Costs and offers

What does an AI agent for an accounting firm cost?

A separate AI agent costs €75 to €1,000 monthly, sometimes with €1,495 to €2,000 setup. Calculate per accepted task after existing software features.

Piet Baudoin··13 min read

Vendor prices for an accounting firm’s AI agent range from about €75 to €1,000 monthly, sometimes with €1,495 to €2,000 setup or pilot costs. Actual cost depends on two things absent from price lists: what Exact and Twinfield (accounting software), Basecone (invoice processing), or Silverfin (accounting working papers) already do, and how much review time the agent saves or adds.

This page compares three cost layers: existing packages and their AI, an additional agent, and the hours used to assess value. Prices come from vendor pages read September 30, 2026, excluding VAT unless stated. We then calculate a ten-employee firm with a hundred client accounts, a review-time threshold, and an annual total with busy and quiet months.

The short answer

  • Exact Online Boekhouden voor Accountancy costs €55, €115, or €275 monthly, with “AI agents” included as standard and no separate surcharge (Exact, 30-09-2026).
  • Dutch additional-agent prices range from €75 per agent monthly (Flowix guide price) to €549 plus €1,495 setup (ZeroCode Pro, customer service with 1,000 conversations).
  • Bombos costs €2,000 for a three-month pilot, then €1,000 monthly: €11,000 first-year vendor charges.
  • At €1,000 monthly, an agent must actually eliminate 14.3 to 18.2 contractor hours monthly, using €55-70 hourly for a freelance compilation-practice assistant (Rousch, 2026).
  • SRA firms had vacancies equal to 13.1% of staff in 2025. NOAB accounting-staff vacancies remained open eight months on average.
  • Our example’s benefit disappears above 3 ordinary review minutes per task, and below 314 tasks monthly it costs more than it returns.
  • Calculate per accepted task at equal quality, rather than license, document, or proposal.

What do you already pay for AI in Exact, Twinfield, Visma, Silverfin, Basecone, and Fiscaal Gemak?

AI usually has no separate surcharge in accounting and tax packages: it is bundled into a paid package. Check before adding an agent, because some work may already be paid for.

These six frequently named packages use different units: user, client account, case file, or posted invoice. They cannot form one interchangeable “firm price.” Scanning is not tax software, and a case-file environment is not an agent.

Package Published monthly price Unit AI description
Exact Online Boekhouden voor Accountancy, Dutch accounting software Essentials €55, Plus €115, Professional €275 1 user and 1 client account included; extra user €12.75, extra account €7.30 (Essentials) or €6.30 (Plus, Professional) “AI agents” under standard inclusions
Twinfield Accountancyregeling, accounting software €159 Firm arrangement; full composition unclear from list No separate AI price
Visma eAccounting Kantoor Totaal, accounting software €68, extra user €10, OSA Premium €20 Clients separate: Starter €6.25 to Pro €36 No separate agent price
Silverfin, accounting working-paper software Standard from €4.36, additional modules from €5.60, Enterprise from €9.35 Per file, minimum 50, unlimited users, first term 24 months AI Mapping in base, Assistant in broader bundle
Basecone Premium, invoice-processing software €1.45 per client account plus €0.35 per posted invoice Account and invoice; fixed firm rate on request Processing service, no separate AI surcharge
Fiscaal Gemak, now Exact Online Fiscaal, tax software Essentials €77, Plus €197, Professional €287 1 user and 1 client type included Support Agent for software questions

Sources: Exact accounting and price list, Twinfield, Visma eAccounting, Silverfin, Basecone, Exact Fiscaal; all opened 30-09-2026. Different functions make this no ranking.

Three cautions: fiscaalgemak.nl redirects to Exact Online Fiscaal, so do not count twice (Fiscaal Gemak, 30-09-2026). Its Support Agent answers software questions rather than preparing tax returns. Silverfin monthly invoicing does not mean monthly cancellation: translated, “The standard initial contract term is 24 months” (Silverfin, 30-09-2026).

Comparison sites sometimes call all these quote-only. Twinfield, Basecone, and Silverfin publish base prices, though those are not quotes for your firm.

What does existing firm software cost with a hundred client accounts?

Ten employees and a hundred client accounts cost €853.45 monthly for Exact accounting alone, plus €845 for Basecone processing of 2,000 invoices. Client count outweighs employee count.

Exact Plus: €115 + 9 × €12.75 extra users + 99 × €6.30 extra accounts = €853.45 monthly (Exact price list, 30-09-2026). Annual statements, tax, client portal, and implementation are excluded.

Basecone Premium: 100 × €1.45 + 2,000 × €0.35 = €845 monthly (Basecone, 30-09-2026). A fixed account rate differs and is offered without a public amount (Basecone offer, 30-09-2026).

Silverfin’s minimum: 50 × €4.36 = €218 monthly, €5,232 over 24 months, before onboarding and options. The Assistant bundle adds €1.24 per file monthly (Silverfin, 30-09-2026). That is not standalone AI pricing, but the closest public incremental AI price here.

