Tech News: FreshBooks rolls out "Collaborative Accounting"

FreshBooks rolls out "Collaborative Accounting"

Accounting solutions provider FreshBooks rolled out "Collaborative Accounting," a technology-enabled shared workflow between accounting professionals and their clients, which is provided through the FreshBooks platform. It is described as an accounting model focused on business owners completing front-end tasks via the FreshBooks platform, which frees up accountants to apply their expertise to more in-depth advisory work for their clients. Effectively, clients do the pre-accounting tasks while the accountant sticks to the accounting-specific tasks. Within the Collaborative Accounting framework are two regular conversation points: the handover from pre-accounting to accounting tasks and the interpretation of financial information with forward-looking insights after a period close. FreshBooks is offering people hands-on training to implement Collaborative Accounting at their own firms, Collaborative Accounting™ Certification.

Sikich launches data analytics practice

Sikich lobby in Naperville, Illinois

Photo: Matt Stout

Accounting and advisory firm Sikich has added a Data and Analytics offering to its technology services. The new practice will enable clients to derive value from their data assets. The team will provide consulting and solutions spanning data governance and fluency, master data management, information management modernization, advanced analytics, artificial intelligence and more. Sikich has hired data veteran Rick Young to lead the new offering. Young has more than 20 years of experience building successful data practices for companies across industries, including financial services, health care, retail, manufacturing, government and education. He will be joined by John Eisenhauer and Laurel Salo, both data analytics experts in their own right.

Acumatica touts "hundreds" of improvements in latest product update

Cloud ERP business management system provider Acumatica said it has made hundreds of improvements in its latest product release, Acumatica 2023 R2. This includes the addition of Acumatica Payments, an integrated payment processing solution that helps businesses by providing credit card and ACH processing with improved reconciliation, mobile portal payments, click-to-pay and gift cards. Other key 2023 R2 updates include connections between Acumatica and Amazon's Seller Central marketplace, supporting FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) and MFN (Merchant-Fulfilled Network) delivery models; Shopify's new B2B eCommerce functionalities, with support for customer hierarchies and customer price tiers to integrate online sales with Acumatica's back-end fulfillment processes; new web endpoints for Acumatica's Product Configurator, enabling manufacturers to leverage third-party build-to-order solutions; a consolidated account reconciliation retainage invoicing feature, which improves project visibility for construction companies; and a new Manage Sales Allocations screen that streamlines mass stock allocation and deallocation for distributors, retailers and commerce merchants. Acumatica 2023 R2 is generally available today.

Relay offers $100,000 prize in small business contest

Online banking and money management solutions provider Relay has launched the Reasons To Be Profitable Contest. It is awarding $100,000 in cash prizes to entrepreneurs — including a Grand Prize of $50,000. Mike Michalowicz, author of Profit First, will be hosting and helping adjudicate. Relay and Michalowicz are asking companies to share their "why" — the reason they keep up the hustle, inspire their team and trudge through the tough times. The grand prize is $50,000 in cash; Silver Spotlight is $15,000 in cash; Bronze Bonanza is $10,000 in cash; and there will also be 50 cash prizes of $500 in a Lucky Draw. To compete for the Grand Prize, submit entries at this link and complete all of the application steps before the deadline of Nov. 12, 2023. The entry will be evaluated by a panel of judges, and the winners will be hand-picked in a blind judging process (with personally identifiable information removed from the applications). Only those with Relay accounts will be eligible for the Grand Prize. To enter the Lucky Draw, complete Step One on the application page.

Earmark announces new features

CPE-focused podcast app Earmark added several new features as part of its October 2023 update. These include PDF certificates attached to emails for sharing and printing; the ability to create private courses to distribute internal training material and build customized CPE courses for an organization; automatic CPE certificate filing that eliminates the need for manually forwarding certificates to a firm's learning and development coordinator; an enhanced CPE history export that now includes channel names and author details when exporting to Excel; improved deep links that make it easier to open courses directly in the Earmark app on a mobile device; and a clean content filter so people can screen out potentially explicit content.

