Accounting Automation

Inside QuickBooks Online’s Biggest Transformation Since Going Cloud-Based

Earmark Team · September 10, 2025 ·

You’re reviewing a client’s profit and loss report when you notice little sparkle icons next to several expense categories. Curious, you hover over one and get an instant explanation: “Office supplies increased 127% compared to last month due to these three transactions.” What used to require detective work across multiple screens now happens automatically, with AI explaining not just what happened, but why.

This isn’t a future vision—it’s happening right now in QuickBooks Online’s July 2025 updates. On the latest episode of The Unofficial QuickBooks Accountants Podcast, hosts Alicia Katz Pollock from Royalwise and Dan DeLong from School of Bookkeeping break down Intuit’s massive “In the Know” session, where the company unveiled what they’re calling “QuickBooks on the Intuit platform.”

The transformation goes far beyond typical software updates. AI agents now work like digital detectives, scouring your data for patterns and anomalies. Banking feeds can automatically process PDF statements. Client communication occurs directly within QuickBooks, eliminating the spreadsheet shuffle. And those sparkle icons on reports? They’re AI-powered insights flagging unusual trends before your clients notice them.

But here’s what every accounting professional needs to understand: this isn’t an optional upgrade. By September 2025, everyone will be permanently on the new platform, with no opt-out option. The window to influence the final product closes soon.

AI Agents Become Your Digital Workforce

The heart of QuickBooks’ transformation lies in what Intuit calls “Agentic AI”—intelligent agents that actively hunt through your data for insights. Alicia explains her mental image: “I always imagine an AI bot in a detective hat, because that’s how I think about the AI is looking through the data and scouring it.”

The accounting agent, available for Essentials plans and higher, represents the biggest shift in how bookkeepers handle transactions. Instead of facing a wall of uncategorized entries, the system now identifies transactions that are “data-backed and likely to be accurate” and pre-checks them for posting. When three transactions meet this criterion, a banner appears announcing “three transactions ready to post.”

The game-changer is anomaly detection. Those sparkle icons appearing next to categories on profit and loss reports identify unusual trends automatically. Dan shares his experience: “I’ve seen it on some reports where the prior month there was a specific project that was done, and it said it right there on the screen like it went down this amount of percent because these two invoices were in the prior month.”

The categorization intelligence has evolved beyond simple pattern matching. The AI now recognizes that Shell and Arco are both gas stations, suggesting similar categories across different vendors. It scrapes bank descriptions for contextual clues and provides multiple suggestions for ambiguous transactions—offering both “meals and entertainment” and “travel meals” for restaurant charges, depending on your patterns.

Perhaps most significantly, categorization history has expanded from 12 to 24 months—a change Alicia specifically requested. This ensures annual charges can reference the previous year’s categorization, eliminating frustration with recurring yearly expenses.

Platform Integration Changes Everything

What Intuit calls “QuickBooks on the Intuit platform” represents more than rebranding—it’s the breakdown of decades-old product silos. As Dan explains, “their core offerings of TurboTax, MailChimp, and QuickBooks are getting homogenized here. And they can essentially talk to each other.”

The logic makes sense when you consider user patterns. As Alicia notes, “a lot of people use MailChimp who have never used QuickBooks. There’s a lot of people who file their taxes with TurboTax who have never used QuickBooks. So merging them all together is a natural evolution.”

The new interface features an app carousel with customer hubs, sales hubs, accounting hubs, marketing hubs, and business tax hubs. The customer hub will integrate MailChimp directly within QuickBooks, while business tax functionality brings TurboTax capabilities to the accounting workflow.

The enhanced bank feeds represent the most visible daily change. Alicia, who has been beta testing and providing daily feedback to developers, describes the evolution: “Everything that we knew and loved about the banking feeds is still there, but they kind of changed it.” The new system allows inline transaction editing, customizable column displays, and comprehensive transaction details.

The revolutionary statement import feature can process PDF bank statements and extract transactions automatically. While currently requiring human oversight—hence the two-hour processing time, at least for now—this capability could eliminate entire businesses built around transaction import services. As Alicia explains, “there’s a human being looking at it to see if it did a good job or not, and if it didn’t do it right, it’s actually going to a human being who is fixing the programming.”

