"€15,000 is a lot of money."
It is. One more full-time bookkeeper costs around €50,000 a year, every year — if you can find one. You can redo the calculation above with your own figures.
Once a month we send one number from live operations, one new capability, and one bug we found. Below: the full calculation for a firm with 250 ongoing engagements, with every source.
Monthly, not a marketing round-up. Unsubscribe in one click — the link is in every issue.
With a reason — not the next best invoice with the same amount.
With a name and a timestamp. Every close is attributable.
Visible at 7 pm, while someone can still step in.
Accounting firms that want to grow without hiring proportionally — from a few dozen to several hundred clients.
Assumption: one to two hours of work per client per month. Everything else is calculated, not claimed.
Not every client is an ongoing bookkeeping engagement — for many the firm only does the annual accounts or the tax return. Take roughly half, so 250 ongoing engagements: at two hours each that is 6,000 hours a year, about 3.6 full-time equivalents doing nothing but bookkeeping, and €180,000 in staff cost. At one hour, half of that. That is the block the system works on.
Two assumptions you should replace with your own: the one to two hours per client, and the share of ongoing bookkeeping engagements (half, here). You know both better than we do — and the calculation holds just as well with your figures. What is calculated here is only the hourly cost: median salary times the statutory employer factor, divided by hours actually worked. Every input is public and checkable.
Market figures for Germany. You will check them, that is your profession — so every figure carries its source, and where we have nothing solid, we say nothing.
250 ongoing engagements, 6,000 hours a year. If the system matches 80 % and review costs 20 %, 60 % is left net — 3,600 hours, or €108,000 in saved staff cost. Even on the cautious reading (50 % matched, 20 % review) that is 1,800 hours and €54,000. Against a one-off from €15,000, both pay back inside the first year.
The percentages are assumptions, not measured values from your firm — and we know of no independent study providing a defensible figure for time saved through digitalisation. STAX 2024 evidences the direction (more digital firms develop better on revenue and profit), explicitly not the magnitude. The 20 % review time is an assumption too; early on it runs higher, because the system is still learning your special cases. That is why the assessment comes first — after that we calculate with your numbers, not these.
The same firm as above — 250 ongoing engagements, 6,000 hours a year. What matters is what is left net: the review time is a line in the calculation, not a footnote.
The second line is the important one. Even when the system matches 80 %, the work does not shrink by 80 %: your people review the matches, clear the open lines and sign off. We have put that at 20 % and deducted it explicitly. Anyone promising you 80 % time saved has either forgotten the review step or left it out — and you will notice either way by the second month.
And the other half of the truth: the €30 and the €115 answer different questions. You save the €30 for certain — the hour disappears, the salary continues, the person does something else. The €115 only applies if you actually fill the freed time, with another engagement or advisory work. When in doubt use the cost line: it still pays back inside the first year. · Plus the case that is in no table: sole practices fail to fill 59.1 % of their open positions, 60.9 % of bookkeeping roles (STAX 2024, German Federal Chamber of Tax Advisors), and the Federal Employment Agency lists tax advisory as a shortage occupation with vacancies open 80 days or more. If you cannot hire anyway, the alternative is not "one more employee" — it is turning the client away.
Not a licence for standard software. A system built around how your firm actually works — your folder logic, your document types, your banks, your special cases, per client rather than one-size-fits-all. It stays yours: every further client you add afterwards is routine, not another project.
This is not a click-and-go solution. Three things to know before you book.
Your people stop typing and start deciding cases. That is better work, but it is different work — and nobody switches after twenty years of sorting in a single week.
We need to see your real folders, your real documents, your real banks — not a completed questionnaire. And we run one month together. That costs you time before it saves you any.
The system learns, but it does not sign. Your people review the matches, clear the open lines and approve. If the machine handles 80 % of the work, we have won — the rest is done by a human, and it stays that way. That is exactly why the review time sits in the calculation above and not in the small print.
The lines that come up in almost every first call — and what we say to them.
It is. One more full-time bookkeeper costs around €50,000 a year, every year — if you can find one. You can redo the calculation above with your own figures.
We do not replace it. We prepare what goes into it: documents read, payments matched, months checked.
During setup we need one to two hours a week from the person who knows the filing. After that it is less work than before. Hiding that backfires in week three.
That is why the assessment comes first: we see your real records before an offer exists. If it does not fit, we say so — even when that means we sell nothing.
Every figure on this page with its source and how solid it is. What we assume is labelled an assumption, not a survey.
| Figure | Value | Source | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median salary, qualified bookkeeper | €37,300–41,500 | Federal Employment Agency wage atlas | official |
| Employer contributions | €29 per €100 gross | Federal Statistical Office | official |
| Statutory hourly fee, tax advisors | €115/h | StBVV, in force since 01/07/2025 | statute |
| Positions never filled, sole practices | 59.1 % | STAX 2024, Federal Chamber of Tax Advisors (Allensbach, 5,815 firms) | industry survey |
| of those, bookkeeping roles | 60.9 % | STAX 2024 | industry survey |
| Tax advisory as shortage occupation | vacancies ≥ 80 days | Federal Employment Agency, 2024 analysis | official |
| Documents read by us | 18,600 | Our production database, 07/09/2026 | our measurement |
| Bank statement lines read | 135,006 | Our production database, 07/09/2026 | our measurement |
| Allocations, of which 99.2 % by machine | 4,342 | Our production database, 07/09/2026 | our measurement |
| AI cost for all of it | €140.14 | Our production database, 07/09/2026 | our measurement |
| Work per client per month | 1–2 h | Experience, not a survey | our assumption |
| Share of ongoing engagements | ~50 % | STAX does not survey revenue mix | our assumption |
| System match rate | 50–80 % | Range, depends on document quality | our assumption |
| Review time | 20 % | Higher at first, falls as the system learns | our assumption |
| Hours actually worked per FTE | 1,680 h | 2,080 h minus holiday, public holidays, sickness | calculated |
Where no solid source exists, we give no figure: time per document, documents per client, clients per bookkeeper and bookkeeping’s share of firm revenue are surveyed neither officially nor by the profession. What circulates comes from software vendors — and we will not put that in front of you as a calculation.
45 minutes, one of your clients, a real evaluation.
Book a demoThe call is paid — and fully credited against a project. It is a matter of principle: people who pay turn up prepared.