In 2013, Oxford University released a study predicting there was a 98% chance that bookkeeping and accounting jobs would be automated.
For a decade, that prediction mostly collected dust.
Accounting changed slowly. Manual data entry stuck around.
Finance teams still built reports the same way they always had.
But over the last 18 months, the pace of change has snapped forward.
AI, automation, and real-time integrations are finally mature enough to matter and small businesses are no longer exempt from disruption.
This isn’t about robots replacing accountants.
It’s about the end of how SMBs have built their accounting departments for the past 20 years.
Today we’re going to look at what has been, what will be (my opinion), and what you need to do about it.
WHAT HAS BEEN
Most business owners don’t want to become finance experts.
They want clarity. Confidence. Control.
But today’s finance departments don’t give you that. Instead, they give you:
- Disconnected systems
- Sloppy or late books
- A month-end scramble that feels more like damage control than strategy
By the time you get your numbers, the opportunity has passed. Or worse, you’ve made a decision based on bad data.
Most SMBs still rely on some version of this setup:
- A bookkeeper enters and reconciles transactions
- A controller or office manager pulls reports once a month
- Maybe a part-time CFO interprets things at the end of each quarter
- Meanwhile, the owner is flying blind, waiting for answers, questioning the data, or just avoiding the numbers altogether
This model is bloated, slow, and expensive. But most businesses have tolerated it because there hasn’t been a clearly better option… until now.
WHAT WILL BE
Now imagine this:
You ask a question and your books answer.
You see a margin dip the week it starts, not 60 days later.
You walk into a team meeting with real-time visibility into cash, profit, and performance.
This is what real-time financial intelligence feels like.
We’re not here yet, but this is what the future could look like. It’s no longer some “enterprise-grade” dream and it’s coming for SMBs, fast.
So what changes?
DATA ENTRY → AUTOMATED
Data entry today? Slow, inaccurate, and lacking context.
In the future? Immediate, but only as good as the context the business gives it. The future won’t be data entry but instead data upload.
It’ll be systems that process all incoming bills and contracts, review historical context, and code all this in light of company policies you’ve fed it.
With AI and automation tools in everything we do, they’ll be good, but only as good as the data we give it. When we give it the right data, it’ll look like:
- Vendor invoices scanned and auto-coded based on contracts, budgets, and historical patterns
- Expense receipts are matched automatically to credit card transactions
- Supplier price increases flagged before they hit your margins
- Bank feed rules enriched by AI to get 95%+ of entries right the first time
What used to take 20 hours/week of manual entry is now review-only work.
REPORTING → REAL-TIME AND SELF-UPDATING
With data transformed, reporting becomes a different animal.
Right now reporting is slow and often non-existent in small businesses. But in the future, when data is good, reporting becomes instant.
Imagine all your internal systems hooked up to your AI and automation tools so that everything is immediately fed and sorted, getting you almost up-to-the-minute updates of your financial positions.
This makes your reporting better:
- Dashboards update daily, not monthly
- Trends and anomalies surface automatically (e.g. softening demand in a key product line)
- Forecasts adjust dynamically as actuals roll in
But better isn’t enough… it’ll be different. It’ll allow you to view and analyze things you previously didn’t have access to. You don’t just get numbers. You get live feedback on what’s working, what’s breaking, and what needs action.
PEOPLE → FEWER, SMARTER, STRATEGICALLY POSITIONED
This one is sorta hard, as it’s less tech and more preference. But as I’ve seen this play out more and more, my vision of what I think businesses will want has become clearer.
The problem with accounting departments today is they’re cost centers. They add cost and rarely add value. With data bad and reporting slow, even when they can offer value, it’s often not at the speed needed for it to transform business decisions.
So owners move without and get used that rhythm. It becomes an afterthought.
But tech solves this, right? Well… not really. Tech just makes things more complicated for (often) untechnical internal accounting staff.
In the short term, this actually means more cost for accounting teams in terms of paying for more software and hiring more expensive tech forward staff.
