Bookkeeping is perhaps the most intimidating word for anyone starting a business in Portugal. Pyotr Kutis, founder of the travel service Onetwotrip, decided something could be done about the chaos — and so FIZ was born. How the “proactive accountant” works, and why Portugal’s complicated system could become the startup’s main competitive advantage — Nika Borisov reports for Xpat.Land.
Portugal has no shortage of problems out of which technology companies could theoretically grow. Yet entrepreneurs don’t always try to solve them. One such problem remains bookkeeping: the country has built a minutely regulated system of tax control, but the tools entrepreneurs are forced to use are still complex and not always clear even to professionals.
This is exactly the problem that Pyotr Kutis ran into — the founder of Onetwotrip, a travel-planning service, and now the creator of FIZ, a service for sole proprietors and small companies that automates invoicing, the preparation of tax returns, and interaction with the Portuguese tax authority.
“When I saw that the accountants helping sole proprietors sometimes don’t even know their own laws and codes, I realized something had to be done about it,” Kutis says.
As an example, he points to a common question about the IVA exemption threshold. An entrepreneur was told he could avoid paying VAT with an annual turnover of up to €13,500 — even though that threshold had already been raised: in 2023 it was €13,500, in 2024 €14,500, and from 2025 it stands at €15,000.
At first glance the mistake seems minor. But for someone making decisions about prices, expenses, and registering in the IVA system, the difference between €13,500 and €15,000 can lead to faulty tax planning.
The Portuguese system requires an invoice for virtually every sale of goods or provision of services. As a general rule, the invoice must be issued no later than the fifth working day after the transaction. If the client pays in advance, or if payment coincides with the moment the tax obligation arises, the document has to be issued on the day the money is received.
Invoices must be sequentially numbered and contain the details of the seller and the buyer, a description of the goods or service, the price, the rate and amount of IVA, or the grounds for exemption from the tax.
The system gives the state detailed information about economic transactions, but for a small entrepreneur it means a constant need to keep track of deadlines, choose the right document, and understand which tax rate to apply. Technically, an invoice can be issued directly through the Portal das Finanças, but its interface is designed primarily for a Portuguese-speaking user and requires at least a basic knowledge of tax terminology.
For a country with a large share of foreign residents, this becomes a barrier of its own. According to FIZ, a significant portion of its audience consists of immigrants — and the government tax portal is effectively geared toward the Portuguese language. That is why the service itself works in six languages and doesn’t just carry out operations but also explains the user’s obligations in plain words.
From invoices to automatic returns
FIZ launched gradually. The first version, which appeared at the end of 2024, focused on issuing certified invoices. At the end of 2025, the company added automatic preparation and filing of quarterly IVA returns, as well as social-security returns. In 2026, the team refined these features and launched an AI-based assistant. FIZ’s software was even certified by the Portuguese tax authority under an official number.
Here is how it works: the user grants the service access to their personal account, after which FIZ can prepare and file returns on their behalf.
According to the founders, the goal isn’t simply to replace the awkward Portal das Finanças interface with a more modern app. The company is building what it calls a proactive accountant.
An ordinary program waits for a person to enter data or ask a question. FIZ is meant to be the first to flag a problem: to ask, for instance, whether a chair was bought for the home or for work; to remind the user that a supplier hasn’t issued an invoice; to explain whether a given expense can be counted; to point out an opportunity to reclaim IVA, or to warn that a filing deadline is approaching.
The AI assistant analyzes the entrepreneur’s tax situation and explains what obligations they have, which expenses can be counted, and where there are legal opportunities for optimization. According to the team, the knowledge base is updated alongside changes to legislation, so the system should account for new rules faster than an accountant who doesn’t follow every amendment to the tax code.
That said, the framing “AI knows more than any accountant” is better understood as the company’s positioning than as a proven fact. Errors are possible even in automated systems, especially when a question calls for an individual interpretation of the law.
