AN EXAMPLE FUTURE DRAFT
Sanne's Handover
Sanne takes over her father’s bookkeeping firm in January. AI can now do much of the work the firm bills for. She has to decide what the firm becomes, with thirty colleagues waiting to hear.
Sanne, her firm, colleagues and clients are invented. The research is real, so you can check every figure.
What a Future Draft is
A Future Draft gathers everything that bears on where a leader or organisation could go in the age of AI: what is true now, what has become possible, and the most ambitious and meaningful direction the evidence can support. You revise it with us until it holds, then leave with a first move and an AI philosophy you can stand behind. Every claim is labelled, so you can see what is reported and what is reasoned.
THE QUESTION
Every Future Draft starts with a decision someone has to make.
“My father built this firm over thirty-five years. Some of the people here have worked for him since before I could read. AI can now do a large part of what we bill for. Do I sell, shrink or rebuild? And if I rebuild, into what?”
SAID · Sanne, in the first session
THE FIRM ·
THE HANDOVER ·
THE DRAFT ·
Bookkeeping and annual accounts for about 300 small businesses in a town in the east of the Netherlands. Thirty people.
January 2027, from Henk, the founder, to his daughter.
An Individual Future Draft: one person, one decision.
PUBLISHED · Sanne’s position is common. In a survey of Dutch small-business owners at the end of 2025, 35% were transferring or considering selling their business within five years. Of those, 83% said they had not prepared for it in any way. (Kleinbedrijf Index, 2026)
WHAT WENT IN
Material inside the firm, and research outside.
The inside material is what only the people in the firm know: what Sanne heard from her colleagues and her father, and the firm’s own records and client emails. The outside research gives a clear picture of where the firm stands and tests the possible responses, including Sanne’s.
THE DRAFT & THE ARGUMENT
A first draft, written to be argued with.
Draft one ran to three pages. Sanne shared each draft with people she chose and brought their objections back to the next round, where each one was checked against the material before anything changed. Three drafts in three rounds: colleagues argued with draft one, a client with draft two, and the team wrote the AI philosophy in draft three. Every line in the draft carries one of four labels, so you can see what someone said, what anyone can check, what we think and what we cannot support yet.
SAID
PUBLISHED
OUR VIEW
OPEN QUESTION
Someone told us, in their words or close to them, including in material they gave us.
Anyone can check this. The source is listed.
Our reading or proposal, open to correction.
We cannot support this yet.
SAID · Someone told us, in their words or close to them, including in material they gave us.
PUBLISHED · Anyone can check this. The source is listed.
OUR VIEW · Our reading or proposal, open to correction.
OPEN QUESTION · We cannot support this yet.
THE DRAFTS IMPROVE AND DEEPEN
Three objections, and what each one changed.
HENK
Founder, her father
“Our clients run bakeries and garages. They won’t pay for advice.”
Tap to see what changed
WHAT CHANGED
DRAFT ONE · Launch a paid advisory package, priced separately from bookkeeping.
DRAFT TWO · Test quarterly calls with ten clients, within the current fee.
PUBLISHED · Advice is bought where trust already exists. A bookkeeping relationship does not turn into paid advice by itself.
Tap to flip back
INEKE
Senior bookkeeper, 22 years at the firm
“This reads like a plan to make half of us redundant. And who do you think clients ring in March?”
Tap to see what changed
WHAT CHANGED
DRAFT ONE · Hire an advisory lead from outside. The firm will need fewer bookkeepers.
DRAFT TWO · Ineke leads, with two colleagues. Nobody leaves because of the change.
SAID · Of forty thank-you emails, thirty-one name one of three colleagues. Ineke is named in nineteen.
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MARLOES
Garden centre owner, a client for 12 years
“I don’t need advice. I need you to ring me before there’s a problem.”
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WHAT CHANGED
DRAFT TWO · Rebuild the firm as an advisory firm.
DRAFT THREE · A firm that calls before the problem hits.
SAID · Thirty-four of forty thank-you emails are for a phone call when something went wrong.
Tap to flip back
The firm after the handover · Draft three
WHAT IS TRUE NOW
4 · SAID · The people clients thank are already doing the work. Of forty thank-you emails, thirty-one name one of three colleagues. Ineke is named in nineteen.
7 · PUBLISHED · AI is already taking routine bookkeeping time, and experience matters more with it. In one study, experienced accountants stepped in more often when the AI signalled it was unsure.
8 · PUBLISHED · Advice is bought where trust already exists. A bookkeeping relationship does not turn into paid advice by itself. OPEN QUESTION · Whether these clients will pay is tested in the first move.
