Irish firm AutoEntry makes app for easy data entry

AutoEntry is expanding into Australia with a promise to eliminate the grunt from bookkeeping and accounting.

AutoEntry is hoping to replicate its success here and has just opened its Australian headquarters in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs

Irish software firm AutoEntry is expanding into Australia with a promise to eliminate the grunt from bookkeeping and accounting.

AutoEntry is an app that ­captures data from invoices, ­receipts, bank statements and other documents. It is integrated with a number of online accounting firms so clients can take a picture with the app and AutoEntry sends the data straight to cloud-based firms such as Xero, QuickBooks and MYOB.

Brendan Woods, founder and CEO of the Dublin-based start-up, came up with the idea after talking to a colleague at work.

“I was making coffee one morning, talking to one of the accountants and he told me how much data entry he did. I thought it was ridiculous that after seven years of training you’d have a chartered accountant typing up bank statements and doing very manual reconciliation and tedious work.”

After that conversation, Mr Woods built a proof of concept, before launching a product in 2012 that automated the capture of data from bank and credit card statements.

“After we released that product people started asking when the software could be used for ­invoices. Invoices are a much bigger area because they affect all businesses so we came up with AutoEntry,”

In 18 months the company has signed up about 1200 accounting firms — including half of the top 50 accounting firms in the UK — and through them just over 30,000 companies have been set up on the system.

“In the UK we’ve become a core part of accounting firms’ tool set. Globally, where the likes of Xero, Sage, QuickBooks, and other software vendor partners are operating, we want to a key player in supporting those ­solutions.

“We’re essentially trying to provide a hands-free accounting solution so people aren’t spending their time doing monotonous data entry but instead reviewing data and garnering ­insights from that data to serve their clients.”

AutoEntry is hoping to replicate its success here and has just opened its Australian headquarters in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.

“Australia is an obvious new market for us because the software we integrate with, including Xero, QuickBooks and MYOB, is out here too,” Mr Woods said.

Close to 70 Australian accounting practices already use the software but Mr Woods is targeting small- and medium-sized businesses as well as the big firms. “Accounting firms are low-hanging fruit because you can get lots of clients from one big firm but we’re going to ­position ourselves in front of SMEs so they’re more aware of who we are.”