Tech News: Pioneering crypto audits

February 7, 2022 9:03 AM

Kraken and Armanino are pioneering cryptocurrency audits; Xero wants to beautify a small business; Able want to help the self-employed better manage their finances; a couple of new accounting tech CEOs; and a bunch of new tools for accountants and other developments in technology.

Kraken and Armanino pioneer crypto auditing

Arina Habich/arinahabich - stock.adobe.com

Digital asset exchange Kraken announced that it has passed the first of what are planned to be semi-annual "proof of reserves" audits administered by Top 100 Firm Armanino to affirm that the more than $19 billion in bitcoin and ether assets claimed by clients is, in fact, held on the company's platform. The audit covers just two of the more than 100 assets available for trading on the exchange, but the company hopes it wll advance standards in the area of cryptographic audits.

May the worst office win!

Estee Stanley

Hand-out/Xero

Wondering how to get employees to come back to the office in the middle of a raging pandemic? Small-business accounting platform Xero announced the "Xero Beautiful Business" Contest, which will give U.S. small-business owners the opportunity to win a $15,000 office refresh from stylist and interior designer Estee Stanley. Owners or employees of businesses with fewer than 50 employees can post a photo or video of their office on Instagram with the hashtag #XeroBeautifulBusiness and a caption explaining why the deserve a makeover, or email submissions to XeroBeautifulBusiness@xero.com. The winner will receive a 30-minute virtual consultation with Stanley, a design recommendation, and a $15,000 design budget. Entries are due by 5 p.m. MST on Feb. 15.

Financial tools for the self-employed

New mobile app Able aims to help the rising number of self-employed workers — whose ranks have swelled enormously during the pandemic — to better manage their financial lives with four core features: TaxPass, which helps users set aside the right amount for taxes from every payment they receive; Calculator, which lets users know how much to charge to cover their taxes and still take home the amount they want; Invoice (which we hope is obvious); and Balance, which helps users keep track of all their different income streams.

New leaders at Accounting Seed

Steve Lorenc

Salesforce-based ERP accounting platform Accounting Seed appointed a new CEO, Steve Lorenc. Lorenc brings a background in technology and SaaS products, most recently serving as chief product officer at Insureon. The company's founder and CEO, Tony Zorc, will transition to a board role this month. Accounting Seed also added two other newcomers to its senior leadership team, Corey Kleinbauer and Kate Reefe.

Abacusnext gets a new CEO

Keri Gohman

AbacusNext, which provides cloud-based software and digital payments solutions for legal and accounting professionals, appointed a new CEO, Keri Gohman, as of Feb. 1, 2022. She will also join the board of directors. She joins AbacusNext from Bain Capital Ventures, and previously served as president and chief platform business officer at small-business accounting software developer Xero.

Accountants in tech

Garret Layman

Top 100 Firm BKD CPAs launched its Co-Sourcing Reimbursement Enterprise Solutions suite for hospitals and health systems facing staffing issues in their reimbursement departments. Services available through the platform include reimbursement director outsourcing; cost report compliace and strategic cost report reviews; project assistance; and team member training. ... Maryland-based Regional Leader E. Cohen & Co. launched BinaryLab, a cybersecurity company aimed at serving commercial businesses and government entities. The company will offer a range of services around risk mitigation, network security improvements, incident handling and breach response, and more. ... Top 100 Firm EisnerAmper launched Family Office Technology Solutions under its family office practice, which aims to analyze automation opportunities and provide valuable security advancement insights for single-family, multifamily, and outsourced family offices. It focuses on four areas: system review and automation; software selection and Implementation; security and privacy review; and reporting and maintenance.

More news

SurePrep has joined the CCH Axcess Marketplace program, giving the tax automation solution provider access to APIs to boost integration between the two companies' products. ... Intuit added Get Paid Upfront and Early Pay features to QuickBooks (see the full story.) ... Surgent Accounting & Financial Education launched "Max the Tax," a line of gamified continuing professional education courses (see the full story.) ... Acumatica announced an acquisition and a number of enhancements at its annual summit (see the full story.) ... Sage partnered with The BOSS Network to empower Black women entrepreneurs (see the full story.) ... Accounts payable and payment automation solutions provider AvidXchange announced a new integration between its AvidPay and Sage 100 Contractor. ... Tax productivity solutions provider HubSync has joined the Information Technology Alliance. ... Tax compliance solution provider Sovos released its Sales and Use Tax Pressure Index, which measures the impact of post-Wayfair tax reporting requirements on small to midsized businesses. Among the results of the study: Nearly two-thirds of respondents say their level of anxiety around sales tax is high or moderately high. The company also released its 13th annual Trends report on value-added tax. ... Oracle NetSuite added new cash management features to Netsuite (see the full story).

Startups and funding rounds

Cryptocurrency tax and portfolio tracking solution provider CoinTracker raised $100 million in Series A financing. The round was led by Accel, with participation from new and previous investors including General Catalyst, Initialized Capital, Y Combinator Continuity, 776 Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Intuit Ventures, Kraken Ventures, as well as Claire Hughes Johnson, Gokul Rajaram, Jeremy Liew, and Alex Bouaziz. The company plans to use the money to add talent, expand its solution for tax professionals, and scale customer support, among other things. ... Subscription billing and revenue management software company Chargebee raised $250 million in a funding round co-led by Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital. The company plans to use the money for product innovation and international expansion, among other things. ... BigTime Software, a provider of cloud-based time and billing software for professional services firms, received a $100 million strategic growth investment from Vista Equity Partners. The company plans to use the money for product development and innovation, talent recruiting efforts, and to improve customer sales and support.