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Claw Series

Working with AccountingClaw

How to brief AccountingClaw in chat, what data to give it, the workpapers it returns, and the guardrails that keep a human in control.

Once AccountingClaw is deployed, you work with it the way you'd work with a staff accountant: you brief it in plain language, hand it the source data, and it produces a review-ready workpaper. This page explains how to drive it day to day.

Open a chat session

How you reach the agent depends on how you deployed it:

  • Desktop: open the chat UI in Hermes Desktop.
  • Cloud (Docker): start an interactive session from your terminal.
docker exec -it accountingclaw hermes chat

(If you added the host alias from the cloud setup, just type hermes chat.)

Brief the worker

AccountingClaw does its best work when you give it the engagement context up front. Before it starts a workflow, tell it:

  • Client entity — whose books you're working on.
  • Accounting period — the month, quarter, or year under review.
  • Accounting basis — for example GAAP, tax, or cash.
  • Source system — where the data came from (your ERP, GL, payroll provider, and so on).

Then describe the task in your own words — "reconcile the operating cash account for December" or "run a flux analysis on the income statement versus last quarter." AccountingClaw picks the matching skill, asks for any files it needs, and runs it. To see everything it can do, ask it directly or run hermes skills list; for the full list with descriptions, see the Skills catalog.

Give it your data

Most skills take ordinary exports from your accounting systems:

  • Inputs are typically CSV or Excel (XLSX) files — trial balances, GL exports, sub-ledger detail, support schedules, registers, and the like. Each skill documents the columns it expects (for a concrete example, see the Skills catalog deep-dive).

What you get back

AccountingClaw produces workpaper-quality deliverables, not just chat replies:

  • Excel (XLSX) workbooks with clearly named sheets — usually a Summary, a Detail sheet, and a SignOff block with Preparer / Reviewer / Approver lines, plus skill-specific sheets (aging, roll-forward, audit trail, and so on).
  • Word (DOCX) memos for skills like the technical accounting memo.

Each deliverable follows a consistent structure so it's easy to review:

  1. Scope and period reviewed.
  2. Source documents or systems used.
  3. Key findings.
  4. Exceptions requiring follow-up.
  5. Recommended next actions.

Guardrails: a human stays in control

AccountingClaw is built to assist a CPA, not to replace one. By design it:

  • Never invents balances, transactions, journal entries, tax rates, or filing deadlines — if support is missing, it says so.
  • Drafts journal entries but never posts them. Every reconciling item and proposed entry is left for you to book, age, or investigate.
  • Separates observed facts, assumptions, proposed adjustments, and unresolved exceptions, so you always know what's grounded and what's judgment.
  • Escalates material uncertainty, missing support, unusual transactions, and judgment-heavy treatment back to you.
  • Treats everything as confidential — financial statements, ledgers, tax and payroll records, and client documents.

AccountingClaw does not provide legal or investment advice, and it does not replace CPA sign-off, management approval, or required tax review. Use it to do the heavy lifting; keep the professional judgment and final sign-off with the human.

Next, browse everything AccountingClaw can do in the Skills catalog.