Watch the customer story video
The context: a historical mission under pressure
With the e-invoicing reform, a large part of the traditional relationship between accountants and clients will shift to automated system-to-system exchanges.
“E-invoicing directly questions our place in the value chain.
If the accounting data flows automatically, the firm has to bring something else.”
Romain quickly identifies where this “something else” lies:
- analyzing product by product what clients actually purchase;
- monitoring supplier prices over time;
- reconciling orders, deliveries, and invoices;
- helping business owners gain margin points, not just file VAT returns.
The challenge is scale:
“On a restaurant invoice, you might have 5 lines or 50. Copying that manually into a spreadsheet, every day, for several clients it’s inhuman. And it inevitably introduces errors.”
Without the right tool, management control remains handcrafted: fragile Excel files, input mistakes, and analyses done too late (or never).
Why Phacet: AI that accountants immediately understand
Romain didn’t start from excitement about AI, but from a practical question:
“What tool can actually process this volume of data without losing my teams along the way?”
“Phacet feels like an Excel table powered by AI. We’re not disoriented the format is exactly what we use every day.”
Concretely at CPA:
- purchase invoices are already centralized in Pennylane;
- Phacet retrieves this raw data;
- the AI agent automatically extracts all useful fields: supplier, product, quantities, prices, etc.;
- everything appears in a tabular view the teams can read and work with immediately.
Onboarding was intentionally light:
“I spent an hour on the initial presentation, two hours tinkering alone, then one last hour to refine shortcuts. After that, I had a solid use case running.”
Once the first Phacet is set up for a client, the logic becomes replicable:
“You invest time in the first case. Then you can duplicate it quite easily for others.”
A new offering: from makeshift Excel to an AI-powered co-pilot
CPA’s goal isn’t just internal efficiency. The bigger aim is to create a new service offering for clients.
In sectors like restaurants, bakeries, local retail, or construction, the pattern is always the same:
- many purchase lines,
- little to no digital process structuring,
- isolated attempts at analysis in Excel,
- and business owners who feel they are losing margin but don’t know where.
“When we show the tool to a client, they often show us their homemade Excel. They spent hours entering everything manually. The spreadsheet is long, probably incorrect, and impossible to maintain.”
The demonstration effect is immediate:
“When they see that in a few seconds we can break down an invoice into a dozen usable lines, with very few technical constraints, they instantly get the value.
Especially when it comes from their accountant not an outside consultant.”
CPA can then offer a full end-to-end chain:
- invoice collection,
- detailed automated extraction,
- price and mercuriale checks,
- variance analysis,
- concrete recommendations to gain margin points.
“We’re no longer just talking about VAT or corporate tax.
We can say: this year, thanks to purchase control, you gained 2 to 4 margin points.”
Two types of clients, two ways to use Phacet
Romain distinguishes two main client profiles, each with its own approach.
1. Structured companies with internal support functions
For these “bigger” clients:
- CPA acts as a sponsor for automation projects;
- internal teams are involved in adoption;
- Phacet becomes a business tool used by their finance / purchasing / management control teams.
“For these clients, Phacet becomes a component of their broader automation project.
We help them discover the tool, onboard their teams, and support implementation.”
2. SMEs and local businesses
For smaller businesses (independent restaurants, bakeries, artisans, construction SMEs…):
- clients don’t have the bandwidth or profiles to configure AI tools themselves;
- CPA uses Phacet behind the scenes to save time and enrich missions;
- value appears through new management control services, at an accessible cost (a few days of consulting per month).
“With tools like Phacet, we move faster.
We can offer new services at market-appropriate prices, without going low-cost.
Everyone wins.”
What Phacet changes for CPA
The e-invoicing reform could have been seen purely as a threat.
CPA sees it as a lever.
“Where some see another regulatory constraint, we see an opportunity to transform our model—provided we embrace AI and ready-to-use tools like Phacet.”
Practically, Phacet allows CPA to:
- dive back into clients’ real operational processes (purchasing, deliveries, stock, control of goods, fraud prevention);
- offer operational audit missions during onboarding, where previously almost none existed;
- speak to business owners in the language of their operations, not just in tax terminology.
“We go back to asking very simple questions:
how do you order, how do you receive goods, how do you control what you get?
And from there, we can deploy tools that translate directly into margin points.”
The firm positions itself as:
- more modern,
- more data-driven,
- more differentiated than firms that stay confined to pure compliance work.
A method for other firms: project mindset, clear use cases, ready-to-use tools
Asked about the advice he would give to other accountants, Romain emphasizes three points:
- Think in project mode
- Identify tasks that are time-consuming with low added value.
- Don’t wait to be “fully digitalized” before starting.
- Begin with a clear use case
- For example: purchase control in restaurants, or supplier invoice analysis in construction.
- Test, iterate, then duplicate what works.
- Choose tools that are easy to adopt
“We have less and less time to train teams.
We need plug-and-play tools, easy to use, where results are visible immediately.”
For him, this is exactly where Phacet stands out:
- a familiar environment for accountants (tables, columns, filters);
- an AI agent already trained on finance/admin use cases;
- the possibility to create, over time, an internal “Phacet developer” role preparing reusable models for the entire firm.
What CPA takes away from Phacet
Three elements stand out clearly from CPA’s experience:
1. A tool that speaks the accountant’s language
“It’s an Excel table powered by AI. You immediately understand how to use it.”
2. A new line of value for the firm
“It allows us to shift from a mandated mission (compliance) to a chosen one: management control, margin improvement, operational support.”
3. A concrete response to e-invoicing
“We can’t fight against the automation of basic accounting.
But with tools like Phacet, we can turn it into a lever to reinvent our profession.”
In other words, Phacet is not just a productivity tool for CPA.
It is a foundation for redefining what an accounting firm can deliver to its clients in a world where invoices flow from machine to machine while margin and decision-making remain deeply human.
