Tech news: KPMG launches AI and Digital Innovation Group

September 8, 2023 11:39 AM

KPMG launches AI and Digital Innovation Group; Bill releases financial operations platform for SMBs; and other accounting technology news and updates.

KPMG launches AI and Digital Innovation Group

Florida Governor Rick Scott and KPMG CEO Lynn Doughtie break ground on KPMG's new training facility in Orlando

Jim Hobart

Big Four firm KPMG established an AI and Digital Innovation group led by a newly named vice chair, Steve Chase. This new role gives emerging technology leadership a seat at the table on KPMG's Management Committee led by chair and CEO Paul Knopp. Chase will spearhead efforts to invest in and incubate new services and solutions for clients, integrate emerging technologies into existing services, enable internal transformation and new ways of working, and ensure KPMG maintains leading governance and responsible use programs. He will oversee KPMG's AI Center of Excellence, which will encompass KPMG's AI client services, AI Innovation Lab and responsible use principles and policy, among other programs. Chase led KPMG's consulting practice for the last decade. With Chase's move, Atif Zaim will become the next consulting leader for KPMG Advisory. The roles will be effective Oct. 1.

Bill releases financial operations platform for SMBs

Financial automation solutions provider Bill (formerly Bill.com) announced its new Financial Operations Platform for SMBs, which integrates prominent solutions across accounts payable, accounts receivable, and spend and expense management within a single platform. Beyond this, the platform also allows users to access AP, AR, and spend and expense management with one login and move across products when managing finance. Users can discover additional payment solutions; gain more control over cash flow with a unified cash flow task list across AP, AR, and spend and expense management; automatically sync with leading accounting software; and clarify user roles across AP, AR and spend and expense management. The new Bill Financial Operations Platform is now available here. The new Bill Accountant Console will be generally available in Q4.

CenterPoint Version 18 features Customer Payments Portal

Accounting and payroll solutions provider Red Wing Software released CenterPoint version 18 for all CenterPoint Accounting and Payroll products. It includes a new Customer Payments Portal that's available for all CenterPoint Accounting users. Red Wing, in cooperation with payments solutions provider Clover Connect, created the new feature that allows accounting users the option to send invoices or statements and have their customers pay them with a web application accessible via a unique link, which is generated and sent from within CenterPoint Accounting.

IRIS introduces dedicated accounting outsourcing

Business software provider IRIS introduced dedicated outsourcing services for accounting firms. The service allows for the outsourcing of routine accounts and payroll work for core accounting and payroll processes such as bookkeeping, payroll, financial statements and tax solutions. Each accounting professional has at least five years of experience. IRIS Outsourcing is also ISO9001 and 27001 certified and protects and secures confidential data. Customers will have a dedicated client relationship officer and can provide accounting software for firms or work with their existing software.

Bloomberg rolls out tax Compliance Tracker

Bloomberg Tax Leadership Forum in New York

Bloomberg Tax and Accounting released Compliance Tracker, a workflow tool available on Bloomberg Tax Research that enables tax professionals to automate the process of tracking federal and state tax deadlines and gathering forms, while providing alerts about approaching and changing filing obligations. Compliance Tracker facilitates timely tax filings, reducing the risk of noncompliance and penalties by incorporating data compiled and maintained by Bloomberg Tax's in-house tax analysts, who continually track this information and update it when there are changes to dates or filing requirements.

TaxBit unveils AI-enabled rules engine for crypto accounting

TaxBit booth at the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami, Florida

Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg

Crypto asset accounting solutions provider TaxBit released its AI-enabled rules engine to help businesses dealing with cryptocurrencies to streamline their accounting processes. With the integration of AI technology, clients can create customized, logic-based rules to automate the transaction categorization process to account for gains, losses and fees. Users can also create an automated data flow, so reconciled transactions appear in the correct locations in a business's chart of accounts. Additionally, artificial intelligence prompts rule creation during bulk transaction editing.

