The 2021 Top New Products

ByRanica Arrowsmith, Daniel Hood, Danielle Lee

February 4, 2021 9:00 AM

Every major area of technology that has promised to have the greatest impact on the accounting profession — the cloud, artificial intelligence and blockchain — accelerated both in adoption and development last year, mainly driven by the COVID-19 crisis. The good news is that this brings more efficiency and more capabilities to the profession, just when it needed them the most to serve clients struggling with the repercussions of the pandemic. AI has shown its applicability in several service areas; new technology has grown up to support needs around the Paycheck Protection Program; and the cloud enables much of this growth.

Many of the products below are great examples of the changes 2020 spurred in the accounting technology space, while others stand out as examples of pioneering innovation; either way, they are all great new and improved tools for accountants and firms.

Advisory tools

Corvee Tax Planning (Corvee) and the Small Business Adviser Program (AICPA)

It’s well understood by now that the future of the public accounting firm lies in moving toward a more advisory-focused practice; what’s less well understood is how, exactly, they’re supposed to do that. In their own ways, the two Top New Products in this category help solve that problem. The first, Corvee Tax Planning, takes a client’s tax returns and other vital information and creates a set of tax plan proposals that accountants can then share as the basis of an ongoing tax advisory engagement. The proposals include overpayment information from previous years, and a detailed list of possible tax strategies and the estimated savings associated with them, and are presented in a customizable PDF.

While Corvee’s tool leverages the accountant’s compliance work as a tax preparer, the American Institute of CPAs’ Small Business Adviser Program is aimed squarely at their “most trusted advisor” role, with a special focus on helping them help their business clients get through the current difficult environment. It covers a range of relevant topics, from entity and business owner planning considerations, to cash flow and estate planning techniques, as well as current issues like the Payroll Protection Program, recent tax provisions from the CARES Act and other legislation, government programs, and much more, all with the goal of cementing a long-term advisory relationship with clients.

AP tools

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Vic.Ai (Vic.Ai)

In the early stages of artificial intelligence in the accounting profession — which we arguably are still in — AI seemed most applicable in the audit area, but Vic.ai puts the additive power of AI on display in another area, allowing accountants to layer its accounts payable software right on top of whichever accounting software they are using. A relative newcomer — it completed an $11.2 million Series A funding round in 2019 — Vic.ai is proving its mettle by being trained at early adopter firms to learn their AP habits and preferences, improving over time (which is how all AI works — learning over time).

AR tools

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Intelligence-Based Billing (Anduin)

Intelligence-Based Billing is an accounts receivable platform that uses artificial intelligence to learn a business’ user habits. The solution integrates and analyzes data from across firm systems to deliver actionable insights and predictive intel to firm leaders. The software is new, just released in December, but is a great example of how quickly AI is shaping the accounting profession. As such tools get implemented, it will reestablish expectations around automation among business clients, and more and more firms will have to follow suit to keep up.

Audit tools

Thumbnail for Video: Bringing Technology to Audits

Fieldguide (Fieldguide)

The value of workflow tools to streamline engagements has only grown exponentially in a pandemic requiring greater reliance on remote collaboration. Fieldguide, built by former Big Four auditors and chief technology officers, helps auditors adapt to this new normal by automating risk engagements, which the platform specializes in, along with other audit and attestation work with its customizable templates. Regardless of the type of engagement, Fieldguide not only automates the process from request to reporting, but its cloud-first platform offers real-time collaboration across the whole audit team, which already has several Top 100 Firms implementing the tool since its launch last year.

Data analytics tools

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Tally Street (Tally Street)

More and more, data analytics tools are for everyone (see “Education programs,” below), and Tally Street is a great example: It uses artificial intelligence to dig into the vast horde of information that resides in accounting software programs like QuickBooks, Xero and Sage Intacct (with more planned) to provide even small businesses with the kind of insights that can turbo-charge their growth. It looks at sales and accounts receivable data to create individual customer profiles, including their lifetime value, sales history, average days to pay and more, as well as broader metrics around customer concentration, churn risk, collections performance, and other key performance indicators. Founded by a team of big-data experts, Tally Street was chosen by CPA.com and the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants for their Startup Accelerator program, which aims to boost innovative software solutions built specifically for the accounting market.

Data management tools

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Inflo Ingest (Inflo)

Inflo is one of the companies leading the way for artificial intelligence applications in audit, having been the software Thomson Reuters chose to power its Audit Analytics tool. Inflo Ingest is the module that allows accountants to share information directly from their accounting software to Inflo through a secure interface that requires no human intervention to pull only what’s required. Automatic validation checks are carried out to verify data accuracy, and Inflo supplements that with a real-life data team on hand to cleanse the data as well, blending artificial intelligence with real intelligence. Once ingested, the financial and transactional data feeds into other Inflo modules, which automates data analytics and AI-driven processes. Users never have to rekey data — and this level of hands-off functionality is exactly the promise of AI.

Education programs

Microsoft Excel Fundamentals and Data Analytics Certificate (Becker)

Over the years, a fairly significant subset of our Top New Products have comprised tools that democratize certain cutting-edge capabilities or service offerings, making them accessible to a much broader swathe of the profession than ever before, and Becker’s Excel training program and new certificate fall squarely in that category, proving that data analytics doesn’t have to be the sole province of large firms that can build bespoke applications and hire Ph.D.s in data science. Instead, this set of 14 on-demand courses created by an emeritus professor of decision science at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business can teach accountants at firms of all sizes how to leverage the power of their most common tool, Excel, to “ask the right questions and get the right answers.”

