Plain answers to the AI questions owners actually ask
Every guide is written in plain English, separates current published prices from examples, and explains what needs measuring before anyone promises a result.
The guides
How can AI help my small business? A plain-English guide for UK owners
The repetitive jobs an AI helper can take on — chasing paperwork, sorting email, preparing reports — and the ones it can't.
What is an AI agent? Explained without the jargon
A simple definition you can repeat to anyone: software configured to carry out several steps in an agreed workflow, with clear limits and human escalation.
How much does AI automation cost for a UK small business?
Current Mach Lilies pricing where it is published, the costs to include in a comparison, and a practical way to measure whether a workflow is worth pursuing.
AI for accountancy practices: 7 jobs a helper can take off your team
Seven repetitive jobs a helper can do for a practice, starting with the MTD document chase.
Accountant client reminder email templates
Five adaptable reminder-email templates for accountants, with precise missing-item requests, human approval, reply handling and data-minimisation checks.
Agentic AI adoption checklist
Assess an agentic AI workflow before adoption using task boundaries, least privilege, approval points, monitoring, supplier evidence and incident controls.
AI automation pilot checklist
Plan a bounded AI automation pilot with a clear workflow, baseline, test cases, human controls, evidence and a defensible go-or-stop decision.
Automated reminders vs managed client chasing
Compare scheduled reminders with managed client chasing across replies, filing, exceptions, controls, responsibilities and total operating cost.
How to chase clients for missing documents
A practical process for UK accountants and bookkeepers to request missing client documents, handle replies, route exceptions and keep decisions human.
Human-in-the-loop AI workflow guide
Design meaningful human oversight for an AI workflow with decision rights, usable evidence, time to challenge outputs, escalation and audit records.
MTD quarterly record-collection checklist
A source-led operational checklist for collecting client records around MTD quarterly updates, with ownership, exceptions, approval and evidence controls.
MTD quarterly workflow readiness test
Test whether your MTD quarterly record-request, exception and approval loop is operationally ready before the next client collection cycle.
More guides are being written. New ones appear here as they're finished.
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