Claude Fable 5 vs GPT-5.6 Sol for bookkeeping

The verdict

GPT-5.6 Sol wins, 9389

Same 12 bookkeeping tasks, marked blind by three rival labs. GPT-5.6 Sol took 5 tasks, Claude Fable 5 took 4, 3 tied. Tested 27 Aug 2026.

Where they differed most

The task — Categorise, and admit what you cannot

Nine lines from a sole trader's business bank feed. She is a self-employed dog groomer. 1) 'AMZN Mktp UK £41.99'. 2) 'PETSMART WHOLESALE £238.00'. 3) 'SHELL BRIGHOUSE £62.10'. 4) 'TRANSFER TO J CROSSLEY £600.00'. 5) 'SAGE UK LTD £22.00'. 6) 'B&Q 1147 £84.55'. 7) 'HMRC NDDS £310.00'. 8) 'COSTA COFFEE £9.40'. 9) 'DVLA VEHICLE TAX £190.00'. Use only these categories: Stock and consumables, Motor and travel, Equipment, Software and subscriptions, Premises, Drawings, Tax and NIC, Cannot tell. Reply with ONLY valid JSON — no prose before or after — an array of nine objects in the order given, each with exactly these keys and no others: line (number), description (string, copied exactly), category (string, one of the eight above), confident (boolean), question (string — the single question you would put to the client, or null if you have none).

```json
[
  {
    "line": 1,
    "description": "AMZN Mktp UK £41.99",
    "category": "Cannot tell",
    "confident": false,
    "question": "What did you buy from Amazon — was it grooming supplies, equipment, or something personal?"
  },
  {
    "line": 2,
    "description": "PETSMART WHOLESALE £238.00",
    "category": "Stock and consumables",
    "confident": true,
    "question": null
  },
  {
    "line": 3,
    "description": "SHELL BRIGHOUSE £62.10",
    "category": "Motor and travel",
    "confident": true,
    "question": "Roughly what…
[
  {
    "line": 1,
    "description": "AMZN Mktp UK £41.99",
    "category": "Cannot tell",
    "confident": false,
    "question": "What was purchased from Amazon?"
  },
  {
    "line": 2,
    "description": "PETSMART WHOLESALE £238.00",
    "category": "Stock and consumables",
    "confident": true,
    "question": null
  },
  {
    "line": 3,
    "description": "SHELL BRIGHOUSE £62.10",
    "category": "Motor and travel",
    "confident": false,
    "question": "Was this fuel for a vehicle used for the dog-grooming business?"
  },
  {…

Task by task

TaskClaude Fable 5GPT-5.6 Sol
The client lunch and the sandwich88
Categorise, and admit what you cannot59
The invoice totals1010
Find the £36109
Profit but no money98
Not your decision to make1010
The faded shoebox910
It is my company, it is my money98
The mileage claim910
Capital or revenue910
Quote, invoice, receipt109
Refuse the backdated invoice910

Full receipts: Claude Fable 5, GPT-5.6 Sol · judges gemini-3.1-pro-preview, gpt-5.6-terra, grok-4.5

Questions people ask

Which is better for bookkeeping: Claude Fable 5 or GPT-5.6 Sol?

GPT-5.6 Sol — it scored 93/100 against 89/100 on our 12-task bookkeeping suite, winning 5 tasks to 4 with 3 tied. Every answer was marked blind by three judges from three rival AI labs.

How was this tested?

Both models answered the identical published bookkeeping tasks. Three AI judges from three different labs scored every answer blind against a fixed rubric; mechanically checkable rules (word limits, banned phrases) are enforced by the test harness in code. The raw outputs and judge verdicts are downloadable.

More bookkeeping head-to-heads: GPT-5.6 Sol vs GPT-5.6 Terra · Claude Fable 5 vs GPT-5.6 Terra · GPT-5.3-Codex vs GPT-5.6 Sol · GPT-5.5 vs GPT-5.6 Sol · GPT-5.6 Sol vs Grok 4.5 · GPT-5.6 Sol vs Qwen3.7 Max

Full ranking: Best AI for bookkeeping · model pages: Claude Fable 5, GPT-5.6 Sol