Private office
One knowledge base for a private office running companies, properties and investments
A private office that manages every financial side of its owners: several companies, rental properties, investments and taxes, from one knowledge base connected to the accounting system.
- Business
- Private office: several companies, rental properties and investments
- Team
- 2 owners, plus an outside accountant
- Delivered
- One knowledge base connected to the accounting system, the banks and the investments
The situation
A private office that manages all of its owners' finances across a small group of companies. They let and renovate rental properties, some held in the companies and some personally, and invest in shares, funds and start-ups. That means a lot of financial admin: company and personal taxes, quarterly VAT, checking that rent is paid on time, and checking that each property is profitable. The accountant's fees rose every year without clear insight into what they covered, and a paid property-management application added work instead of saving it. The owners changed accountant, moved the books to Odoo and set up a knowledge base to do most of the work themselves.
Phase by phase
Phase 0 · Free demo
Testing with Odoo
While trying out Odoo, it became clear that the assistant could build connections to it and automate tasks. Tax documents and bank account data were imported into a knowledge base. The assistant produced reports from them, which replaced self-maintained spreadsheets, and explained the figures in plain language.
Phase 1 · Goal
Goals
Lower accountancy costs, stop paying for applications that don't help, get more control and better visibility over the finances, and find savings.
Phase 2 · AI readiness scan
Data sources
A list of every source of financial data and what the knowledge base can connect to, including the financial websites that track the investments.
Phase 3 · Connecting
Mail, banks and investments
Bills, bank mail and letters arrive in the knowledge base from the owners' mailboxes. Bank statement exports are filed and checked for missing periods, card statements are read directly from the PDFs, and the investments are linked to the websites that track them.
Accounting system
The assistant reads the accounting system (Odoo) and prepares drafts, such as filling in a draft bill, renaming a document or assigning a cost to the right building. It never posts a booking. A person confirms each one.
Phase 4 · First project
Historical invoices and bank statements
All old invoices and bank statements were added to the knowledge base to get a clear picture of the current financial position.
Invoice checks
Each new invoice is checked against the accounting system and the archive for duplicates before a draft bill is created. E-invoices go straight into the books.
Rent follow-up
The knowledge base produces a report of late rent payments, which one of the owners uses to follow up with the tenants. It also reports when the next rent indexation is due for each property.
Clean data in Odoo
The assistant checks the data in Odoo and makes sure invoices and accounts are set up correctly, following rules that were documented in the knowledge base during conversations with the accountant.
Routine checks
One command runs the regular checks: rent received per property, unpaid invoices and bills, unmatched bank lines, costs assigned to the right building, document names, and a VAT review before each quarter closes.
Results
Cancelled
a property-management application that cost more than it helped
Per building
profit and loss by year, by business and by property, on demand
Bank line to bill
any supplier payment traced back to its invoice
Switched
a telecom contract, after a market comparison on actual usage
A payment entered twice
A check of the books against the bank's own statements showed a direct debit that had been entered twice, once by hand and once by the bank import. One bill was marked as paid with money that had never left the bank. It had gone unnoticed for six months. The duplicate was removed, and a monthly balance check now ties the books to the bank.
The owners keep the books themselves, so the accountant starts from clean books. Questions about money are answered from the files.