Accountants
ChatGPT for Irish accountants: PPS numbers stay on your PC
Work through payroll, RCT queries and Form 11 notes with ChatGPT, Claude or Copilot. PPSNs, Tax Reference Numbers and IBANs are covered before the paste.
No sign-up, no card · Installs in a minute
One tool for every file the practice runs through AI
Payroll queries, Revenue letters, trial balances and client IDs: Nonimo covers client details at every desk in the practice.
A made-up payroll query sits in the centre, its employee details hidden by Nonimo. Around it, four ways the practice uses it: a key press in Outlook or Excel, ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini reached through the Chrome and Safari extension, ledgers and tax workings, and client passports for onboarding.
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Highlight the payroll query, press one key and the employee is [PERSON_1] before AI reads it.
See it on an email → -
Trial balances in Excel, Form 11 workings in PDF: uploaded with the client details covered.
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Paste a Revenue letter in Chrome or Safari: the extension, with the app, covers the client first.
About the extension → -
For the AML file on a new client, keep only what the file needs on the copy, plus a watermark.
Redact a passport → -
Got applications that talk to an AI over its API? Nonimo Gateway sits on a server you control and strips the personal data from every request first.
See how the Gateway works →
[nonimo]
Email · Outlook
As you typed it
Payslip query for Ms Aoibhe Carrowmenagh, our ref. PAY-2026-0318.
What reaches the AI
Payslip query for Ms [PERSON_1], our ref. [REFERENCE_1].
payroll.xlsx · row 14
As you typed it
Employee: Tadhg Knockavilla · PPSN: 0000000X · Email: t.knockavilla@example.net
What reaches the AI
Employee: [PERSON_1] · PPSN: [REFERENCE_1] · Email: [EMAIL_1]
Nonimo Gateway
As you typed it
Write back to Pádraig Lissadorn at p.lissadorn@example.com and confirm his new payment plan.
What reaches the AI
Write back to [PERSON_1] at [EMAIL_1] and confirm his new payment plan.
Passport · data page
The AI never sees your dataReversibleNo cloud involved
Ask about the tax point, not the client
The AI works with labels, and the answer lands back on your screen with the client's details in place, ready to go out under the practice's name.
Two scenes. First, in ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini through the browser extension: a request for a Revenue reply, a payroll note or a pay-and-file reminder goes in with a made-up client's name, email or PPSN alongside the practice's own reference. Each of those becomes a label before the AI reads it, and the AI answers using the labels. A single click copies the answer back with the genuine details, shown in a panel beneath. Second, the key, from Outlook or Word: an email from a sole trader is covered, pasted into an AI assistant, and the next press copies the reply back with the genuine details.
Draft a reply to Revenue asking for 30 more days to send the records. Client: Gráinne Tullyvarraghan[PERSON_1] Email: g.tullyvarraghan@example.com[EMAIL_1] Our ref: TAX-2026-0571[REFERENCE_1]
Dear Sir or Madam, On behalf of our client Gráinne Tullyvarraghan[PERSON_1], we ask for a further 30 days to provide the records requested. Please reply to g.tullyvarraghan@example.com[EMAIL_1], quoting TAX-2026-0571[REFERENCE_1].
Dear Sir or Madam, On behalf of our client Gráinne Tullyvarraghan[PERSON_1], we ask for a further 30 days to provide the records requested. Please reply to g.tullyvarraghan@example.com[EMAIL_1], quoting TAX-2026-0571[REFERENCE_1].
The client's details are back in place, ready to go out.Write a short note for the client on whether the March bonus went through PAYE correctly. Employee: Pádraig Lisheenbawn[PERSON_1] PPSN: 0000000X[REFERENCE_1] Ref.: PAY-2026-0233[REFERENCE_2]
Payroll note PAY-2026-0233[REFERENCE_2] The March bonus for Pádraig Lisheenbawn[PERSON_1] (PPSN 0000000X[REFERENCE_1]) was put through PAYE, USC and PRSI in the normal way. No correction is needed on the next run.
Payroll note PAY-2026-0233[REFERENCE_2] The March bonus for Pádraig Lisheenbawn[PERSON_1] (PPSN 0000000X[REFERENCE_1]) was put through PAYE, USC and PRSI in the normal way. No correction is needed on the next run.
The client's details are back in place, ready to go out.Write a friendly reminder that the Form 11 and preliminary tax are due this autumn. Client: Eimear Corrabaun[PERSON_1] Email: eimear.corrabaun@example.org[EMAIL_1] Client ref: F11-2026-0148[REFERENCE_1]
To: eimear.corrabaun@example.org[EMAIL_1] Dear Eimear Corrabaun[PERSON_1], A quick reminder that your Form 11 and preliminary tax are due this autumn (ref. F11-2026-0148[REFERENCE_1]). Send on any receipts this week and we will have the return ready to file on ROS.
