What accounting automation in Ireland covers
In a build, supplier invoices are read from email and prepared for Xero, Sage or QuickBooks as drafts, sales and payments pass from your website, CRM or Stripe into the ledger, and VAT figures are prepared for your accountant to check. A named person approves anything that posts. Projects start from €10,000 ex VAT.
The proof we can show is the integration work this service depends on, and neither client build uses AI. Loco Digital designed and built the IPAV membership platform, launched in 2026, where applicants pay the application fee through Stripe. For ERP HEADtoHEAD we built a WooCommerce and Stripe booking engine that bills Dublin bookings from the Irish company in euro and is set up to bill Birmingham bookings from the UK company when they open. Our own finance reporting reads the accounting package and bank feeds, read-only.
It is one of four areas of our AI automation service for Irish businesses, and the build work sits under our AI integration services. For answers drawn from your own documents, see a private AI assistant.
Which Irish accounting packages have a usable API?
What each vendor’s developer documentation showed when we checked it on 30 September 2026:
- Xero. Xero automation runs through a documented Accounting API. Supplier bills are created as ACCPAY invoices with the original PDF attached. Since 2 March 2026 Xero prices API access in tiers by connections and data volume, so we confirm the tier a build needs (Xero Developer).
- QuickBooks Online. A documented Accounting API with Bill and Invoice entities, authorised through OAuth 2.0 (Intuit Developer).
- Sage Accounting. The cloud product has a documented API that lists Ireland among its supported regions (Sage Developer).
- Big Red Cloud. The Irish package publishes a REST and OData API, authorised with an API key and limited to 1,000 calls an hour per key (Big Red Cloud).
- BrightBooks (formerly Surf Accounts). BrightPay uploads payroll journals into it by API (BrightPay documentation), but we found no public documentation for outside developers. Check with the vendor before you build.
Invoice processing automation, from email to the ledger
Accounts payable automation starts with one inbox address for supplier invoices. The system reads the supplier, invoice number, date, VAT and totals, then rules check the arithmetic and catch a repeated invoice number. A clean invoice becomes a draft bill with the PDF attached, coded to the account your bookkeeper used last time.
Anything that fails a check waits in a review queue with the reason shown, such as a new supplier or a total that does not add up. The reviewer corrects it and approves it, and the bill posts.
What can be prepared for VAT, and what is still filed on ROS
A VAT3 return is built from figures your ledger already holds: VAT on sales (T1), VAT on purchases (T2), the amount payable or repayable (T3, T4), EU trade (E1, E2, ES1, ES2) and postponed accounting on imports (PA1) (Revenue). Automation keeps those figures right at entry, with the correct VAT code on every bill and invoice, and produces a period report listing the exceptions.
Filing stays with you or your accountant. The standard VAT period is two months, and ROS filers have until the 23rd of the following month (Revenue).
Payroll and RCT stay in software that reports to Revenue
Payroll packages report to Revenue directly under your ROS digital certificate (Revenue). We connect around it, posting each payroll journal to the ledger.
For Relevant Contracts Tax, a principal contractor must notify Revenue of each payment before making it, and Revenue replies in ROS with a deduction authorisation setting the rate (Revenue). An automation can hold a subcontractor payment until someone records that authorisation.
Connecting HubSpot, Stripe and your website to the accounts
A won deal in the CRM can raise the invoice, and card payments can be matched to the invoices they settle. Connecting HubSpot and Xero compares the ways to link the two, and CRM integration in Ireland covers the customer record. Where Zapier or Make is enough, see workflow automation with Zapier, Make or n8n.
GDPR and where your financial data sits
Supplier invoices carry personal data, including sole traders’ names, addresses and bank details. Under Article 28 of the GDPR, each service that processes that data for you needs a processor contract, so the plan lists every system in the chain.
Your ledger may already sit outside the EU. Xero says it hosts on AWS servers in the US and relies on safeguards such as standard contractual clauses (Xero). The parts we build, such as the inbox, reading step and logs, have EU hosting written in as a requirement. Xero’s developer terms bar using API data to train AI models, and we write the same rule into every plan.
Dext, AutoEntry or a custom build
Dext and AutoEntry read receipts and invoices and publish them to Xero, QuickBooks and Sage (Dext, AutoEntry). If your bills are standard and your package is listed, start there.
A custom build pays back when documents arrive in unusual layouts, when the same data must also reach job costing or a CRM, or when your package is missing: AutoEntry’s integrations page lists neither Big Red Cloud nor BrightBooks. Xero, QuickBooks or Sage in Ireland compares how far each package can be automated.
How we build it
- Mapping. We walk the process with your bookkeeper and accountant, then confirm the API access your package needs.
- Read-only first. The first release reads from the ledger and reports. Write access is added one step at a time, each behind a review point.
- Drafts only. The system creates draft bills and invoices. It never pays, files with Revenue or deletes a record.
- A test set from your records. Past invoices with known correct entries are measured before launch, and an audit trail records every approval.