Interface changes aren’t just cosmetic. The new left navigation is “brighter, it’s lighter, it’s prettier” with collapsible sections and bookmark functionality for one-click access to frequently used screens. The transformation from “Add” to “Post” in banking feeds reflects more technically accurate accounting language.

Client Communication Gets Built-In

The context gathering system eliminates the bookkeeper’s perpetual question: “What was this transaction for?” Built directly into QuickBooks, this feature threatens third-party apps by providing client communication tools within the core platform.

Alicia explains the problem this solves: “When you don’t know what something’s for, you have to go ask. And in the old days, we used to use spreadsheets for that. More recently, we’ve been using apps like Uncat, Keeper, or Financial Cents, where you can communicate with your clients right inside the app, but now you can do it right inside QBO.”

The system creates a to-do list maintained within QuickBooks, allowing bookkeepers to ask clients questions without requiring client QBO access. Clients receive emails with magic links to respond, and “it’s always the same link. And so you can just have your clients save it and bookmark it as the place to go.”

The expense forwarding feature allows anyone to send not just expenses but also income transaction directly into the system. However, this convenience introduces new risks. Alicia warns, “If you don’t have a bill approval process, you may have somebody who just goes in and pays everything without questioning anything. You actually could wind up paying bad actors who just sent random bills into your account to see if they could.” She reminds everyone to make sure they only give these email addresses to people they can trust.

The integration of Bill Pay Basic across all plans, including Simple Start, amplifies these concerns. Firms handling bill payments may want to consider upgrading clients to QBO Advanced, which includes mandatory bill approval workflows.

The September Deadline and What It Means

The timeline carries strategic implications beyond software preference. This isn’t a typical update where holdouts can postpone adoption—it’s a mandatory migration with a hard September deadline.

July offered opt-in/opt-out flexibility. August brought automatic transitions for new brand files. Crucially, all ProAdvisors’ clients were switched simultaneously. As Dan notes, “They threw accountants a bone” by ensuring firms wouldn’t juggle clients across different interfaces. September completes the mandatory transition, and by the month’s end, the new platform becomes permanent with no opt-out option.

The current period is critical for shaping the final product. As Alicia emphasizes from her beta testing: “This is the time to make sure that the platform works for us. They need your feedback.” Her daily communication with development teams resulted in interface improvements that serve real accounting workflows.

For firms considering the timeline, the choice is clear: engage now to influence the outcome, or adapt in September to whatever system emerges. The difference between being a beta participant and a forced adopter could determine whether your practice thrives or struggles.

Training and Resources Coming

Recognizing the scope of change, Intuit announced new training opportunities. Two courses are coming in October: one about understanding Agentic AI in general, and another specifically about AI agents in QuickBooks. There’s also ongoing research about what accounting professionals want to see in ProAdvisor Academy.

Alicia is completely rebuilding her training library at Royalwise. “I’ve got over 50 different courses of over 100 hours of QuickBooks Online content. So in September we are going to start over again from scratch,” she explains. Her Community and Coaching memberships will provide free entry into all webinars as she recreates content for the new platform.

Shape the Future or Be Shaped by It

The July 2025 QuickBooks updates represent the most significant transformation since moving to the cloud. AI agents are becoming the invisible workforce handling pattern recognition and routine categorization. New communication tools eliminate constant client back-and-forth. Interface changes reflect a fundamental shift toward integrated business management.

For accounting professionals, these changes represent both opportunity and risk. Those who engage now can influence the final product through feedback. As Alicia’s daily communication with developers shows, active participants can achieve solutions that serve the profession’s real needs.

But come September’s mandatory transition, the window for input closes. Firms will adapt to whatever system emerges from this beta period. The most successful professionals will view this transition as evolution—an opportunity to eliminate tedious data entry and focus on high-value advisory work.

Don’t let this transformation happen to you—be part of shaping it. The September deadline isn’t just about software—it’s about the future of the accounting profession itself.

