Tech news: Xero announces new upgrades

September 5, 2025 11:25 AM

Xero announces enhancements for workpapers, analytics, payments, interface; ADP launches wave of new AI features; Deloitte opens AI Infrastructure Center of Excellence; and other accounting tech updates.

Xero announces enhancements for workpapers, analytics, payments, interface

Small business platform Xero announced a raft of new capacities at its Xerocon conference in Brisbane this week, including major upgrades to its AI model JAX, which now sports agentic capabilities (see separate story.) The company also debuted the Xero Partner Hub, which provides a one-stop shop for accountants and bookkeepers with all of Xero's practice tools and data on one unified platform, including a customizable homepage with AI-powered insights. The Xero Partner Hub provides an integrated client and staff experience, drawing from a single source for all records. For practices currently using Xero Practice Manager, beta access to the platform will be available in the coming months, with the full launch expected in early 2026. Xero also announced a new workpapers solution via its partnership with BGL Corporate Solutions. The new workpapers technology will allow the direct import of client bookkeeping data from Xero to reduce manual data entry. The new workpapers solution will be integrated into Xero's compliance and practice tools in the coming months, offering connectivity with Xero subscriptions, Xero Tax, reporting, as well as client records and staff permission management from practice tools. Xero accounting and bookkeeping partners in Australia will have the opportunity to gain early access to the new workpapers solution in the coming months for feedback, with an initial product launch to follow, and subsequent release for practices in New Zealand and the U.K. There were also improvements to Xero's analytics capacities via its recent acquisition of Syft. This includes enhancements to forecasting, advanced reporting and multi-entity consolidations. Analytics powered by Syft, the small business product embedded into Xero, will offer even more actionable insights for small businesses and their advisors, including a business health score, and will incorporate external data, such as website visits alongside financial information. Xero plans to eventually add a progress payments feature that will allow businesses to accept deposits or payments in stages, plus an online statement feature that will let customers pay multiple outstanding invoices at once in a single transaction. Xero's new homepage features redesigned navigation to help users find what they are looking for, and customizable widgets that give an at-a-glance view of business performance, highlight what needs attention, and allow users to take common actions directly from the page.

ADP launches wave of new AI features

An ADP sign at the TechFair LA job fair in Los Angeles.

Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg

ADP announced new features that leverage ADP Assist, the company's AI-enhanced platform, to address areas where teams lose the most time and efficiency. The platform can now automatically identify inconsistencies or deviations in payroll data to uncover potential payroll mistakes and suggest corrections for HR practitioners to review and approve. Users can ask the AI questions in a conversational interface to get answers on topics such as "How are our overtime costs trending?" It provides not just answers, but visual illustrations like charts and graphs as well. The AI can also help users identify and understand trends within their workforce that might not be evident, turning raw data into guidance and recommended actions. The software now also monitors local, national and emerging workplace requirements, with recommendations that practitioners can verify and implement. The AI will analyze each employee's unique role, skills and career goals to deliver tailored training recommendations to help accelerate their development path.

Deloitte announces AI Infrastructure Center of Excellence

Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg

Big Four firm Deloitte launched its global AI Infrastructure Center of Excellence, dedicated to supporting clients around the world in establishing and operating specialized AI data centers. Clients will gain access to leading practices, network architecture and AI infrastructure insights. The CoE brings specialized capabilities in AI-centric, high-performance computing infrastructure. This includes knowledge about next-generation graphics processing unit technologies, networking and storage solutions, and cooling solutions enabling scalable AI workloads. The CoE will use digital twin technology for interactive data center visualization, allowing clients to simulate, monitor and optimize operations. In addition, the CoE will support clients in the implementation of cybersecurity protocols with third-party integrations. The CoE will serve Deloitte clients around the world looking to set up AI infrastructure.

