AI for fiduciaries

Accounting software books and settles. The following cases are about rulings, invoices and official mail that you have to check and answer.

First, the objection to the tax assessment. The canton's assessment ruling arrives as a PDF. Vectoryon compares it item by item with the tax return that was filed and lists every deviation with the amount and the tax office's reasoning. From the client's files it writes a draft objection. The deadline is 30 days from delivery, as set out in Article 132 paragraph 1 DBG and Article 48 paragraph 1 StHG. It goes into the deadline list. You check the draft, sign it and file it.

Second, property maintenance. Under Article 32 paragraph 2 DBG, maintenance costs for property held as private assets are deductible, while expenses that increase its value are not, under Article 34 letter d. For each tradesperson's invoice you get a suggestion whether it preserves or increases value, with reasons taken from the invoice text. Where the distinction is unclear, the invoice stays flagged. Fedlex already lists a future version of Article 32 that removes this deduction. The version that applies is the one for the tax period in question. You decide the classification.

Third, the turnover reconciliation for VAT. Turnover and input tax from the annual financial statements are set against the four quarterly returns, with the differences per account. Under Article 72 paragraph 1 MWSTG, errors must be corrected at the latest in the return for the period in which the 180th day after the end of the financial year falls. The correction return is ready as a draft. You check it and file it in the ePortal.

Fourth, checking salary statements. Employers must certify their employees' benefits in writing, as required by Article 127 paragraph 1 letter a DBG. Vectoryon compares each salary statement with the year's payslips and the client's expense regulations and lists deviations, such as expenses missing from the salary statement. You clarify the deviations and release the salary statements.

Fifth, official mail. A letter from the tax office or the compensation fund arrives by post or email. Vectoryon summarises it, names the action required and the deadline, and enters the deadline in the deadline list. It also writes a draft reply referring to the client's files. You check, edit and send the reply.

Fiduciary firms that also manage payables for their clients record supplier invoices, keep track of due dates and prepare payments. Vectoryon takes over the collecting and reconciling. Incoming invoices land, already read, in the client's receipts table, with due date and payment terms where they appear on the invoice.

For the reconciliation, Vectoryon reads the list of open items from the connected accounting software or from an export as a CSV or Excel file. You see which invoices fall due soon, which open items have no receipt in the dossier and which receipts in the dossier do not yet appear in any booking. You ask in plain language, for example: “Which of this client's payables have been open for more than 30 days?”

If a client forwards their invoices directly to your firm, an automation is worthwhile. It reads the mailbox on a schedule, such as hourly or once in the morning, assigns the invoice, updates the table and reports invoices that are already due. Every step is logged with a timestamp.

The payment itself stays with you. Vectoryon does not trigger payments, does not create payment files for e-banking and does not reconcile incoming payments. That happens in the accounting software and in the client's e-banking. The benefit comes before that: you go into the payment run with a complete, checked list.

Payroll accounting for clients depends on information that arrives by email: a new hire, a resignation, a pay rise, expenses, a new child allowance. Often it sits in a subordinate clause of a longer message. Vectoryon reads such emails and enters every change in the client's payroll table, with date, person and type of change. Before the payroll run you see all open changes on one list instead of searching for them in the mailbox.

If information is missing, such as the start date or the AHV number of a new employee, the assistant prepares a question to the client. It names exactly what is missing and only goes out after your approval.

At the turn of the year, the AHV payroll declaration counts. It must reach the compensation fund by 30 January. If the fund grants an extension, the default interest of 5 percent still keeps running. The date is in the deadline list for every client with employees, and the automation reports it in good time, together with the clients whose payroll documents for the year are still incomplete.

Payroll data is particularly sensitive and subject to professional secrecy. In Vectoryon it stays in Switzerland and in the dossier of the client concerned. Only those who may also open it in Microsoft 365 can see it.

The payroll run itself, salary statements, withholding tax and the settlements with the social insurance funds stay in your payroll software. Vectoryon does not calculate salaries.

Daily work includes reminders about missing receipts and a steady flow of questions from clients: about the status of the tax return, an extension, an assessment, an invoice from the compensation fund.

For outgoing questions you store templates in the Craft module, in your firm's language and tone. They are filled with the specific case: which client, which receipts, which period, by when. This way the client gets a list they can work through.

For incoming questions the assistant assigns the message to the client, looks for the related documents and writes a draft reply. Below the draft it shows which documents it has read. You read, edit and approve.

Approval is built in. If the reminder runs through an automation, the automation stops before sending and waits for your decision, in the app or by email. If nobody answers within the set time, the run stops and reports it. Nothing goes to a client without a person in the firm having agreed. Every step is logged with timestamp and approval.

In tax season a fiduciary firm waits for salary statements, pillar 3a certificates and bank statements from many clients at once. Vectoryon searches the Outlook mailbox for these receipts, reads PDFs and photos and enters each receipt in the client's table. What is still missing appears in the client's checklist, and the assistant drafts the reminder to the client. You fill in the tax return itself in the canton's software and file it. A checklist of receipts and deadlines per canton is on the page Tax return checklist.