From 30 Minutes to 2: How Arass Consultants Turned Data Entry Into Advisory Time

The Challenge: Drowning in Paper

Arass Consultants Sdn Bhd serves hundreds of clients across taxation, accounting, and audit in Malaysia. Their tax advisory expertise was in high demand, but the bookkeeping side of the business had become a bottleneck.

Clients would arrive with the classic shoebox problem—folders stuffed in boxes, paper documents sticking together, invoices in both Malay and English. Every line item had to be manually keyed: description, quantity, amount, total. Not just purchase invoices, but sales invoices, bank statements, and hire purchase documents too.

"You're not talking about just one folder, you're talking about several folders in different boxes. So it does become cumbersome when you're trying to deal with a lot of folders at the same time."
— Iqbal Rahman, Arass Consultants

Managing multiple companies simultaneously compounded the problem. Human error was inevitable—clerical mistakes that would change figures in the balance sheet, requiring time-consuming revisions and damaging client trust.

The Shift: From Typing to Advising

Malaysia's compliance landscape has tightened significantly. Running a company now means navigating more regulations while costs of services and goods have increased. Business owners need faster, more accurate financial decisions—whether investing in new machinery or hiring staff.

This created a pull factor for Iqbal and his team. They wanted to move into higher-level accounting work—advising clients on compliance needs rather than being trapped in manual data entry.

"I don't think manual entry is what we are here for. A lot of clients out there are looking for advisory work."
— Iqbal Rahman

The Solution: A Three-Step Workflow

After evaluating several AI options, Arass Consultants chose Tofu for its accuracy and extraction speed. The workflow simplified dramatically:

1. Upload — Save the document to their digital file and upload to Tofu

2. Review — Check what Tofu has scanned and extracted

3. Approve — Push directly to Xero

"Saying it was easy was an understatement."
— Iqbal Rahman, on onboarding

The Transformation: From 30 Minutes to 2 Minutes

The impact was most visible with bank statements. A typical 10-page statement with 20-30 transactions per page—200 to 300 line items total—would take at least 30 minutes of focused typing. With Tofu, the same document processes in about 2 minutes.

"Before this, if a client were to have 10 pages of bank statements with 20 or 30 lines in each of them... what I would say would take about 30 minutes at best. It would simply take about two minutes by using Tofu."
— Iqbal Rahman

But the real transformation wasn't just about speed. It was about what the team could now do with their time.

Team Impact: Learning Instead of Chasing

Arass Consultants' five bookkeepers are now able to collaborate more meaningfully with supervisors. Instead of rushing to enter data as quickly as possible, they have time to ask questions about better accounting methods. They can focus on what's best for clients' tax compliance, audit needs, and financial positioning.

"This AI feature is just like another intern or perhaps like a full-time staff. When you key in and there's error to it, it will learn from it. The more you do, the more knowledge it sucks in."
— Iqbal Rahman

The young team—mostly in their early 20s—adapted quickly to Tofu's simple interface. With limited buttons and clear navigation, onboarding was straightforward for anyone familiar with modern software.

Better Relationships, Not Just Faster Processing

With the manual burden lifted, Arass Consultants can now focus on what their clients actually need: proactive advice about compliance, tax planning, and financial decision-making.

"Clients are much more appreciative of our effort when we focus more on the relationship, the face-to-face relationship, rather than 'okay, here's our shoebox file, help us key in, that's about it.'"
— Iqbal Rahman

For Other Firms Considering Tofu

Iqbal's advice to other accounting firms is simple:

"Give it a shot. It will definitely leave a lot more room to do higher-level work like advisory. Lessen the work on manual labor and focus more on advisory. And one way to do it—the biggest way to do it right now—would be definitely by using artificial intelligence."
— Iqbal Rahman, Arass Consultants