Continuous close, in which a company’s books are closed every day instead of weeks after month-end, could change how accounting firms serve clients. As artificial intelligence shrinks the lag between a transaction and the advice built on it, year-end cleanup can become a running conversation.

Software makers are retooling their products around the firms that advise businesses, not just the businesses themselves. Intuit Inc. is pushing finance toward automation with that audience in mind, and trust in the numbers sits at the center of the effort, according to Dixie McCurley (pictured), managing partner in residence at Intuit.

“I think that being an advisor has always been difficult because we’ve always had to wait till year-end to then make all of the adjustments that actually make the financials make sense,” McCurley said. “I’ve had so many clients over the years that couldn’t get to an audit, even by October. The reason that is, is because we were always reactive. That is all changing today.”

McCurley spoke with Alison Kosik and Christophe Bertrand at Intuit Connect, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed how AI is changing the accountant’s role, why trust in the numbers matters and what continuous close could mean for client advice. (* Disclosure below.)