What FinanceBot does
1. Finance email learning — 2,238 messages
Monitors the finance operations inbox on a scheduled cycle. Classifies emails into invoice, payment, follow-up, support, vendor and task categories. Maintains human-readable context files and runs response audits so no authorised request disappears.
2. Slack finance-team memory — 1,130 messages
Monitors #finance-team Slack. Responds only when asked. Combines Slack context with email for 3,368 total learned items. Active participants: the finance lead, the finance manager, the finance coordinator, a finance team member, a finance team member, a finance team member.
3. Xero bills auto-forwarding
Approved sender list (Ray White, Ambius, EnergyIntel, Savills, WorkClub, CBRE, Facebook, Aircall, Aussie Broadband etc). Detects invoice attachments, forwards to Xero Files, skips NZ entities, sends GST-aware notification to the finance team.
4. Airwallex missing-receipt checks
Reads Airwallex Spend expenses. Identifies transactions over $75 with GST and no receipt. Concrete result: flagged multiple transactions over $75 with GST — including several high-value items — all missing receipts in one sweep.
5. Monthly expense reimbursement workflow
Prepares reminder 3 days before month-end. Sends to the finance lead for approval. Only sends company-wide after approval. Staff due by 12pm 3rd business day, Exec approval 10am next day, payment same day.
6. Ad hoc finance research
Live queries from authorised team members. Answered a YTD vendor spend query with full breakdown — total billed, amount paid, and outstanding — all from live system data. Employment Hero sync covers the full employee roster.
Before vs. after: Airwallex receipt checks
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Manual: open Airwallex, inspect expenses, check thresholds, map to cardholders | Automated: reads Airwallex data, filters by GST threshold, prepares CSV |
| 30-60 minutes per request | Data-backed response in the same thread |
| Missed items happened when people were busy | Consistent GST logic applied every time |
Connected systems
| System | Access | Key use |
|---|---|---|
| Gmail | Read/send | Finance mailbox monitoring, invoice forwarding, branded replies |
| Slack | Read/respond | #finance-team context, on-demand answers |
| Xero | Read-only | Invoices, bills, reports, contacts, bank transactions |
| Airwallex | Read | Spend expenses, reconciliation, cardholder mapping |
| Employment Hero | Read-only | Full employee directory, pay details, timesheets |
| Local SQLite | Read/write | Learned context, scheduler state, audit state |
Governance
- Salary data: Restricted to Alborz, the finance manager, the CEO, the finance lead only. Others need Alborz approval.
- No autonomous payments: Prepares information, routes to authorised people, never approves payments.
- GST-aware: Every forwarding and receipt workflow considers GST treatment.
- Entity separation: Skips NZ entity invoices to avoid cross-entity Xero forwarding.
- Employment Hero exclusions: No bulk sync of payslips, TFNs, super details, or bank accounts.