The product is being tested by owners and their accountants. Xero anticipates general availability later this year.

The New Zealand-based company says the system's statistical analysis means it can learn to apply invoices against the proper accounts. The company's example is that the software, not the business owner, will take care of filing an invoice against Sales-Labor instead of Sales Material and will automatically suggest the proper account code.

The company quoted one business partner, Andrew Erkins, about the impact of machine learning. Erkins, director of business development and technology at Perth, Australia-based Digit Books, said: "Before we work with a client, we always review their balance sheet to see if items are correctly allocated. They very rarely are, and so a lot of our time is spent playing catch-up, fixing errors. Xero's machine learning can help us spend less time on these low value exercises, and more time adding value to our clients by providing expert advice."