Alicia Katz Pollock’s Royalwise OWLS (On-Demand Web-based Learning Solutions) is the industry’s premier portal for top-notch QuickBooks Online training with CPE for accounting firms, bookkeepers, and small business owners. Visit Royalwise OWLS, where learning QBO is a HOOT!

QuickBooks Online’s Latest AI Update Could Save You Hours of Detective Work

Earmark Team · September 1, 2025 ·

Picture this: You’re reviewing a client’s profit and loss statement when travel expenses catch your eye. They’ve jumped 624% from last month. Is this legitimate business growth, a categorization error, or duplicate entries? Traditionally, this would mean hours of detective work, drilling into transaction details and cross-referencing receipts.

But what if an AI agent had already investigated this anomaly, traced it back to two identical $10,834 hotel charges, and presented you with a detailed report, complete with visual charts and actionable recommendations?

This feature is rolling out to QuickBooks Online users this summer.

In this episode of The Unofficial QuickBooks Accountants Podcast, Jim Dzundza, Staff Product Manager for the QuickBooks Accounting Automation team, explains how AI-powered error detection agents are transforming accounting workflows. But this isn’t about robots replacing bookkeepers. It’s about intelligent collaboration where AI handles time-consuming pattern recognition while accountants focus on analysis and client relationships.

From Program Manager to Product Developer

Dzundza’s journey at Intuit offers unique insight into how accountant feedback shapes product development. He started on the business development team working on desktop product partnerships, then moved to manage the ProAdvisor program for several years.

“Accountants have had a special spot in my heart,” Dzundza explains. “They are the key to us developing amazing products and amazing functionality.” His transition from the front-facing ProAdvisor program to backend product development wasn’t accidental; it was driven by impact.

“I felt like I could make a bigger impact by bringing this accountant perspective and finding a team within Intuit that really thinks about how accountants use and love the product,” he says. “And then focusing on where a lot of the pain is, to be honest. How can we help accountants reduce the pain of the work that they have to do?”

This accountant-first approach shows in every feature Dzundza shared on the podcast.

The AI Agent Revolution Begins

QuickBooks Online’s new platform introduces six specialized AI agents, each designed for specific accounting functions. The accounting, payments, and finance agents are currently available. Project management is in beta, while payroll and customer agents are coming soon.

The rollout timeline is aggressive but manageable. All new files created now automatically use the new platform. Starting in July, existing users can opt into the new experience. By September, everyone will see it, with the ability to opt out until the transition becomes mandatory at the end of September.

“We are daily reviewing feedback that is streaming in around all of the new UI, the new agents, everything coming out,” Dzundza emphasizes. “We’re implementing fixes and changes based on user feedback.”

This feedback period allows accountants to shape these tools rather than simply accepting what’s provided.

Eliminating Data Entry Frustrations

The accounting agent tackles three major workflow areas: getting transactions into the books, categorizing them, and reconciling accounts. Each advancement addresses real pain points accountants face daily.

PDF Statement Upload

For years, working with small banks meant manually keying transactions or using third-party tools like MoneyThumb. The new PDF statement upload feature completely changes this.

“You have the PDF and you go in to add that statement or upload those transactions in the same way you would upload a CSV today,” Dzundza explains. “And now you’re able to upload a PDF.” The AI extracts transactions directly from bank statement PDFs, eliminating the need for external conversion tools.

Enhanced Collaboration

Perhaps more revolutionary is the new collaboration feature available on Essentials and above. When you encounter a transaction needing clarification, you can ask questions directly within the bank feed and send clients a magic link via email or text.

“They can go on their phone and answer the question,” Dzundza notes. “They can answer it from wherever without having to log into QuickBooks.” Once clients respond, the AI automatically updates its categorization recommendations based on that context, creating a feedback loop that improves accuracy for future similar transactions.

This addresses a major frustration: forcing business owners to log into QuickBooks just to answer simple questions about transactions. It also gives accountants control over their books while still gathering necessary context.