Grant Thornton Advisors invests $1 billion over 3 years in AI

Grant Thornton LLP building in Dublin, Ireland

Patrick Bolger/Bloomberg

Top 10 firm Grant Thornton announced that Grant Thornton Advisors is investing $1 billion over three years to provide AI tools and technology to the entire workforce at its multinational professional-services platform, which stretches from the Americas across Europe to the Middle East. Grant Thornton Advisors is currently providing over 13,500 platform professionals in 60 multinational offices access to Microsoft 365 Copilot. The rollout complements an earlier pilot project that saw Grant Thornton Advisors providing Microsoft's AI tool to a 400-person cohort of professionals. It expects to see broader benefits when all of the platform's professionals, regardless of role, integrate Microsoft 365 Copilot into their Grant Thornton data sources and Microsoft apps. Grant Thornton Advisors' embrace of AI is funded by its recent investment led by New Mountain Capital, an investment firm with approximately $55 billion in assets under management. Additionally, Grant Thornton Advisors recently acquired Auxis, a U.S.-based provider of outsourcing and business modernization services. Last month, it announced a transaction that will add an additional advisory firm to its platform: Stax, a strategy consulting firm specializing in commercial due diligence, value creation and exit-planning services for private equity firms, as well as their portfolio companies and advisors.

BillingPlatform enables users to make, distribute their own solutions on platform

Billing platform BillingPlatform unveiled "Built on BP," a new program that enables partners to build, manage and distribute their own add-on solutions on the BP platform. With a "configure once, distribute to many" approach, Built on BP will enable partners to create solutions while enabling others to discover a new range of solutions tailored to their needs. Built on BP solutions operate directly within a customer's BillingPlatform environment, using the same security, data models and user interface standards as core BillingPlatform applications. With more than 50 ready-to-use solutions available today—and new offerings added monthly—Built on BP extends the BillingPlatform ecosystem. Examples include a Global Entity & Field Metadata Report, which delivers a view into customer environments, giving administrators greater visibility and data governance control; a Subscription Churn Report, which allows finance and operations teams to analyze churn trends across products, supporting better retention strategies; and a Revenue Allocation Dashboard, which provides contract-level insights for finance teams to meet revenue recognition and compliance requirements.

Gusto, U.S. Bank team up to launch embedded finance solution

Atanas Bezov

Payroll solutions company Gusto and U.S. Bank announced an embedded solution that allows small business owners to manage their payroll as part of their online banking experience. The solution offers a unified view across payroll, banking and payments, flexibility to pay employees by ACH or check, the ability to run payroll as little as two business days before employees' pay dates, automated tax compliance , the ability for existing clients to add the tool in a few clicks, and secure access with industry-standard encryption and fraud protection. U.S. Bank also announced an accounts payable solution, U.S. Bank Bill Pay for Business, which allows business owners to manage payments and maintain records in one place within the existing business banking dashboard; set up recurring payments and make partial or multiple payments at once; automate vendor invoices, auto-creating bills, and creating and managing payment approval workflows; synchronize bills, vendors and expenses with select accounting software; and gain real-time updates on available funds and payments status. Notifications help users avoid missing a payment due date or confirm a payment was received. It includes mobile-friendly and desktop tools; and multistep fraud detection and secure transactions.

Bloomberg launches international transaction tax solution

Bloomberg announced a new tax solution for its Regulatory and Accounting Product suite that manages financial transaction taxes, stamp duties and levies on financial instruments. Available via Data License for scalable enterprise-wide use, this solution helps banks, brokerages, custodians and asset managers streamline tax compliance and examine the tax implications of entering new markets. The software provides global coverage across 28 tax jurisdictions in EMEA and APAC; coverage of FTT regimes in France, Italy and Spain; stamp duties in the U.K., Ireland, Hong Kong and Singapore; and Takeover Panel Levies in the U.K. and Ireland; flags for tax eligibility and rates by instrument, and rationale fields explaining inclusion or exclusion decisions to improve auditability and transparency; automated identification of in-scope instruments and tax obligations with daily monitoring and reference data that includes recent corporate actions; and data ingestion via multiple methods, including SFTP and API, for usage in front-office and compliance workflows.

EverydayCPE leaves beta, turns headlines into CPE

Watching a webinar online - online CPE - online learning

insta_photos - stock.adobe.com

Continuing professional education provider EverydayCPE, which uses AI to convert news headlines into NASBA-compliant CPE lessons, has now left beta testing. Built to replace long webinars with daily, habit-forming micro-CPE, EverydayCPE delivers daily, news-based nano-lessons, each about 10 minutes long, that award CPE after a short assessment. Courses specify the field of study, learning objectives, assessment and completion records; and certificates and transcripts are issued to learners. On completion, credits post to the learner's transcript; and certificates are downloadable. An active user will get about 0.8 CPE/week. Right now there are 50 courses across Technical (28) and Non-Technical (22), with the strongest clusters in software/apps, finance and BMO. The AI technology maps lessons to current headlines, letting users earn CPE while reading the news. Lessons are free the day of release, or $10 per month for the entire library. Enterprise plans are also available.

