What we automate · Finance
J Labs designs and builds the automation layer on top of the ledger and the tools you already run. Supplier invoices are coded and matched before anyone opens them, customer invoices go out and get chased without a spreadsheet, and bank feeds reconcile as transactions land. Your finance team keeps the judgement; the system keeps the books current.
Summary
J Labs automates finance operations for operating companies with an existing ledger. The work sits on top of the systems already in place (Xero, QuickBooks, NetSuite, SAP, the bank feeds and the spreadsheets that hold the close together) and closes the gaps between them: supplier invoices are captured, coded to the right account and matched to purchase orders on arrival, customer invoices are generated from the source of truth and chased on a schedule the team sets, bank transactions are reconciled against the ledger as they land with only the exceptions surfaced, and the month-end close runs from a checklist the system executes rather than one a controller remembers. Every engagement starts with a 20 or 45-minute discovery call and, where it makes sense, a four-day Spec from €5,000 that produces the written brief and acceptance criteria before any build is priced. Builds are fixed scope, fixed timeline and fixed price, run on weekly 30-minute check-ins with the finance team in the room, and ship in an average of eight weeks. The two workflows that pay back most reliably are invoice coding and vendor onboarding; forecasting and revenue recognition on unclean data are the two we sequence last. The judgement, the approvals and the sign-off stay with the finance team; the repetitive, rules-based work moves to the system.
What we automate
Supplier invoices captured from email and portals, coded to the right account and cost centre against your own rules, and matched to purchase orders and receipts. Exceptions go to a person; the rest goes straight through to approval.
Customer invoices generated from the system of record (the CRM, the contract, the timesheet) and sent on time. Reminders and statements go out on a cadence the team sets, in your tone, with escalation to a human when a relationship needs one.
Bank feeds matched against the ledger as transactions land: rules for the routine, a model for the ambiguous, a person for what is left. The reconciliation stops being a Friday afternoon and becomes an exception list.
Accruals, prepayments, intercompany and recurring journals raised from the schedule rather than from memory, with the close checklist tracked in the open. The controller reviews a close that is already most of the way there.
Close packs, ageing reports and FP&A consolidations checked for broken references, formula errors and tab-to-tab inconsistencies before they reach the board pack. We have field-tested which model does this best, and the answer depends on the workbook.
New suppliers collected, validated and set up in the ledger with the right payment terms and tax treatment, one of the two finance workflows we see pay back most reliably. Duplicates and stale vendors flagged before they cause a mispayment.
Fit
This is for you if
You run a real ledger and the month still lives in spreadsheets. The accounting system is fine. What surrounds it (the invoice inbox, the chasing list, the reconciliation workbook, the close checklist) is manual, and it is where the hours and the errors are.
Your finance team spends the start of every month closing the last one. Coding, matching, reconciling, accruing, chasing. Rules-based, repetitive, and the reason the people who could be analysing the numbers are still producing them.
You can describe the workflow in a paragraph. A defined trigger (an invoice arrives, a period ends, a payment lands), a known owner, an approval path, and a budget holder who can say yes. That is the shape we can scope in four days and build in weeks.
This is not for you if
You want bookkeeping outsourced, not automated. We are not an accounting firm and we do not run your books. If the need is a bookkeeper, a controller or a fractional CFO, that is a different hire, and we will say so on the call.
The chart of accounts is still being argued about. Automation multiplies whatever it sits on. If coding rules, approval thresholds and entity structure are not settled, automated coding produces wrong entries faster. The honest first step is a 20 or 45-minute call and a one-page summary, not a build.
You want forecasting or revenue recognition automated before the data is clean. These are the two finance workflows we see fail most often, and they fail for the same reason: the inputs are not trustworthy yet. We start with AP, AR and reconciliation, and get to forecasting once the ledger can support it.
Systems
The ones you already run. We don't insist on rip-and-replace: the automation layer goes on top of the systems in place, and if a system is genuinely past saving we say so on the discovery call and show our working.
Engagement options
| Engagement | Price | Timeline | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Spec | From €5,000 | Four days | A written brief you own outright: problem definition, acceptance criteria, architecture sketch and cost estimate. Vendor-neutral: take it to us or to anyone. |
| Finance workflow build | Fixed price, quoted after discovery | Typically four to eight weeks | One or more finance workflows in production on your ledger (AP, AR, reconciliation or close) with weekly check-ins, open staging, documentation written as we go and a post-launch support window. |
| Finance operating system | Multi-phase, to €200,000+ | Multi-month, phased | AP, AR, reconciliation and close automated end to end across entities and tools, with the reporting layer on top and a review cadence run with your finance lead. |
None of these is an off-the-shelf product. There is no J Labs software to install: every system is specified in the brief, built for your stack, and owned by you. Every engagement is fixed scope, fixed timeline and fixed price, with acceptance criteria agreed before work starts. See how we work and the Spec.
Frequently asked
Or start with our brief templateWe reply within one business day.