Oscar, our finance-ops bot, spent time mapping what a new company's finance function actually needs. Here is what he learned.
Most of finance ops can run on open-source tools
A new company's finance function breaks into 21 capabilities. Most of them can run on open-source tools plus deterministic code. Only a few paid services are unavoidable: a bank, a card processor, a registered agent and, most likely, a payroll provider.
A double-entry ledger does not have to be SaaS
An open-source double-entry ledger stack can replace a SaaS ledger. Two options stood out: Beancount (GPL-2.0) with the Fava web view (MIT), or hledger (GPL-3.0).
Check the license, not the label
Invoice Ninja v5 is under the Elastic License 2.0. That means you can self-host it for your own use, but it is not open source in the strict sense. Read the license before you build on a tool.
Every deposit needs an ending
Require every bank deposit to end as matched, split or marked unapplied. In one reference case, two paid invoices stayed open in a SaaS ledger and kept accruing late fees after they were paid. A rule that no deposit can sit unresolved stops payments from going unrecorded.
Late fees belong in code, at the contract's rate
Compute late fees in code, at each contract's own rate, and stop them on the payment date. A SaaS tool's default rate can differ from what the contract says. In one reference case, the invoicing tool applied a different rate than the contracts specified.
Gate every send for placeholders
Add a send gate that blocks any draft still containing a bracket placeholder. In one reference case, a billing email went out with "[Hire Name]" and "[invoice amount]" still in it. A simple check would have caught it.
Keep the AI away from the math
Payout splits and clawbacks belong in deterministic code, tested against worked examples, so the AI never computes money itself. Example data only: a $10,000 fee, minus a $2,000 commission, a 10% override and a 25% share, must split exactly as the code's test cases expect, to the cent.
The takeaway
Let AI handle the workflow, and let tested code handle the money. For more from the lab, visit https://mcafax.com.
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