Ask what remains after configuring existing packages well. Check whether Basecone alongside Exact is needed, and apply the same test to an agent. See AI inside AFAS or Exact, or an AI agent alongside.

What does an AI agent on top of your packages cost?

Published Dutch prices span €75 to €1,000 monthly, with or without one-time charges. These buy different work, rather than a range for one identical agent.

Offer One-time Monthly Included Source
Flowix Agents Not published From €75 per agent Administrative automation; all prices are guide prices Flowix, 30-09-2026
ZeroCode Business €1,495 €295 Customer service, 300 conversations; then €0.25 each ZeroCode, September 2026 prices
ZeroCode Pro €1,495 €549 Customer service, 1,000 conversations; then €0.20 each ZeroCode, September 2026 prices
Bombos €2,000 for three-month pilot Then €1,000 First-task setup, guidance, no special accountant rate Bombos, 26-09-2026

All exclude VAT. Cheaper offers may solve narrower problems; price differences show nothing about completed work.

ZeroCode illustrates shifting entry prices. Its accountant page says no startup costs and €297 monthly (ZeroCode accountants, 30-09-2026). The general list says €1,495 setup and €295 Business. The reason is externally unclear. Request four written details: billing unit (user, conversation, action, completed task), base inclusions, overage, and setup cost.

The unit matters. Forums ask: “If the AI does 90% of the work and then escalates to a human, should you pay?” (Reddit r/AI_Agents, accessed 30-09-2026). Conversation pricing also charges work humans finish. Fixed pricing charges quiet months like April and May. See AI costs and returns and broader administrative automation costs.

Which hourly rate should you compare with AI-agent costs?

Keep three values separate: employee internal cost, genuinely removable contractor cost, and client billing rate. Each yields different payback.

Hour value Amount Measure Source
Freelance compilation assistant €55-70 Costs removed through less contracting Rousch, 2026
Freelance AA accountant in compilation practice €80-125 Same at higher level Rousch, 2026
Assistant billing rate at one firm €101 Revenue if freed hours sell Raadgevers, 2026 rates
Additional administration billing rate €90 Same for administration Raadgevers, 2026 rates
Purchased tax-return review €120-145 Specialist review, rather than ordinary assistant hours Novak, 2026 rates

A €1,000 agent must eliminate 14.3 to 18.2 contractor hours at €55-70. At €101 billing, it equals 9.9 saleable hours only if actually sold. Without extra assignments, extra revenue is zero. Without less contracting or overtime, cash savings are zero.

Do not count hours twice as savings and revenue. Give each hour one destination.

Review is another trap. Saving an assistant 30 minutes but adding 10 reviewer minutes, at €60 and €120 hourly respectively, leaves €10 of €30 benefit. Measuring only assistant time triples apparent value.

How large are accounting-firm staff shortages?

SRA’s 2025 vacancies equal 13.1% of staff, estimated as over 2,900 vacancies across 390 firms (SRA, 27-10-2025). In 2023 it was 12.7%, almost a quarter at firms up to ten employees (SRA, 03-03-2025).

SRA’s headline, translated, “One in six seats is empty,” needs caution. With 13.1 vacancies per 100 employees, 13.1 of 113.1 seats are empty: 11.6%, closer to one in nine. The shortage needs no upward rounding.

NOAB measured 439 firms: vacancies averaged six months, accounting employees eight (NOAB, 2025 benchmark). Bridging eight months with one weekly contractor day at €55 costs 8 × €55 × about 35 weeks, over €15,000, above twelve €1,000 agent months.

Inflow is slow. Public accountants grew from 9,400 at end-2023 to 9,540 end-2024 (1.5%); NBA members from 22,506 to 22,553 (0.2%) (Parliamentary questions 2855, 19-08-2025). NBA began recruiting September 29, 2026 to maintain new-accountant inflow (NBA, 29-09-2026).

SRA firms raised wages about 6% in January 2026, measured across 15,300 employees (SRA, 09-04-2026). Staff costs rose 121% and ICT 209% during 2014-2024 (SRA, 03-03-2025): about 8.3% and 12.0% annually, including firm growth. With hours 6% dearer, a €1,000 agent needs 5.7% fewer hours: 20 at €50 versus 18.9 at €53.

When does an AI agent pay for itself at an accounting firm?

When execution, review, exceptions, and maintenance cost less together than current execution minus the agent price. Review time per task is decisive.

Take receiving, assigning, and completing a client file for monthly closing. Completion requires correct client, period, documents, destination, and approval. Fictional inputs illustrate the calculation, rather than vendor promises: 600 monthly tasks, currently 6 minutes each, employee €50 hourly, senior €100, agent €1,000 monthly.