Honorable Mentions: With the killing of George Floyd and the ensuing protests raising consciousness of racial issues across the country, two programs caught our eye for helping accountants up their diversity and inclusion game. First, “Bridging the Gap: A Diversity & Inclusion Leadership Series” from the Massachusetts Society of CPAs and Bentley University consists of training sessions that focus on the recruiting, retention and advancement of underrepresented accounting professionals, and second, the “Being Conscious about Unconscious Bias” course from the AICPA covers the definition of unconscious bias, how to assess your own bias, and how to manage bias within a firm.

PPP tools

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CPA Business Funding Portal (CPA.com and Biz2Credit)

Accountants proved to be invaluable to their business clients in 2020, and CPA.com (and its parent, the AICPA) proved invaluable to accountants, putting out a steady stream of webinars, town hall meetings and critical resources to help lead the way through the pandemic.
The CPA Business Funding Portal, which CPA.com created with Biz2Credit, is in many ways the culmination of that, offering in one place a host of tools and resources for accountants to use in helping clients to apply both for Paycheck Protection Program loans and for forgiveness of those loans, as well as other small-business financing options. It offers direct integration into the Small Business Administration’s E-Tran system as well as, in some cases, payment of applicable agent fees for the PPP. (Remember those?)

Honorable Mentions: CPA.com and the AICPA weren’t the only ones paying close attention to the PPP — payroll providers were quick to offer help, guidance and resources around it. Two that stood out for us were ADP, which added PPP loan forgiveness reports, a loan forgiveness estimator tool, a client letter toolkit and more to its Accountant Connect platform, and Paychex, which launched its own PPP Loan Forgiveness Estimator.

Tax prep tools

TaxWise Online (Wolters Kluwer)

With practitioners looking to get through the second filing season of the pandemic with as little in-person contact with clients as possible, tools like the new mobile interface for TaxWise Online will make all the difference. The mobile app lets taxpayers populate a virtual 1040 interview and snap pictures of their tax documents to upload them, with all the data and docs flowing from the tool directly into TaxWise online. It also allows taxpayers to securely sign and send back the return, and track its status and view refund updates. It’s the kind tool that might make you consider running an entirely virtual practice even after the coronavirus has disappeared … .

Time & billing tools

Sage Intelligent Time (Sage Intacct)

Billing remains a pain point for accountants, inspiring exploration into new tools and even pricing models, and Sage Intacct aims to solve for one of the major issues of timesheet accuracy with the help of artificial intelligence. Sage Intelligent Time, the new standard timesheet for the Sage Intacct cloud financial management system, provides a virtual Time Assistant that uses AI to bring data into the system from across multiple applications, calendars and emails.

The timesheets only grow more intelligent over time, using machine learning to suggest client, project and task categorizations for time entry and continuously refine the process to be faster and more accurate with each use.

Virtual event tools

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Webinar toolkit (Inovautus)

With virtual meetings, events and webinars steadily populating everyone’s calendars, accountants have been forced to get more inventive in sharing their knowledge with wider and wider audiences through their screens, especially as new legislation like the Paycheck Protection Program and other major updates have required larger platforms to provide their advice and guidance to clients and prospects.

Inovautus aims to help accountants in these marketing efforts with a webinar toolkit that efficiently translates content ideas into engaging virtual events. The toolkit walks firms through everything from segmenting and identifying audiences to selecting the right technology and expert speakers. And users have access to an array of resources including checklists, scripts and templates to polish their presentations and join the wave of thought leaders elevating their virtual presence.

Web tools

.CPA domain name (AICPA/CPA.com)

In September, the American Institute of CPAs began rolling out the new .cpa domain name, first to accounting firms to register their existing .com domain names, then to firms to apply for any domain name they wanted, and then finally to individual CPAs to register .cpa domains of their own.

The new designation is meant to boost trust and security as well as brand recognition within the accounting profession; when a client works with an accountant that has a .cpa domain registration, they can be sure they are working with a real CPA, with the domain name acting as an added level of verification and vetting. New top-level domains are designated by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers; CPA.com (the tech arm of the AICPA) won the responsibility for managing the outreach of the service to firms in the United States.

Honorable Mentions

—Avalara Managed Returns for Accountants (Avalara): A cloud-based sales tax return solution designed specifically for use by accounting firms.

—Karbon Time & Budgets (Karbon): An update to Karbon’s popular workflow management software that allows firms to manage estimates, actuals, timesheets and analysis.

—Accounting Software Calculator (Avii): A tool for accountants to manage their software-as-a-service costs.

—AdvanceFlow with Confirmation Integration (Thomson Reuters): AdvanceFlow allows auditors to initiate confirmation requests, monitor status, and save received confirmations in their audit workpapers.

—CCH Axcess Client Collaboration and CCH Axcess Knowledge Coach (Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting): Client Collaboration enables collaboration between firms and their clients; Knowledge Coach is a tool to help streamline audits by leveraging tools like in-line diagnostics to coach auditors.

—Homegrown tools: Accounting firms are getting more innovative every year, building their own tools to better service clients and manage their practices. While most of these aren’t available for use by other firms, we thought we’d highlight some of the most interesting of these bespoke tools from 2020.

To start, TrustExplorer, from Armanino, is a blockchain-enabled assurance technology that provides proof of reserves, real-time audit and trusted node services, while the firm’s COVID-19 Recovery Tracker is an interactive tool that pulls a wide range of types of data to help businesses respond to the daily changing spread of COVID and government response. Meanwhile, Accelerated Recovery Solutions from CBIZ is a suite of services to help businesses at various stages of their recovery and growth efforts from the pandemic, and Mazars built a PPP Analysis Tool in the spring to let small businesses calculate the amount they were eligible to receive before submitting their application.