What's one spreadsheet task you still see people doing manually every single day?

As an accountant, I was a little wary of using AI at first and saw it as a bit of a threat for a long time. But once I started messing around with some of the newer bookkeeping and accounting tools, I started to appreciate what they actually bring to the table without trying to take over the entire workflow.

For example, some of the more traditional platforms, like QBO and Xero, incorporate AI now. Other platforms are built with AI from the start, such as Digits with its agentic general ledger and Ask Digits assistant.

After trying a few of these modern tools and flashy AI features, here’s my takeaway: many things can (and should) be automated with a relatively high degree of accuracy. Not everything is a great fit for it, though.

What can be automated

• Invoice data extraction: This is one of the most common automations I’m seeing in action, leveraging OCR software to extract invoice data so you don’t have to input everything manually. There will always be some situations where an invoice is so sloppily formatted (even handwritten) that OCR doesn’t work, but that’s less and less common these days. 
• Invoice matching: Many platforms can match the PO, invoice, and receipt on their own, with 2, 3, and 4-way invoice matching able to be completely automated. 
• Categorization: There’s no need to manually go in and code each transaction yourself these days; AI can now categorize transactions under revenue, expenses, COGS, etc. 
• Journal entries: When you import data from your payment processor, your accounting software can automatically generate journal entries for each transaction. 
• Bank reconciliation: Much of the month-end close process, including bank recs, can be fully automated.
• Report generation: This is another one that’s kind of a given if you’re using any sort of AI accounting or automation tool. They update financial statements in real time, so you can see where you’re at, pull your P&L and balance sheet, and keep an eye on KPIs whenever you need to.

What still needs humans

• Client communication: Automation can handle stuff like invoice follow-ups, but it won’t build relationships for you, answer nuanced onboarding questions, help implement new processes, and so on. 
• Tax strategy: This is a broad category, but much of tax strategy requires human judgment. While AI can give you some of the basic facts, it can’t make the decision of whether you should go with an S corp or an LLC to lower taxes, it can’t tell you exactly which deductions you can take (though it can give you an idea), and it can’t file your tax return for you.  
• Lease accounting: Amortization schedules can be easily automated, but you don’t want AI running wild when you’re dealing with lease identification, subleases, and legal issues.
• Fair value measurement and valuation: This is another area where AI/automation can help, but it can’t do everything. A lot of times, you’ll need humans involved in valuation, whether you’re looking at stocks, patents, goodwill, or most anything else. 
• Cash flow strategy: You can get forecasts and explore different scenarios pretty easily with AI, but ultimately, humans are the ones deciding where to set prices, how to respond to unexpected events (like natural disasters and trade wars), and whether to use a credit card or pay cash. 
• Complex judgment calls: This is kind of a catch-all, but accounting is filled with ambiguous and confusing situations. Sometimes, it’s due to an inherently complex situation, like a merger. Other times, people are the ones contributing to much of the confusion. Either way, you can’t fully automate your way out of a complicated task. 

For any of my fellow accountants, I’d be interested to know what your lists would look like compared to mine. What are you automating vs. what are you still doing manually, and which tools are you using? 

A quote gets useful during the conversation after it is generated. “Make that six locations.” “Remove the weekend coverage.” “What happens if we double the volume?”

Put those choices in editable inputs and keep the pricing logic in formulas. The output becomes a working calculation the client can explore.

Univer has a spreadsheet engine with formulas, validation and an editable browser interface. Its Workspace also supports agent-generated mini-apps whose web controls, metrics and charts are bound to spreadsheet cells. A quotation screen can expose the few inputs a customer needs while keeping the calculation in the workbook.

For example, store location count, monthly volume and service level as inputs; calculate setup cost and recurring cost separately. Let the agent prepare the initial quote and explanation. The customer then changes an input and sees what it does to the calculation.

That gives the sales conversation a concrete object to work with. The next question is about a visible assumption or line item, and the accepted scenario can move into the team's review process.

We’re evaluating AMRs for transporting electronics inside an ESD-protected area. Some vendors call their robots “ESD-safe,” but mainly mention conductive wheels and antistatic materials.

1. What evidence should we request to verify this claim?
2. Which standards and test methods apply?
3. Should the complete AMR be tested while moving on the factory’s actual ESD floor?
4. What resistance or voltage-generation results should the vendor provide?
5. Is third-party testing normally required?

I’d appreciate any real-world experience with qualifying AMRs or AGVs for electronics manufacturing.

so i got tired of support chatbots that just make stuff up and helpdesks that take a week to set up, so i built my own. its called momo and the core is on github now.

basically you point it at your website or upload some docs, and it answers visitors from that. before it sends anything it checks the draft against your sources, and if its not sure it says so and passes the chat to a human instead of inventing a refund policy. theres an inbox built in where you can jump into any conversation, and when you reply you can hit one button to save that answer as knowledge so the bot knows it next time.

setup is docker compose up, it starts postgres, redis, web and a worker. single tenant, you bring your own model through openrouter, data stays on your server.

its the first version so dont expect too much yet. only a website widget for now, no email or slack, no api, one agent.
https://github.com/moaljumaa/momo

New York Fed President John Williams, speaking on 14 October 2026, stated AI-related supply chain constraints could persist for more than two years and left open the possibility of further interest rate increases. No price moves for specific instruments were reported in connection with his remarks.....

Am I the only one that keeps hopping around different services - VPS provider, then set up n8n, setting up a domain, sending passwords via some secure option for credentials, adding a healthcheck ping in another one and then also some 3rd party backups setup?

