Oct 20, 2023

Deloitte launches DARTbot AI to support professionals The Deloitte offices in London Jack Taylor/Getty Images Big Four firm Deloitte announced its development and deployment of "DARTbot," an internal chatbot powered by generative AI. DARTbot is capable of generating intelligent responses and providing valuable insights to support nearly 18,000 of Deloitte's U.S. Audit & Assurance professionals in their daily tasks and decision-making processes. The system is integrated with vast datasets of relevant industry knowledge and leading practices, exhibiting the accuracy and reliability of its responses, and facilitating further analysis by providing references to source materials. With the deployment of DARTbot, Deloitte aims to transform the way its professionals work, enhancing their productivity and enabling them to focus more on applying professional objectivity, skepticism, and evaluating bias. The chatbot acts as a virtual assistant, providing real-time guidance, answering queries, and assisting professionals in navigating complex accounting questions. This is part of Deloitte's larger plans to roll out other purpose-specific large language models to support specialized teams across the business. Bloomberg Tax & Accounting launch AI lab Bloomberg Tax & Accounting announced the launch of its AI Lab to enhance the Bloomberg Tax Research experience. The new Bloomberg Tax AI Lab offers customers the option of testing new AI-driven tools, beginning with an enhanced search experience using AI functionality. The first enhancement included in Bloomberg Tax AI Lab is a question and answer service, combining Bloomberg Tax Research with a large language model (LLM) to produce an AI-generated summary response. This contextualized response provides a short synopsis, which also identifies the source materials and links directly to the most relevant Bloomberg Tax Research content. Bloomberg Tax Research customers can opt in to access the Bloomberg Tax AI Lab. Feedback provided by users will inform improvements and facilitate a more seamless experience when these AI features become a permanent part of Bloomberg Tax Research. Additional features will be added to Bloomberg Tax AI Lab in the coming months. QuickBooks rolls out new bill pay solution Intuit QuickBooks announced the release of QuickBooks Bill Pay , a new solution fully integrated within the QuickBooks platform. Users can create bills automatically by importing vendor invoices; assign ownership roles to employees; automatically record and match vendor payments; maintain digital records of all bills and payments in one place; send electronic payments or paper checks, depending on preference; see everyone who needs a 1099 at a glance; and file unlimited 1099s for no additional fee. Further, QuickBooks Bill Pay also enhances the Intuit QuickBooks Business Network . Now, when a small business sends a payment through QuickBooks Bill Pay, vendors who are not part of the QuickBooks Business Network will receive an invite to join. If they choose to sign up, the vendor can save their payment details securely to their network profile for future payments, saving time and reducing errors often associated with manual entry and eliminating the need to share this information with multiple parties. Once part of the network, vendors can also track the status of their incoming QuickBooks Bill Pay payments. For a limited time, QuickBooks is also giving businesses 50% off the monthly base price for QuickBooks Bill Pay (Premium or Elite) for the first three months of service, starting from the date of enrollment. To be eligible for this offer, you must be an existing QuickBooks Online customer and a new Bill Pay customer and sign up for the Premium or Elite monthly plan. Midaxio releases cloud platform for corporate development, deal integration Corporate development software provider Midaxo , announced the launch of the next generation Midaxo Cloud , a purpose-built work management solution for corporate development and deal integration teams The AI-powered Midaxo Cloud leverages learnings from over 500 Midaxo customers that have completed more than 5,000 transactions worth in excess of $1 trillion. All documents, communications, approvals, reporting, and workflows are within the platform so team members can seamlessly collaborate on shared workflows using the same set of information. Furthermore, the solution offers role-based dashboards and reports; purpose-built workflows powered by user-customizable playbooks; secure online and mobile app access; custom reporting using embedded analytics or leveraging integrations with popular analytics tools such as Power BI or Tableau; and automated data intelligence and AI help identify, prioritize, and flag opportunities. Basis emerges from stealth with two AI assistants for accountants Basis , an AI platform for accounting firms, has emerged from stealth with a $3.6 million seed round led by Better Tomorrow Ventures with participation from BoxGroup, Avid Ventures, several top accounting firms, and leaders from the accounting and machine learning communities. In the wake of the funding, the company has also announced two new products: an AI assistant called "Basis Intern" which is designed to help accountants with tax and accounting questions and workflows; and "Basis Accountant," which sits alongside existing software and gives accountants a team of AI assistants to streamline tasks such as closing books, adjusting entries, reconciling accounts, compiling financial statements, generating work papers, and more. "Basis Intern" leverages proprietary models trained on general accounting principles, tax laws, and generic workflows, allowing accountants to get help with general questions and tasks. Basis' core Accountant platform relies on models trained custom for each accounting firm and their clients, unlocking human-level performance on many company-specific workflows - including ones that require judgment under uncertainty. Basis plans to use the funding to further develop and scale its platform. Boost Payment Solutions touts new solution allowing card payments 100% of the time Payment solutions provider Boost Payment Solutions announced the release of Boost 100, a new platform that enables buyers to pay by card 