As tech becomes the default for accounting, internal teams will struggle with the pace of change. In that model, this transition stalls out and accounting teams look much the same 5 to 10 years down the line.
Instead of internal teams, I see accounting being outsourced at a much higher clip. As you build your tech stack, the finance department becomes a system, not a collection of siloed roles.
The only way to keep up with these systems will be to outsource the implementation and maintenance to accountants that are on the front end of the tech advancement.
So the future I envision looks much like:
- Internal accounting teams shrink: no more “three full-time people to close the books”
- Bookkeepers become exception handlers and quality controllers
- Strategic partners (like fractional CFOs) bring the tech, the process, and the interpretation layer
This isn’t technology running the accounting, but instead master technicians managing an array of technical implementations.
That AI bookkeeping platform? Maybe it’s part of the equation, but you’ll trust the outsourced team to take care of this.
WHY THIS WORKS BETTER
The question owners will face: do I keep my internal staff at double the cost with worst access to data or take it external, save a bunch of money, and get my data immediately.
Sorry guys, but that’s an easy decision.
This new model isn’t just slicker. It’s materially better on every axis:
- Accuracy: Errors and inconsistencies are flagged and fixed automatically.
- Speed: Books close in days (or immediately), not weeks. Financials are always current.
- Cost: One great partner can replace multiple average internal hires
- Insight: When your data is clean, structured, and connected, it finally becomes useful
Most SMBs don’t lack strategy, they lack visibility. The new model fixes that.
WHAT STILL NEEDS HUMANS
Calm down, we’re not not handing your business over to robots. AI and automation can handle the “what:” what happened, what’s unusual, what’s trending.
But they still need humans for the “why” and “what next.”
This means:
- Accountants become interpreters and advisors
- Fractional CFOs become more powerful with better data
- Business owners get answers, not just reports
THE STRATEGIC SHIFT YOU NEED TO MAKE
The real takeaway isn’t that tech is replacing people. It’s that tech is replacing the need for internal teams to manage disconnected tools manually.
You don’t need a full finance staff.
You need a finance system that:
- Collects and cleans your data
- Connects the dots between systems
- Surfaces insights early
- Supports confident, timely decisions
So instead of focusing on hires, you should be focused on improving systems and data.
THAT is what will allow this transformation to happen inside your business. Without it? You’ll be stuck in the pre-AI error. But with that structure? Things will move faster than you think.
At Bison CFO, we’re already building internal tools that will help us better serve our clients and get more bespoke insights more quickly. We still have work to do, but this initial work is what makes me confident this is the direction we’re going.
YOUR NEXT STEPS
You don’t need to overhaul your team tomorrow.
But if you’re still operating like it’s 2015… waiting on reports, hiring more bodies to push paper, duct-taping your stack… the gap between you and the modern operators is only going to grow.
The future of finance is cleaner, faster, cheaper, and way more actionable.
And the smart SMBs are already making the shift.
So what do you need to do?
- Audit your tech stack: look at what you’re using and what’s advancing with tech and not. Understand where your bottlenecks are and start a list of what is most important to you.
- Experiment: don’t get too in the weeds, but stay familiar with the tech. Use ChatGPT, try new things, listen to the innovators. It’ll make you more comfortable, ready, and willing to make the switch when it’s time.
- Clean your data: the best AI is only as good as the data you have. Make sure your systems are locked in, that you have policies and procedures, and you’re uploading your documents to a server accessible online.
- Hire or partner smartly: look for partners who can help you navigate this change. We’re trying to be on the front edge here at Bison CFO, so reach out… we’d love to chat. Sure a little self serving, but can you blame me? I believe in what we’re doing and the vision we have for this new future.
AI and automation aren’t about saving time. They’re about giving business owners what they’ve always wanted: clarity, speed, and confidence.
That’s what real-time financial intelligence unlocks.
More insight. Fewer surprises. Better decisions.
It’s coming fast.
And the SMBs who embrace it early are going to look like geniuses in a few years.
Buckle up friends. It’s going to be fun.
