.gif){kind=icon}
9x is a bootstrapped consultancy focused on AI and automation. They deliver AI courses and training services for companies, from basic ChatGPT skills to advanced AI tool and automation skills. As a self-funded venture without external investment, maintaining profitability and managing cash flow is critical to their operations.
Manual and fragmented financial workflows
Too much complexity. Not enough clarity. And a founder pulled away from what matters most: building his company. That was Pierre-Yves’ reality when it came to managing his finances. Pierre-Yves is the Co-Founder of 9x, an AI consultancy.
Before using re:cap, 9x managed their finances using a DIY system. Payments went through Stripe, banking through Qonto, and spreadsheets pulled everything together via API.
But for Pierre-Yves, who handles finances, this setup created more complexity than clarity:
"Everything lived in different places. One tool had the invoice, another had the payment, and reconciling it all took a lot of manual work. Even something simple like checking how much money we planned to have in the bank by the end of the month became complicated."
He builts his own setup in spreadsheets, combining bank data from Qonto, revenue from Stripe, and manual inputs for salaries and VAT. "I had my own P&L and cash flow dashboard. It kind of worked but it broke all the time. If I changed something, I had to backdate changes for all past transactions. It was exhausting," he explains.
Too much time on accounting, too little on growth
Without a dedicated finance team, accounting and basic financial planning is the co-founder’s responsibility, and it consumes hours each week. "We needed financial clarity, but getting it took forever. That’s time I wasn’t spending on building or selling," Pierre-Yves explained. This meant that instead of focusing on growth and revenue, he was bogged down in financial oversight.
Three issues made the setup especially painful:
- Stripe’s complexity: bundled invoices, payment structures, and fees made reconciliation difficult.
- Small team: outsourcing would mean handing over bank access and sensitive data.
- Fragile systems: any change in structure meant manually updating the entire history.
AI-powered finance, no busywork for founders
Switching tools and setup wasn’t easy for Pierres-Yves. He was curious but cautious: "I like testing new tools. But we’d built something ourselves that kind of worked. I was hesitant to switch."
The first aha moment came with liquidity management: re:cap gave him a clear cash position at a glance. But he needed more: P&L visibility and accounting automation.
The turning point: automated invoice reconciliation
What won him over? re:cap’s AI-powered pre-accounting and reconciliation. He uploaded a month worth of invoices to test the invoice reconciliation. In the end, he only had to match three manually (which were even paid via their private credit cards), "everything else was on spot."
Before re:cap, reconciliation took Pierre-Yves 1-2 hours per week. Now it was done in minutes.
"It’s wild how much time this saves. As a founder, that time goes straight into growth not admin," he says.
Build vs. Buy decision: why even automation experts choose re:cap
As an automation company, 9x had the skills to build their own tools. But Pierre-Yves puts it simply: "Even if you're great at automation and AI, some tools just aren’t worth building yourself. re:cap is one of them. Don’t waste hours on something that kind of works. Let specialists do what they’re best at."
How 9x uses re:cap today
Pierre-Yves uses re:cap for various financial management tasks:
- Receipt reconciliation: "Whenever I get a receipt or invoice, I just forward it to a dedicated re:cap-email. It gets automatically processed on the platform and is ready for reconciliation."
- Monthly accounting: "I use it once a month to reconcile all the invoices, quick and easy."
- Weekly management meetings: "I share our numbers every week. re:cap gives us a clear snapshot of our financial position."
The implementation of re:cap has transformed the financial management process of 9x:
"There used to be one day every month I dreaded. It was a nightmare. Now, I log into re:cap, spend one productive hour, and 90% of the work is already done."
For the company this has significantly reduced friction. re:cap also makes collaboration with their tax advisor effortless: "I just download a CSV or zip file with every information about transactions and invoices they need. re:cap understands what both founders and tax advisor care about."
By connecting invoice and bank data in one place, Pierre-Yves now has near-complete visibility into 9x financial performance, covering the vast majority of their P&L needs without manual effort.
On top of that, re:cap’s forecasting provides a reliable outlook for the months ahead, which is crucial for a lean, cash-conscious business that needs to make fast, informed decisions.
Conclusion
For 9x, re:cap replaced a fragile, manual system with one that saves time, reduces friction, and offers real-time financial insights, all without adding headcount. For lean, bootstrapped companies, that kind of leverage makes all the difference.
