FAQ
Questions Malaysian Accounting Firms Actually Ask.
Collected from real demos with firm owners and managers — including the awkward ones about accuracy, data, setup and where the limits are.
Trust & Accuracy
Who decides what enters the books
- What happens if the AI gets something wrong?
- Nothing enters the books without a person approving it. AI prepares and suggests; your accountant reviews and confirms. Anything doubtful — unclear handwriting, a suspected duplicate, an unfamiliar supplier — is flagged and waits for a human decision. There is no auto-approve, by design.
- Will we know which documents the AI left out?
- Yes — that is the point of the review queue. Documents BalanceNow does not treat as invoices (delivery orders, quotations, credit notes, supplier statements) are routed out of the batch and marked as needing attention, so nothing disappears quietly. You see the list and decide what to do with each one.
- Can it read Chinese, Malay and handwritten invoices?
- Malaysian supplier documents mix English, Malay and Chinese, often handwritten — that is the normal case here, not the exception. If a person can read it, BalanceNow can key it in, and anything unclear is flagged for your review instead of being guessed at quietly.
- Can I correct the account BalanceNow suggests?
- Yes, in one click, and the correction is remembered for that client going forward. Every suggestion comes with a readable reason so your reviewer can judge it in a second rather than reverse-engineer a black box.
- How are duplicates detected?
- By matching the document against what is already in the batch and in the client’s books — invoice number, supplier, date and amount together, not the number alone. That matters for the common Malaysian case where a supplier issues both a cash invoice and a proper invoice for the same order under different running numbers: the pair gets flagged for a human decision rather than posted twice.
- Will this replace our junior staff?
- No — it changes what they spend time on. Instead of typing vendor, date, invoice number, amount and account from scratch, juniors compare prepared entries and fix exceptions, and seniors review faster. The firm handles more clients without adding the same key-in workload.
Documents
The messy pile, as it actually arrives
- How do client documents get in?
- Three ways, and firms usually use all three: upload a batch of files, capture photos straight into the client inbox, or send the client a secure upload link they can use from their phone. Whatever arrives — PDFs, phone photos, scans, handwritten bills — lands in one inbox and is organised into monthly batches automatically.
- Our clients send one big PDF with many invoices inside. Does that work?
- Yes. Multi-invoice PDFs are split automatically, and pages belonging to the same invoice are kept together. You do not need to sort, rename or separate anything before uploading.
- What if a supplier statement is mixed into the upload?
- It is recognised as not an invoice and routed out of the batch with a note, rather than posted. Same for delivery orders, quotations and credit notes. You will see exactly what was set aside.
- Our documents are not always A4 — receipts, odd sizes, phone photos at angles.
- That is the normal input. Photos and non-standard sizes are handled; the test is whether a person could read the document, not whether it was scanned neatly.
- Do documents have to be sorted by month before uploading?
- No. Upload the pile as it comes and BalanceNow reads the document dates and groups the work into monthly batches for you.
Setup & Software
What onboarding involves
- Do we install anything on every staff laptop?
- No. For on-premise AutoCount, the install happens once on the machine or server that runs AutoCount. Your staff use BalanceNow in the browser as usual.
- We run a hundred client books. Is setup per client?
- Connecting is per client book, because each book is a separate ledger with its own chart of accounts and creditors — that is true of every integration into AutoCount or SQL Account. The install itself is one-time per machine, and we do the connection work with you during onboarding rather than handing you a hundred forms.
- What if we move or restore a client database to another machine?
- The connection is tied to the book, so a move or restore can require reconnecting that client. Tell us when it happens and we will get it reconnected — it is a support step, not a rebuild.
- How long does onboarding take?
- A one-time guided setup, done within a day — usually much less. We run it with you rather than sending instructions.
- Do we need to change accounting software?
- No. BalanceNow sits before the ledger. It posts into AutoCount Cloud, posts straight into on-premise AutoCount and SQL Account with one click, and exports import-ready files for everything else. Your clients keep the software they already use.
Limits & Data
What we do not do — and where your data lives
The answers firms check before they sign.
- What does BalanceNow not do today?
- It is an accounts-payable workbench first. Bank reconciliation is available for AutoCount Cloud on the payables side. Foreign-currency invoices, tax-exemption coding and e-Invoice submission are not handled today. If a limit affects your firm, ask in the demo — we would rather lose a deal than surprise you in month two.
- Can we download all the processed documents in one go?
- Not in bulk today — the source document stays attached to each entry, so it is one click from the entry when you or an auditor needs it. Bulk export of a client’s file set is a request we have heard from firms and it is on our list; ask us where it stands rather than assuming.
- Our software is not AutoCount or SQL Account.
- Everything BalanceNow prepares can leave as an import-ready file, so books on other software still get reviewed, proven work. Native posting exists for AutoCount and SQL Account today.
- Who can see our clients’ data?
- Only your firm. Every firm works in an isolated workspace, documents are stored encrypted in the Singapore region, and we do not build or train models on your documents. The full detail is on our security page, and we will sign a data processing agreement with your firm.
- Are you a Malaysian company, and who do we contact when something breaks?
- Yes — BalanceNow is built in Kuala Lumpur for Malaysian firms. Support runs on business days with a direct line to the product team; early partner firms get a WhatsApp group rather than a ticket queue.
Get Started
Bring the Awkward Questions.
20 minutes on your real documents — ask what you like, we would rather answer before you sign than after.
More detail: bookkeeping fees calculator · security & data · AutoCount · SQL Accounting
Last reviewed 3 August 2026 · BalanceNow team · Questions? hello@balancenow.com.my