Frequently asked questions about bookkeeping via WhatsApp

It is an AI assistant, the Schakel bookkeeping assistant, that works inside your Moneybird administration. You write to it in plain language, via WhatsApp or in your dashboard, and it reads receipts, prepares invoices and quotes, logs hours and answers questions about your administration. You confirm what goes into Moneybird.

No. It is software with a language model, not a person and not an accountant. It gives no tax advice, files no VAT return and produces no annual accounts. For those questions a bookkeeper or accountant remains the right person.

Yes. You connect your Moneybird administration to Schakel through Moneybird itself, without a password, and then verify your WhatsApp number with a code. Only that number reaches your administration. Accounting packages other than Moneybird are not supported.

No. WhatsApp is an extra channel. The same assistant is a chat in your Schakel dashboard and can do everything there too. It is one conversation, so you can switch channel halfway. Voice messages only work on WhatsApp.

Text, photos (jpg, png, webp, gif) and PDFs with a text layer, up to 5 MB per file. A zip with at most 10 invoices and 15 MB works too. HEIC photos, scanned PDFs without a text layer, Word and Excel are not read. Voice messages are transcribed.

Dutch and English. By default it answers in the language you write in. Amounts and dates use Dutch notation.

A language model can get things wrong, and we are not secretive about that. That is why the model itself executes nothing: it proposes an action, Schakel validates it and shows a preview, and only after your yes does it go to Moneybird. The figures it quotes come from Moneybird, it does not calculate itself. Check the preview, that is the protection.

You see that in the preview before anything is booked. Say what is wrong, for example the amount, and the assistant adjusts it. If an error still ends up in Moneybird, you correct it there like any other booking. An illegible or crumpled receipt is the most likely to be misread.

Anything that goes to a customer or involves money always asks for a yes first: sending, crediting, deleting, registering payments and changing contacts. You cannot turn that off. For small actions, such as logging hours, you can choose to turn confirmation off. Only if you set payment linking to automatic does it book those without a yes per payment.

The WhatsApp message is not an invoice but an instruction. Moneybird makes the invoice itself, with your own details and template, and your customer receives it by email as usual. Check in Moneybird that your company details and VAT number are right. For legal or tax questions, ask your accountant.

No. It can give a VAT indication and reminds you after a quarter ends, but that is explicitly not a return.

You can try the assistant free for 30 days, no credit card needed. After that you drop back to the free plan unless you choose a paid one. The current plans and terms are on the pricing page. WhatsApp costs nothing extra.

The language model is DeepSeek. For each turn your message, the latest messages of the conversation and the needed data from Moneybird go along (such as invoice lines, contact names and amounts), and for a photo the photo too. We do not promise that this processing happens only in the EU. WhatsApp runs through Meta and voice messages are transcribed with Cloudflare Workers AI. Conversations and files are stored, and you can see every conversation in your dashboard. We make no promise about a fixed retention period here, email us about your situation.

Only your own verified number reaches your administration. An unknown sender gets a fixed reply that the number is not linked, and nothing is stored.

Send STOP. The assistant then sends no more messages and performs no more actions for that number. You disconnect in your dashboard. What is already in Moneybird stays there.