Reconciliation Gets Smarter

The reconciliation process receives similar AI enhancements, with tools launching in mid-July. Like bank feeds, reconciliation now supports PDF extraction with a crucial enhancement: when the AI can’t extract everything accurately, it flags questionable areas for human review.

“Our goal for this one is 100% accuracy,” Dzundza explains. This hybrid approach, combining AI speed with human verification, ensures accuracy while eliminating manual data entry.

The new reconciliation interface organizes information into logical sections: cleared transactions that matched one-to-one, flagged one-to-many matches requiring review, and AI recommendations for transactions that should potentially be excluded or unposted.

This addresses common reconciliation headaches like duplicate detection. As Dzundza discussed with host Alicia Katz Pollock, it’s easy to upload a receipt and then also accept the same transaction from the bank feed without noticing the duplication. The AI now surfaces these duplicates automatically, eliminating manual scanning for errors.

The Anomaly Detection Game-Changer

The most sophisticated feature is the accounting agent’s anomaly detection, which transforms financial statement review from manual line-by-line scanning to intelligent pattern analysis.

How It Works

The system analyzes 13 months of historical data, comparing the most recent complete month against established patterns to identify accounts that deviate significantly from normal behavior. But it’s smarter than simple variance detection. It considers each account’s historical volatility. Accounts with consistent monthly variation won’t trigger alerts for normal fluctuations, while stable accounts get flagged for even modest deviations.

“It looks over the past 13 months, and then it looks at the most recent complete month,” Dzundza explains. “And it will tell you if this month’s total seems off on either the balance sheet or P&L.”

Professional-Quality Investigation

When the system detects anomalies, the AI conducts detailed investigations using what Dzundza describes as “customized prompts we designed in partnership with accountants.” These prompts guide the AI to analyze transaction patterns, identify common characteristics, and surface potential root causes.

Travel expenses are a perfect example of this capability. When the AI flagged a 624% increase in travel expenses, it didn’t just note the variance; it traced the increase to two identical $10,834 hotel charges from the same vendor, immediately raising the question of whether these were duplicates or legitimate separate transactions.

Seamless Integration

The feature integrates directly into standard financial statements through subtle blue sparkles next to affected line items. Clicking a sparkle opens a detailed analysis directly in context, allowing investigation without leaving the familiar report format. The sparkles don’t print when you export reports, maintaining clean client deliverables while providing powerful review capabilities.

Actionable Reporting

The AI generates professional-quality PDF reports that serve as both investigation summaries and work papers. These reports include visual charts showing the anomaly, detailed root cause analysis, supporting data points with reference numbers for easy transaction lookup, and comprehensive narrative explanations of findings.

As Katz Pollock notes, “this is something I would be very happy to just send to my client.”

The Partnership Model That Works

These AI updates aren’t about replacing accountants, but about elevating their work.

“It’s not about replacing jobs or anything like that,” Dzundza emphasizes. “It’s really focused on creating tools that make people more efficient in getting their work done.”

As Katz Pollock summarizes, “this is in no way taking your job. All this is doing is calling your attention to things that it’s noticed in a way that you would not have access to just by looking.” The technology provides pattern recognition and initial investigation, but professional judgment about significance, cause, and appropriate action remains firmly in human hands.

Your Voice in the Development Process

Dzundza stresses that development teams are reviewing user feedback daily and implementing changes based on that input.

This gives accounting professionals a unique opportunity to actively shape these tools. The key is providing constructive, actionable feedback with specific details rather than general complaints.

The Future of Accounting Practice

Technical proficiency with AI tools is becoming as important as traditional accounting skills. Accountants who embrace this partnership will find themselves elevated from data processors to strategic advisors, spending less time hunting for errors and more time interpreting their significance for clients.

The collaboration model redefines what it means to be an accounting professional in an AI-enhanced world. The accountants who thrive will be those who view AI as a powerful research assistant rather than a threat, focusing their expertise on the strategic analysis and client relationships that technology cannot replace.

As these AI agents roll out over the coming months, you have the opportunity to be part of shaping the future of accounting practice. Listen to the full episode to hear Dzundza’s complete demonstration of these features, understand the implementation timeline, and learn how to provide constructive feedback that will help refine these tools for maximum benefit to accounting professionals.

