Lincoln Accounting is moving clients from QuickBooks to an AI-native general ledger as it looks to reduce manual bookkeeping and create more capacity.
For a two-person accounting firm, 30 hours a month can make a meaningful difference. It is nearly another workweek of capacity without adding another employee.
That is what Lincoln Accounting has reclaimed as it moves clients from QuickBooks to an AI-native general ledger. The firm has migrated roughly half of its more than 30 accounting clients so far and is working toward moving the remainder.
The change started with a practical problem. As Lincoln Accounting grew, partners Jason Kassab and Scott Wiegand found that the technology supporting their bookkeeping was creating more work than they expected.
The two have worked together in accounting and tax for more than 20 years. After selling the last of the income tax franchises they operated, they launched Lincoln Accounting as a lean, hands-on firm focused on accounting and tax services.
With a small team, efficiency matters. Time spent correcting transactions, chasing bank connections or working through a month-end close is time that cannot be spent serving clients or growing the practice.
When Automation Creates More Work
Every Lincoln Accounting client was previously on QuickBooks Online.
Kassab said one frustration was that some of the automation being introduced into the platform did not always reduce the team's workload. In some cases, it created additional review.
“Previous transactions that were being categorized correctly over and over every month — all of a sudden, when the AI plugin came in, it would suggest what it thought it was, and it was way off,” Kassab said. “We were fixing more than things being on autopilot the way they had been.”
Bank connections were another recurring source of friction. When a connection broke, the team often needed the client to log in and reconnect it, creating another round of emails, texts and phone calls.
Across the client base, Lincoln Accounting was spending approximately 12 to 15 hours a month on manual bookkeeping. A typical month-end close took roughly three hours per client.
For a growing two-person firm, those hours represented a capacity problem.
Moving the Accounting Work
Kassab and Wiegand were already familiar with Digits, having previously used its reporting capabilities alongside QuickBooks.
The launch of its AI-native general ledger allowed the firm to move the accounting work itself to a different platform rather than continuing to build additional processes around its existing system.
Live reporting was an important part of the decision.
“We just fell in love with Digits when we were able to use live reporting,” Kassab said. “Number one, we have to use this. But this is what I feel like is going to help our clients.”
The firm also saw an opportunity to simplify the client experience. Instead of relying on separate systems for accounting, reporting and document exchanges, clients could interact more directly with their financial information.
Clients can explore reports, drill into the underlying numbers, ask questions and upload documents and receipts.
For Lincoln Accounting, the goal was not simply to replace one accounting platform with another. It was to reduce the number of manual steps required to deliver the books and create a more connected workflow for both the firm and its clients.
The Migration
Moving clients from an established accounting system can be one of the biggest barriers to changing technology.
Lincoln Accounting found the transition relatively straightforward. The firm was up and running within two days. For a new client with no accounting history, Kassab estimates that setting up the account could take as little as 10 minutes.
For clients moving from QuickBooks, the team was able to migrate account structures and balances rather than rebuilding years of accounting history.
“It’s almost like you’re just upgrading everything,” Kassab said. “It’s not really like you’re starting over — it’s really just a total upgrade.”
The learning curve was also manageable. Kassab said he was comfortable with everyday categorization and chart-of-accounts changes within about a day of onboarding a client. Within a month, he felt fully confident running the month-end close.
The Results
Lincoln Accounting began moving clients to the new platform about nine months ago. For clients that have migrated, the firm reports measurable changes across the bookkeeping and close process.
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Monthly close: approximately 3 hours per client → approximately 1 hour
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Manual bookkeeping: 12–15 hours per month → approximately 2 hours
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Auto-categorization: approximately 90% of transactions
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Capacity reclaimed: more than 30 hours per month
The firm has also seen a difference in transaction categorization. “The suggested categorization from QuickBooks being wrong, to where with Digits it is correct right from the get-go, at a much, much higher percentage,” Kassab said.
The significance of the change goes beyond the number of transactions that are automatically categorized. Less manual work means fewer hours spent checking and correcting the books and more capacity for other parts of the practice.
From Bookkeeping to Advisory
That additional capacity is changing how Kassab spends his time with clients.
With more current financial information available, he can identify changes that might otherwise be buried in a traditional monthly report, from an unusual increase in expenses to a record quarter or a meaningful change in revenue.
Those observations become part of the strengths, areas for attention and narrative summary he provides clients each month. “They see the value in what we’re doing for the work, not just creating a report,” Kassab said. “We’re invested in their business.”
For a small firm, that may be the more important outcome of automation. The objective is not simply to complete the same bookkeeping in less time. It is to create enough capacity to do more of the work clients actually value.
As Lincoln Accounting continues migrating clients from QuickBooks, that is the direction the firm is pursuing: fewer manual bookkeeping hours, a faster close and more time available for client conversations and growth.
For Kassab, the experience has reinforced a straightforward lesson about adopting new accounting technology: the technology needs to give time back to the firm, not simply provide another place to do the same work.
Disclosures:
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