Product
How Cast & Rule works
Cast & Rule prepares a piece of client work, checks it against your rules and holds it for a named partner, who decides. This page walks you through it.
Casting, the Clerk's half
The Clerk prepares. A partner rules. Nothing goes to a client or HMRC without that ruling.
Sources gathers
The client's records, from an export or a read-only connection to Xero, Microsoft 365, Companies House or HMRC.
Workpapers drafts
A working-paper template turns the records into a first draft: a quarterly update, a pack, a letter.
Rules check
Your firm's rules decide which tasks may run and on which sources. Anything odd is flagged in plain words.
The column is cast
The totals are added up and a single line drawn. The work is labelled Prepared, never Ruled.
Cast, then rule
The ledger comes alive
Scroll through one client's quarter. The hand-written column becomes prepared work: drafted, checked and added up by the machine, with a single line over the total. The double line beneath it belongs to the partner.
The ledger at the top of this page is the finished result. The steps below show how it was prepared, and the Ledger lists each entry as it is posted.
- Your ledgerThe work starts where it always has: a client's figures, inside your practice.
- DraftedCast & Rule drafts each line from the client's records and posts the draft to the Ledger.
- CheckedEvery line is checked. Anything odd is flagged in plain words.
- CastThe column is added up and a single line drawn over the total. The work is Prepared, shown in grey, because no one has decided anything yet.
- For rulingThe double line is the partner's to draw. The work waits until a named partner rules it off.
The LedgerEach step posted to the record
- Drafted 4 lines from client records
- Checks complete · 0 exceptions
- Column cast · total held in workpaper · Prepared
- Sent for ruling · awaiting A. Bennett FCA
Ruling, the partner's half
The partner sees a queue of work waiting for a decision, with the evidence beside each item: what it would do, where data would go and what happened during the run. The decision says what it covers and what follows from it.Approval is never a drag, a tick box or a strike-through.
The machine never rules. Work waits at Awaiting partner until a named partner decides.
Prepared, then presented
Ready for your judgement.
A management pack. A client chase. An advisory note. Prepared and checked, with room for the person who knows the client.
A day in the practiceHollin & Vey LLP
For ruling
- Checks complete
Management pack
Linden & Moss Architects LLP
Quarterly figures assembled for review.
WP / 026 · 4 source documents - Checks complete
Chase email
Rowe Garden Design
A draft request for outstanding records.
WP / 027 · Draft only - Checks complete
Advisory note
Skelwith Joinery Ltd
Cash-flow observations from the quarter's figures.
WP / 028 · Sources attached
The partner's journey
Read it step by step, as a table
| Step | What the partner sees |
|---|---|
| The Desk | A "Needs your ruling" queue, deadlines coming up, recent work and one summary line. |
| Ruling | Client, period, who prepared it, what was flagged, how long it has waited and the decision asked for. |
| Evidence | What it would do, where data would go, the Ledger entry and what happened during the run. |
| Decision | What it covers and what follows, in words. The partner rules. |
| The Ledger | A read-only record of who did what, and when. Filter it by person, event and date. |
How it is layered
Five layers, each with one job. The partner sits at the top.
Every piece waits at Awaiting partner until a named partner rules.
- Your dataKept in the Strongroom, in an encrypted compartment for each client.
- The modelRuns on local hardware your practice controls, on macOS. Each task is tested against named model versions, and a new version goes live only after you approve it.
- RulesYour AI-use policy, applied as permissions on each task.
- The LedgerA record of what the AI did, with each entry locked to the one before it.
- Partner rulingThe only layer that can release work.
The vocabulary
Words used across the product, each defined once.
- Cast
- To add up a column of figures. In Cast & Rule, the machine preparing the work.
- Rule off
- To draw a single line over a total and a double line under it, so the figure is final. In Cast & Rule, the partner's decision.
- Prepared
- Machine work that is finished and checked, waiting for a decision. Shown in grey, never in the partner colour.
- Ruled
- Kept for a partner's recorded decision, which carries a name, a qualification and a time.
- The Desk
- The partner's home: work needing a ruling, deadlines and recent activity.
- Workpapers
- Working-paper templates the Clerk prepares from.
- Schedules
- Jobs that run to a timetable, such as a per-client MTD tracker.
- Sources
- Read-only connections to the client's records.
- The Strongroom
- An encrypted compartment for each client, on local hardware the practice controls.
- Rules
- The firm's AI-use policy, applied as permissions on each task.
- Ruling
- The partner sign-off queue.
- The Ledger
- The record of what the AI did. Each entry is locked to the one before it, so a later change to a checked record shows up.
Questions partners ask
Questions about the Clerk and the Ledger
What does the Clerk do?
The Clerk is the working name for Cast & Rule's assistant. It prepares. It gathers the client's records through Sources, drafts from your Workpapers, runs within your rules and adds up the column. It never decides. Its work ends at Prepared and waits for a named partner.
Can the Clerk send anything to a client or to HMRC?
Not on its own. Each action that sends to, writes to or files with an outside system needs a named partner's ruling on that exact action. Every demonstration stops at Awaiting partner.
What goes into the Ledger?
The kind of each action, its size and a fingerprint of its content, never the content itself. It covers every AI action, including reads, look-ups and rulings. Each entry is linked to the one before it, so the Ledger reveals changes to entries our service has already checked. It reveals tampering rather than preventing it.
Does it replace our practice software?
No. It works alongside the ledger and tax software you already use, starting from an export or a read-only connection. You keep submitting to HMRC through your existing MTD-recognised software.
What does "cast and rule" mean?
To cast a column is to add it up. To rule it off is to draw a single line over the total and a double line under it, so the figure is final. AI does the adding up. You make it final.
One practice first
Start with one workflow, over six weeks, with us alongside
Five screens from a partner's day. No sales call.