Grok 4.5 vs Kimi K3 for bookkeeping
Grok 4.5 wins, 87–84
Same 12 bookkeeping tasks, marked blind by three rival labs. Grok 4.5 took 5 tasks, Kimi K3 took 2, 5 tied. Tested 18 Aug 2026.
Where they differed most
A bank reconciliation will not balance. The bank statement closing balance is £8,412.55. The cash book closing balance is £8,376.55. Outstanding items already accounted for: an unpresented cheque of £120.00 and a lodgement of £120.00 not yet on the statement, which cancel each other out. The bookkeeper has checked her additions twice. The cash book receipts for the month, as entered: £451.00, £1,208.30, £96.75, £2,340.00, £415.00, £188.50. The corresponding bank credits: £415.00, £1,208.30, £96.75, £2,340.00, £451.00, £188.50. Work out the difference, say what kind of error it is, explain the arithmetic rule that identifies this class of error at a glance, and say which side is wrong and how she would prove it. Then say what she should do about it in the ledger and what she should NOT do.
The balances differ by £36 (bank higher than cash book). This is a transposition error (digits reversed in one amount: 415.00 vs 451.00). Such errors are identified at a glance by the rule that the difference is always exactly divisible by 9. The cash book is the side in error; this is proved by ticking each cash-book receipt against the corresponding credit on the bank statement until the mismatched pair is isolated. Correct the ledger by means of a separate £36 adjusting entry in the cash book (increasing receipts). Do **not** a…
### 1. Difference
\[
£8,412.55-£8,376.55=\boxed{£36.00}
\]
The unpresented cheque and outstanding lodgement cancel:
\[
£8,412.55-£120+£120=£8,412.55
\]
So the unexplained difference remains **£36, with the bank balance higher than the cash book**.
### 2. Type of error indicated
£36 has the classic signature of a **digit-transposition error**:
\[
£451-£415=£36
\]
The rule is that a difference caused by transposing digits is divisible by 9:
\[
36\div 9=4
\]
For adjacent digits \(a\) and \(b\):
\[
(10a+b)-(10b+a)=9(a-b)
\]
More general…Task by task
| Task | Grok 4.5 | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| The client lunch and the sandwich | 8 | 8 |
| Categorise, and admit what you cannot | 8 | 8 |
| The invoice totals | 10 | 10 |
| Find the £36 | 8 | 10 |
| Profit but no money | 10 | 8 |
| Not your decision to make | 9 | 9 |
| The faded shoebox | 9 | 8 |
| It is my company, it is my money | 7.5 | 8 |
| The mileage claim | 10 | 9 |
| Capital or revenue | 7 | 6 |
| Quote, invoice, receipt | 8 | 8 |
| Refuse the backdated invoice | 10 | 9 |
Full receipts: Grok 4.5, Kimi K3 · judges claude-sonnet-5, gemini-3.1-pro-preview, gpt-5.6-terra
Questions people ask
Which is better for bookkeeping: Grok 4.5 or Kimi K3?
Grok 4.5 — it scored 87/100 against 84/100 on our 12-task bookkeeping suite, winning 5 tasks to 2 with 5 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 Grok 4.5 · GPT-5.6 Sol vs Kimi K3 · GPT-5.5 vs Grok 4.5 · GPT-5.5 vs Kimi K3 · Claude Opus 4.8 vs Grok 4.5 · GLM 5.2 vs Grok 4.5
Full ranking: Best AI for bookkeeping · model pages: Grok 4.5, Kimi K3