LogicGate unveils solution for SEC cybersecurity rule compliance

The Securities and Exchange Commission headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg

Governance, risk and compliance solutions provider LogicGate launched its SEC Cyber Compliance Solution in response to new disclosure rules that require companies to report cybersecurity incidents within four days of a materiality determination, among other things. The solution offers reporting dashboards that identify, quantify and prioritize cyber risks to facilitate information sharing and response prioritization across the organization; acceleration of vendor onboarding by linking vendor controls, audits and findings while prioritizing third-party risks; automated policy creation, review and approval processes alongside tracking of revision history and employee acknowledgment status; and controls management that automates evidence collection by linking risks, controls, evaluations and evidence.

Payment management platform Tofu launches in US

Invoicing, tax and payment management platform Tofu announced its launch in the US. The platform focuses on streamlining billing processes by allowing users to send invoices and get paid. While on average it takes around 12 minutes to create and send an invoice, Tofu claims it allows users to do so in less than six minutes. Tofu accepts payments on the go by supporting payment methods like P2P transfers, card payments and cash.

Financial Cents plans accounting workflow conference Oct. 24-25

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Financial Cents, an accounting practice management solutions provider, announced its inaugural WorkflowCon 2023 conference, which will take place Oct. 24-25, with sessions from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. EDT. The virtual conference is designed for accounting and bookkeeping firm owners seeking to revolutionize their workflows. Speakers include Dawn Brolin, CEO of Powerful Accounting and author of "The Designated Motivator"; Eric Green, a lawyer and accountant who runs a tax representation firm and community; Kellie Parks, the owner of Calmwaters Cloud Accounting; Shahram Zarshenas, CEO and co-founder of Financial Cents; Nayo Carter-Gray, the owner of 1st Step Accounting; Veronica Wasek, founder of 5MinuteBookkeeping.com; Amanda Owens, firm administrator at Badger CPA; Terrell Turner, CEO of TL Turner Group; and Ryan Lazanis, founder of Future Firm. Topics include harnessing technology for efficiency; navigating complex regulatory landscapes; maximizing profitability; and building a high-performance team. There will also be many opportunities to network. Register at this link.

New hires and appointments

Kyriba, a fintech focused on cloud-based finance and liquidity solutions, appointed Melissa Di Donato as chair and CEO. She will succeed Jean-Luc Robert, who is retiring and will remain on the company's board of directors. Di Donato joins Kyriba from open source innovator Suse where, as the first female CEO, she spearheaded two strategic acquisitions and a multibillion-euro IPO debut on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. … B2B fintech startup Koverly added Ben Haddon to its team in a new role as vice president of credit and revenue. Haddon hopes to scale Koverly's lending capacity to $70 million within the next year, supporting the company's new KoverlyPay financing feature, a 30-day extension on FX payments at no cost to the buyer or seller. … Compliance solutions provider Sovos appointed Alice Katwan as president of revenue and Eva Krauss as chief transformation officer. Katwan joins from Twilio, where she served as general manager and senior vice president for North America, and Krauss originally served as general manager for enterprise sales tax for Sovos, now re-joining from Pegasystems. … The Information Technology Alliance announced new appointments to its board of directors. Kim Austin, director of strategic alliances at Avalara, and Todd Perlman, president of BT Partners, have been appointed as ITA board of directors chair and vice-chair, respectively. In their new roles, Austin and Perlman join incoming ITA board members Irfan Dossani, partner in charge of CAAS at Whitley Penn, and Michael Pynch, partner and CIO at Wipfli LLP. Dossani and Pynch join existing board members Darcy Boerio, president of DAB Partners; John Fleischer, senior vice president and CIO at CBIZ; Kane Polakoff, principal and client advisory services practice leader at CohnReznick; and Brian Terrell, founder and managing partner of BTerrell Partners.

Other news

Finance automation solutions provider Esker has partnered with Boost Payment Solutions on virtual card processing for accounts receivable departments. By harnessing Esker's automation technology with Boost Intercept — Boost's straight-through processing solution — businesses can integrate virtual card payments into their AR workflows. … Procurement and finance solutions provider Corcentric launched its Managed Accounts Receivable solution in France. The Managed AR solution provides technology, trade finance and skilled people to help customers reach a variety of company goals. Currently, Corcentric has thousands of Managed AR customers in various regions around the globe.