AI in Actuly, explained.
Actuly uses AI in two ways: to guide you through setup and speed it up by matching your accounts to reporting lines, and to report on figures Actuly has already worked out. It never changes a figure, and what it writes stays a draft until a person approves it. This guide covers what the AI does, where it runs, exactly what each feature sends, and how you stay in control.
Sales for June were £482k, £36.5k ahead of budget, driven by the garden furniture season and the new Reading store.
Gross profit of £285.6k beat budget by £22.8k. Overheads ran £3.2k over, so EBITDA finished at £96.4k against £76.8k planned.
A text block the AI wrote. It stays pending until a person approves it, and the panel shows the exact tables it read. Home & Garden Retail Co is an example company.
1. What it does
The AI speeds up setup and reports on your figures. It never changes them.
The AI is there for two reasons. It guides you through the slowest part of setting a company up, matching its accounts to reporting lines, and it reports on the figures Actuly has already worked out, so you are not writing every word of a board pack yourself.
It speeds up setup. When you connect Xero, QuickBooks or FreeAgent, or import a chart of accounts from a file, it can match each account that has no reporting line to one, so you review a full list instead of mapping hundreds of accounts by hand. The Getting Started guide covers mapping.
It reports on your figures. In Documents, the AI drafts commentary on charts, trends, scorecards and the statement tables (P&L, Cash Flow, Balance Sheet, Key Metrics and Indicators), writes whole text blocks from an instruction you give it, and, through the AI Assistant, can add and arrange blocks for you. The Documents guide covers how to use each one.
It only runs when someone asks. Each feature starts from a button: Generate, Fill All Commentary, Get Suggestions, Match them for me, or a message to the assistant. A refresh or a workflow never calls the AI on its own, and a sync calls it only if you switch on the one setting in section 4 that allows it.
Its replies are only ever text or suggestions. The AI has no way to post to your accounting system, edit a trial balance or change a figure. The AI Assistant can change the document you have open, and nothing else.
Commentary on a block
A short paragraph on what a chart, trend, scorecard or statement table shows. Press Generate on the block, or Fill All Commentary for the whole document.
Generate Text
A text block written from your instruction. In Manual mode you pick the tables or lines it reads; in Auto mode it finds them itself.
AI Assistant
A chat beside the document that can plan it, add and move blocks, and talk through the numbers.
Reporting line suggestions
A proposed reporting line for each unmapped account, for you to accept, change or reject.
What the AI never does
- Change a figure, a trial balance or anything in your accounting system.
- Run on a schedule or a refresh. A sync can call it only with Auto-accept Accounts switched on (section 4).
- Put words into a downloaded PDF that nobody has approved. Download Draft is the exception: it checks nothing and prints a DRAFT watermark instead.
2. Where it runs
Inside Amazon Web Services, in the EU.
Actuly reaches Anthropic's Claude models through Amazon Bedrock, the AI service inside AWS. There is no separate account with an AI company.
Your data lives in London. Actuly's servers, databases and file storage are in AWS's London region. That is where Actuly builds the tables and text it sends.
Requests go to Amazon Bedrock in London. Actuly calls Bedrock in the same London region, and only through Bedrock. Every AI call in Actuly goes this one way.
The model runs in an AWS EU region. Actuly calls each model through an EU inference profile, an AWS setting that lets each request run in any of AWS's EU regions rather than one fixed region. So a request that starts in London may be processed in another EU country. Either way, it never leaves AWS's EU regions.
The models are Anthropic's. Actuly uses Anthropic's Claude models, run by AWS. Your data is not sent to Anthropic, and it is not used to train any model.
Your workspace
Servers, databases and files in AWS London. Builds the request.
UK, LondonAmazon Bedrock
Called in London, through an EU inference profile.
UK, LondonAnthropic's Claude model
Runs in an AWS EU region and returns the text or suggestion.
EUOne request, start to finish. The reply comes back the same way and is saved only in your workspace.
3. What is sent
Each feature sends the figures it needs, and no more.
Here is what goes to the AI from each feature, when it goes, and what comes back. All of it is built from data already in your workspace, or from the file you are importing.
