An AI for your bookkeeping is only worth having once you know what it may do.
An AI connector for Moneybird sounds like one thing, but it now covers everything from a smart search bar to something that writes into your books on its own. You notice that difference only when it goes wrong, and by then it is in your administration. So this page first asks five questions worth putting to any provider, ours included, and then answers them for Schakel. For completeness: the Schakel assistant runs on DeepSeek and does not connect to Claude or ChatGPT. That is exactly the sort of answer you are entitled to in a choice like this.
What that looks like
What the assistant does
What this automation does, and when.
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Questions that do not touch your administration
Open invoices and which are overdue, revenue over a period, a monthly overview, VAT per quarter, cash flow, unprocessed bank entries, logged hours, quotes, purchase documents and contacts. All readable in plain language, no report builder.
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Making things, with the draft first
Sales invoices, quotes, receipts, purchase invoices, hours and contacts. You see what is about to be recorded before it is, including the VAT rate and the project it falls on.
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Updating things that already exist
Registering a payment against an invoice, invoicing logged hours in one go, updating a contact and turning a quote into an invoice. Here too nothing goes in without your confirmation.
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Notifications that arrive on their own
Payment received or found, invoice overdue, reminder sent, quote expired, new purchase invoice, monthly overview, VAT reminder, unprocessed bank entries and a request for a missing receipt. On or off per type, with quiet hours around them.
Five questions to ask any AI aimed at your bookkeeping
These questions are not meant as advertising. They are meant to open the conversation, even if you end up somewhere else. On the left why the question matters, on the right our own answer.
1. What exactly may it carry out?
The gap between something that can look invoices up and something that can delete them is enormous, and both get sold as an AI connector in the same breath.
One fixed list of actions, outside which the model can call nothing. Asking questions, creating invoices and quotes, booking receipts and purchase invoices, logging hours, managing contacts, registering payments. Sending, crediting and deleting sit deliberately last.
2. When does it write to my books?
A mistake in an answer costs you a minute. A mistake that got booked costs you a correction, and sometimes a conversation with a customer wrongly marked paid.
Never before you confirm. Every action that records something shows the draft first: contact, lines, VAT, project and total. Say nothing and nothing happens.
3. What happens when it is unsure?
With matching bank entries to invoices this is the whole art. A system that presses on when unsure makes exactly the mistakes that cost most to unpick.
It scores 0 to 100 with the reason attached, and by default it only proposes. An invoice number in the description with a matching amount is 100, a name on a unique amount 95, a unique amount alone 85. The threshold sits at 90.
4. What does it remember about my business, and can I see it?
An assistant that remembers nothing asks you the same thing every month. One that remembers but does not show what turns a single misunderstanding into a permanent rule.
Separate knowledge cards in your dashboard, one per subject. Every card records whether you wrote it, the guided setup did, or the assistant concluded it from a conversation. You can switch any card off.
5. Which model runs behind it, and can I get out?
You should know where your data passes. And you should know how to stop, without a support conversation.
DeepSeek, and it says so on the pages people reach by searching a different model name too. You stop in Moneybird itself: you withdraw access there, and that is that.
If you land on another provider that answers these five just as plainly, you are probably fine. What matters to us is the answers, not who gives them.
What it saves you
- You know the edge up front, because the action list is the edge.
- When unsure it proposes rather than books, with the reason attached.
- What it learns about your business sits visibly in cards and can be switched off one at a time.
- You stop in Moneybird itself, without involving us.
Setting it up
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Connect one system, not two
This is an automation rather than a link between two parties: you connect only your own Moneybird administration. No webshop or sales channel needs to hang off it.
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Settle your basics
The ledger account for your revenue, the VAT rates you use and the projects that are running. Every booking falls back on those.
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Test it on something harmless
Start with something that changes nothing. Then a receipt you had to book anyway. That builds trust the way you would with a new colleague.
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Leave payment matching on propose
Watch for a few weeks whether the proposals hold up before you consider letting it book automatically. There is no hurry, and the proposals already take most of the work away.
What you need
- A Moneybird administration you administer
- Clarity on your ledger account, VAT rates and projects
- A Schakel account for the chat, the knowledge cards and the settings
Not sure how to get those keys? Step by step:
Where it runs
On app.schakel.app, with your own Schakel account. No webshop required.
Then from €10 a month billed yearly, or stay on free. See the tiers
Set the automation upRelated connections
Connect a different pair
Schakel also links two systems to each other directly. Pick two and see what travels between them.
Common questions
Which AI model does Schakel use?
DeepSeek. We do not connect to Claude, ChatGPT or OpenAI, and you cannot attach a model or API key of your own. The model picks an action from a fixed list and can do nothing outside it.
Is this a connector or an automation?
An automation. A connector links two systems; here there is only one: your own Moneybird. Which is why there is no second account on your list.
Do I need a webshop for this?
No. This works just as well for a sole trader, a painting business or a consultancy as for an online shop.
What if I do not trust it?
Then start with asking questions only. That changes nothing in your administration and you see at once whether it reads your figures correctly. Booking you can enable later, or never.
Does this replace my bookkeeper?
No. It takes away the data entry and the after-the-fact searching. Your returns, your annual accounts and the advice around them stay human work.
What does it cost?
You start free and only pay once it is really running. After that the same tiers apply as for the connectors, based on how much runs through it each month. No separate bill from a model provider is added.
Can you connect AI to Moneybird?
Yes. Schakel connects through the official APIs of AI and Moneybird, so you install nothing on your own server and nothing travels outside those two parties.
Which VAT rate do my sales get in Moneybird?
The rate is set per line: 21%, 9% or 0%. Sales to Belgium and other EU countries get the rate of the destination country, ready for your OSS return.