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Continuing on from our AI discussion this morning I am looking for an AI assistant to do some cashflow modelling and reporting on different scenarios. Poe recommends the following : Fathom, Float and Spotlight all of which apparently integrate with Xero. Has anyone got any experience of any of these? @geoffb @Gillian @andytree @Andyswift1 @michellewain @keithbudden123
Gareth Turner11 Comments-
Hi Emma, sadly I don’t have any experience with these, but following on from the discussion on AI this morning, I am looking into all things AI. I would be very keen to talk with anyone who has used these to see what they think. Gillian
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@Gillian yes its a whole subject in itself, it may be a good idea to have a separate session just in using AI to better understand your numbers.
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Hello. These apps are great, bt are very much a diy way of managing cash flow; they may well make life a little easier, I have only dabbled to see what they are about (I have tried Float and Futrli) and they are time consuming and feel a little less detailed or peronalised than using good old Excel, with little time saving (depending on how advanced you are at using Excel. In summary, use one of these in place of Excel or save money and use Excel which take marginal more time but allows you to include exactly what you want and for what period, with costs merged together or split out in the level of detail you want. Hope this is useful. Jase
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@Jason thanks I use XL currently so I was hoping to find something that might develop and design different budget scenarios in a quicker or more user friendly way , so I could just say ‘OK now can we look at a 5 year scenario where we introduce a new member of staff in Y 2 and 4’ and it would know to add recruitment costs, pension etc ? or ‘Suggest some possible changes to ease cashflow in months 4 and 5 ‘ etc
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@SiGNAL-Emma Sadly none of the options have tried have been this sophisticated, adding additonal costs has been manual. Things may have improved, but I do not believe they have. It would be very interestung to learn if they have. I do attend Digital Accountancy Show each year (dur to attend in April 2025) to keep up to date on software, and new services too, like this but the cash flow and forecasting arena never seems to wow me. I am still an Excel fan!
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@SiGNAL-Emma do you happen to use Microsoft 365? If so, there might be an option for you within that….You can buy a license for Copilot, which is more secure and looks at the documents within your account (not open like ChatGPT, etc). You can then ask it to do some forcasting, calculations, etc based on your Excel document, and any other documents that happen to be in your client files. It’s quite impressive.
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Sorry Emma . No experience with these !
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@geoffb so much to learn!
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@MyGrowthHack Hi Edward its a different Fathom I think -fathomhq.com ?
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If you’re using online tools or apps most have ai capabilities built in so you are probably using Ai more than you think.
My piece of Ai advice is that I hear business owners wanting to use ai to do everything in their business – create things – write for us etc
What we should really be doing is using it for things we want to do less of – scheduling – admin – customer management etc.
anything that saves us time and allows us to focus on the things we love doing more. – writing – creating – spreadsheets even (Jason)
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Hi Emma. I contacted Phil Brown at Menzies and he recommended Fathom but I’ve not personal experience. @Jason makes very good point and sometimes using software that you understand saves time in the long run. Andy
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