AI in Practice – From Playing to Planning

Stop dabbling. Pick the right AI tools, set the rules, and prove the value in your firm.

Most Australian accounting firms have now “played” with AI – a few staff using ChatGPT or Claude on personal accounts, the odd impressive demo, and no consistent way of working. The result is uneven value, hidden risk to client confidentiality, and partners unsure whether AI is worth serious investment.

This introductory, practical session gives firm leaders a clear plan to move from ad hoc experimentation to deliberate, governed use. Nick Beaugeard compares the business tiers of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude, explains what each does well for accounting work, and shows how to set firm-wide guardrails that respect your privacy and professional obligations. Live demonstrations use realistic accounting scenarios throughout.

What You’ll Learn:

• Where AI genuinely adds value in an accounting practice today – and where it doesn’t

• ChatGPT vs Claude: consumer vs business/enterprise plans, data handling and admin controls

• Building a practical AI acceptable-use policy aligned to the Privacy Act and TPB/APES obligations

• Using Projects, custom GPTs and shared prompts so good results are repeatable, not lucky

• Choosing and scoring your first three use cases, and measuring time saved

• Live demonstration: drafting client correspondence and summarising financial documents safely

No prior technical knowledge of AI is required.

This is session 1 of a three-part series taking Australian accounting firms from experimenting with AI to running it in production. Each session stands alone, but attendees get the most value by attending all three.

See the other sessions here:
Part 2: Building AI Workflows for Accounting Firms
Part 3: Taking AI to Production in Your Firm

For Subscribers:

Part 2: Building AI Workflows for Accounting Firms
Part 3: Taking AI to Production in Your Firm

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this session, attendees will:

1. Assess the AI landscape for accounting firms

• Compare ChatGPT and Claude business offerings on capability, data protection and cost

2. Identify high-value, low-risk use cases

• Score candidate use cases in their own firm on value, risk and effort

3. Apply firm-wide AI guardrails

• Draft an acceptable-use policy covering client data, confidentiality and human review

4. Use AI consistently across the team

• Set up shared Projects, custom GPTs and prompt libraries for repeatable results

5. Measure the value of AI adoption

• Establish simple baseline and time-saved metrics before scaling

Suited to:

This session is designed for Australian accounting firms of all sizes, particularly small to mid-tier practices, that have experimented with AI but not yet adopted it firm-wide:

• Partners & Firm Owners

• Practice Managers & Operations Leads

• Accountants, Tax Agents & Advisers

• Innovation, IT & Risk Leads in professional services

You will also be provided with: 

• Access to watch the Live Webinar 
• Opportunities to ask real time questions to the presenter/s
• Poll questions to test your knowledge 
• Access to On Demand recording, which can be viewed multiple times, for as long as required 
• Presenters contact details for follow up questions 
• CPD Quiz (for On Demand recordings)
• CPD Certificate 
• CPD Report – Logged automatically 
• PowerPoint Presentation
• Verbatim Transcript, with Searchability
• Supporting Documentation