The future of accounting is being written now. Make sure your voice is part of that conversation.

How Growing Businesses Can Automate and Protect Payments

Earmark Team · July 29, 2025 ·

For finance teams, finding the right bill pay solution can feel like Goldilocks searching for the perfect porridge—many options are either too basic for complex operations or too sophisticated and expensive for mid-market needs.

At a recent Earmark Expo webinar, hosts Blake Oliver and David Leary invited Omri Mor from Routable to demonstrate how their platform fills this critical gap in the accounts payable market.

“Either the bill pay app is too big for your client, or it’s too small for your client. Sometimes it’s just never the right size,” explained David when introducing the session. “That’s the struggle we have as accountants—getting the right bill pay app for clients.”

When It’s Time to Graduate from Basic Bill Pay

Routable positions itself as the logical next step for businesses that have outgrown basic bill pay solutions but aren’t ready for complex enterprise systems. According to Omri, the platform serves businesses processing anywhere from 100 to over 100,000 payments per month.

“We typically recommend considering a graduation from Bill.com at about 100 to 250 bill payments per month,” explained. He outlined seven indications that it’s time to upgrade:

Transaction volume exceeding 100 monthly payments
Need for better ERP synchronization (Routable boasts a 99.8% sync success rate)
Multi-entity support requirements (from 2 to 85+ entities)
Complex approval rules based on different business dimensions
Delegation requirements across growing finance teams
Subsidiary management complexity
Improved data integrity needs

Perhaps most importantly, Routable doesn’t require businesses to replace their existing accounting systems. As David highlighted during the demo, “If you’re on QuickBooks or Xero, that’s your GL, and you grow to a point, you can just add on Routable. You don’t have to go get a whole new ERP and replace your whole system.”

Powerful Features That Grow With Your Business

The demonstration showcased several standout features that address common pain points for growing businesses:

Seamless Vendor Management

Routable offers a branded vendor portal that doesn’t confuse vendors with third-party interfaces. “We don’t want to hijack your vendor. We don’t want to market to your vendor. We don’t want to confuse your vendor,” Omri emphasized.

The custom-branded portal allows vendors to self-onboard by providing contact information, completing tax forms electronically, and securely connecting bank accounts. The platform also includes built-in 1099 management, eliminating the need for separate tax filing software.

Deep ERP Integration

One of Routable’s most impressive capabilities is its real-time integration with accounting systems such as Oracle NetSuite and Sage Intacct. The platform automatically pulls all fields from your ERP—including custom fields—without additional setup.

“Let’s say you remove class, we’ll remove class. Let’s say you add a new field called ‘David’s favorite ice cream.’ we load ‘David’s favorite ice cream,'” Omri explained. This adaptability ensures the system always reflects your current accounting structure.

Flexible Approval Workflows

The platform allows highly customized, multi-level approval rules based on any field in your ERP system. You can nest rules within other rules for maximum flexibility, and approvers can respond directly via email without logging in.

“Choose your own adventure. It’s one of the most important things we’ve found in accounting and finance,” Omri noted.

Advanced Purchase Order Matching

For inventory-backed businesses, Routable offers sophisticated two-way and three-way matching capabilities. The system supports up to three million SKUs and can process thousands of invoices with detailed line items within seconds.

“This process would take 25 to 30 minutes for a human to do. We’re doing this within split seconds, and we’re coding it for you,” Omri highlighted.

Fighting Fraud with AI

Perhaps the most forward-thinking aspect of Routable’s platform is its upcoming AI-powered fraud detection system. This feature addresses a critical problem: mid-market companies lose an average of $280,000 annually to invoice fraud.

“Not only is faking invoices and receipts here, but faking phone calls is here,” Omri explained. “I can build an agent that sounds exactly like a human today and confirm [incorrect banking details]. So our old methods are not enough… we want to fight AI with AI.”

