The short answer
Four kinds of supplier build automation for accountancy practices: software houses, information technology consultancies, marketing agencies that added a service line, and management consultancies. Companies House publishes the trade code each one filed about itself, free and without an account, so a UK practice can tell them apart before the first call rather than after the first invoice.
Key takeaways
- Four kinds of company answer this brief, and the one that suits a practice depends on whether the job is a product, an integration, a campaign or a process review.
- Each files a different Standard Industrial Classification code on the public register: 62012, 62020, 73110 and 70229.
- The code is self-declared, so it proves nothing about quality. It is the one description of itself the company wrote for somebody who was not a prospect.
- The advanced company search runs the other way too, filtering by code, incorporation date, registered office and status, so a practice can build its own shortlist.
- If the workflow ends in a client's quarterly update, it ends in software HM Revenue and Customs recognises and the supplier does not control.
A managing partner at a fourteen person practice takes four approaches in six weeks. One is a software company with a product it has maintained for a decade. One is the practice's existing marketing agency, which has added automation to its service list. One is the information technology consultancy that already looks after the firm's machines. One is a two-person outfit incorporated in March that describes itself as an artificial intelligence automation agency.
All four say they build automation for accountancy firms. All four are telling the truth. They are not offering the same thing, and the difference does not surface on a call, because every one of them has written the same page to answer the same search. It does surface at Companies House, where each of them told the registrar what kind of company it is, in a five digit code, before any of this was a sales conversation.
Four kinds of company answer the same brief
The question is not which supplier is best. It is which of four business models you have accidentally short-listed against each other. A product company and a process consultancy can both honestly answer an enquiry about automating client onboarding, and the work they deliver will look nothing alike. The codes below are the official descriptions from the register's own list of Standard Industrial Classification codes.
| Kind of supplier | Filed code | Set up to do | Where it strains |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software house | 62012, business and domestic software development | Build and maintain a thing, then keep maintaining it after launch | Wants the practice to fit the product, and bends slowly to a workflow peculiar to your firm |
| Technology consultancy | 62020, information technology consultancy activities | Join systems the practice already licences, and advise on which to keep | Often subcontracts the build, so ask who supports it in year two |
| Marketing agency | 73110, advertising agencies | Automate what touches a prospect: enquiry routing, follow-up, reporting and campaign measurement | Strongest before the client signs and weakest after, which is where most practice admin sits |
| Management consultancy | 70229, management consultancy activities other than financial management | Map the process and decide what should be automated at all | The deliverable is frequently a document, so confirm whether anybody in the engagement builds |
The register tells you which one you are calling
Every UK company tells the registrar what it does, in a code, and that entry is public. It appears on the overview page of the free Companies House register, no account required, under nature of business. A company may file up to four codes, and it chooses them itself.
That self-declaration is the honest limit of the method, and it is worth stating plainly rather than around. The code is not evidence of competence. It is evidence of what the company described itself as to a government registrar, on a form nobody expected a prospect to read, which is a weaker claim and a more useful one. Sales copy is written for you. This was not. When an outfit selling automation to accountancy practices has filed only 73110, that gap is worth a question, and the same reasoning explains why two quotes on one brief can be eight times apart before either has been divided into days.
The check, in the order that saves the most time
About ten minutes covers four suppliers. The order matters, because each step rules something out and there is no point reading a filing history for a company already established as the wrong shape for the job.
Search the company name on the register
Companies House, free, no account
Rules outA trading name with no company behind it, and a company whose status is not active
Read the nature of business codes on the overview
The same page, under the registered address
Rules outThe wrong business model for the job, using the table above
Read the incorporation date and the filing history
Overview, then the filing history tab
Rules outNothing by itself, but a company with no accounts yet is one you can only verify by reference
Run the search backwards: your county, the code you decided on, active companies only
Advanced company search
Rules outThe assumption that your options are the suppliers who happened to find you
Before the partner meeting
Tell us the process and we will tell you which of the four it needs.