9 · PUBLISHED · Hiring is hard: UWV rates the labour market for accountants and bookkeepers as very tight.
WHAT HAS BECOME POSSIBLE
11 · OUR VIEW · With AI doing the routine work, the firm can give clients more of what they already value: a call before the problem, from someone who knows their books.
THE DIRECTION
15 · OUR VIEW · A firm that calls before the problem hits. AI does the routine bookkeeping, experienced people check it, and the hours it frees go to clients.
16 · SAID · Sanne: nobody leaves because of the change. Roles will change, and each change is decided with the person in that role.
THE FIRST MOVE
20 · OUR VIEW · From March 2027, ten clients get a quarterly check-in call within their current fee. Ineke leads, with two colleagues. Look again in June. If fewer than four of the ten found the call useful, stop or redesign.
AI PHILOSOPHY
21 · SAID · “AI does the counting. We do the noticing. Every figure the AI produces is checked by someone who knows the client.”
STILL OPEN
24 · OPEN QUESTION · Whether clients will pay for the calls once the test ends. Which colleagues want client calls in their role: some chose bookkeeping partly to avoid the phone. Henk’s role after January.
Direction, a first move and an AI philosophy.
WHAT SHE LEFT WITH
The Direction
A firm that calls before the problem hits.
Every client gets a named person who knows their books.
AI keeps the books up to date through the year, so that person sees the numbers move in June, not next spring.
OUR VIEW · DRAFT THREE, LINE 15
The First Move
Ten clients. Quarterly calls.
OWNER · Ineke, with two colleagues
STARTS · March 2027, within the current fee
LOOK AGAIN · June 2027
STOP IF FEWER THAN FOUR OF THE TEN FIND THE CALL USEFUL
The AI Philosophy
AI does the counting. We do the noticing.
-
AI does: entry, reconciliation, first drafts, flagging unusual movements.
-
People always: check every figure; every conversation about money, staff or the future.
-
AI never: contacts a client alone, decides for a client, or sends data outside the firm.
-
Saved time goes: to clients and learning, reported every quarter.
-
Checked: once a year, the team rewrites any commitment that didn’t hold.
SAID · WRITTEN BY SANNE’S TEAM
THE FUTURE DRAFT VIEWPOINT
Within three years, Sanne’s firm can be the place small businesses in the region turn to before they make a money decision.
2027
PROVE IT
Ten clients on quarterly calls, led by Ineke and two colleagues. Bookkeeping moves to AI, with every figure checked. Prices tested; first AI philosophy review in December.
2028
MAKE IT THE FIRM
Every client offered a named person and quarterly calls on one fixed annual fee. A handover service for clients of Henk’s generation. Colleagues who want client roles train into them.
2029
BE KNOWN FOR IT
The same team, most of it in client-facing work. The website, reviews and LinkedIn describe the firm clients already thank: the accountant who rings first.
WHAT WOULD PROVE THIS WRONG
Clients don’t take up the calls. Tested with ten clients by June 2027.
The fee doesn’t cover the time. Prices tested during 2027, before one fixed fee.
Colleagues don’t want the new roles. Each change is decided with the person in that role.
Each is tested before the next step, so Sanne never bets the firm on a guess.
YOUR FUTURE DRAFT
What decision are you facing?
Sanne’s was a handover. Yours might be a strategy, a restructure or a hard choice about AI. Start with a free 30-minute conversation. Afterwards you get a one-pager drawn from the public record and what you told us.
An Individual Future Draft, like Sanne’s, is €950 excl. VAT.
SOURCES
The research in this example
Each source meets our source rules, and figures are quoted as each source reports them. 1. Choi, J. H. and Xie, C. (2025). Human + AI in Accounting: Early Evidence from the Field. Stanford GSB Working Paper No. 4261; MIT Sloan Working Paper 7280-25, May 2025. Not yet peer-reviewed. Field data from 79 firms supplied by a technology company that sells AI accounting software. gsb.stanford.edu 2. Blackburn, R., Carey, P. and Tanewski, G. (2018). Business advice by accountants to SMEs: relationships and trust. Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, 15(3), 358–384. Qualitative study, 20 interviews. doi.org 3. UWV (2025). Ontwikkeling krapte naar beroep 2024–2030, 18 December 2025, table 2.1, p. 6. uwv.nl (PDF) 4. Van Teeffelen, L. and Smit, M. (2026). Kleinbedrijf Index, 19th edition. Qredits, Hogeschool Utrecht and ONL voor Ondernemers. 903 respondents, fieldwork 19 November to 30 December 2025. onl.nl (PDF)
An example Future Draft by Humanum Huis.