Tech news: Big Four firms announce strategic alliances

June 14, 2024 10:10 AM

Big Four firms announce strategic alliances; Bill360 solution offers AR automation; Certa announces gen AI capacities, new ESG module; and other accounting tech news.

Big Four firms announce strategic alliances, partnerships

Zoran Mircetic

Big Four firm KPMG announced its audit practice is embedding the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform within KPMG Clara, its global smart audit platform that brings together data and analytics, artificial intelligence and automation, collaboration capabilities and audit workflow. KPMG uses Databricks to deliver data, analytics and AI solutions across the firm, working with Databricks to leverage its Data Intelligence Platform. The platform combines data warehouse and data lake capabilities, storing unstructured data such as photos, presentations and other file formats with the ability to deliver structured views based on user requirements. … Big Four firm Ernst and Young announced an alliance with Docusign, an intelligent agreement company. The alliance leverages Docusign CLM (Contract Lifecycle Management) and EY US contract intelligence services to offer intelligent agreement management solutions to help organizations connect and automate how agreements are created, committed to and managed. The partnership also helps develop the necessary technology to support EY Law managed services offerings. In addition, Docusign will help scale the EY US contract intelligence offerings. EY France also announced a partnership with global cloud platform and automation solutions provider Esker. The alliance has the goal of offering companies support for managing the emergence of disruptive technologies and regulatory changes such as the French e-invoicing reform and the implementation of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. … Big Four firm Deloitte has partnered with Bloomberg Tax & Accounting to publish a new Tax Management Portfolio, Taxation of Cryptocurrency and Other Digital Assets, No. 190-2nd, which is now available on the Bloomberg Tax Research platform. Portfolio 190 examines the U.S. federal income taxation of digital assets, including cryptocurrencies. It provides an analysis of the classification of digital assets for tax purposes and offers an overview of the digital asset ecosystem, tax guidance to date and the accounting treatment. It also delves into the tax implications of using, dealing, trading and investing in digital assets, and addresses tax questions raised by digital asset transactions. It also discusses the potential consequences of activities and transactions undertaken by certain types of investment entities, outlines the necessary information reporting standards and provides an overview of select international and state tax considerations surrounding digital assets.

New Bill360 solution offers AR automation

Kirill Ivanov/WrightStudio - Fotolia

SaaS AR automation platform Bill360 will introduce its end-to-end accounts receivable automation solution on June 16. The solution, which can sync with existing accounting software such as QuickBooks and Xero, typically within an hour, gives users access to receivables assessment and reporting via reminders or triggers. Embedded payment options include cards, ACH and "buy now, pay later" financing. It also offers funding for large value payments, branded buyer engagement portals, predictive analytics with AI tools, and live U.S.-based support for accountants and end users. The company, based in Tampa Florida, launched its SaaS-based, AI-powered platform in August 2023 and has built a roster of 7,000 users at small to medium-sized B2B companies.

Certa announces gen AI capacities, new ESG module

Катерина Євтехова - stock.adobe.com

Enterprise risk management platform Certa announced a set of updates that include new generative AI capacities, a plug-and-play ESG module and user interface upgrades. The generative AI, which is woven throughout the solution, features workflow design using natural language, a questionnaire responder for third party responses, and automated risk assessment from contracts, SOC2 documents, ESG reports and more. The new ESG modules integrate into existing workflows, enabling businesses to comply with global standards like the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, EU Deforestation Regulation and Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. The platform also enables organizations to prepare for ESG regulations from the SEC and California. The modules also offer Scope 3 emissions tracking and reporting to meet sustainability goals. The redesigned user interface is centered around navigation and functionality, including a refreshed library of drag-and-drop templates and user tools.

FinQuery introduces lease catchup feature

andia-faith/andiafaith - stock.adobe.com

Lease and spend management solutions provider FinQuery, formerly LeaseQuery, launched automated catch-up functionality that provides users with a method for updating financial records with missed leases and lease changes. FinQuery's catch-up lease actions automatically generate a cumulative catch-up journal entry and audit trail when accountants input leases or changes after a period has closed. Catch-up lease actions automate calculations and record-keeping for missed leases and changes, and provide a reconciliation report for adjustments.

