Skip to content
Agents Finance
TutorialEvidence: Real case

An accountant’s tutorial: reconciling accounts with Claude Cowork using a folder, an instructions file and a junior-style review

Summary: Tyler Whitlock, a certified public accountant (CPA), explains on LinkedIn the six steps he used to tie a close’s accounts to the trial balance with Claude Cowork. He says 2–3 days of work were reduced to an hour of review, and he published the folder structure and instructions on GitHub.

Published on 2 min read522 words

What it is about

It is a method for an accounting professional to use an assistant with file access to prepare close reconciliations. It is more like putting an intern to work with a file system, clear instructions and a review cycle than chatting with a chatbot.

What it offers, according to the source

Stated by the post’s author: from 2–3 days of heavy, interrupted work to a little over an hour of review. The author insists that it is not an AI “doing the accounting” but an orderly environment with rules and a review cycle. Accounts such as the bad-debt provision needed several rounds of comments.

Stated figures. An identified person or organization states that they have used it. The results are stated by the source; we have not audited them.

What has really been tested

The author did it himself with the data from his March close; he does not publish the data or the account figures. The repository contains the process template and examples of instructions, not the real data, and it does not declare a formal license (it only invites using and adapting the template). We have not reproduced the flow.

How to follow it

Try first with a close that has already been reviewed and with one or two accounts, to compare the result with a person’s work. Remove client names and personal data from the folders before giving an AI assistant access and check your provider’s terms. Follow the steps below and do not post anything based on the assistant’s work without a person reviewing it.

  1. Create a working folder for the close (for example, MARCH_RECON) and give Claude access only to it. Inside, add subfolders for documentation, evidence, inputs, reports, scripts and the trial balance.
  2. Drop into the inputs folder the CSV, XML and PDF files you export from your programs. Rename only the files that are opaque.
  3. Write a short text file with what you want: review the documents and tie them to the trial balance, use a fixed tag (#TB:account:balance) so you can check them later with a script, create one file per account explaining how it was reconciled and keep a summary and a to-do list.
  4. Give that file to Claude and ask it to rewrite it and to ask you whatever questions it needs. Save the final version in the folder as claude.md.
  5. Tell it to start reconciling.
  6. Review the result as you would a junior accountant’s, ask for changes and have Claude document each new instruction for next time. Fix logic and edge cases and iterate.

What to keep in mind

  • The method does not depend on a specific ERP: it starts from exports of the programs you use.
  • The useful idea is the fixed tag so that a script can check that each reconciled balance matches the trial balance. It is a mechanical check that does not depend on the assistant being right.
  • In the LinkedIn post, the accountant adds that the repository includes his instructions; we do not copy those texts and link to the original.

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.

Related entries

  • Community resourceEvidence: Project documentation

    Open-source MCP server to connect AI assistants to Odoo: read, aggregations and, if enabled, write

    ivnvxd and project contributors on GitHubIndividual

    A community project on GitHub (MPL-2.0 license, more than 400 stars, latest release published on 10 October 2026) that lets Claude and other assistants query and modify data in an Odoo instance: invoices, customers, products and aggregations. It has a test mode that needs no module and a module for production.

    Same process: Accounting

    • MCP server in Python (launched with uvx)
    • Odoo 16 or later (MCP module for production; test mode over XML-RPC)
    • Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor or another MCP client
    • Odoo
    • Accounting
    • Reporting

  • Use caseEvidence: Real case

    Ten weeks keeping the books of Swedish limited companies with Claude Code and Codex, with wins and mistakes

    Philip Eriksson (co-founder of Igdrasil)Individual · Swedish limited companies in software, e-commerce, digital health, services and food

    Philip Eriksson, co-founder of Igdrasil, explains how, from mid-July 2026, he kept the books of several Swedish limited companies by talking to Claude Code and Codex. He provides volumes taken from his logs, a VAT error caught before filing and a table of agent failures. He is the author of an accounting tool.

    Same process: Accounting

  • Useful promptEvidence: Untested proposal

    Prompt for an AI assistant to prepare a draft accounting reconciliation without posting anything

    Instructions ready to adapt for an AI assistant that reconciles an account against the trial balance: it uses only the files provided, posts no entries, checks for duplicates, separates what ties out from what is doubtful and leaves a list of questions. It is our own wording based on practices published by accountants, not tested with real data.

    Same process: Accounting

    • Any AI assistant with file access (for example, Claude, ChatGPT or Codex)
    • Exports from your ERP or bank (CSV or Excel)
    • Accounting
    • Treasury

Keep exploring