| Feature | Runs when | What is sent | What comes back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chart and trends commentary | You press Generate on the block, or Fill All Commentary | The names of the lines on the chart, where each sits in the report, and each month's figure, with budget or forecast figures if the chart shows them. The company's currency, and for a chart with more than one line, its industry. No company name. | A short paragraph in the block's commentary box, pending |
| Table commentary | As above, on a P&L, Cash Flow, Balance Sheet, Key Metrics or Indicators block | The table's name and month, and each row's label and figures. The company's industry and currency. No company name. | A short paragraph, pending |
| Scorecard commentary | As above, on a scorecard block | Each section and metric name with its value, colour and percentage changes. The industry and currency. No company name. | A short paragraph, pending |
| Generate Text, Manual | You press Generate in the dialog | The tables you added to the query, exactly as the Preview shows them, each headed with the company name, period and layout. Your instruction. The industry and currency. | The text for the block, pending, with your instruction kept for Re-generate |
| Generate Text, Auto, and the AI Assistant | You press Generate, or send the assistant a message | The company name and today's date. Your instruction, or your messages in the conversation. The assistant also sees the document's list of blocks with their titles, and its settings. Then whatever it looks up: the year end, industry, dimension and Unit names, report lines, Report Format names, budget and forecast names, and the same tables Generate Text reads. | Changes to the open document, chat replies, and text blocks, pending. The assistant's conversation is kept with the document. |
| Reporting line suggestions, in the connect wizards | You press Get Suggestions | For each unmapped account: its code, name, description and account type. Your reporting lines and Actuly's category list. The company's industry. No balances or amounts. | A reporting line for each account, plus new lines where nothing fits, on a screen for you to review |
| Reporting line matching, in a file import | You press Match them for me | For each unmapped row: its code, title and description, and every other column in your file that is not matched to a field, such as an account type. That includes a balance column, even one set to Ignore. Your reporting lines and the category list. The industry. | An existing reporting line for each row, tagged AI in the review table |
What is never sent
- Your name, your email address, or anyone else's login details. None of the requests include who is asking.
- Individual transactions or invoices. Actuly works from monthly trial balances, so it has none to send.
- Your accounting system passwords or connection keys.
- Other companies. Every request is built from one company's data.
- Balances, when a connect wizard suggests reporting lines. It reads account names and types, never balances. A file import is different: every column not matched to a field goes with the request, so a balance column in your file goes too.
In Manual mode, the Preview is the table the AI receives, word for word. In Auto mode, Data used shows the same after it has run.
4. You stay in control
The AI drafts. A person decides.
Every AI feature stops at a checkpoint where you read the result and choose what happens to it.
Text waits for approval. Anything the AI writes in a document lands as pending, under a blue "AI generated - review and approve before downloading" banner. Actuly also shows a reminder: "AI-generated commentary may contain errors. Please review before downloading." Edit the words as much as you like, then approve.
Download PDF checks for you. While anything is pending, the button reads "Review N items to Download" and opens Review Before Download, which takes you through each item. The Documents guide covers downloading.
New numbers never rewrite your words. When a document's data refreshes, AI text is flagged with "Data has changed since this commentary was generated" and an Update button. Nothing changes until someone presses it. The one other way is Fill All Commentary, also a button, which rewrites out-of-date AI text that has not been approved yet. Approved text only changes through its own Update button.
Suggestions are only suggestions. In the connect wizards, Get Suggestions shows every proposed mapping with its own reporting line dropdown, so you can change any of them, then Accept Suggestions or Reject Suggestions (manual). Nothing is saved until you accept. In a file import, each AI match carries an AI tag in the review table, and nothing is saved until you import.
Chart of Accounts
Actuly suggests the following chart of account mapping for your accounts.
Four new accounts for the Reading store. Change any dropdown before you accept; reject and you map them yourself.
Every feature, and its checkpoint
| Feature | Where you decide |
|---|---|
| Commentary | Pending until approved, and checked again before Download PDF |
| Generate Text | Pending until approved; Re-generate or edit freely |
| AI Assistant | Every change shows as it lands, a whole run comes out with one Undo, and its text is pending |
| Wizard suggestions | Accept Suggestions or Reject Suggestions (manual) |
| File import matching | AI-tagged rows you can change before importing |
5. Common questions
The questions we hear before people connect their accounts.
Is my data used to train AI models?
No. Your data is not sent to Anthropic and is never used to train a model. Our Terms of Service and Privacy Notice both commit to this.
Does my data leave the UK?
Your data is stored in London. When you use an AI feature, the request is processed in one of AWS's EU regions, which may not be London. It does not leave AWS.
Can I turn the AI off?
Nothing AI runs unless someone presses its button, so not using a feature is enough. The AI Assistant, and Auto mode in Generate Text, can also be switched off for your whole workspace by Actuly support.
Is it accurate?
It is told to use only the figures it is given, and never to invent a number. It can still get things wrong, which is why every word waits for approval before it goes into a final PDF. Read it as a first draft, and check it before anyone relies on it.
Who sees what it writes?
It is saved in the document, in your workspace, exactly like text you type, so anyone in your workspace who can open the document sees it, approved or not. It stays in your workspace, and leaves Actuly only when someone downloads a PDF and shares it.
Does it see my other clients?
No. Each request is built for one company, from that company's figures.
Can it change my accounts?
No. It returns text or suggested mappings and has no way to write to Xero, QuickBooks or FreeAgent. Accepted mappings decide which reporting line an account's balance shows on, which is why you review them.
In short
It speeds up setup and reports on your figures. You decide. It runs in AWS in the EU.
- The AI matches accounts to reporting lines to speed up setup, and writes commentary on figures Actuly has already worked out. It never changes a figure.
- Nothing runs until someone presses a button or sends the assistant a message.
- It reaches Anthropic's Claude models through Amazon Bedrock, processed in AWS's EU regions. Your data is stored in London.
- Each feature sends only the figures or account details it needs, except a file import, which sends every column you have not matched, balances included. Never your login details, never transactions.
- AI text waits for approval before Download PDF, and suggestions wait for you to accept them.