Date: 16.12.2025 (2025-12-16)
Josh Innes (16.12.2025) Context: • https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-i-83ab4833/ • Director Financial Systems at Mews (1k+ MAs) • He: Hamburg • Company: Amsterdam • My message: • I came across your profile because I found your technical role within finance super interesting. • We are developing proprietary AI models for Controlling & Accounting. Right now, we are primarily automating the posting of invoices. • The next step is automating the monthly closing and controlling process, with the goal of reducing the workload by roughly 50%. • Reply: • More than happy to speak through my experiences and listen to the approach taken. • • Do you have any materials I can read/watch before the call to give me an idea of the basics of the approach? • • My preference would be google meet (or similar) over a phone call personally, if that's ok with you?
Notes: • Notes: • Financial engineering director • He will have 14 engineers in his team next year • He was founding member of the team - it was chaotic setting at the start • He spent solving human problems for the last year • Large projects around Order to Cash: CPQ through to metering and rating and invoice creation -> became a big project • Market focussed pricing • He runs a product • Primary challenges: • Look after ERP (MSFT Essential) • Engineers are building an orchestration layer -> transmission of notifications and states between systems -> ensure when MSFT business essential is replaced with another ERP -> no other systems will not realise that they switch the ERP systems • They got a new CFO 6 months ago -> huge investments into technology • Data lake and operational • TMS • Piqument: FP&A • Onestream: consolidation • P2P system as well • ERP: MSFT Business Central: • There are a lot of plugins etc. • Partner never really ask why - they want to sell -> misincentive • Accounting and monthly closing • ERP is the ground truth • AP: • Invoices arrive and are then reconciled • They have a tool but he is not sure that it works well • Not as robust as it should be -> probably P2P solution due to network effects (tbd) - Coupa • • Automation: • • Biggest objections / challenges in his daily life? • • Most valuable flows for him? • • Context: team setup? internal and external? • • Which tasks are the biggest pain? With magic wand -> what would he solve? • AR is less represented than the AP side -> find out what they really built • E.g. when you do not know if revenue is correct • Bad Collection process • They invoice in different currencies than the customer pays • Reconciliation of payments vs. open invoices • Run everything through JP Morgan payment to create virtual IBANs etc. very expensive • AboutYou: offered cash on delivery -> unreliable partners • Nightmare • Numbers: • AR: 36k invoices ca. (12k customers -> 3 invoices per customer) • AboutYou: • 1.2 Mio invoices on Black Friday + a few days after (now probably larger) • They sold the liability to Klarna etc. -> matching via CC • Their plan to create reconciliation • Other priorities - but it is on roadmap for next year • It is forever full of edge cases -> complex rule engine • Main complexity: • 36k invoices with different • Sent to wrong bank account • No description at all • FX rate -> thresholds • Biggest problem: wrong reference codes -> e.g. bank suggest former reference code • Second biggest topic: monthly close • Not sure if reporting issue, accrual issue -> he is not sure what the root cause is • Check out https://stacks.ai/ • Really cool guy - FUP with him for JAN • Which tasks would he focus on? • • Do they already have automations? Which ones? How well do they work? • • Which companies would he target? • • General feedback to pitch? •