Indi and Ryan are joined by Kevin Fitzgerald covering VAT workflow improvements, AI payroll onboarding, the month-end close race, and a blunt conversation about why most accounting professionals still are not using AI at all.

FreeAgent has shipped VAT return improvements timed to the April 2026 MTD rollout for sole traders and landlords. Kevin notes that FreeAgent's position within NatWest Group gives it a natural route to compliance ownership of the SMEs it serves. Ryan observes that FreeAgent and Sage are now competing on functionality that Xero and Intuit have largely left behind as they moved upmarket.

Dext has added Core Guidance to AI Assist, a pre-configured library of compliance-aligned bookkeeping rules that firms can activate per client without any setup work. Indi argues that setup friction has been the real enemy of AI adoption, and Ryan, despite being the self-declared cynic, concedes it is a strong release. The conversation turns to a harder question: if firms are training the Dext engine through their own decisions, are accountants teaching the software vendor how to do their job?

Bright has launched Oscar, an AI onboarding agent that contacts new starters via WhatsApp, collects P45s, bank details and right-to-work documents, and passes everything to BrightPay for review. A process that takes up to seven days is reduced to 1.5 hours. Kevin questions whether that saving justifies packaging as a chargeable service. Ryan challenges the WhatsApp security model before the source article confirms the interaction sits behind a Bright login. Kevin also explains how Employment Hero is building Hero AI, with compliance agents that can read employment contracts and surface risk across the business.

MIMO has extended Associate into bank and balance sheet reconciliation. Indi explains the logic: to make its receivables financing work downstream, MIMO needed the upstream data layer to be reliable first. Ryan notes that period close is the story everyone in accounting tech is chasing, and the question is not who gets there first but who builds it well enough to change how accountants work.

Kevin leads a direct conversation on the AI skills gap. Fifty-eight per cent of finance departments report skills gaps, 19% of accounting professionals use AI daily, and 70% have never used AI at work. Ryan offers four structural reasons: productivity targets that penalise learning time, the cost and data sensitivity of paid tools, centralised training cultures that resist independent exploration, and a shortage of accounting-specific AI guidance.

Also covered: Zoho Books is bringing a summer roadshow to six UK cities covering MTD, corporation tax and AI for practices. Ryan highlights Trove, a bootstrapped Xero credit control app launched in late 2024, claiming a 60% reduction in overdue invoices.

This episode is supported by Employment Hero, an AI-powered HR, payroll and recruitment platform for UK businesses. employmenthero.co.uk

This episode is also supported by SuiteFiles, practice management and document automation software for accounting firms. suitefiles.com

00:00 Welcome to Digi-Tools in Accrual World

02:53 FreeAgent updates its VAT workflow as MTD for Income Tax goes live for the first wave of users

05:31 Dext adds a compliance-aligned baseline to AI Assist

11:51 Zoho Books brings a free summer roadshow to six UK cities for practices

14:27 Bright launches Oscar, an AI payroll onboarding agent that works via WhatsApp

19:49 Bright's CTO on why the firm mapped compliance workflows before shipping any AI

27:54 MIMO extends Associate into bank and balance sheet reconciliation

32:58 Trove cuts overdue invoices by 60% for early Xero adopters

36:05 SuiteFiles launches AI Smart Templates to automate placeholder field recognition

38:14 Only one in five accountants use AI daily.