Part of our Finance & Accounting agents
AI agents for finance teams in retail
Actionist is an AI automation tool whose agents work the apps your retail finance team already uses, from matching invoices to delivery notes by hand to a payment run drafted for sign-off.
Retail finance teams get back the hours lost to invoice matching, payout reconciliation, and month-end pack building.
AI Employees for Retail Finance in 4 simple steps
Manual Time
We'll go over where you currently waste your time doing manual tasks.
Actionist Automations
We'll show you exactly how Actionist can automate these manual tasks.
Your Benefits
How much time and money you'll save by onboarding AI agents.
Easy to use
We'll show you how easy it is to enable AI across your business.
Where you spend your time
We know how your week actually goes
- Pay suppliers only for what arrivedEvery invoice is matched to its order and delivery note before it reaches a payment run.
- Every payout traced to its salesCard, PayPal, and marketplace payouts are reconciled to the orders behind them, fees and refunds included.
- VAT workings ready before the deadlineThe return period closes with the numbers already gathered, so your accountant is reviewing, not hunting.
- Stock value you can stand behindStocktake variances and write-offs reach the ledger with a reason attached, not as one unexplained number.
- Markdowns checked against margin firstA planned sale is tested against category margin before the prices change on the shop floor.
- Built around your finance deskThese are examples of what a retail finance agent can do. Build a custom agent for any close task your team repeats.
And hundreds of other tasks you do manually..
An agent can take a lot off your team's plate. Take a look below to see the time and cost you could save by adding AI agents to your Retail Finance team's day.
Where the hours go
Supplier invoices are keyed from PDFs and paid before anyone checks the goods actually arrived, because matching each invoice to its purchase order and delivery note is a long job that gets squeezed out by the payment deadline.
An agent matches every invoice to its purchase order and delivery note, flags any short delivery or price difference, and drafts the payment batch with exceptions held back, so only matched invoices reach your sign-off.
Square, Stripe, Shopify Payments, PayPal, Amazon, and eBay each pay out on their own schedule with fees netted off, so reconciling the bank takes a day of exports and a spreadsheet nobody else understands.
An agent pulls each payout report, splits sales, fees, and refunds, and matches the total to the bank deposit, leaving only the genuine differences on a short list for you to look at.
The VAT return period ends and someone starts gathering marketplace reports, checking tax codes, and rebuilding the figures from the ledger, which turns a routine deadline into a scramble.
An agent assembles the VAT workings through the period, checks tax codes as invoices post, and hands your accountant a pack with the figures and open questions already written up.
Month-end arrives with unreconciled stock variances, unposted accruals, and markdowns nobody checked against margin, so the store P&L reaches the owner late and with a lot of caveats.
An agent runs the close checklist through the month, drafts the stock and accrual journals with reasons attached, and builds the store P&L pack for your review, so the pack lands on time with the caveats already explained.
Actionist Will Automate
What one automation looks like
A week with your Retail Finance agents
Some of the apps for your Retail Finance team
Some of the retail finance apps your agent operates for you. Hundreds more are in the Actionist App Store.
Your Agent wakes up Automatically whenever something happens
Your agents watch the apps you already use and act the moment something happens, usually within about a minute, handle it based on your instructions, 24/7.
When a new supplier bill cannot be matched to a delivery in the buying system, the agent holds it out of the payment run within about a minute and drafts a short query to the stockroom. The bill returns to the run only once someone has confirmed what arrived.
Your benefits
Where the time goes back
What you do manually today
What your agent runs for you
- Supplier invoices300 min / weekKeying and matching each bill by hand
Every invoice is typed from a PDF, then checked against the purchase order and the delivery note one line at a time before anyone dares approve it for payment.
Supplier invoices Agent0 minAgent matches bills and holds exceptionsAn agent reads each invoice, matches it to the order and the delivery, and holds any difference back, so you approve matched bills and look at exceptions only.
- Payouts360 min / weekReconciling six payment providers by spreadsheet
Square, Stripe, Shopify Payments, PayPal, Amazon, and eBay each pay out on their own schedule, and someone downloads, splits, and ticks each report against the bank.
Payouts Agent0 minAgent splits and matches every payoutAn agent pulls each payout report, splits sales, fees, and refunds, and matches the total to the bank, leaving only real differences on a short list.
- VAT90 min / weekRebuilding the figures when the return is due
The period ends and someone gathers marketplace reports, rechecks tax codes, and rebuilds the sums from the ledger, which turns a routine deadline into a scramble.
VAT Agent0 minAgent keeps the workings current all quarterAn agent checks tax codes as bills post and assembles the workings through the period, so your accountant reviews a finished pack at the deadline.
- Stock value120 min / weekPosting one unexplained variance number
After a stocktake the difference goes into the ledger as one figure with no reason, because splitting it by category and cause takes more time than anyone has.
Stock value Agent0 minAgent drafts the journal with reasonsAn agent turns the count sheet into a draft journal by category, lists the lines with no explanation, and holds the journal for your approval.
- Month-end180 min / weekBuilding the store P&L from scratch each month
Sales, cost of goods, wages, and overheads are pulled from four places into a pack, with the variances explained from memory a few hours before the owner reads it.
Month-end Agent0 minAgent builds the pack with variances explainedAn agent builds the store P&L pack through the close, writes a line beside each store on its biggest variance, and holds it for your review before it goes to the owner.
What that's worth
Calculate what your team saves
Based on typical team usage: the visible tasks plus a few other automations the agent runs: ~8 hrs / person / week of admin work automated.
How easy it is to use
We'll do all the heavy lifting for you.
From entering your website address to having a working AI team, no effort from you.
- Step 1
Enter your website
- We'll research your business
- Automatically configure everything for you
- Step 2
Actionist Auto
Optional- Watches you work
- Creates your agents, workflows and schedules
- Step 3
Marketplace
- Hundreds of apps, plus agents and workflows
- Pre-configured by other users
- Step 4
Invite your team
- We'll automatically onboard them too
- Focus on the things that matter
Enter your website URL for a personalised demo
See exactly what Actionist would automate for your business.
You stay in control
An agent that sees your ledger, your bank feeds, and your supplier terms only earns trust if you stay in control. Actionist prepares, shows its working, and leaves every payment and journal to a person.
The agent builds the payment batch and holds back exceptions, but a person authorises it at the bank. Nothing moves money on its own, and the batch always waits for you.
Stock variances, accruals, and write-offs are drafted with the reason and the source figures attached. A person approves each one before it is posted to the ledger.
A chaser, a statement query, or a turnover-rent statement is written for you to read first. Nothing goes outside the business unless you have approved it.
Ledger entries, bank details, and supplier terms are encrypted and never used to train any model. Every step is logged in an audit trail, and you can self-host on a VPS.
More Retail teams
Frequently asked questions
Does my retail finance team need to be technical to use Actionist?
How do I get started with a finance agent for my shop?
How do I make a customised AI agent for how our month-end actually works?
How quickly can I set up a finance agent for a retail business?
Will the agent pay a supplier or post a journal without my team seeing it?
How does an agent reconcile Amazon and eBay payouts that have no API for the ledger?
Is our financial data safe, and is it used to train AI models?
Can it cope with the Christmas stock build and the Black Friday payout peak?
Does this replace our bookkeeper or accountant?
See an agent match your invoices and draft the payment run
Book a free demo and watch an Actionist agent read your supplier bills, match them to orders and deliveries, and draft the payment batch for approval, using your own accounting software.