Bill enhances Accountant Console

Financial operations platform Bill (formerly Bill.com) introduced an enhanced Accountant Console that enables firms to access Bill's integrated financial operations platform of AP, AR, and spend and expense solutions on a single platform. The Accountant Console is intended to be the accountant's home base across Bill's entire product suite to maximize visibility and control across client accounts. Features include the ability for firms to view all their clients' relevant information in one place and directly manage staff roles, access their AP, AR, or spend and expense solutions, and even view credit limits and balances on their clients' behalf; and assign users a role across all Bill's products at the same time. Soon Bill users will also be able to spot missing bills and see future bill predictions with the new Bill Reminders report.

Partnerships, integrations and M&A

Customer experience solutions provider Quadient and Coface, a trade credit insurer, announced a strategic partnership to offer an advanced risk management solution. The new partnership will kick off in France before expanding to the U.S. and U.K. markets. Offered as an additional module for accounts receivable management automation within Quadient's cloud platform, the enriched data and insights provided by Coface will enable companies to establish a more precise financial analysis of their customers, prospects and suppliers. The granular data provided takes into account changing market conditions, company's financial information, sector risk analysis and Coface's data insights. These insights provide real-time credit risk assessment, complementing the information on each direct relationship between a company and its customers. … CPAmerica, Inc. announced that Paro is a new preferred provider for the association. The partnership provides member firms access to Paro's growth platform, bringing together a community of expert talent and businesses to navigate challenges and architect a plan for success. … Big Four firm EY launched a Green Skills Passport in collaboration with Microsoft to help learners aged 16 and over develop skills to find green jobs and pursue opportunities in the growing green economy. The free online program is part of an ongoing social impact collaboration focused on sustainability, science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and upskilling for young people. … Net at Work has acquired NexVue, a leading Acumatica business partner. The move will significantly expand Net at Work's Acumatica enterprise resource planning business and add some of the most experienced Acumatica professionals in the industry to the Net at Work team.

Awards and honors

Big Four firm Deloitte has received multiple awards from the 2023 International Tax Review (ITR) Americas Tax Awards, recognizing the organization's achievements in delivering innovative solutions to clients across the U.S. In addition to being named "Tax Technology Firm of the Year," Deloitte also scooped up top honors for "U.S. Transfer Pricing Firm of the Year," "Tax Compliance and Reporting Firm of the Year," and "Tax Innovator of the Year." … AI finance platform Vic.ai announced its placement on CB Insights' Fintech 100 ranking (previously the Fintech 250), showcasing the 100 most promising private fintech companies of 2023. The company also announced multiple recent industry accolades, as well as a slate of new customers spanning manufacturing, real estate and logistics.

Other news

AP automation solutions provider Stampli has raised $61 million in a Series D venture funding round led by funds managed by Blackstone, with the participation of existing investors Insight Partners, SignalFire, Bloomberg Beta and NextWorld Capital. This latest funding round takes the total amount raised by the company to over $148 million. … Tax technology company Vertex appointed Chirag Patel as chief strategy officer. In this role, he will focus on the advancement of the company's strategy across an expanded global market for tax technology solutions. Patel joins Vertex from Ernst & Young where he was the leader of EY Foundry, a corporate venturing unit responsible for building new software businesses in relevant markets. Patel has also held leadership positions at Highnote Foundry, IBM, Merrill Lynch Capital Markets and Oracle Consulting. … Accounting software company LeaseCrunch announced its upcoming webinar, "ASC 842 Practical Insights: Navigating Reassessments, Remeasurements, Modifications and Terminations." The webinar will take place on Oct. 17 at 1:00 p.m. CDT and is designed to provide best practices and tactical strategies to help participants navigate Day 2 lease accounting successfully.