DeepSeek V4 Pro vs GLM 5.2 for bookkeeping

The verdict

GLM 5.2 wins, 8170

Same 12 bookkeeping tasks, marked blind by three rival labs. GLM 5.2 took 5 tasks, DeepSeek V4 Pro took 0, 7 tied. Tested 18 Aug 2026.

Where they differed most

The task — The client lunch and the sandwich

Guidance excerpt: 'VAT incurred on business entertainment provided to people who are not employees cannot normally be reclaimed as input tax. VAT on subsistence — reasonable meals and drinks for employees, or for the business owner, while travelling on business — can normally be reclaimed if you hold a valid VAT invoice. Where one bill covers both employees and non-employees, only the employee element may be reclaimed. A card receipt that does not show the supplier VAT number is not a valid VAT invoice.' The situation: Ray runs a VAT-registered building firm. In March he has two receipts. One is £86.40 for lunch with a prospective client, at which he also ate; it is a card slip with no VAT number on it. The other is £14.20 for his own sandwich and coffee at a motorway services on the way to a site 90 miles away, with a full VAT receipt. Answer using only the excerpt above — your answer is marked against that excerpt, not against outside knowledge. Take each receipt in turn, say what happens to the VAT and to the cost itself in the books, and say plainly which point here is one to put to his accountant rather than settle from the excerpt.

**Receipt 1: £86.40 lunch with a prospective client (Ray also ate) – card slip, no VAT number**

- **VAT:** No input tax can be reclaimed. The card slip does not show the supplier’s VAT number, so it is not a valid VAT invoice. Additionally, the meal is business entertainment provided to a non-employee, which cannot normally be reclaimed.
- **Cost in the books:** The full £86.40 is treated as a business expense (entertainment). The irrecoverable VAT is simply part of that cost.

**Receipt 2: £14.20 sandwich and coffee at motorway services (trav…
GLM 5.210/10
**Receipt 1: £86.40 for lunch with a prospective client (card slip with no VAT number)**
*   **The VAT:** The VAT cannot be reclaimed. The excerpt states that VAT on business entertainment for non-employees cannot normally be reclaimed, and that a card receipt without a supplier VAT number is not a valid VAT invoice. Because it is not a valid VAT invoice, no VAT can be reclaimed even for the employee (Ray) element of the bill.
*   **The cost itself:** The excerpt does not state what happens to the underlying cost in the books. 

**Receipt 2: £1…

Task by task

TaskDeepSeek V4 ProGLM 5.2
The client lunch and the sandwich510
Categorise, and admit what you cannot810
The invoice totals1010
Find the £3633
Profit but no money88
Not your decision to make88
The faded shoebox88
It is my company, it is my money78
The mileage claim88
Capital or revenue88
Quote, invoice, receipt68
Refuse the backdated invoice58

Full receipts: DeepSeek V4 Pro, GLM 5.2 · judges claude-sonnet-5, gemini-3.1-pro-preview, gpt-5.6-terra

Questions people ask

Which is better for bookkeeping: DeepSeek V4 Pro or GLM 5.2?

GLM 5.2 — it scored 81/100 against 70/100 on our 12-task bookkeeping suite, winning 5 tasks to 0 with 7 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: GLM 5.2 vs GPT-5.6 Sol · DeepSeek V4 Pro vs GPT-5.6 Sol · GLM 5.2 vs GPT-5.5 · DeepSeek V4 Pro vs GPT-5.5 · GLM 5.2 vs Grok 4.5 · DeepSeek V4 Pro vs Grok 4.5

Full ranking: Best AI for bookkeeping · model pages: DeepSeek V4 Pro, GLM 5.2