“We ate the elephant”
Portugal wasn’t chosen because it’s the easiest place to build an accounting product. The reason was precisely the opposite.
“Portugal has a great many regulations. We, roughly speaking, ate the elephant: we automated the processes on one of the most complex markets in the EU, and now we can start expanding into other countries,” the founder of FIZ says.
This approach defines the company’s strategy. If the system can operate in a market with mandatory invoices, certified software, automatic data transfer, and numerous tax regimes, adapting the product to other countries may prove easier.
FIZ plans to make Spain its next market, with a launch slated for 2027. Entry into France and Germany is planned for 2028.
European regulation is indeed moving toward broader use of structured electronic invoices and digital tax reporting. The VAT in the Digital Age package was adopted by the European Union on March 11, 2025. From July 1, 2030, digital reporting based on mandatory electronic invoices is to apply to cross-border B2B transactions within the EU. States that already have national systems for transmitting transaction data in real time must bring them into line with the pan-European model by January 1, 2035.
This doesn’t mean Spain, France, or Germany will fully copy the Portuguese system. But the general direction of European policy is clear: businesses will increasingly issue structured electronic invoices, and tax authorities will receive transaction data faster.
For FIZ, this creates a potentially large market. The problem the company originally set out to solve for Portuguese sole proprietors is gradually becoming a pan-European one.
€1.5 million without a venture fund
To date, roughly €1.5 million has been invested in FIZ. The money came from the founders, their acquaintances, family members, and private business angels; institutional venture funds have not yet invested in the project.
Forgoing a venture fund at this stage is a deliberate decision by the team. An early round at a low valuation would have forced the founders to give investors too large a share of the business.
FIZ intends first to grow its revenue and the company’s value. According to the founder, it makes sense to discuss a venture round of €1–2 million once the business is valued at at least €50 million: in that case the company could raise capital without excessively diluting the stakes of existing shareholders.
15,000 sign-ups and 600 paying customers
FIZ’s business model is built on subscriptions. Users can issue invoices for free, and pay a monthly fee for automatic returns, the AI accountant, and additional features.
According to the company, more than 15,000 users are registered with FIZ. Several thousand of them use the service regularly to issue invoices, and around 600 customers have already bought a paid subscription. Invoices worth more than €10 million a month pass through the system. About 75% of the company’s customers are sole proprietors, and roughly 25% are companies.
FIZ plans to reach operational break-even in 2026. This is an important detail: unlike a “growth at any cost” model, FIZ is trying first to prove that the business can survive on subscription revenue, and only then to discuss major outside financing.
Bookkeeping without fear
FIZ’s most ambitious goal has to do neither with invoices nor even with artificial intelligence. “We’re trying to kill people’s fear of bookkeeping,” the company’s founder says.
For many young entrepreneurs, words like “debit,” “credit,” “IVA,” and “tax return” sound like a special language accessible only to professionals. A person knows how to make furniture, build websites, or run tours, but doesn’t understand why, having made a chair, they have to add 23% IVA to its price, when that tax must be remitted to the state, and which expenses can be deducted.
FIZ wants to hide that complexity behind an ordinary human conversation. A user doesn’t have to understand how a return is structured: the app should gather the necessary data itself, ask clarifying questions, and explain the result.
“There’s no need to be afraid of bookkeeping. We’ll do everything for you and explain it in plain human language. If a question comes up, the proactive accountant will ask it itself,” the founder sums up the idea.
In this sense, FIZ represents a new generation of startups that use artificial intelligence not to create a new need, but to simplify one of the oldest and most unpleasant parts of doing business.
The company grew out of the shortcomings of the Portuguese system: complex regulation, an inconvenient government portal, the language barrier, and the uneven quality of accounting services. But it is precisely these shortcomings that may become its main advantage. Having mastered one of the most heavily regulated markets in Europe, FIZ hopes to turn a local solution into an international product.
