An Accounting Firm Grounded Copilot in Its Own Files; Its Partner Reports 8 Hours a Week Back
A small firm lets Copilot answer from its own files, and the partner says hours came back.
What happened Bregman Accountants had partner Campai feed Microsoft 365 Copilot two decades of the firm's emails, files and advice. With Copilot recognizing invoices and accounting software processing them, Campai says the firm measured 8 hours a week regained.
Who this is about: Small accounting firm (Bregman Accountants, Zoetermeer, Netherlands)
What it takes
- Cost
- PaidMicrosoft 365 Copilot licences plus a partner's setup; no costs are given.
- Setup time
- A few weeksOur estimate from the source, for one business.
- Skill needed
- Some tech skillsComfortable installing an app, pasting an API key or running a command.
Explain it simply
A small accounting firm set up Microsoft's helper to answer from its own files. Those files hold 20 years of email, client files, and advice, not the open web. With invoice reading added, the partner says the firm got 8 hours a week back. The firm also moved from hourly bills to a set monthly fee.
What was done
Owner Daan Bregman wanted to give the same clients more value rather than grow the team.
With Microsoft partner Campai, he fed Microsoft 365 Copilot twenty years of the firm's emails, client files, knowledge bases and advice, so its output reflects how the firm works and writes.
He checks every output afterwards against professional literature and his own expertise.
Copilot recognizes invoices automatically, and the accounting software processes what used to be manual work.
How it went
Campai reports 8 hours a week regained and stresses it is a measurement, not an estimate. The firm moved from hourly billing to fixed monthly subscriptions, calling itself a "financial GP" (our translation) that follows clients' figures in real time.
- Promotional: this is Campai's own customer story; Campai sells Copilot implementation, so read it like a vendor story.
- Translated from Dutch by us. The 8 hours are credited to smart automation overall (invoice recognition plus accounting software), not to Copilot alone.
- How the 8 hours were measured isn't described.
Prompt
Using only our firm's files on [topic or client], draft advice for [client] about [question].
Follow how we usually advise on this: find two or three past emails or memos where we handled a similar question and base the structure and tone on them. List the documents you used. Mark anything that depends on current rules so I can check it against the professional literature before it goes out.Setup notes
- Decide which archives the assistant may draw on (emails, client files, knowledge base) and check permissions before connecting them.
- Keep checking every output against professional sources, as Bregman does.
- If AI shortens the work, revisit hourly billing; Bregman moved to fixed monthly fees.
Business fit
Who this helps, and how:
Your turn
Ideas to try on your own work. These are starters, not results anyone has measured.
- Which old emails or files should a helper be allowed to read?
- What would you still check against your own notes before you sent advice?
- Which hourly task is mostly typing that a helper could draft?
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Similar tools
Other tools for this job, and how they differ. Chosen by our editors, never paid for.
- Claude
Projects can hold a firm's documents for grounded drafting; separate from your Microsoft 365 files unless you connect them.
- ChatGPT
General assistant whose business plans can work with uploaded company files; a fit for firms not on Microsoft 365.
- Gemini
Google's assistant inside Workspace; the counterpart if your firm runs on Gmail and Drive.
“Vendor or secondhand” (grade C) means: A tool maker's case study, a promotional demo, or someone else's write-up. How we grade. Spotted a mistake? Suggest a correction.