On your own work.
Real client emails, real records requests, real year-end admin. Not slides.
Home / AI for accountants
Sector: accountancy
AI for accountancy practices that keeps client data where it belongs.
Norloch builds privacy-first AI and automation for accountancy practices in Edinburgh and across Scotland. Email triage, drafting in each partner's voice, records chasing and workflow tracking, running inside your own Microsoft 365 or Google tenant with a person approving every output.
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Most practices start with a training session for the team. See the session
Updated October 2026
In short
Norloch builds AI and automation systems for accountancy practices in Edinburgh, Scotland and across the UK. That includes AI email triage and reply drafting inside Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, automated records chasing, document automation, workflow tracking and reporting, and practical AI training for practice staff.
The systems are privacy-first by design: data stays in the practice's own tenant, sensitive identifiers are redacted before processing, and a person approves every output. Norloch is led by Shanoor Hussain, a fractional CTO with 15 years in software, cloud and data, and former Head of Managed Services at Datatonic and Cloudreach.
Start here
Train the team first.
Most practices start with a session for the people who handle the inbox and the chasing. They learn what ChatGPT, Claude or Copilot are good for, and we see where the hours are going.
Safe with client data.
What never goes into a public AI tool, which plan settings matter, and a one-page usage policy your professional body would be happy with.
Ends with a list, not a pitch.
A short priced list of what we'd automate first. Do it with us, do it yourself, or do nothing. Most pick one.
The problem
Where the hours go in a practice.
Partners in small and mid-sized practices tell us the same things. The work is skilled; the admin around it isn't.
The inbox runs the day.
Two directors, thousands of clients, and every request arriving as an email. Evenings and weekends go on replies.
Chasing records.
The same reminders for the same missing bank statements and receipts, every quarter, by hand.
Deadline pile-ups.
January, year ends and VAT quarters land on the same people at the same time.
Repeat questions.
"What's my UTR?" "When is my tax due?" "Can I claim this?" Answered individually, hundreds of times.
Systems that don't talk.
Practice management, email, bookkeeping software and spreadsheets, each holding part of the picture.
Nobody can see the workload.
Who is waiting on what, and for how long, lives in people's heads.
What we build
Systems that take the admin, not the judgement.
Each build starts with one process, proven working before anything else is added.
- Email triage and drafting. Every incoming email classified, urgent ones escalated, noise filtered, and replies drafted in each partner's own voice for a person to send.
- Records chasing. Automated, polite reminders for missing documents, with a clear view of who has sent what.
- Client knowledge base. Answers to the questions clients ask most, drafted from your own guidance, checked by you.
- Document automation. Engagement letters, onboarding packs and standard correspondence generated from your templates and client data.
- Workflow tracking. One view of jobs, stages and deadlines, connected to the systems you already use.
- Reporting. Turnaround times, workload by person, and client responsiveness, without a spreadsheet.
- Team training. Practical training so your staff use the tools well and safely. See the session
Privacy and compliance
Designed for a regulated profession.
Data stays in your tenant.
The system runs inside your Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace environment. Client emails are not copied to a third-party inbox.
Sensitive data stripped first.
National Insurance numbers, UTRs, bank details and similar identifiers are removed before any text reaches an AI model.
Human in the loop.
Nothing is sent to a client without a person reading it. Drafts are labelled and logged.
Documented for your professional body.
A written data flow and retention statement you can share with clients, ICAS, ACCA or ICAEW.
Results
One Edinburgh practice, eight weeks in.
Two directors, nine staff, 2,500 clients, systems not linked up.
4,800+emails processed, around 110 a day
87%of drafts sent with minor or no edits, up from 55% in weeks 1 and 2
~100 hrsa month freed up, by the directors' own estimate
How we work
One process at a time.
1
Strategy call
30 minutes, free. We look at where the hours go in your practice and tell you honestly where automation pays and where it doesn't.
2
Discovery
Time with the people doing the work. We map the process, the data and the systems, and scope a first build with a fixed price.
3
Build, measure, expand
The first system goes live in weeks. We measure it, tune it, and only then scope the next one.
FAQ
Common questions.
Is client data safe?
The systems we build run inside your own Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace tenant. Sensitive identifiers such as National Insurance numbers, UTRs and bank details are stripped before anything reaches an AI model, and nothing is used to train a model. We document the data flow so you can show it to clients and your professional body.
Does the AI send emails to clients?
No. It classifies and drafts. A person in the practice reads every draft and decides whether to send it. That's a design choice, not a limitation, and it's what makes the system usable in a regulated practice.
What about our practice management software?
We integrate with what you already run. Xero, QuickBooks, Sage, IRIS, TaxCalc, BrightManager and Karbon all have ways in. We don't ask you to change platform.
How long does it take to see a result?
The email system in our case study went live in weeks and was handling over a hundred emails a day from the start. Accuracy climbed from 55% to 87% over eight weeks as the prompts were tuned to each director's voice.
What does it cost?
A first build, usually the inbox, is a fixed price between £1,500 and £5,000, agreed after a short discovery. Later phases such as records chasing or document automation are priced the same way. Team training is from £2,000 per session. Full pricing.
Do you work with practices outside Edinburgh?
Yes. Our first accountancy client is in Edinburgh and we work on-site across Scotland. Practices elsewhere in the UK are supported remotely.
Want your evenings back?
Free 30-minute call. We'll tell you where the hours are going and whether it's worth automating.
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