About

The person who maps your workflows builds your agents.

FiveForward builds AI agents inside your Microsoft 365 for accountancy and professional services firms, and trains a few of your team to build their own. No handoffs and no account managers.

James Wilkinson, founder of FiveForward
James Wilkinson, founder

About FiveForward

FiveForward is a UK AI agent consultancy based in Colchester, Essex. We design and build AI agents and automations inside a firm's own Microsoft 365, using Copilot Studio and Power Automate, for accountancy firms and other professional services firms of around 10 to 200 people. Our agents start on a trigger, such as an email arriving, a meeting ending or a report being exported. They do the checking, drafting and filing, then stop for a person at the firm to approve. Engagements usually start with a fixed-price Discover, and we also train a few of the firm's own team to build and run agents. FiveForward was founded by James Wilkinson.

Why accountancy first

The same admin comes up in every practice.

Whatever the size of the firm or the software it runs on, the same jobs take the time. That's why the first six ready-made agents are for accountancy firms. We also work with law firms, financial advisers and insurance brokers of a similar size.

See the accountancy agents
  • WIP and billing

    Aged WIP nobody reviews until month end, and bills that go out late.

  • Onboarding and AML

    New client details typed into four systems, and checks evidenced unevenly.

  • Records chasing

    Request lists in email threads, and chasers written by hand every January.

  • The post

    A daily stack of letters to read, match to a client and file.

  • Meeting notes

    File notes written from memory days later, with the actions typed into three places.

How we work

Five things that hold in every engagement.

01

Fixed prices.

Every piece of work has a fixed price before it starts. Discover is £1,500, credited back once you carry on, and each accountancy agent has its own fixed build price.

02

Built in your Microsoft 365.

Agents are built in your own Microsoft 365, and your own Azure subscription where a job needs it. Not on our servers.

03

A person approves.

You decide what each agent may do on its own and where a person has to approve. By default, anything that goes to a client or raises a bill waits for one of your team.

04

A documented handover.

Every agent is documented so your team can see what it does, where it stops and who owns it, with a short walkthrough for the people who'll approve.

05

We'll tell you when Microsoft already does the job.

Microsoft keeps making Copilot better. Where its own tools already do what you need, we'll say so, even when it costs us the work.

What we don't do

  • Host your data. Your agents run in your own Microsoft 365.
  • Resell licences. You buy Microsoft's licences and usage directly.

James Wilkinson, founder

FiveForward was founded by James Wilkinson, and you deal with James throughout. The person who maps your workflows is the person who builds your agents and trains your team: no handoffs, no account managers.

You get practical delivery and honest advice when the better answer is a workflow fix, some SharePoint work, a plain automation or no agent at all.

FiveForward is based in Colchester, Essex, and works with firms across the UK. Most engagements are hybrid: on-site days when they help the work, remote delivery between them.

James on LinkedIn

Company details

FiveForward Ltd

Registered in
England and Wales
Company number
17377585
Registered office
Wellington House, 90-92 Butt Road, Colchester
Founder
James Wilkinson
Phone
01206 688452

Next step

Talk to James about the admin your team would hand over.

A free 30-minute call with James. No pitch and no obligation.