Amesto Accounthouse: Accounting firms must embrace technology

Petter Buran at Amesto Accounthouse believes that accounting firms unable to keep up with technological advancements will face significant challenges. Amesto Accounthouse was among the first to adopt the AI solution SEMINE.

With nearly 300 employees across Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, Amesto Accounthouse is one of the largest Norwegian accounting firms. They provide accounting, payroll, HR, and financial advisory services to over 3,000 clients, ranging from small businesses to large publicly listed companies.

Petter Buran, Director of Sales and Business Development, discusses the major changes in the industry.

- The accounting industry has been evolving for many years now. The shift to cloud-based ERP systems has transformed the way most firms operate. But what's happening now with artificial intelligence is a true game-changer.

I believe that those who fail to adapt to technological advancements will struggle. AI challenges business models, eliminates many manual tasks, and forces transformation. As a firm, you can either take an active role in driving this change or choose to wait and see. Those who opt for the latter strategy may find themselves in trouble.

Innovation-Driven Group

For Amesto Accounthouse, waiting was never an option. The firm is part of the family-owned Amesto Group, which provides a wide range of other services. The group has a strong focus on innovation and has been recognized as one of Norway’s 25 most innovative companies by Innovasjonsmagasinet. They were early investors in SEMINE.

-We were made aware of SEMINE early on by our owners and decided to evaluate the technology. In 2019, we entered into an agreement with NHO and their 130 member organizations to outsource accounting and payroll services.

- With 160,000 incoming invoices annually, we saw huge potential for efficiency gains with the SEMINE platform and Xledger.

READ MORE: Easy integration with the leading financial systems

This has been a close collaboration, where we’ve worked together to achieve significant automation benefits. We have since implemented SEMINE with several other clients.”

He adds that it’s about more than just efficiency.

- SEMINE is groundbreaking, not only in terms of what the solution can extract from an invoice but also how it simplifies communication flows between employees.

The modern user interface, combined with excellent collaboration features within the platform, has also enhanced the customer experience. In this type of solution, clients aren’t usually spoiled with user-friendly options, he adds.

Better utilization of employees

Buran believes that employees should not fear that SEMINE will take away their jobs.

- Even those who were skeptical of artificial intelligence have come to appreciate the platform. We free up time previously spent on tedious, repetitive tasks.

Employees can now use their expertise on more motivating tasks, such as consulting and analysis, which positively impacts the work environment, he explains.

READ MORE: Getting started with SEMINE is easy

Most of our employees have bachelor’s or master’s degrees, and it doesn’t make sense to have them spend their time on invoice processing when a machine can do a better job.

SEMINE plays a central role in the company’s continued growth.

- With the market’s best AI platform for automating accounting and making financial data accessible, we are optimistic about the future.

By combining the specialized expertise of our employees with advanced technologies like SEMINE, we are helping to shape the accounting solutions of tomorrow. AI-powered accounting is here to stay, and for accounting firms, there really is no alternative but to embrace it and put it to use.