This article was paid for by Intuit QuickBooks.
AI has created countless opportunities for business owners to become more efficient and reduce human error — even when it comes to managing their finances.
In July 2025, 71% of small businesses reported regularly using AI tools, according to the latest Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Insights survey, up from 39% the previous year.
Meanwhile, the percentage of businesses that have never used AI has shrunk from 40% in 2024 to just 23% in 2025.
How AI can help with financial management
AI can help business owners manage their finances through automation, predictive insights and compliance and risk management.
Owners and solopreneurs can feel the pressure of having more tasks than time. AI allows you to be more efficient in managing financial data and to go deeper — helping you glean critical insights that can impact your daily decision-making and long-term growth.
AI can also assist you by offloading repetitive tasks, transforming data into strategic foresight and ensuring compliance with state and federal regulations. It can even help keep your books organized in case of an audit.
As your business’s digital footprint grows, it also becomes more vulnerable to cybercrime. Experian’s 2025 Commercial Pulse Report found that financial fraud against small businesses has increased by 70% since the start of the pandemic, at a cost of billions each year. AI can provide checks to help protect your data by monitoring for fraud and unusual transactions.
1. Transaction categorization and reconciliation
AI can suggest categories based on how you’ve classified previous transactions and vendors, reducing time spent on data entry and correcting human error. With the extra assist, you can keep your records more organized and up-to-date.
2. Cash flow forecasting
AI can analyze past revenues, expenses and trends to forecast future cash flow, including when there might be a shortfall. That can help business owners to plan to lower costs or boost marketing efforts.
3. Expense optimization and budgeting support
Savvy business owners can utilize AI to spot cost trends, such as recurring overruns or increased supplier costs, and even suggest ways to reduce spending. AI can also assist in building realistic budgets and analyzing spending data to see where (and possibly why) you’re overspending.
4. Fraud detection and alerts
AI can monitor transaction patterns and alert owners about unusually large payments, duplicate invoices and other anomalies. This could reduce accounting discrepancies and increase the likelihood of detecting human error or fraud.
5. Regulatory compliance
You could use AI to categorize and track relevant financial data, maintain audit trails and ensure your financial documents are safely and accurately stored. Should an audit occur, you’ll be in a better position to answer the call.
6. Accuracy in data transfer and bookkeeping
Manual data entry is error-prone, but AI can help reduce typos, miscategorizations and other mistakes by automating your data transfer. Accurate books help empower confident decision-making.
QuickBooks
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Cost
Costs may vary depending on the plan selected but take advantage of a limited time offer – 50% off for 3 months
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Standout features
Tracks your business expenses as they happen, as well as your income. Users can use app to do invoicing, accept payments, manage their cash flow, maximize tax deductions, track travel miles, run reports, send estimates, manage bills and 1099 contractors, plus pay employees
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Categorizes your expenses
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Links to accounts
Yes, bank and credit cards, plus third-party apps like PayPal and Square
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Availability
Accessible from any web browser and also offered in both the App Store (for iOS) and on Google Play (for Android)
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Security features
Verisign scanning, password-protected login, firewall protected servers and the same encryption technology (128 bit SSL) used by the world’s top banks. QuickBooks also offers multiple permission levels that you can set for additional users’ access
How Intuit QuickBooks’ new AI Agents simplify business finances
At this point, you might be thinking, “Sure, AI sounds great — and I’d love to use it to manage my business finances. But how?”
The answer is, it depends on your financial software. With Intuit QuickBooks, users have access to the platform’s new AI agents, including the Accounting Agent, Payments Agent and Finance Agent.
- Accounting Agent: Automatically categorizes transactions, detects anomalies, reconciles accounts and flags items that might require additional attention or approval.
- Payments Agent: Monitors cash flow, optimizes invoicing and collections, sends out invoice reminders and helps with scheduling payments.
- Finance Agent: Analyzes your financial data, creates forecasts, highlights variances from expectations and identifies trends.
These AI agents work in the background and make targeted suggestions that business owners can accept or reject as they review transactions, send invoices and evaluate financial statements.
AI in business today and beyond
AI is no longer a hypothetical — it’s an everyday tool that can help business owners save time and make smarter financial decisions. By automating routine bookkeeping, flagging discrepancies and reducing human error, AI can take on some of the more stressful and time-consuming aspects of managing your finances, so you can focus on growing your business.
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Editorial Note: Opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the Select editorial staff’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any third party.