The system automatically flags suspicious elements in invoices, paired with confidence scoring, including:

Modified text in vendor names, dates, and amounts
Address changes from previous invoices
Duplicate invoice numbers
New or changed bank account details
Mismatches between stated banks and routing numbers

Omri shared a real-world example where Routable helped prevent a sophisticated $1 million fraud attempt: “Our customer said, ‘Hey, we think this is fake.’ We said, ‘You’re confirmed. Here’s the 17 things that were doctored on this invoice.'”

Simplified Pricing for Growing Teams

Unlike many software solutions that use per-seat pricing models, Routable offers unlimited users with pricing based on payment volume. The platform starts at $599 per month and scales based on throughput rather than user count.

“Typically, you give two to five people access to your bank, and you give maybe five or seven people access to your ERP, but your operations team might need access to ‘did this get paid?'” Omri explained. “There’s essentially an onion: finance, then fin-ops, then ops, then maybe customer success.”

This approach allows businesses to distribute access across departments without additional costs, fostering collaboration between finance and operational teams.

A Strategic Investment in Financial Operations

For finance leaders and accounting professionals, Routable is more than just a bill pay solution; it’s a strategic investment that transforms accounts payable from a transaction-processing burden into a business advantage.

Blake summarized, “The way you’ve built the sync to the ERP system or QuickBooks is so rock solid. Being able to pull everything in… it’s a dream as an accountant.”

When considering the return on investment, Omri offered a compelling perspective: “I’ve never met a CFO or director of accounting, or a head of a CPA firm who has enough budget. What if you could say, ‘Hey, if we catch fraud, we get that budget back?’”

Whether you’re managing finance for a growing business or advising clients navigating these challenges, exploring modern accounts payable solutions like Routable could transform what has traditionally been a back-office function into a strategic enabler for business growth.

To learn more about how Routable can help your business or clients transform their accounts payable processes, watch the full Earmark Expo webinar.

AI’s Game-Changing Impact on B2B Revenue Management

Earmark Team · March 11, 2025 ·

Technology has made many tasks like paying employees, managing bills, and handling expenses much more manageable in business finance. However, tracking revenue—essential for any company’s success—has mostly relied on old tools like spreadsheets and emails, leading to a lot of manual work and confusion. Fortunately, that situation is starting to improve.

In a recent Earmark Expo webinar, Blake Oliver, CPA, and David Leary explored how Tabs, a new AI-powered platform, transforms B2B revenue management by bringing invoicing, usage-based billing, and revenue recognition under one roof.

Why Revenue Management Has Lagged Behind

Even though significant improvements have been made in automating accounts payable and payroll processes, managing revenue still requires a lot of manual effort. David pointed out that the accounting department is responsible for handling payroll and paying bills, but revenue management often gets divided among different teams, including marketing, sales, and finance.

According to Ali Hussain, CEO and founder of Tabs, “Revenue is just a very complex discipline from a data standpoint.” Each contract can carry unique terms, amendments, and usage triggers. Until recently, this complexity kept automation efforts at bay.

In 2023, artificial intelligence advanced enough to tackle complicated business contracts, even those tucked away in emails or side agreements. Taking a cue from how today’s accounting and payroll systems have combined various tools into a single platform, Tabs offers an all-in-one solution for managing the entire revenue process. This means businesses no longer have to search through multiple spreadsheets, contract systems, and scattered documents to close the books.

From Contract Ingestion to Collections and Revenue reporting: A Look Inside Tabs

During the demo, Caitlin Lu, Head of Partnerships, showcased how Tabs centralizes every step of the revenue cycle:

Contract Ingestion

Forward a contract (formal MSA, email agreement, renewal, side letter—English language only) to Tabs’ secure email.
Tabs automatically scans the document, extracting billing terms, pricing details, renewal dates, payment schedules, and usage allowances.

Billing and Invoicing

Tabs auto-generates invoices based on the extracted terms.
Users can edit or confirm billing frequency or payment terms before sending.
Integration with QuickBooks or NetSuite is bidirectional: once sent, the invoice syncs to the general ledger, and any subsequent changes in QuickBooks or NetSuite flow back into Tabs.

