Tech news: ISACA updates IT audit framework

ISACA updates IT audit framework

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ISACA (formerly the Information Systems Audit and Control Association) announced the release of its updated IT Audit Framework (ITAF): A Professional Practices Framework for IT Audit. This revamped fifth edition now incorporates updated terminology, refreshed examples and expanded scope to better address emerging technologies, digital trust considerations and evolving audit practices. This is its first update since 2020. The latest edition integrates ISACA's newest resources, including AI audit guidance, and aims to support both traditional assurance functions and modern audit teams using data analytics, automation, agile methods and AI. The new framework places greater emphasis on governance, transparency and readiness for advanced technologies while providing more practical, flexible and globally relevant guidance. More specifically, it:

Updates terminology, definitions and examples to reflect today's technologies—such as cloud computing, AI machine learning and business automation, moving beyond the traditional IT control focus of the previous edition;
Incorporates digital trust concepts throughout planning, fieldwork and reporting, and adds guidance for AI/ML auditing aligned with ISACA's AI audit guidance and the broader digital trust ecosystem;
Introduces language suitable for organizations of all sizes, adds practical examples and improves clarity through a modernized layout; and
Broadens the scope of IT audit to include data analytics, agile auditing, continuous assurance and AI governance, with enhanced expectations for transparency, ethical technology use and oversight of automated systems.

It also includes an updated ITAF Companion Performance Guidelines 2208: Information Technology Audit Sampling that provides IT audit and assurance professionals with guidance in the design, selection and evaluation of audit samples to obtain sufficient and appropriate evidence supporting audit conclusions. The updated guidelines better reflect data-driven, technology-enabled audit sampling approaches.

Propense unveils Hatfield client service AI

Propense CEO Timothy Keith

Propense, a client experience and revenue management solutions provider, released Hatfield, an always-on agentic AI client service tool. The AI continuously monitors a partner's book of business in order to surface timely risks, cross-selling opportunities and milestones—such as client birthdays and anniversaries—in personalized digests and dashboards with recommended messaging for client follow-ups. The platform also tracks client social media activity, regulatory updates, industry news and other external signals in real time so professionals can engage clients throughout the year and take action at the right moments. The user decides when and how often alerts are delivered, with settings to adjust frequency during busy season, selling season or other dominant times. Hatfield is not a chatbot, CRM or sales automation platform; the software instead integrates into existing workflows. The solution also has personalization options: It can be customized to each professional's schedules, preferences and needs. It also adapts to their behavior and communication style in order to fine-tune its approach. Hatfield is currently available through Propense's current software. Professional services firms interested in Hatfield can access the tool after signing up for Propense.

Skipentry premieres with QBO data extractor tool

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Data solutions provider SkipEntry announced its formal launch, with a new QuickBooks Online data extraction tool as its initial offering. Users drag and drop invoices as either single files or batches of 50 or more, in any format from any vendor (it also works with scanned invoices.) The AI then automatically extracts data like vendor, amounts, line items and dates. Users can then download the data as CSV, Excel or import-ready files for QBO and Xero. It organize invoices by client (one workspace per business managed). Every extraction is math-checked: line items sum to subtotal, subtotal + tax = total. Errors are flagged, and the AI learns each vendor's format. Subscriptions are page-based, not per invoice. The Starter edition costs $49 per month for 200 pages, Professional costs $149 per month for 1,000 pages, and Agency is $349 per month for 5,000 pages. Overage costs $0.35 per page. The first 50 pages are free.

iTrustCapital touts Treasury Accounts for crypto

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iTrustCapital, a fintech platform, launched Crypto Treasury Accounts, which offer a secure, institutional-grade solution for businesses (corporations, LLCs, S corps and partnerships), trusts and nonprofits to buy, sell and hold digital assets on their balance sheet as part of their treasury strategy. Users can buy, sell and custody a wide range of digital assets, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Solana and more. Clients can also buy and sell physical gold and silver in their Treasury Account. Client assets are maintained 1:1 with U.S.-based third-party banks and custodians without being leveraged or commingled with business operations. Users can earn rewards by staking Ethereum and Solana, with staking opportunities for additional assets coming soon. For security, Treasury Account operates in a secure, closed-loop system where USD deposits are accepted only from the client's U.S.-based bank account. In-kind crypto deposits are also permitted; withdrawals are USD-only back to the client's bank account.