To: eimear.corrabaun@example.org[EMAIL_1] Dear Eimear Corrabaun[PERSON_1], A quick reminder that your Form 11 and preliminary tax are due this autumn (ref. F11-2026-0148[REFERENCE_1]). Send on any receipts this week and we will have the return ready to file on ROS.
The client's details are back in place, ready to go out.Draft a reply to Revenue asking for 30 more days to send the records. Client: Gráinne Tullyvarraghan[PERSON_1] Email: g.tullyvarraghan@example.com[EMAIL_1] Our ref: TAX-2026-0571[REFERENCE_1]
Write a short note for the client on whether the March bonus went through PAYE correctly. Employee: Pádraig Lisheenbawn[PERSON_1] PPSN: 0000000X[REFERENCE_1] Ref.: PAY-2026-0233[REFERENCE_2]
Write a friendly reminder that the Form 11 and preliminary tax are due this autumn. Client: Eimear Corrabaun[PERSON_1] Email: eimear.corrabaun@example.org[EMAIL_1] Client ref: F11-2026-0148[REFERENCE_1]
Hi, I've had a letter from Revenue about my 2025 return, client ref. TAX-2026-0612[REFERENCE_1]. Could you have a look and email me at s.ballyvorneen@example.net[EMAIL_1]? Thanks, Sorcha Ballyvorneen[PERSON_1]
Hi, I've had a letter from Revenue about my 2025 return, client ref. TAX-2026-0612[REFERENCE_1]. Could you have a look and email me at s.ballyvorneen@example.net[EMAIL_1]? Thanks, Sorcha Ballyvorneen[PERSON_1]
Hi Sorcha Ballyvorneen[PERSON_1], Thanks for sending it on. We'll check the letter against your 2025 return (our ref. TAX-2026-0612[REFERENCE_1]) and come back to you at s.ballyvorneen@example.net[EMAIL_1] by Friday.
Hi Sorcha Ballyvorneen[PERSON_1], Thanks for sending it on. We'll check the letter against your 2025 return (our ref. TAX-2026-0612[REFERENCE_1]) and come back to you at s.ballyvorneen@example.net[EMAIL_1] by Friday.
The client's details are back in place, ready to go out.The payroll query, with and without the key
The PPS number, the VAT number and the IBAN turn into markers. The PAYE question on the March bonus goes through untouched.
Before: what gets pasted
Payroll query for March Employee PPS number 0000000X Employer VAT number IE1234567WH Net pay transferred to IE29 AIBK 9311 5212 3456 78 Can you check the PAYE on the March bonus?
After: what the AI receives
Payroll query for March Employee PPS number [REFERENCE_1] Employer VAT number [REFERENCE_2] Net pay transferred to [IBAN_1] Can you check the PAYE on the March bonus?
What the CCAB-I alert asks of a practice
The technical alert calls for personal data to stay out of AI tools. Nonimo takes it out at the desk, so staff keep the AI they already know.
For every desk in the practice
Start with the partner or manager already drafting with ChatGPT, then bring in the rest once you've seen it work.
Set up in a minute
Put the app on one Mac or Windows PC and run a payroll query you make up through it.
Every PC in one go
Your IT provider pushes the extension to each machine by policy, so pastes are covered without a key press.
Simple to review
Whoever looks after data protection sees exactly what is covered before the next partners' meeting.
The detail for the practice
What a payroll query carries, the CCAB-I prohibition, the Institute's first policy question, and the cost.
ChatGPT in an accountancy practice: what the payroll query carries
Chartered Accountants Ireland’s August guide on AI in accounting names the everyday risk: copying sensitive data into an AI system to get a draft. In a practice, that’s the payroll query, the notes behind a Form 11 or a CT1, an RCT query on a subcontractor, or a reply to Revenue.
The risk comes out of the ordinary run of the day rather than bad intent, and every one of those carries numbers. The payroll query has the employee’s PPS number, the ROS notice the Tax Reference Number, the VAT3 working the client’s VAT number, the refund email an IBAN. They’re the lines nobody reads twice by the fourth draft, and the ones a CCAB-I alert had in mind. Who may use a PPSN at all is covered in our PPSN guide for Irish businesses.
So can accountants use ChatGPT for this kind of work? They can, if the personal data doesn’t travel with the question. Read literally, the prohibition leaves a practice two options: stop using the tool, or keep the identifiers out of it. Nonimo is the second option, carried out on the machine on the desk before anybody pastes a thing.
Accountants and ChatGPT: what arrives once the key is pressed
It all happens on the PC or Mac in front of you: your text is redacted on your computer and never reaches us. More on our security page.
Highlight the passage and hit the key; ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot or something else, the tab makes no odds. You see everything: every redacted detail is marked on screen and comes back with one click. The real numbers go back into the reply when it arrives.