Usage-Based Billing

For companies charging by hourly rates, seat licenses, tiered usage, or any variable consumption model, Tabs removes the need for manual calculations.
To share usage data, simply upload CSV files or integrate a BI tool. Tabs then apply the contract’s negotiated rates.

Revenue Recognition

Tabs automatically computes deferred, unbilled, and recognized revenue aligned with GAAP requirements.
It generates corresponding journal entries for each period, which are ready for import into the GL.
For audits, every revenue schedule is tied to the original contract, creating a clear paper trail.

Collections and Renewals

A live collections dashboard highlights overdue invoices, pending invoices, and upcoming renewals.
Automated reminders can be sent to customers.
Renewal information, including price escalators or extended terms, surfaces well ahead of contract end dates, mitigating revenue leakage.

Customer Payment Portal

Each invoice includes a secure payment link where customers can pay by ACH, credit card, wire, or check.
ACH, checks, and wires incur no additional fees in Tabs; credit card fees depend on the Stripe terms negotiated by the merchant.
Tabs applies payments and reconciles amounts automatically, marking invoices paid in both Tabs and your accounting system.

Implementation and Pricing

Unlike traditional billing systems that can take six to nine months to set up, Tabs is designed to help finance teams get started in just one billing cycle. There’s no need for costly technical projects; many companies can simply export their usage data from their product team using a spreadsheet. Tabs takes care of everything else from there.

Tabs offers a straightforward pricing plan with a fixed fee, meaning there are no extra charges based on how much you use the service. They collaborate with Stripe to handle credit card payments, but you can choose any payment processor.

Transforming the Role of Finance

The Tabs approach offers a refreshing solution for accountants who often find themselves overwhelmed by complicated revenue models, spreadsheets, or the hassle of tracking down missing contract updates. Instead of getting bogged down with tedious data entry and reconciliations, finance teams can focus on more valuable tasks. This includes providing insights on pricing strategies or analyzing how profitable different customers are. Plus, the system helps ensure everything is ready for audits and automatically handles journal entries, which helps to minimize mistakes and keeps financial records tidy.

“This is your chance to do more with less,” says Ali. By centralizing contracts, usage, billing, and revenue recognition, Tabs enables finance professionals to be proactive rather than reactive—whether at a large firm managing hundreds of contracts or at a growing SaaS startup looking to modernize its revenue processes.

Ready to Learn More?

If you’re ready to see how Tabs can help, or if you’re an accountant interested in rolling this out to clients, visit tabs.inc and explore the “Partners” section or schedule a demo.

You can also earn free CPE by watching the webinar’s replay and completing a short quiz in the Earmark app. With AI now able to tackle the messy reality of B2B revenue, it’s time to shed that manual work and step into the future of revenue management.

Beat Spreadsheet Chaos and Improve Audit Efficiency

Blake Oliver · February 18, 2025 ·

If you’re running an accounting firm, one statistic should be on your radar: 30% of audit engagements fail to stay on time and within budget. In an era of talent shortages and rising client expectations, this isn’t just a scheduling issue—it threatens profitability and long-term client relationships.

The Frustrations of Manual Approaches

Anyone who has worked in public accounting knows how messy things can get trying to manage work with Excel spreadsheets, SharePoint folders, and long email threads. You may try to keep everything in one email, but it often becomes too cluttered. If you create several threads for each request, you can easily lose track of them. This confusion can lead to clients forgetting which documents they have sent, and the audit team spends too much time trying to find out what is still missing.

Many firms face challenges with low realization rates and delayed projects, largely due to cumbersome manual workflows. As a result, client experience can also suffer. Keep in mind that your client contact has a full-time job, and sifting through emails to locate the correct request only adds to their frustration.

Enter Suralink: Reinventing the PBC Process

In a recent Earmark Expo, Ryan Smith showcased Suralink, describing it as the industry’s leading “Provided by Client” (PBC) solution, serving over 1,100 CPA firms and 6,500 client users, including 60% of the top 200 CPA firms. Suralink was born from a CPA’s firsthand frustration with spreadsheets and email threads. The goal? Streamline client collaboration so that everything—document requests, file uploads, comments, and status updates—happens in one secure portal.

