As of 13 August 2026, AI can choose accounting software for your UK small business.

What to actually do

1. Hand it to a person

   The route this page recommends

   A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.

2. Use a tool built for this

   Second choice

3. Do it yourself

   The distant third

   A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 30 minutes until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open a blank document and record your business structure, VAT position, users, bank accounts, transaction volumes, payroll, invoicing, expenses, stock, integrations and migration needs.
   2. Ask your accountant or bookkeeper which exports, reports, VAT workflows and integrations they need from the software, and paste those requirements into the prompt.
   3. Paste the completed prompt into a chatbot and ask it to use current official supplier pages for every product claim.
   4. Put the resulting shortlist into a comparison table and open each linked supplier page to check the listed features, integrations, access rules, export options and current terms.
   5. Arrange trials or demonstrations for the two strongest options, then test a real anonymised invoice, bank feed, expense receipt, VAT report and accountant export.
   6. Send the requirements, comparison and trial findings to your accountant or bookkeeper, resolve any tax or reporting concerns, and choose the product that passes every must-have test.

   Prompt

   Help me choose accounting software for my UK small business. Do not make the decision from generic popularity. First extract my requirements, then identify any missing information, then compare suitable products using current official supplier documentation where available.
   
   Business details:
   - Business structure: [sole trader, partnership or limited company]
   - Industry and typical transactions: [describe]
   - Number of people who need access: [number and roles]
   - Number of bank accounts and payment accounts: [describe]
   - Monthly sales and purchase volume: [describe]
   - VAT registered: [yes, no or unsure]
   - Payroll or contractor payments needed: [describe]
   - Invoicing needs: [describe]
   - Expenses and receipt capture needs: [describe]
   - Stock, projects or time tracking needed: [describe]
   - Existing systems to integrate: [list]
   - Accountant or bookkeeper requirements: [describe]
   - Migration requirements: [describe]
   - Budget and contract preference: [describe]
   - Must-have features: [list]
   - Features I do not need: [list]
   
   Produce:
   1. A concise requirements summary.
   2. A shortlist of no more than five suitable products.
   3. A comparison table covering the requirements above, UK VAT and Making Tax Digital relevance where documented, integrations, user access, support, export and migration options, and any important restrictions.
   4. A recommended choice, a credible second choice, and the conditions that would change the recommendation.
   5. A list of claims that I must verify on the supplier's current website or in a trial.
   
   Use links to official supplier pages for product claims. Do not invent prices, features, integrations, legal compliance or customer support terms. Mark anything uncertain or unavailable as unknown. Separate accounting or tax considerations from software features, and say when I should ask my accountant or bookkeeper.

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.