After 10 years of searching for the right technology to deliver on our vision of real-time financial operations, we found it. That's why we recently hosted a webinar with our partners at Digits to demonstrate how their Autonomous General Ledger is transforming the way accounting firms like Hiline serve our clients.
If you missed the webinar, don't worry! We're breaking down the key insights, live demonstrations, and technology breakthroughs that are making monthly reporting delays a thing of the past.
What you'll learn:
- Why Hiline chose Digits' AI-native general ledger over legacy accounting systems
- How the Autonomous General Ledger delivers 96.5% automated transaction categorization
- What real-time financial visibility looks like in practice
- The future of accounting firm partnerships in the AI era
Or watch the full replay below:
The problem we set out to solve
Let’s talk about main frustration that's plagued the accounting industry for decades: most business finances don’t run at the speed of the rest of your business – but they should! This is mostly due to the standard process of “closing the books” monthly.
For the past 10 years, Hiline has been tackling the monthly reporting problem. Despite being built as a modern, technology-forward firm from day one, we struggled with the same limitation every accounting firm faces—the tools available simply weren't built for real-time operations.
Traditional accounting systems were designed 20 to 30 years ago. As Matt, Hiline Co-Founder and CEO, explained during the webinar, these legacy platforms are like "taking a Camry and dropping an aftermarket motor into it." No matter how many features get added, the underlying architecture remains outdated.
The result? Even with the best intentions, accounting firms end up delivering financials two to three weeks after month-end. By then, clients have already made critical business decisions based on incomplete information.
Why Hiline chose Digits' Autonomous General Ledger
After exploring countless accounting platforms over the years, Digits took a fundamentally different approach. Rather than building AI features on top of old architecture, Digits built an entirely new general ledger from the ground up—designed specifically for the AI era.
What makes the Autonomous General Ledger different
Megan Reid from Digits explained the technical foundation during our demo.
Traditional accounting systems treat transactions as isolated strings of text to be stored. They don't understand context or meaning.
Digits' AI-native platform builds a semantic knowledge graph of every business, understanding vendors, customers, bank accounts, and expense categories at a fundamental level. The platform has been trained on over $825 billion worth of real transactions, giving it unprecedented pattern recognition capabilities.
Here's a practical example Megan shared: When you have both an Uber transaction and an Uber Eats transaction, they look similar in your bank feed. Legacy systems might categorize both the same way. Digits actually understands the difference—one is travel, one is meals—because it analyzes each piece of the transaction data individually.
The numbers that convinced us
The real advantage isn't just speed and cost—it's that the AI flags low-confidence items for human review. Our accountants can focus their expertise on complex decisions rather than routine categorization work. And we have the numbers to prove it.
- 96.5% first-pass accuracy for automated categorization
- 10 times fewer errors than manual bookkeeping (97.8% vs 79.1% accuracy)
- 8,500 times faster transaction processing
- 24 times lower cost for equivalent work
Live demo highlights: Real-time finance in action
Katie Burns, Hiline's Chief of Staff and our first AGL-certified accountant, joined Megan for a live demonstration showing what real-time finance actually looks like for business owners.
You can see the full demo here at about the 19:00 mark but we’ve broken it all down for you below too!
The dashboard that changes everything
Digits' homepage features a live financial dashboard that updates continuously. Unlike static reports sent via email, this dashboard reflects your current financial position at any moment.
Key features Katie and Megan demonstrated:
- Visual financial metrics updated in real-time – Revenue and expense analysis, cash runway, burn rate, and cashflow—all visible at a glance without digging through financial statements.
- Hover-to-discover functionality – You can click into any metric to see the underlying transactions. No more emailing your accountant asking "what makes up this number?"
- Direct collaboration at the transaction level – If you spot something that needs attention, you can comment directly on the transaction. Your accountant gets notified and can respond—all without cluttering your email inbox.
A real-world scenario
Let’s say you're reviewing your October dashboard and notice software expenses are higher than expected. Instead of waiting for your monthly meeting with your accountant, Digit’s General Ledger lets you:
- Click directly into the software expense category
- See all transactions that make up that total
- Spot an Apple bill that should be categorized differently
- Leave a comment for your accountant
- Your accountant receives a notification and makes the change
- The dashboard updates immediately to reflect the correction
The entire interaction happens in minutes, not weeks. And because everything occurs within the platform, there's a complete audit trail of the discussion and decision.
Be sure to check out more detailed Digits demos on our YouTube channel!
What this means for Hiline clients
As the first AGL-certified accounting firm, Hiline has invested significant time mastering this technology. Our partnership with Digits goes back three and a half years, during which we've helped shape how the platform serves accounting firms and their clients.
The expertise layer on top of technology
Technology alone isn't the solution.
"Hiline's expertise is the strategic intelligence layer that sits on top of Digits and the other technology solutions we use," Matt explained. "We really want to be your strategic advisor."
The time our team saves through AI automation gets reinvested in higher-value activities: strategic advisory conversations, proactive identification of financial issues, industry-specific guidance based on our deep expertise in nonprofits and agencies, tax strategy optimization, and HR and payroll oversight.
Week one vs. ongoing partnership
Traditional accounting firm relationships often involve a painful learning curve. It takes three to six months for your new firm to learn your business.
With Digits' AGL, the platform learns your business patterns immediately. Our team can focus on strategic questions from week one because we're not bogged down in manual transaction processing.
The new client experience with Hiline x Digits would look like this:
- Week 1: Expert setup and AI training begins. We connect all your systems and configure the platform for your specific needs.
- Months 1-3: The AI models learn your transaction patterns while our team learns your business goals and challenges.
- Ongoing: Expert review ensures accuracy and compliance. The system gets smarter with every transaction and never forgets. You receive strategic advisory that evolves with your business.
Key takeaways from the webinar
1. Monthly close cycles are outdated. Someone chose that standard a century ago. Real-time visibility is now possible and should become the new standard.
2. AI-native beats AI features. Many accounting platforms claim to use AI, but they're adding features to old systems. Digits built an entirely new general ledger designed specifically for AI from day one.
3. Technology plus expertise wins. The best outcomes come from pairing world-class technology with experienced accountants who understand your industry.
4. Real-time doesn't mean less accurate. When errors get caught and corrected immediately rather than sitting unnoticed for weeks, your books actually stay cleaner.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How does the AI know when to ask for human help?
Digits' AI flags low-confidence items for review when it's uncertain about categorization. This happens with less than 5% of transactions, allowing accountants to focus their expertise where it matters most.
Q: Can I still get traditional financial statements?
Absolutely. The platform generates traditional balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements whenever needed—for audits, tax returns, grant applications, and board reporting.
Q: What happens during month-end close with real-time accounting?
Month-end close still happens, but it shrinks from days to hours. Since transactions are categorized and reconciled continuously, there's minimal cleanup work required.
Watch the full webinar
Interested in seeing the live demonstration and hearing more details about how Hiline and Digits are partnering to deliver real-time finance?
Watch the full webinar recording here to see the complete live demo, detailed Q&A with Matt, Katie, and Megan, and real-world examples of how the technology handles complex scenarios.
Ready to experience real-time finance?
After 10 years of building Hiline with a technology-first approach, we've finally found the platform that delivers on our vision of real-time financial operations. If you're tired of waiting weeks for financial information or operating on incomplete data, we'd love to show you what real-time finance looks like for your organization.
Schedule a consultation to learn how Hiline and Digits can transform your financial operations.
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