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Guide / manualEvidence: First-hand experience

Guide for bookkeepers: Claude as an assistant configured with a CLAUDE.md, what to delegate and what to always review

Summary: Michael Robichaud, a consultant who rolls out Claude at accounting firms, explains how to set up the rules file (CLAUDE.md), which tasks the assistant can prepare (reconciliation, categorization, client reminders, close) and which always need human review. It is a consultant’s guide with an associated commercial service.

Published on 2 min read420 words

What it is about

It explains five workflows the assistant prepares as drafts: bank and card reconciliation, transaction categorization, collection and payment reminders based on an aging report, a monthly close checklist with notes, and preparing contractors for 1099 forms. It includes a CLAUDE.md template with sections for chart of accounts, categorization rules by vendor, clients and their particularities, close checklist, message tone and tasks that are never done without review. It devotes a section to the confidentiality of client data.

What it offers, according to the source

The guide does not quantify savings. It states that the assistant works better as a configured drafter than as autonomous accounting software, that the most important factor is a well-made CLAUDE.md and that a person must review every figure before it reaches the client.

Mind the evidence. Someone explains how they do it or did it, without verifiable figures. It is documented practice, not proof that it will work in your case.

What has really been tested

The author says he has spent months configuring Claude for bookkeepers and describes what he has “seen hold up”, but provides no named cases or measurements. The guide is also a pitch for his implementation service. We have not tested the recommendations.

How to apply it

Adapt the template’s structure to your regulations and your chart of accounts (the 1099 form examples are from the US and do not apply in Spain). Set it so that a new or doubtful vendor is flagged for review and not guessed. Read your AI provider’s terms and the confidentiality clauses with your clients before uploading data.

  1. Start with a single workflow, usually bank reconciliation, which is the most repetitive and the easiest to check against the statement.
  2. Write a thin CLAUDE.md for that workflow, with your chart of accounts and your matching rules, and nothing more.
  3. Run it on last month’s real statement and compare the draft with what you know to be correct.
  4. Run a pilot with a single client before extending it to the rest of your portfolio.
  5. Add a “Never without my review” section covering contractor classification, payroll and anything that affects a tax return.

What to keep in mind

  • The most reusable part is the separation between what is delegated as a first draft (matching transactions, suggesting categories for usual vendors, drafting reminders) and what always requires review (new or ambiguous vendors, payroll, tax returns, entries with estimates).
  • The guide contains calls to hire the author’s services. We have summarized only the practical content.

Sources

We wrote this entry in our own words from the sources above and checked that the links worked on October 17, 2026. Is anything incorrect? Tell us.

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