Idenfy launches ROI calculator

iDenfy, an identity verification and fraud prevention solutions provider, announced its ROI Calculator tool, a dynamic comparison gadget that's designed to help businesses understand the financial Know Your Customer service cost impact compared to other popular providers in the industry. iDenfy's calculator provides finance and compliance officers, as well as product leaders, with data-driven projections of verification costs with chosen plans and add-ons. iDenfy's ROI Calculator evaluates savings across four value drivers. Direct verification savings eliminate charges for "denied," "failed" or "abandoned" attempts. The new ROI Calculator presents four pricing tiers: the Enterprise Bronze, Enterprise Silver, Enterprise Gold and Enterprise Premier for organizations exceeding 50,000 verifications per year. The Enterprise Premier tier provides custom pricing, dedicated support and tailored commercial structures. Each plan varies based on the required verification volume and can include features such as unlimited manager accounts, watermark removal, service level agreement coverage, credit rollover and more. As businesses purchase higher verification volumes, the cost per verification decreases accordingly.

Pilot announces $250,000 growth fund for SMBs

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Accounting and advisory solutions provider Pilot launched its Small Business Growth Fund, delivering a total of $250,000 in funding across 18 small business owners. Presented in partnership with Hello Alice, the fund supports small businesses across various stages of growth, whether they're investing in operations, expanding their teams or strengthening financial infrastructures. Through the Pilot Small Business Growth Fund, 18 business owners will receive grants to support them as they scale. The fund will offer one $50,000 grant, two $25,000 grants and 15 $10,000 grants. Each grant recipient will also receive one year of free Pilot bookkeeping services to support their financial management and growth. Recipients of the Small Business Growth Fund will get 12-month access to Pilot's automated bookkeeping services, including its AI Accountant bookkeeping solution. The Pilot Small Business Growth Fund is now open for applications. Applications are being accepted from Feb. 24, 2026, at 9:00 a.m. ET to March 31, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. ET. Recipients will be announced on May 5, 2026.

Partnerships and integrations

Top 25 firm Armanino has selected Inflo as a strategic technology partner as part of its broader vision to build a next-generation, AI-enabled audit platform, and has integrated Inflo into Armanino's Audit Ally and Armanino Access ecosystem. Armanino clients will have real-time visibility into the status of their audit and advisory engagements, including testing progress and information requests, along with access to deeper business performance insights such as financial ratios and trend analysis benchmarked against peer companies. Clients may also securely connect their ERP systems directly to Armanino's audit platform, as Inflo's digital audit methodology is embedded directly into the platform. … Intapp, a professional services solutions provider, announced it will accelerate the adoption of specialized agentic AI across the accounting, consulting, investment banking, legal and private capital sectors with Claude, Anthropic's family of AI models. Intapp will build industry-specific agents that are interoperable with and powered by Claude, enabling professional firms to bring their Intapp and Claude ecosystems together. These agents will complement Claude with industry-specific workflows, best practice playbooks and information governance to meet the needs and regulatory requirements of professional services firms. … Sovos, a tax compliance solutions provider, announced that Label, a specialized provider of automated FATCA, CRS and CARF compliance solutions, has joined the Sovos Partner Network. Label CARF + Sovos 1099-DA will deliver a global solution for digital asset platforms to meet the OECD's Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework requirements, which mandate comprehensive reporting of crypto transactions beginning in 2027 for the 2026 tax year in participating jurisdictions. This partnership enables crypto exchanges, brokers and custodians to meet the OECD's global tax transparency requirements without the complexity of building in-house CARF capabilities. … - Crowe, a Top 25 Firm, announced a strategic alliance with LogicGate, an AI-based governance, risk and compliance platform for the enterprise, to deliver a set of Crowe-developed risk and compliance accelerators built for banks and credit unions. This collaboration fuses Crowe's financial services expertise with LogicGate's GRC platform to reduce reliance on traditional, resource-heavy implementations with ready-to-deploy solutions. … Rainforest, an embedded payment provider for software platforms, has partnered with PayPal to launch a new embedded payment integration to help software platforms shift more processing volume away from offline payment methods like cash and checks. With the new integration, Rainforest platform clients can enable their merchants to get paid via PayPal, Venmo and PayPal Pay Later, along with cards, Apple Pay and pay by bank, through a single checkout experience.

