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AI at Beany

Artificial Intelligence is rapidly changing how the world works, and professional services are no exception. With this transformation comes important new questions around security, data privacy and trust.​

We want to be completely transparent about how we use AI to supercharge our services, and more importantly, how we ensure it never compromises the human expertise our clients rely on.​

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How we use AI

At Beany, AI is a professional instrument. Just like a musician controls how an instrument is used to produce sound, your accountant controls AI's use and output.​

AI gives your accountant broader capability than ever before, drawing on legislation, case precedent, sector data and your own data. It can surface patterns, flag things worth looking at, and conduct research that would take a human hours or even days to pull together. Think of it like your accountant’s really capable research assistant. ​

What it can’t do is know you or your business, apply professional judgement or take responsibility for its output.​

That’s still your accountant’s job.​

Your accountant is still the one doing the thinking and then signing their name to any information they send through to you as a client.​

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What this means for your business

Faster answers to complex queries

Tax laws and accounting in general can be super complex with confusing terminology. When you have a complex question, it can take a lot of time for your accountant to combine their expertise and knowledge with a plain-English explanation.​

By pairing AI’s speed with your accountant's knowledge of your business, they can respond in a fraction of the time it used to take. You get the answers faster and without the confusing industry jargon.​

Proactive insights

Historically, receiving deep financial analysis and written insights was a luxury reserved for large corporations with massive budgets or big finance teams. AI has changed that. ​

As part of our executive reporting, we use AI systems to help produce the business insights report that accompanies the standard management report. Your accountant reviews, refines and applies their professional judgement to this information.​

Since AI does the heavy lifting and initial analysis, we can provide this CFO-level insight to hundreds of small to medium businesses regularly, something that simply wasn’t practical or affordable before.​

Our 4 checks for any AI-assisted output

To ensure everything we do continues to meet the highest standards, every piece of AI-assisted work goes through our strict framework before it ever reaches you.

1. Accuracy

Every date, name and figure is verified against your source information. AI surfaces numbers, your accountant confirms and brings insight from them.

2. Context

The output is always based on the specifics of your situation. NO generic AI answers.

3. Ethics

Any AI-assisted communication must strictly align with our professional voice and the CA ANZ Code of Ethics. If something feels off or wrong, it will never end up infront of a client.

4. Accountability

Your accountant signs their name to the final work and carries professional responsibility for it.

Data protection and responsible use

We have established rigid internal guardrails to manage AI technology and your data safely.​

  • Endorsed tools only: Every AI tool we use must pass a documented vetting process covering security, data handling, and training-data practices before it's approved. We keep a register of approved (and disallowed) tools and we review it every quarter.
  • No consumer AI tools: We don't upload your information to consumer AI products, or to any tool that trains on client data. Your data is used to improve your outcomes not to train someone else's model.
  • Your accountant directs its use: AI is a research and analysis engine. Your accountant defines the question, challenges the output and applies professional judgement to everything it produces. The accountant is the expert, the AI is just an instrument.
  • Disclosed in writing: Your client engagement documentation tells you when and how AI is used in delivering your services.
  • Reviewed quarterly: Our standards grow with the technology and the regulatory environment. We review our Endorsed Tools Register at least every quarter.

Frequently asked questions

Only into tools on our Endorsed Tools Register. Each tool is vetted for security, data residency and a written commitment that your information is never used to train public AI models.
No. AI may assist during the preparation process, but the tax return itself is prepared, verified and submitted by your accountant who carries full professional responsibility for it.
All AI models have gaps and assumptions in their knowledge. Our team apply critical judgment to every AI output. Where circumstances are complex or culturally-specific, the accountant's expertise and contextual knowledge take precedence over any automated output.
No, never. In scenarios where we might compare your data to other industry data (e.g. for benchmarking), we use publicly available data from reputable sources so that we can provide insight into how you stack up. We will never train (or compare) your data against other client data.
The accountant who used AI. Anything that comes from AI is just a draft. The human expert is always the author and takes full accountability for information that is produced and shared.

"AI assists. Your accountant owns the output."