of systems and who owns each
- Export or API access for each system
- A rule for which system is the source of truth
What to check
- Some systems offer no API and need a workaround
- Mismatched records must be resolved before automating
Ways to approach it
- Set up the tools you already haveRules, templates, automations and reports inside your current CRM, accounting system or spreadsheets — often the cheapest first step.
- Integration or conventional automationScripts, integrations and validation rules where the steps are predictable. No AI is needed when the rules are clear.
- AI where the input is unstructuredLanguage or vision models for documents, messages and search, with a person reviewing results and quality checked on your own examples.
First step to test
Test one useful step
Compare extracted fields with manual entry on a representative redacted sample of documents. Approval stays with your team.
- Time per document including corrections
- Share of fields corrected
- Share of documents sent to a person
Still to find out
- Are there real (anonymized) examples we could test on?
- Where may your data be processed?
- What happens if a result is wrong?
How to measure the benefit
- Time per case
- Error rate
- Time per document including corrections
- Share of fields corrected
- Share of documents sent to a person
Before changing anything: Measure the current values on recent cases before changing anything; the pilot compares against them.
Next step
Save the map and discuss it on a free call — or refine the details first.
