John walks through what impressed him. Code three or four bank transactions and, five to ten seconds later, a whole batch follows the same pattern. Bookkeepers can request missing receipts straight from the bank rec, and anything coded without paperwork goes in with no VAT until it turns up. Supplier payments run through open banking with Yapily, with an approval step, and prepayments, accruals, fixed assets and working papers come from Briefcase Connect. John also notes what isn't there yet, compared with FreeAgent: income tax, corporation tax and stock.
Then the bit he found most interesting. Briefcase has no public API. It offers an MCP server with over 50 functions for Claude and ChatGPT instead.
Reuben explains why they built it, after two years getting data capture right with Briefcase Connect, and who it's for: accounting firms of every size, first and foremost.
From episode 6.40 of Digi-Tools in Accrual World, with John Toon and Reuben Steenkamp of Briefcase.
Digi-Tools in Accrual World is The Loop's weekly accounting tech podcast, hosted by Ryan Pearcy, John Toon, Indi Tatla, Eriona Bajrakurtaj and Ian Gregory.
Full episodes: https://digitoolsinaccrual.world
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