Tech News: Ignition introduces instant billing, aims to monetize scope creep

Ignition introduces instant billing, aims to monetize scope creep

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Ignition launched an instant billing feature. Users can bill for ad hoc or out-of-scope work that sits outside the existing client agreement, and get paid through automatic collection without creating a new proposal or client agreement. Instant Bill expands on Ignition's recently released Service Edits feature, which adjusts the scope for existing client engagements, such as changing the price, quantity and billing of agreed services after a client has accepted the proposal.

Forvis launches NetSuite tech consulting practice

The Forvis building in Springfield, Missouri

Courtesy of Forvis

Forvis, a Top 10 Firm, has added a NetSuite technology consulting practice. The partnership includes two programs: NetSuite BPO, designed for NetSuite partners who offer business process outsourcing to their clients (sometimes called business processes as a service, or BPaaS), and Solution Provider, designed for partners who assess, design and implement the NetSuite ERP suite for clients. The practice will offer services ranging from initial platform assessments and planning to implementations and ongoing support. Emphasis will be placed on helping clients overcome upgrade anxiety and embrace technology changes; advance beyond on-premises, local infrastructure, including aging servers, operating systems and database upgrades; streamline processes through automation; and scale either through the BPO program or internally owned technology.

Grove learning platform launches 2023 WISP Challenge

IRS headquarters in Washington

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Accounting education platform The Grove has launched the 2023 WISP Challenge to help tax and accounting professionals meet the requirements of government regulations such as IRS Publication 4557 on safeguarding client data and the FTC Safeguards Rule, which require tax and accounting professionals to have a written information security plan in place or face noncompliance penalties of up to $43,000 a day. The challenge takes the form of a class called "Complying with IRS Pub 4557 and FTC Safeguards Rule," which allows firms to fast-track compliance by creating a written information security plan. Each enrollee receives two hours of instruction in bite-sized lessons along with over 20 editable templates, policies, checklists and guidelines needed to quickly create their WISP. The master class also features Randy Johnston, shareholder in K2 Enterprises; Andrew Lassise, CEO of Tech4Accountant, and Steve Perkins, CIO of HoganTaylor LLP.

AuditClub announces new alliance model

AuditClub

, an audit service center for CPA firms , announced a new alliance model designed to connect tax and non-attest accountants with AuditClub One assurance professionals to improve service delivery options to clients. Allied firms that do not not hold a CPA license, and therefore cannot deliver assurance or other attest services for clients, can call upon an AuditClub One partner firm to do so for them.

AI solutions

Accounting solutions provider Puzzle debuted AI Categorizer, which automatically categorizes 90% to 95% of a company's transactions without the need for manual rules. For the transactions it doesn't categorize automatically, such as those requiring additional documentation or verification, the program will contact the user via email or notification asking them to explain the transaction, and the user can respond in plain English, after which the AI will categorize it. Puzzle also announced the availability of Auto Accruals, which enables auto-reversing expense accruals based on a cash transaction, with no need for manual journal entry updates. … ECM platform KnowledgeLake announced the immediate availability of the KnowledgeLake StreamLine Solutions suite. At the center of the suite is KnowledgeLake's Intuitive AI. The bot has the ability to automatically summarize, interpret and extract information from documents. It offers a human-like interface that allows users to ask questions about documents or give commands that the AI intuitively responds to without the need for training. It features an interface for enhancing the AI model with customer-specific information for greater document accuracy and to deploy custom workflows. The suite also includes a workflow engine, a customer experience portal that can loop customers into an organization's business processes, and the ability to build and customize forms to collect customer data. … Business automation solutions provider Kognitos unveiled the latest updates to its generative AI automation platform. It includes two major feature announcements in its automation platform: Self Service for All and Human Language Interpreter 2.0. Kognitos Self-Service for All introduces self-service functionality for business process experts to start building automations. It comes with a generative AI-powered copilot for writing automations in natural-language English. Kognitos' Human Language Interpreter takes human language business processes and understands them "as code." The human language interpreter engages in conversation with the process experts to resolve any cases of ambiguity and avoid the risk of hallucinations and biases while keeping the language of automation natural. … BPM LLP, a Top 50 firm, has created a GPT-4-powered chatbot built by its in-house IT team. BPM's proprietary technology is hosted internally by the firm in its private cloud infrastructure. In its first use case, the chatbot provides team members with real-time regulatory information to support their work on complex projects for clients. … Big Four firm EY has partnered with cybersecurity provider Dell Secureworks to launch Intelligent Extended Detection & Response (IXDR) solution. The solution harnesses AI, machine learning and threat intelligence research to cut response times to potential cyber threats. It offers businesses a unified view of their entire network, leverages AI and machine learning to detect malicious activity, and is optimized to cut down on false positives and only focus on genuine threats.

Partnerships and integrations

Tax compliance platform Avalara announced that the state of Colorado is leveraging Avalara Tax Research to provide the state's tax rates and rules to its more than 300 sales tax jurisdictions. Because Colorado is a "home-rule" state for sales tax, local governments like cities and counties can administer and establish local sales tax rates and rules, creating challenges for businesses when determining sales tax rates and keeping up with changing rate and taxability rules. The news builds on a previous announcement that the company has penned an agreement with the state of Missouri to develop a tax map to help people there navigate the myriad jurisdictions there. … Intelligize, an SEC analytics and research firm, announced a strategic alliance with online accounting education provider GAAP Dynamics. The alliance will integrate GAAP Dynamics' eLearning Library with the Intelligize platform, creating a resource for financial professionals to navigate the complexities of regulatory compliance and financial reporting. … The Pun Group, a CPA firm in California, has selected IRIS Software Group to enhance its practice management functions. … Right Networks, a cloud provider that caters to accounting firms and professionals, announced a partnership with Thomson Reuters to offer cloud hosting of its tax and accounting solutions in the U.S. As part of the multi-year collaboration, tax and accounting professionals can leverage Right Networks' cloud hosting with Thomson Reuters' software suite, including UltraTax CS and SurePrep.

Other news

Lease optimization software provider VisualLease announced the appointment of Gene Cook as its first vice president of global partners. Cook joins the VL leadership team to lead the company's growing network of global partners made up of accounting firms, professional services organizations, commercial real estate firms and solution providers. Prior to joining VL, Cook held various leadership positions at other software organizations, including Coupa Software and Concur Technologies. … April Tax Solutions, a tax software provider, announced new hires joining the leadership team, including Christina Taylor, vice president of tax development and delivery, and Antonea Nabors, product design lead. Taylor recently served as head of product operations at Cash App Taxes. She will report to April's CTO and co-founder, Daniel Marcous, and work closely with April's tax and engineering teams to enhance April's suite of tax products including estimation and optimization. Nabors comes to April from Calibrate where she served as director of product design. … Cloud-based audit platform AuditBoard announced the appointment of Haibei (Happy) Wang to its executive leadership team as AuditBoard's chief development officer. Wang will lead the company's engineering and IT organizations. Before joining AuditBoard, Wang served as chief technology officer at Everbridge, where she led worldwide product development, data, and artificial intelligence and machine learning teams. Prior to Everbridge, she spent more than 20 years in technology leadership roles within public and private technology companies, including ServiceNow, PayPal, Globality and AccelOps/Fortinet.

Tech News: Ignition aims to monetize scope creep