Monthly item Current Controlled Many exceptions
Ordinary processing or review 600 × 6 min = 60 hours 600 × 1 min = 10 hours 600 × 2 min = 20 hours
Exceptions Within 6 minutes 10% × 4 min = 4 hours 30% × 8 min = 24 hours
Extra senior review Baseline 2 hours 5 hours
Maintenance Baseline 2 hours 4 hours
Work cost €3,000 €1,000 €2,900
Including agent €3,000 €2,000 €3,900
Difference 0 €1,000 available €900 dearer

Our model, before setup.

In the controlled scenario, agent, exceptions, senior, and maintenance leave €1,500 for ordinary review: 30 hours, 3 minutes per task. Above that, benefit disappears. Adding €3,000 internal implementation over twelve months lowers it to 2.5 minutes.

Controlled benefit per task is €3.50 minus €1,100 fixed costs. At 300 quiet-month tasks, the agent costs €50 more; 600 leaves €1,000; 1,200 in tax season leaves €3,100. Break-even is about 314 tasks. Eight quiet months of 300 and four busy months of 1,200 leave €12,000 annually before implementation if quality and review remain stable under pressure. Test exactly that: testing an AI agent and errors and review.

What is the right unit for assessing an AI agent’s price?

An accepted task at equal quality: a complete, human-approved file that does not return. Licenses, documents, and generated proposals are not that unit.

Our position follows four facts. Existing packages automate steps with included “AI agents.” Vendors use incompatible units. Review shifts to dearer people, with our senior costing twice the assistant per minute. Work arrives in waves, making fixed pricing unprofitable in quiet months and profitable in busy ones.

Ask the cost per completed remaining task, including reviewer minutes. Otherwise an agent receives credit for returns achievable by better package setup. Compare against the best configured current method, rather than avoidable retyping.

Track four weeks by task type: count, execution and review minutes per role, returns, and separate normal from busy weeks. Those four columns convert any quote to euros per accepted task.

Where is this heading?

Package AI broadens, pressuring agents that only prepare. Today’s baseline: Exact includes agents, Exact Online Fiscaal includes Support Agent at every level, Silverfin includes AI Mapping. SRA ICT costs grew about 12% annually for ten years, faster than staff costs.

Our expectation: on September 30, 2027, at least two of these six packages will describe a currently manual step, such as requesting missing documents or following up a file, included or priced separately. Preparing entries then becomes a weak reason for another subscription. Value shifts to completing information across email, customers, and systems, and controlling exceptions.

Vendors build inside their walls first, where data resides. Work between those walls stays manual longer. The expectation fails if fewer than two add a step or only announce it. Economically it fails if a separate preparatory agent remains demonstrably cheaper and better after review.

Bombos will arrange cross-package work with your team’s recorded rules. Your corrections and approvals remain yours regardless of new package features.

What can this not do yet?

Published asking prices are not actual firm spending. Discounts, old contracts, usage, and total AI spending of Dutch firms are private, so no market average exists. Twinfield and Visma lists do not fully establish composition, VAT, and term.

An agent is not an accountant authorized to sign. It can execute work, rather than professional judgment or responsibility for an opinion. Reviewer work remains and can erase the benefit.

Less junior work has an unbudgeted cost: assistants learn less. Future reviewers must come from somewhere. Reserve guided exceptions or buy today’s capacity with tomorrow’s knowledge.

Cheap modules accumulate. Minimum contracts remain after client loss, including Silverfin’s 50 files and 24 months. Include a shrinking-firm scenario.

An agent cannot find unrecorded agreements such as one customer’s quarterly documents. Bombos interviews you to record them for next time.

How does Bombos approach this?

One price applies to every business: €2,000 for three pilot months, then €1,000 monthly, excluding VAT. Continuing costs €11,000 first year and €12,000 thereafter. At €55-70 contractor rates, €12,000 equals 171 to 218 annual hours, three to four weekly: less than half a day of the employee otherwise hired.

The goal is more work at higher quality with the same team for firms growing faster than recruitment, rather than one cheaper task.

The pilot starts with remaining work such as the shared inbox containing client-case email. Chef distributes to specialists; Wegwijzer explains and suggests tasks. Specialists fit your tasks and systems, such as Exact Online. Bombos reads, finds client and case, and prepares proposals with visible support. You approve, change, or reject in Bombos before results enter the package. Payments, customer messages, and contracts wait by default.

Corrections become rules for coworkers too, showing accepted proposals and review cost as this page requires.

The first task begins the process. Your team teaches the next without technical skills. We guide you, then you can do it yourself. See which AI solution fits an accounting firm and AI-agent platforms for accounting firms.

Sources

Each source was opened September 30, 2026, and quotations appear literally in it; Dutch quotations above are translated. Vendors sell what they describe; prices are asking prices.

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That is what Bombos is for: companies that grow fast and want to keep the same team. We start with one task that keeps piling up and guide you until your team can handle it. Then your team teaches Bombos the next task. Leave your number and we will call you back to talk about your situation.

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