# Accounting automation: where to start, and what it gets you

> Re-typing invoices, booking receipts, matching payments: five pieces of bookkeeping you can automate without switching accounting package — and the order to do them in.

- **Published:** 2026-11-03
- **Language:** English (en)
- **Canonical URL:** https://divsoftware.nl/en/blog/accounting-automation-where-to-start/
- **Keywords:** accounting automation, automate bookkeeping, connect exact online, connect moneybird, automate invoice booking
- **Author:** Division Software — software studio in Eindhoven, the Netherlands
- **Translation:** https://divsoftware.nl/blog/boekhouding-automatiseren-waar-begin-je/

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Ask a business owner where the admin time goes and the answer is rarely "the VAT return". It's the small things in between: re-typing a web shop order as an invoice, photographing a receipt and booking it, finding which invoice a payment belongs to. Each takes a few minutes. Every month, again. This article covers which pieces you can automate, in what order, and what you don't have to do for it: switch packages.

## You don't have to switch

The first reflex is often: we need a better package. Usually the package isn't the problem. Exact Online, Moneybird and e-Boekhouden all have an API — an official connection other software can use to put data in and take it out. An integration uses that connection. Your accountant keeps working in the same package; only the re-typing disappears.

## Five things you can automate

1. **Web shop orders as invoices.** Every order in WooCommerce or Shopify becomes a sales invoice automatically, with the right VAT code and customer. This is almost always the first and the best-paying one.
2. **Matching payments.** Payments through Mollie, Stripe or the bank are matched to the right invoice. No more "paid?" lists.
3. **Purchase invoices and receipts.** Invoices that arrive by email are read in and set up for booking; you check instead of re-type.
4. **Invoicing hours and projects.** Hours from your planning or time tracking become an invoice at the end of the month.
5. **Sending e-invoices.** Belgian customers have required e-invoices over Peppol since 2026, and the rest of Europe follows. Your package can then [send them over Peppol](/en/e-invoicing/) directly.

## In what order?

Start with the task that comes back most often, not the one that annoys you most. Re-typing ten orders a day costs more than one awkward monthly report. The [automation ROI calculator](/en/tools/automation-roi-calculator/) shows in a minute what a task costs per year and when automating pays for itself.

Then agree with your accountant how entries should arrive: which ledger account, which VAT code. That half-hour conversation saves corrections at the end of the quarter.

## What does it get you?

- **Time:** the hours that now go into re-typing come free.
- **Fewer mistakes:** an integration doesn't mistype an amount or forget an invoice.
- **An accountant who finishes sooner:** books that add up save their hours too.
- **Current numbers:** revenue and receivables are right today, not after the month-end close.

## What does it cost?

An integration between one system and your accounting package starts at € 2,950 and usually lands between € 2,950 and € 9,000, depending on the direction and how many kinds of data go through it. A good integration checks its own work: if something doesn't go through, you get an alert instead of a surprise at the VAT return.

## Conclusion

Automating your bookkeeping doesn't mean switching. It means removing the steps between your systems, starting with the one that comes back most often. See what we do in [accounting automation](/en/accounting-automation/) or [request a free quote](/en/quote/): tell us which package you use and what you do by hand.

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*This is the Markdown (AI-readable) version of an article by [Division Software](https://divsoftware.nl/) — we build websites, web shops, apps and custom software for businesses in the Netherlands. Read the full article at https://divsoftware.nl/en/blog/accounting-automation-where-to-start/, or request a free, no-obligation quote at https://divsoftware.nl/en/quote/.*