The payroll query alongside is invented from start to finish, and none of its three numbers reaches the tab. The PPS number, the VAT number and the IBAN are covered in view, and the question about the March bonus goes through untouched.
Can accountants use ChatGPT under the CCAB-I prohibition?
The CCAB-I, which is Chartered Accountants Ireland and ACCA together, published its technical alert on a firm’s AI policy in February 2025, and the line quoted here is the one that bites.
The same alert says whatever goes in must not breach any duty of confidentiality. It doesn’t mention enterprise licences, vendors or retention once: the prohibition is on the data. That matters when a partner asks whether the Copilot licence covers it, and which Copilot the practice actually has is worth checking first.
The Institute’s August guide does describe working through a controlled enterprise environment, a sensible control. The same guide also counts client data used in an AI system outside the organisation’s control, shadow AI, as a threat of its own.
So how does a practice keep that line and still use the tool? The honest route is for the PPS number, the VAT number and the IBAN not to be in what reaches the AI system. The salary figure and the question still are, because that’s what you wanted help with. And the Code of Ethics duty stays yours: the guide applies it to any data shared with AI systems.
An accountants’ AI policy for ChatGPT: the Institute’s first question
Before anything goes into an AI tool, the Institute’s guide asks four questions, and the first is whether any of the data is identifiable, sensitive or confidential. Nonimo shrinks the honest answer to that one.
The substance of the client’s affairs still goes, and a colleague judges whether it points to them. A client’s passport scan from the identity check is no part of that, and if one has to travel at all, watermark the passport copy first. Say so to the client in the letter of engagement.
That’s why a practice AI policy needs a rule people can see working at the desk. Nothing is held back: every covered detail is marked on screen, and sending remains your colleague’s decision.
More guidance is on the way. The CCAB published an exposure draft of a statement to the profession on the ethical use of AI in July 2026, and Chartered Accountants Ireland has asked its members to help shape it. Its paragraph on confidentiality goes further than the alert: client or any sensitive data should never be put into an AI tool without specific consent. Until the final text is out, the alert and the guide are what a practice policy answers to, alongside the EU AI Act duties in Ireland.
ChatGPT for accountants: cost, and getting it onto the practice’s machines
In most Irish practices, AI for accountants means ChatGPT open in a browser tab, so Nonimo goes on the machines already using it: Windows 10 or 11, or a Mac running macOS 14 or newer.
Whoever does the payroll and the Revenue correspondence is usually the right place to start, since that’s where the PPS numbers live.
Clients asked for photo ID at onboarding can watermark a Passport Card copy with the practice’s name and the month before they send it. Clients with an Irish Residence Permit can mark a copy of their IRP card the same way.
Across the whole practice, IT deploys the browser extension by policy, which covers text pasted into the AI tools before anything is sent; hello@nonimo.ai sets it up. The practical first step is the desks where ChatGPT is already open, rather than a project that waits for a quiet month.
Questions accountants ask us
Does the CCAB-I alert rule out client data in ChatGPT?
Personal data, yes. Its February 2025 technical alert says there must be a prohibition on using personal or sensitive data in AI systems, and that nothing put in may breach a duty of confidentiality. Nonimo covers the PPS number, the VAT number and the IBAN on the practice's own computer, so the question can go without them.
Should the Tax Reference Number on a ROS notice be covered before pasting?
Yes. For an individual client the Tax Reference Number is the PPS number under another heading, so a Notice of Assessment or a letter from Revenue carries it at the top. Nonimo covers it as a marker on the practice's computer, along with the client's name and Eircode, and the figures and the deadline on the notice stay readable.
Isn't a total ban on personal data in AI unworkable?
Read literally, it leaves a practice two options: stop using the tool, or stop the personal data going in. The alert offers no third route and carves out no licence. Nonimo is the second option, done on the machine with one key: the employee's PPS number and the client's VAT number are covered before the paste, and the question itself still arrives.
Is a PPS number more than ordinary personal data?
In one respect, yes: Irish law also limits who may use a PPSN at all, under section 262 of the 2005 Social Welfare Consolidation Act. No Irish decision has yet applied that to a PPS number put into a prompt, so treat it as a risk rather than a settled rule. Nonimo covers the PPS number in plain view, before the prompt goes anywhere.
Can an RCT query go into AI once the subcontractor's PPSN is covered?
That's the sensible order. A query about a deduction rate or a payment notification usually needs the rate, the amounts and the dates, not who the subcontractor is. Nonimo takes out the subcontractor's name and PPS number at the desk, so the question about the RCT rules goes through and the person stays on the practice's file.
What does the AI see once Nonimo has run?
Only placeholders where the client's direct identifiers were: names, PPS and VAT numbers, IBANs and the rest become markers on the practice's own machine. The real details come back when you copy the reply. Taking out the direct identifiers is the first step with any AI tool, and it's the one Nonimo does for you.