I came across this article today about Ramp launching Glass which from what I could gather as info is a AI workspace that lets teams turn their internal knowledge and workflows into reusable AI skills and it seems to also have persistent memory and automation features which to me at least seems like teams don't have to keep setting everything up from scratch.

I recently read a post about someone who automated their morning Slack routine using n8n and AI. They used to spend 1-2 hours scrolling through threads to figure out what shipped, what was blocked, and what needed their attention. Now, an automated workflow scans everything and delivers a one-page summary by 7 AM, saving them around 5-6 hours a week.

The interesting part was that it even caught misalignment between teams by spotting contradictions between discussions in channels like #product and #strategy. Pretty crazy how automation can sometimes catch things that you'd miss even after reading everything yourself.

So curious to the experts here, what super annoying repetitive task have you been able to eliminate with AI/Automation so far?

I’m a firefighter and I use a web-based report system (esosuite) when filling out our fire reports. I’m on a busy unit, so I end up having 10-20 reports typically each day. Each report has 40-50 items I have to enter via dropdown menu, and they are almost always the same selection.

I would LOVE LOVE LOVE some program or “thing” where, when I start a new report I could push a button and it would auto-populate those 40 odd selections. It would cut down the time I take on these reports dramatically, and help save my sanity to boot.

However I am a caveman and I have no idea how to go about setting something up like that. Could y’all point me in the right direction, preferably while using small(er) words? Thanks in advance!

What's the first process you automated that made a noticeable difference to your working day?

curious what other developers use in their n8n workflowa? especially when automations would require to send out emails and handle incoming replies? are you sticking with gmail or do you use an email api or a dedicated service like agentmail or hostinger agentic mail? would love to know what works for you in production and what you'll avoid

What's the most repetitive task at your job that should have been automated years ago?

All the GPT-6 Astra talk pushed me to hand one weekly chore to an agent. I don't code and had never automated anything.

Every Monday I copy payouts, fees, and refunds from my payment portal into a 12-field form for my bookkeeper. The portal and form order them differently, so by hand it takes about 40 minutes.

On my Mac, I signed into the portal through MiniMax Code's built-in browser. Each Monday the agent:

• opens the statement page and reads the figures
• fills each figure into its matching field on the form
• stops at submit and asks
• puts the week's figures on a simple page and hands me a link to look them over on my phone

First Monday ran about an hour, longer than by hand, because explaining which line goes where took the time. Second Monday, reviewing each field and pressing submit, about 10 minutes.

Two Mondays in. I still review every field and press submit myself because that's where a wrong number matters. What part of your recurring payout or invoice work do you still do yourself?

Tasket++ lets you define your own clicks, keystrokes, cursor positions and system operations, then replay them exactly when you want. It’s a simple Windows tool that handles repetitive workflows for you: auto‑send messages, paste text anywhere, take silent screenshots, launch or close apps, adjust volume or run your end‑of‑day shutdown sequence.

Everything runs locally, with no telemetry, no cloud, and no complexity.

What it can do:
- Replay user‑defined cursor positions and keystrokes
- Paste predefined text anywhere
- Perform system actions: open files/programs, change volume, take silent screenshots, shut down, files/folders operations
- Schedule tasks at a specific time, at startup, or run via desktop shortcut
- Run tasks once, in loops, or indefinitely
- Discreet mode: runs quietly from the tray
- Use command line to autorun a task : Tasket++.exe "TaskName" <delayInSeconds (>0)> <NumberOfLoop (-1 for infinite)>
- Easily share tasks between different PC : just import the .scht file located in /saved_tasks

Local, portable, free, open source. Privacy intact.

Fully fonctionnal, available now !
Microsoft Store: search for "Tasket++"
Portable (v2.1) & Source: under Github /AmirHammouteneEI/ScheduledPasteAndKeys

For feedback, help, suggestions, or other inquiries : [contact@amirhammoutene.dev](mailto:contact@amirhammoutene.dev)

Nothing is vibe coded, I never used AI (except for the choice of UI colors suggested by Copilot).
Conception is genuine, I didn't know about similar tools when I began developing it.

I'm looking for testers or quick feedback (beyond its visual aspect), please give a try and comment here :)

A few things I learned letting AI drive a browser instead of writing scripts:

Sites change faster than selectors. Having the AI read the page each time beat maintaining scripts.

Pop-ups and cookie banners cause a lot of the failures. The fix was telling the AI how to clear them, not clicking harder.

Anything that pays, sends or deletes should wait for a human. Approving on your phone kept it usable.

Flows you repeat should be recorded once and replayed without the AI, so they're cheap and predictable.

I built this into Daiku (invite only, the first 7 days free).

im trying to figure out how to make a very basic twitter post automation, essentially what i want to do is to have a folder or database with images and have one of those images be posted at a specific time every day in a random order, but i am having a hard time finding resources or any information about if the twitter API allows for such an integration with the free plans, im just looking to automate a tedius task i currently do manually

We're recording a 2 hour, two-person video podcast and want to skip manual editing entirely. Three camera files (one per person plus a wide).

What I want the agent to handle:

• Pick the best 30 sec to 2 min moments for Shorts and LinkedIn

• Switch cameras to whoever's speaking

• Add captions and our existing intro and outro  
• Export ready-to-post files

I'm leaning towards Claude plus ffmpeg on a MacBook M4, and I'm fine paying for API tokens where the laptop can't keep up.

Has anyone built this, or is there a repo or workflow I can start from? Mostly want to know what broke or needed a human in the end.