Key Features for Modern Audit Workflows

Here’s how Suralink helps to address the challenges of manual processes and reimagine client engagement for faster and more profitable audits:

Single Source of Truth

All request items are tracked within one platform—no more scouring inboxes, no more juggling Excel checklists.
Color-coded statuses (Outstanding, Fulfilled, Returned, Accepted) make it easy for clients to see what’s pending. Turning “boxes” yellow or green creates a sense of progress and gamification.

Assignment and Permissions

Each request can be assigned to a firm user or a specific client contact. Users see only the items relevant to them, reducing confusion.
Sensitive requests (e.g., payroll data) can be “locked,” so only designated individuals see those documents. Clients appreciate the added confidentiality.

Consolidated Communication

Instead of cluttered email threads, each request includes its own dedicated comment section. Conversations stay in context; everyone can refer to them as needed.
Daily digest notifications keep the engagement team updated on new uploads or comments, while an “escalate” feature sends real-time alerts for mission-critical deadlines.

Roll-Forward Simplicity

For recurring engagements—like annual audits—Suralink’s roll-forward function saves last year’s request structure and assignments. When the new cycle begins, your client can see what was provided before, drastically reducing guesswork and set-up time.

Secure File Sharing and eSignature

Documents are uploaded directly into a secure portal, eliminating the need for unencrypted email attachments.
A built-in eSignature feature allows firms to send engagement letters, Form 8879, or other documents for electronic signatures. Clients receive an automated prompt and can sign right into the platform.

Dashboard and Visibility

Partners and managers get an at-a-glance view of every active engagement. They can filter by department, office, or individual staff member to see where bottlenecks occur.
A complete audit trail logs every upload, download, comment, and status change, ensuring full transparency.

Efficiency, ROI, and Client Satisfaction

When CPA firms switch to Suralink they see up to 40% time savings in managing document requests alone. Instead of struggling through manual checklists and email clutter, engagement teams focus on higher-value tasks—like analyzing data and advising clients.

Clients also notice a major improvement in service quality. Everything is in one place, and they can easily upload or view what’s needed. Ryan Smith mentioned that some clients have explicitly told their CPA firms, “If you ever leave Suralink, I’ll find another firm that uses it.” That’s a telling endorsement for any technology investment.

Laying the Groundwork for an AI-Driven Future

The future of audit and assurance services will undoubtedly involve artificial intelligence. Suralink is already preparing to add document preview and AI-driven checks—so the platform can verify whether clients have uploaded the correct file or automatically flag mismatched data.

Behind the scenes, an extensive API allows firms to integrate Suralink with other core systems, from CRM platforms that create new engagements automatically to document storage solutions for archiving. This open architecture paves the way for AI tools that handle basic document verification, sampling, and initial quality checks. Think of it as building a modern foundation that supports the next wave of innovation in accounting tech.

Fast Implementation and Transparent Pricing

Beyond the technology itself, Suralink stands out for its rapid onboarding:

Implementation: Firms with hundreds of users have gone live in about a week or two.
Training: Options range from weekly webinar sessions to dedicated Customer Success Managers under the Professional plan.
Pricing: Typically per firm user (around $29 per month under the Standard plan). All clients, engagements, and storage are included, so there’s no added cost per client or per project.

Why Now Is the Time to Innovate

With talent shortages squeezing firms, rising client demands for better digital experiences, and a 30% risk of engagements blowing past budgets, now is the moment to rethink your PBC process. Modern collaboration tools like Suralink eliminate inefficient back-and-forth, keep data secure, and free your team to focus on what really matters—delivering high-quality audit and advisory services.

And this is just the beginning. As AI capabilities expand, the right platform will let you tap into automated reviews, faster document verification, and other efficiencies we’re only starting to imagine. By choosing a solution designed for the future, you’ll protect the investment you make today and position your firm for years of innovation and growth.

To learn more about how Suralink can transform your engagements and improve client collaboration, check out the Earmark Expo. Whether you’re a solo practitioner or part of a top 25 firm, it’s time to break free from the old way of doing things—and close the door on that 30% problem for good.