Awards and honors

Billing platform Billing Platform announced the winners of its 2025 Partner of the Year Awards program, which recognizes partners that deliver exceptional customer outcomes, including faster time to value, improved monetization strategies and more efficient revenue operations. PwC has been named BillingPlatform's 2025 Global Delivery Partner of the Year for its delivery of BillingPlatform solutions and measurable business impact for clients. Respec has been named BillingPlatform's 2025 Regional Delivery Partner of the Year, honoring its performance in delivering BillingPlatform solutions and driving customer success. Adyen has been named BillingPlatform's 2025 Solution Partner of the Year, recognizing its leadership in developing and delivering innovative joint solutions that drive measurable business value for clients. Award recipients were evaluated across criteria aligned with partner impact, such as deal influence and revenue outcomes, customer engagements, community participation, academy and partner certifications and marketplace contributions. … Cetrom, an accounting-focused cloud services provider, announced that CRN, a brand of The Channel Company, has recognized Cetrom on its Managed Service Provider 500 list in the Security 100 category. The Security 100 distinction recognizes MSPs with deep expertise in delivering security-first, intelligence-driven cloud infrastructure and managed IT expertise that protect clients from evolving cyber threats.

Other news

Inscope, an AI-based financial statement preparation platform for enterprises and accounting firms, has raised $14.5 million in Series A funding led by Norwest. … Wolters Kluwer announced its full-year 2025 results. Wolters Kluwer's revenues grew 7% in constant currencies, reaching EUR 6.125 billion for 2025. The company reported a 9% increase in adjusted operating profit, with a margin expansion to 27.5%. AI-powered solutions now account for 70% of digital revenues. Recurring revenues constituted 83% of total revenues. For Tax & Accounting specifically, Wolters Kluwer expects full-year 2026 organic growth to be in line with the prior year (FY 2025: 7%), with revenue momentum picking up in the second half. … Financial forensics solutions provider Valid8 has announced the appointment of Joanna Summers as the vice president of public sector. Summers worked in the Asset Forfeiture Division of the United States Marshals Service for more than nine years. In her role, Summers will focus on running Valid8's public sector team. She will leverage her experience to help Valid8 better serve law enforcement and government agencies in their work, furthering her emphasis on the importance of public-private partnerships. Summers will also lead training and educational sessions to help investigators gain the skills and knowledge needed to successfully seize assets in financial crime cases. ... Accounting practice solutions provider Basis announced it has raised $100 million in Series B funding at a $1.15 billion valuation. The round was led by Accel (Miles Clements), along with GV (Google Ventures) and Lloyd Blankfein, and with Khosla Ventures (Keith Rabois and Vinod Khosla) and other existing backers doubling down. Other investors include NFDG (Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross), Better Tomorrow Ventures, BoxGroup, Avid Ventures, Kris Fredrickson, Aaron Levie (CEO, Box), Adam D'Angelo (CEO, Quora; Board, OpenAI), Amjad Masad (CEO, Replit), Claire Hughes Johnson (Former COO, Stripe), Clem Delangue (CEO, HuggingFace), Eric Wu (Former CEO, Opendoor), Gautam Kedia (Former Head ML, Stripe), Jack Altman (Former CEO, Lattice), Jeff Dean (Chief Scientist, Google), Jeff Wilke (Former CEO, Amazon Consumer), Kyle Vogt (CEO, Bot Company), Noam Brown (Research, OpenAI), Scott Belsky (Former CSO, Adobe). Accel's Miles Clements will join Khosla Ventures' Keith Rabois on the board.