Intuit to buy tech from Zendrive

Intuit has signed an agreement to acquire technology from mobility risk intelligence provider Zendrive. Certain Zendrive employees, including CEO Dennis Ellis and Co-founder and CTO Pankaj Risbood, will join Intuit's Credit Karma unit to accelerate innovation and adoption of its usage-based auto insurance product, Karma Drive. As part of the agreement, Credit Karma members can choose to participate in a trial where they receive real-time feedback on their driving and can view potential discounts before purchasing a policy, all powered by telematics. Credit Karma has partnered with Zendrive since it launched Karma Drive more than three years ago. To date, Karma Drive has enrolled more than 6 million members in the program.

Vertex acquires generative AI capacities from Ryan LLC

Tax technology solutions provider Vertex announced the acquisition of tax-specific AI capabilities from tax services and software firm Ryan LLC. The new Vertex AI capabilities leverage proprietary and private Large Language Models to deliver Generative Pre-Trained Transformer capabilities combined with "human in the loop" tax expertise to maintain a control framework to increase the accuracy for tax compliance. Proprietary LLMs allow Vertex to deliver AI without aggregating, sharing or mining customer data, enabling tax teams to realize the benefits of AI technology while maintaining control of their data. The new capabilities center around the categorization of products for taxability.

Partnerships and integrations

Thomson Reuters expanded its partnership with SAP as it integrates ONESOURCE Sales & Use Tax Compliance with SAP Document and Reporting Compliance for SAP S/4HANA. The integration supports businesses using SAP technologies with automating and filing sales and use tax returns in the United States directly from SAP Document and Reporting Compliance via a unified user experience. This new integration with SAP Document and Reporting Compliance lets users manage the end-to-end returns process from form generation to submission within SAP Document and Reporting Compliance, directly on the system of record, SAP S/4HANA. This follows earlier solutions integrations, including three Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE solutions certified as SAP Endorsed Apps: ONESOURCE Determination for SAP S/4HANA and SAP ERP (U.S./Canada), ONESOURCE Determination (U.S.) for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition, and ONESOURCE Tax Provision for SAP S/4HANA Cloud. … Digital asset software platform Ledgible is now providing tax information reporting compliance operations for Franklin Templeton, an asset manager that, among other things, has launched a U.S.- registered fund to use a public blockchain to process transactions and record share ownership. … Financial planning software provider Asset Map announced a new integration with Holistiplan, a tax planning software for financial advisors. The new single sign-on environment will enable Asset-Map users to import existing Holistiplan tax-planning client data directly to the Asset-Map platform to create new Asset-Map Reports and updates to household data. As a result, users can now evaluate 10 key tax figures — such as taxable income, filing status, and marginal rates — for a given client or household directly within the Asset-Map platform. The updated Asset-Map platform will also support direct linking from Asset-Map to a linked Holistiplan member's tax analysis results within Holistiplan, in addition to offering user-initiated, on-demand, data synchronization for linked records between both platforms. … Financial operations platform Bill announced a partnership with Regions Bank to offer Regions CashFlowIQ, a digital tool that provides accounts payable and accounts receivable services to Regions' commercial clients. Regions CashFlow IQ allows businesses to initiate bill payments, create and send customized invoices, track payment information, streamline workflow approvals needed to approve payments, and automate payments all within the Regions OnePass portal; reconcile their financial books by automatically syncing with accounting software; and leverage multiple payment options from Bill, such as credit or debit card, virtual card, ACH, check and international wires to complete transactions.

Other news

Financial intelligence software provider Valid8 has named Todd Ludwig as executive vice president for sales. Ludwig will lead Valid8's sales strategy and execution, focusing on expanding the company's customer base and driving revenue growth. Ludwig is the company's most recent leadership addition following Valid8's $8.5 million Series A funding round. ... Procure-to-pay solutions provider Airbase announced new spend analytics and vendor management capabilities. Spend analytics allows detailed visibility into company spend, including the accounts payable. The vendor management feature provides a view of vendor performance and risk.