Free to your firm. The agency pays us, and only if the relationship works, which is why we would rather say the job is a fortnight of configuration than introduce somebody to bill it.
Get a recommendationIf it touches a tax return, the last step is not the supplier's to choose
An automation that ends in a client's quarterly update ends in software the supplier neither owns nor can substitute. From 6 April 2026, sole traders and landlords whose qualifying income was over £50,000 in the 2024 to 2025 tax year must use compatible software for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. The threshold falls to £30,000 from 6 April 2027 and to £20,000 from 6 April 2028, so a practice with a book of sole traders is absorbing this in stages rather than once.
HM Revenue and Customs publishes the products that work with it, and an agent sees the full list with filters rather than a personalised subset. One question is then worth more than any capability discussion: which listed product does this workflow terminate in? A supplier who cannot name it is proposing to automate the part before the part that carries the obligation, which is reasonable work, and different work from the one the practice thought it was buying.
When a practice should not hire any of the four yet
Two situations make the whole comparison unanswerable, and neither is a supplier's fault.
- No named person inside the practice owns the process. The supplier then interviews whoever answers, builds what that person described, and the partner group discovers at handover that it was one of several ways the work gets done
- The task is something the practice's existing accounting software already does on a setting nobody has enabled. An hour spent in the software you already pay for is the cheapest quote you will get, and it happens more often than any supplier has an incentive to check
Saying so costs us the introduction fee, since we are paid by the agency and only when a relationship works. It is also the answer often enough to be worth writing down, alongside the break-even arithmetic on one additional client and the point at which a licence beats a retainer outright. What we assess before recommending anybody, including the cases where we decline to introduce anyone at all, is set out for accountancy practices, including specialist tax advisory teams.
Frequently asked questions
What partner groups ask us about automation suppliers.
Who builds AI automation for accountancy firms?
Four kinds of supplier do, and they are not interchangeable. Software houses build and maintain a product. Information technology consultancies advise and integrate, and often subcontract the build. Marketing agencies have added automation to an existing service line. Management consultancies map the process and hand the build to somebody else. Each files a different trade code on the public register.
How can a practice check what kind of supplier it is talking to?
Search the company on the Companies House register, which is free and needs no account, and read the Standard Industrial Classification codes on the overview page. A software developer files 62012, an information technology consultancy files 62020, an advertising agency files 73110 and a management consultancy files 70229. The codes are self-declared, so they describe a company rather than grade it.
Does the supplier need to use software that HM Revenue and Customs recognises?
If the workflow ends in a client's quarterly update it does. From 6 April 2026, sole traders and landlords whose qualifying income was over £50,000 in the 2024 to 2025 tax year must use compatible software for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, with £30,000 from 6 April 2027 and £20,000 from 6 April 2028. HM Revenue and Customs publishes the compatible products. Ask which listed one the automation terminates in.
Is a new company a reason to rule a supplier out?
Not on its own, but it changes what you can verify. The register gives the incorporation date and the filing history, so a company formed this year has no accounts on file and nothing you can read about it that it did not write. Ask for a reference you can call rather than walking away.
When should a practice not hire anyone to automate yet?
When no named person inside the practice owns the process being automated, because the supplier then interviews whoever answers and builds what that person describes. The other case is a task the practice's existing accounting software already performs on a setting nobody has enabled.
Sources and useful reading
- Standard Industrial Classification of economic activities, the register's own code list, for the official wording of 62012, 62020, 70229 and 73110.
- Advanced company search on the public register, for filtering by nature of business, incorporation date, registered office and company status without an account.
- Find out if and when you need to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, for the qualifying income thresholds and the dates they take effect.
- Find software that works with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, for the compatible product list and the agent view of it.
This article is commercial decision support, not legal or tax advice. Codes on the register are filed by the company itself and are not a quality assessment. Thresholds and dates for Making Tax Digital are as published at the time of writing and have moved before.