Nneelcpa.aiOpen to conversations
Field notes, 2026San Francisco · 37.77° N, 122.42° W

Where debits
meet data.

Currently VP & Corporate Controller at Profound, hand-building the AI agents that run accounting end to end.

PreviouslyCeligo, Hopin, and a decade inside a $3.5B enterprise at Viavi, turning finance into a function that scales.

I believe the close, the audit, and the board deck are all about to change. The tools are the means, not the end. Finance leaders who understand them will decide what happens next.

See the ladder ↓Read & watch
Pearl River
A career in four citiesA line drawing of a journey across four skylines joined by three bridges: New York, the Brooklyn Bridge, Shenzhen, the Shenzhen Bay Bridge, London, Tower Bridge, and San Francisco.fig. 1 — One career around the world
NowBuilding AI agents at Profound/Based in SF/Open to interesting conversations →

§ 01 — AI adoption in accounting

From prompts to agent teams.

Accounting teams don't adopt AI in one jump. They climb. Each rung hands the machine more of the work and asks for a different kind of control from the people who own the numbers. Here is the ladder, and where I'm working on it today.

The AI adoption ladder in accountingSix steps rising left to right: prompting, skills, vibe-coded apps, agents, agent teams, and beyond.01PROMPTING02SKILLS03VIBE-CODED APPS04AGENTS05AGENT TEAMSwhere I work now06BEYOND

fig. 2 — the adoption ladder

01

Prompting

Ask a model, read the answer, paste it where it belongs.

In accounting
Drafting flux commentary, explaining a variance, summarizing a contract clause.
Control you need
A human reads everything, and nothing sensitive goes into a tool you haven't approved.
02

Skills

Write down how your team does it once, and the model does it that way every time.

In accounting
A month-end flux skill that knows your thresholds, your chart of accounts, and your tone. A lease-classification checklist.
Control you need
Version skills like policies, each with an owner and a review date.
03

Vibe-coded apps

Describe the tool you wish existed and get working software in an afternoon.

In accounting
An accrual calculator, a reconciliation matcher, a board-pack builder. No IT ticket, no six-month roadmap.
Control you need
Test against answers you already know, limit data access, and document it like any end-user computing tool.
04

Agents

A model with tools and a goal, working across your systems instead of waiting for your next prompt.

In accounting
Read an invoice, code it, check for duplicates, queue it for approval, and flag whatever looks wrong.
Control you need
Approval thresholds, a complete log of every action, and a person on every exception.
05WHERE I WORK NOW

Agent teams

Specialist agents with a coordinator, each owning a slice of the close, with you reviewing the work instead of doing it.

In accounting
AP, reconciliation, revenue, and treasury agents handing work to one another across your ledger and banks.
Control you need
Segregation of duties between agents, not just between people, and an audit trail an external auditor can actually follow.
Proof
At Profound, a custom AI agent team I hand-built now runs accounts payable and core accounting end to end. In the first six weeks it surfaced more than $5M in unbilled revenue and $150K in erroneous vendor bills.
06

Beyond

A continuous close, agents transacting with vendors, banks, and auditors, and the controller supervising a workforce.

In accounting
Books that are always current. Exceptions arrive as decisions, not as month-end surprises.
Open question
Who attests when no human touched the entry? How does an auditor test an agent? The profession is writing those answers now.

§ 02 — Content

Notes from the close.

Video on YouTube, long-form on Substack, all in one feed. Newest first.

Sample entries. Connect the real feeds in src/data/site.ts.

01

Sample: I let AI agents run accounts payable for a week

What worked, what needed a human, and what I would never automate.

YouTube→02

Sample: The controller's guide to agentic accounting

How to scope, pilot, and control your first AI agent without wrecking your close.

Substack→03

Sample: Treasury, explained for the rest of the company

Why a ladder beats a lump sum, and the questions to ask your bank before you sign.

YouTube→04

Sample: Where AI belongs in the month-end close

A field guide to the five steps worth automating first.

Substack→
All content →

§ 03 — Talks & podcasts

On the record.

Conference stages, webinars, and podcast guest spots, archived with slides and recordings.

MAR 2026
Sample City, USA

SAMPLE — AI Won't Replace Your CPA (But It Will Replace Your Excel Macros)

Sample Finance & AI Summit

talkJAN 2026

SAMPLE — On the Record: Closing the Books with AI

Sample Accounting Podcast

podcastNOV 2025
Webinar

SAMPLE — From outsourced to agent-run finance ops

Sample Finance Leaders Series

webinar
All talks →

§ 04 — Experience

The long way here.

20072011201520192023now

fig. 3 — 2007 → now, to scale · hover or tap a stretch

  • ProfoundVP & Corporate Controller
  • CeligoVP & Corporate Controller
  • HopinDirector, Accounting Transformation → Senior Director, Corporate Controller
  • Viavi Network SolutionsDirector of Transformation & Finance PMO, Global Shared Services, Technical Accounting
  • Ernst & YoungAudit Senior
  • Helping Hands Real EstatePresident & CEO
  • Ernst & YoungAudit Senior
Full résumé →

§ 05 — Contact

Thomas Neel, CPA

Finance · AI agents · Profound · SF

Open to interesting conversations, speaking invitations, and podcast guest spots. Say hello.

EmailThomas@neelcpa.ai↗