100% of the time, regardless of how their suppliers choose to be paid. Boost 100 is focused squarely on the specific needs of buyers who want to digitally transform their accounts payable processes for more flexibility and control while optimizing their working capital. This is meant to address entrepreneurs frustrated by having to deal with a mix of checks, wires, ACH, cards or other payment methods across their range of suppliers. Beyond enabling card payments even in situations where a card is not how a supplier wants to be paid, the solution also enables a wide range of payment delivery options, allows for extending days payable outstanding with issuer grace periods, boasts payment automation capacities, and offers reduced cost for cross-border and international payments. Partnerships, integrations and M&A Business technology solutions company Net at Work announced that it has acquired PMO Solutions , a Newport Beach, California-based value-added reseller (VAR) of Sage Intacct and Sage 100 software. Customers of PMO Solutions will have access to the resources, solutions, and expertise of Net at Work in addition to PMO Solution's technical personnel to help support the technology needs of their organizations to effectively compete in today's digital economy. … iDenfy , a Lithuania-based identity verification, compliance, and fraud prevention hub, announced partnering with Inventyv, a global web and mobile application service provider, best known for its professional tax solution, MyTAXPrepOffice. iDenfy's full-stack KYC software will facilitate an efficient and secure onboarding process for MyTAXPrepOffice's users who are looking for fast and straightforward tax preparation processes. …   Medius , a provider of AP automation and wider spend management solutions, announced its partnership with global recovery audit service provider, Caatalyst , signaling its first step into AP audit profit recovery. … Tax compliance solutions provider Avalara announced that it is partnering with Oracle NetSuite to help customers to streamline invoicing via the release of NetSuite Electronic Invoicing, powered by Avalara. NetSuite will connect to Avalara's global API to fulfill e-invoicing mandates, including digital signatures, QR codes, and tax authority clearance and approvals. Users can also access e-invoice exchange networks and government platforms, and organizations can connect to national and international networks, like Peppol, as well as government e-invoicing platforms directly from within NetSuite. … Compliance software maker Sovos   has partnered with Zuora, a monetization suite for modern businesses, to help global businesses meet electronic invoicing mandates directly through Zuora. The new partnership with Sovos enables Zuora customers to leverage an out-of-the-box solution to address local e-invoicing regulations; meet compliance through country-specific templates, tax management reports and e-invoice archiving capabilities; automatically pass billing information from Zuora to Sovos to generate e-invoices; and expand into new markets with a pre-integrated e-invoicing solution, and leverage Zuora's existing 40+ pre-integrated payment gateways and multi-currency support. … Versapay , which makes payments and collaborative accounts receivable solutions, announced it is the first NetSuite partner to support NetSuite Pay, an embedded finance service which enables businesses to accept card payments and reduce manual receivable processes. Offered within NetSuite, NetSuite Pay powered by Versapay extends NetSuite's enterprise resource planning (ERP) , customer relationship management (CRM), and SuiteCommerce solutions to help businesses further simplify payment processing. NetSuite Pay powered by Versapay offers pre-negotiated rates and fees for NetSuite customers and helps customers accelerate and simplify the application and onboarding process for new merchant accounts. Other news The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board said it has released the 2022 edition of the Handbook of International Quality Management, Auditing, Review, Other Assurance, and Related Services Pronouncements. Volumes 1, 2 and 3 of the handbook can be downloaded from the IAASB website, where users can also order print copies of the three-volume handbook. The vendor for the e-International Standards (eIS) online platform is experiencing technical difficulties in finalizing the IAASB eIS handbook. In the interim, please refer to the PDF versions of the handbook. We apologize for any inconvenience caused. … Corcentric , a global provider of best-in-class procurement and finance solutions, announced that the company has been recognized by Spend Matters as a Top 50 Procurement Provider to Know for the fifth consecutive year. The Spend Matters Top 50 Providers to Know list recognizes best-in-class companies in the procurement and supply chain market. Vendors listed are independently selected by the analyst team over multiple rounds of debate, focusing on factors such as innovation, market presence, tech competency, and solution delivery. … Expense management solutions provider Center , announced the integration of travel into their core real-time expense solution. The new travel management experience includes travel booking, servicing, and support powered by Spotnana 's cloud-based Travel-as-a-Service platform. Features include universal travel and expense policy application that can apply to every employee expense; a consumer-grade booking experience; the ability to automatically attach booking receipts to corresponding expenses; support from dedicated deployment managements; reimbursement and virtual card capacities; and usage-based pricing. … B2B payment solutions provider Forwardly announced the addition of an automated payments feature. Once authorized, upon the generation of an invoice using a user's integrated accounting software, Forwardly takes the reins—immediately dispatching the invoice to the payer and working to ensure the collection of payment on or before the set due date. Additional features include reconciliation with accounting platforms like QuickBooks Online and Xero; real-time alerts; 80% cost savings compared to conventional credit card fees; and instant payments executed on the due date.