10 Levels of Agentic Accounting

Orientation

New here? The training page shows how the free videos, the live cohorts, and the club fit together. See the training

Don’t get stuck on a level. Use an agent as a build partner. Copy the prompt below, paste it in a chat, and have your agent to coach you through the level you are on.

Watch

How the industry is changing and how to respond most productively.
From clicking through software to directing an agent that does the work, and the ten levels of Agentic Accounting that get you there.
The #1 limiting belief holding back progress with AI and how to overcome it.
Work with an AI agent every day for 90 days, with a daily accountability check-in. The core habit that drives your progress through Agentic Accounting.
The rule for passwords and client secrets, and how to handle client data safely. Keep client work safe and keep moving.

Build

The barrier

Most prompts are vague, so the same request returns different quality each time.

The build

Write one really good instruction, save it, and use it forever instead of retyping it badly every time.

The benefit

One repeated task stops costing you time and energy.

The steps

Pick a frequent task or step in a workflow you repeat often and do manually.
Do it by hand once more, end to end. Keep track of what goes into the work and what the finished result should look like. The details matter.
Write the prompt using the four parts in the template below.
Test it three times, on three different real inputs.
When the output is wrong, change the prompt, not the output. If you are editing the result every time, the prompt is what needs work.
Save it somewhere you can find in seconds.

The four-part template

TASK
Convert the bank statement below into a clean upload file for [your accounting software].

INPUTS
Here is the statement:
[paste the statement text, or attach the PDF]

OUTPUT
Columns: date, description, amount. Dates as MM-DD-YYYY.
Money out is negative, money in is positive.

RULES
- Every transaction on the statement appears exactly once.
- Never invent or round an amount.
- Total the amounts, check the total against the closing balance,
  and tell me whether they match.

Done whenYou can paste raw input, run it, and send the result with no edits nearly every time.

Tasks that suit this level

Restructure data, e.g. a PDF bank statement → CSV upload
Craft documentation, e.g. voice note → standard operating procedure
Research, e.g. topic → structured research brief
Draft communication, e.g. note dump → first (or multiple) draft(s) of an email
Analysis, e.g. financial statements → notable trends & action items

Ready for the next level whenYou notice a job actually has several steps, and you keep prompting multiple times in a row to finish it.

Watch

Understand the fundamental unit of AI: the chat session. What it is and what it isn’t. Common mistakes.
Ways to use an agent beyond asking it questions. Learn how to get more out of an AI session.
How an agent can be amazing one moment and awful the next. Learn to understand how agents work, so you get more of what you want and less of what you don’t.
Your agent makes mistakes. Let’s cover how to fix those mistakes for good.

Build

The barrier

A job has several steps and one prompt isn't cutting it because the agent is trying to do it all at once.

The build

Write an ordered sequence of prompts where the output of one step is the input of the next. Use one or more human checkpoints in between to verify quality.

The benefit

Work that took an afternoon finishes in 20 minutes, and you catch errors partway through instead of at the end.

The steps

Outline the job as numbered steps. If they don't all link with zero gaps, then you don't understand the job well enough to hand any of it over yet.
If you get stuck, ask your agent to interview you about how you do the job or do the process end-to-end with them until it can write the steps back to you. The master builder prompt below does this.
Turn each step into its own structured prompt like level 1.
Make sure the output from every step connects as the exact input for the next step.
Run them in order, one at a time.
Put a human checkpoint after any step that requires human judgment. This is where quality comes from.

The master builder prompt

I'm trying to [insert what you're trying to do, e.g. create a chain
of prompts to automate a workflow]. Interview me until you're 95%
confident you understand my intent.

Done whenYou run the entire chain of prompts and send without major fixes at the end.

Tasks that suit this level

Post month-end journals, e.g. intake source data → choose accrual strategy → prepare schedule → output journal entries for upload
Answer a tax notice, e.g. read the notice → pull the filing → agree or dispute → response letter
Build the reporting pack, e.g. assemble figures → largest movements → explanations → summary
Forecast cash, e.g. historicals → projections → stress one scenario → recommendation

Ready for the next level whenYou notice you re-explain who you are and how you work at the top of every chain.

Watch

The #1 most useful prompt for tackling any problem or build task, small or large.

Build

The barrier

You re-explain who you are and how you work across multiple chat sessions, prompts, or prompt chains.

The build

Set up a workspace for your agent, so every agent session can access up-to-date background information for its task.

The benefit

Every new session levels up. The output stops being generic because your agent knows exactly who you are and how you work before it begins.

The steps

Pick an area of your work you want to automate, e.g. bookkeeping, tax, advisory, marketing, etc.
Create a project or directory that can hold files and name it after the work area, e.g. literally "bookkeeping". (Note: most chat agents have a "Projects" feature. Use that. For "work" or "code" agents, simply add a new file directory and name it appropriately.)
Write and add the project instructions that will get loaded every session. See template below. (Note: for work/code agents, this will be a claude.md or agents.md file in the root of the directory.)
Write and upload the core files that would be useful across any and every session you would start in this domain. See examples below.
Test it. Open a fresh session, give no background at all, and ask for something you would normally have to explain first. If it makes a stupid mistake because it doesn't know something about you, then your background files are missing something.

Project instructions example

You do the bookkeeping for [company]'s clients.
Read the project files before answering anything about a client, an
account, or a policy. Never invent a number, category, or client fact
that isn't in clients.md or chart-of-accounts.md.

Voice: match voice.md. Short sentences. Plain English. No corporate
filler.

When I give you transactions, always check them against
chart-of-accounts.md first and flag anything that has no category
before you categorize the rest. I would rather answer a question than
fix a silent guess.

If you don't have enough information to do the job well, ask me one
question. Don't guess and don't pad.

Done whenA conversation with no background from you produces work you would send with light edits.

Core file examples

clients.md: who each client is, their preferences, and particular treatment they get
chart-of-accounts.md: your categories and what belongs in each, so statement conversions and journal posting stay consistent
voice.md: how you write, positive examples, negative examples
close-checklist.md: your month-end steps and accrual policies, the backbone of the journals chain
report-formats.md: who each recurring report is for and how much detail they want
boundaries.md: positions you will and will not take, and what you never promise a client
send-checklist.md: what you check before any work leaves your desk

Watch

Learn the difference between a chat session that only converses with you versus one that can do actual work for you.
Set up your agent's "brain": the files and instructions that make every new session start smart.

No FOMO Club

Supercharge your progress with peers

The pathway is free for all and always will be. What it cannot give you is a room of peers in the trenches with you. Inside No FOMO Club, we run live cohorts each month: four weeks, a live session each week, a small pod matched to your level, with accountability and help while you are building. Apply to the club to join the next cohort.

See the No FOMO Club →