William is your AI bookkeeping agent, built into Apron. It finds receipts in client inboxes, extracts the details, and publishes to Xero or QuickBooks autonomously – showing its reasoning on every decision, and flagging for review whenever it isn't sure.
Train William like a new team member, with set rules for things you don't want to deviate from, and more flexible guidance on other areas. The more you teach it, the more it works the way your firm does.
What William does for you
Finds missing receipts in client inboxes – eliminating chasing at its source. When a transaction is missing its receipt, William searches Gmail or Outlook to find it.
Extracts and codes documents the way your firm does. William fills in the supplier, category, tax rate, due date, and other details – using UK VAT rules from HMRC, your chart of accounts, and how your firm has coded similar transactions before.
Publishes to Xero or QuickBooks. When William is confident across every field, it publishes the document straight to your accounting software. When it isn't, it holds the document for review – never with a vague error.
Explains every decision in plain language. You can inspect William's reasoning on any document, before you trust it.
Gets sharper as you use it. William learns from your ledger and every correction you make. You can teach it faster in three ways: add Guidance (plain-English instructions William follows on every new document), set Fixed rules (answers that never change for a supplier, like the category or tax rate) or accept Suggestions (guidance William proposes from your corrections). Find out more in our article: Teach William about your policies.
Where to find William in Apron
The William tab in the Apron sidebar contains:
Overview – the Activity log of everything William has done. Each document has its own, more detailed log.
Guidance – add plain-English guidance and fixed rules to make William uniquely yours.
Who can use William
William is available to all practices, along with their clients. It also requires Xero or QuickBooks connected to the company.
Guidance and suggestions are available to every company using William.
What's next
Teach William about your policies – teach William your firm's policies with plain-English guidance and supplier rules.
Track William's decisions and the reasoning behind them – read the activity log and inspect why William made each call.
Understand email search – connect Gmail or Outlook and let William track down missing documents.
Understand auto-publish – see how William decides what to publish on its own, and how to turn it on.