New hires and appointments

Wolters Kluwer announced the appointment of Rocco Impreveduto as vice president and segment leader for tax and accounting performance. The appointment brings together the U.S. tax preparation and Canadian software portfolios under unified leadership. He joined Wolters Kluwer in 2017 as vice president of marketing, where he strengthened business intelligence capabilities and introduced a segment-based commercial strategy. He later managed the transactional, retirement and e-commerce portfolio, and most recently served as vice president and general manager for regulatory and compliance solutions within legal and regulatory U.S. In his new role, Impreveduto will oversee the strategic direction, financial performance and market expansion of the TAA Performance segment. He will focus on accelerating AI-driven software innovation, strengthening go-to-market strategy and commercial execution, and expanding the value of Wolters Kluwer's platforms in the U.S. and Canada. Impreveduto will be based in Wolters Kluwer's New York office. … Dext, a provider of AI-powered bookkeeping automation solutions, appointed Joanne Modugno as general manager of North America. Based in Dext's Toronto office, she will lead the company's expanding North American operations, driving growth across sales, marketing, operations and partnerships. She has previously held leadership positions at CIBC and Visa. … Big Four firm KPMG announced the appointments of Rob Fisher as global head of advisory and Steve Chase as global head of AI and digital innovation. Steve Chase, who is continuing as vice chair, AI and digital innovation, at KPMG in the U.S., will lead the global organization's efforts to scale AI-enabled client solutions and accelerate internal transformation. He brings over 20 years of consulting and executive leadership experience, focused on large-scale technology and business transformation. For the last two years, as KPMG US's vice chair of AI and digital innovation, he has scaled AI adoption to drive growth, led enterprise-wide integration of AI, and strengthened strategic alliances with global tech leaders including Google and Microsoft. He succeeds David Rowlands, who is retiring after serving as KPMG International's first-ever global head of AI. Rob Fisher, as global head of advisory, will be guiding more than 100,000 professionals in the global network to drive solutions for clients, innovation and quality worldwide. He will also serve on KPMG's Global Management Team with responsibility to shape and implement the global advisory strategy, promote growth, and foster alignment across member firms. This will be in addition to his position as vice chair, advisory at KPMG in the US.

Partnerships, integrations and acquisitions

CoreTrust, a group purchasing organization, expanded its strategic partnership with spend management platform Coupa. Following an initial collaboration earlier this year to enhance Coupa Advantage with CoreTrust's supplier contracts, the new phase of the partnership brings Coupa's AI-native total spend management platform and analytics capabilities into the CoreTrust ecosystem. CoreTrust said there will eventually be a third stage of the collaboration that will embed Coupa's analytics capabilities into the CoreTrust experience at no additional cost to members—enabling them to classify spend data, uncover gaps and identify where contract and platform optimization can drive further savings. … Sovos, a provider of global tax compliance software, announced a strategic partnership with Epicor, a company with industry-specific enterprise software solutions. This collaboration integrates Sovos' AI-powered tax compliance platform with Epicor Kinetic ERP, delivering real-time tax management capabilities to manufacturing and distribution companies worldwide. The Sovos-Epicor integration delivers a unified, automated approach that spans VAT, sales tax, and e-invoicing mandates across multiple jurisdictions. … Big Four firm Deloitte announced an expanded, multiyear exclusive agreement with HundredX Inc., a data and predictive insights company to provide predictive customer-focused insights to help C-suite and other executive-level leaders across industries with business strategy and financial performance. Through this expanded collaboration, Deloitte and HundredX will work to help clients make shifts in capital allocation, pricing, product strategy, customer experience, store performance, assortment and other key levers of the business to enhance future sales and performance. This collaboration combines Converge by Deloitte's AI-enabled software solutions and IndustryAdvantage experience together with HundredX's proprietary customer experience data sets to help clients anticipate future purchase intent. This enables organizations to identify market expansion opportunities as well as areas where growth may plateau and take strategic actions to proactively prevent that from occurring. … Tech advisor and software provider Net at Work announced the acquisition of Advanced Solutions & Consulting Co.'s Acumatica practice. As part of the acquisition, Net at Work will integrate ASC's Acumatica clients as well as the proprietary value-added software technology developed by ASC to enhance Acumatica functionality. The proprietary technology will also be made available across Net at Work's Acumatica client base and partner network.