Tech Roundup: Avalara announces free e-invoicing

Avalara announces free e-invoicing

Tax and compliance solutions provider Avalara announced free enterprise-grade b2b e-invoicing for U.S customers, offered via its membership in the DBNAlliance. The solution, Avalara E-Invoicing and Live Reporting, provides global compliance and coverage through a single, unified application and Avalara's global partner ecosystem. It automates invoice creation, validation, and submission to meet evolving U.S. and global tax requirements. It also enables real-time, interoperable e-invoicing with trading partners across the U.S. using a certified service provider. This builds upon Avalara's recent recognition in the IDC MarketScape: European Compliant e-Invoicing 2024 Vendor Assessment. The offer is subject to certain terms and requirements, which can be reviewed here.

Ramp launches AI agents for AP

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Payment and expense solutions provider Ramp announced Agents for AP, specialized AI agents that can do things like invoice coding, invoice approval and payment processing. The agents work directly within Bill Pay, Ramp's AP automation platform, which can process, approve, and pay invoices. Specifically, agents learn and apply logic from historical data and invoice details, like product IDs and shipping addresses, to input general ledger codes for each line item. Agents for AP will handle most invoice coding tasks automatically, applying its learned logic. The agents also provide approval recommendations and a summary of vendor history, contracts, prior bills, and coding consistency, giving approvers all the information to make a decision without searching. The solution will also find card payment opportunities directly in the vendor's payment portal, eliminating manual entry and capturing cashback. Agents for AP follows the launch of Agents for Controllers which automatically enforce company expense policies, eliminate unauthorized spending, and prevent fraud.

Crowe rolls out AI studio

Top 25 firm Crowe announced the launch of Crowe Studio, a new business unit dedicated to helping clients scale smarter, transform faster, and lead in a platform-driven economy, which will heavily lean on AI. Described as a venture-style approach to building AI-native, outcome-focused businesses and solutions, it provides clients with an innovation partner focused on rapid execution, technology integration, and results. The studio will launch with 3 core offerings: Crowe Y-Hire, a managed hiring model that leverages AI agents and global delivery to help organizations scale knowledge worker capacity without traditional recruitment cycles or fixed headcount models; Crowe AI Transformation, a full-service offering for organizations looking to design, build, and deploy enterprise-grade AI initiatives, which draws on Crowe's proprietary IP, industry expertise, and strategic technology partnerships; and Crowe Tax AI, an AI-native service designed to reduce risk, enable predictive planning, and preserve expert oversight. Crowe views Crowe Studio as a long-term transformation and self-disruption engine for the firm and the clients it serves, with a growing pipeline of platform-native offerings planned beyond the initial launch.

Cleo offers payment and financing solution

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Supply chain solutions provider Cleo announced its newest product offering, Cleo InvoicePay. InvoicePay a new embedded financing solution that lets suppliers get paid within 24 hours — directly from the Cleo Integration Cloud platform. The solution is available to any supplier transacting business through Cleo's Web EDI Fulfillment Portal and Supplier Portal solutions. Suppliers can choose the specific invoices they want to get paid faster and receive up to the entire value of their invoice value (less fees) upfront -- which gives them immediate access to working capital without altering customer relationships. Financing within the solution is powered by Cleo's financial partner, Kanmon, a licensed commercial lender. Cleo InvoicePay is now available directly within the Cleo Web EDI Fulfillment and Supplier Portals.

NetSuite announces AI-centered partner program updates

ERP solutions provider Oracle NetSuite announced updates to its NetSuite SuiteCloud Developer Network partner program to help partners build AI-powered business applications and accelerate new revenue opportunities. This includes the SuiteApp.AI marketplace, which provides partners with a dedicated channel to showcase their AI-powered SuiteApps; new AI category SuiteApp badges that enable partners to differentiate their AI solutions by demonstrating that they meet Built for NetSuite standards for privacy, security, performance, and design excellence; two AI-specific badges recognize innovation and trust, SuiteCloud Developer Network AI Elite, designated for partner applications that deliver all of their AI functionality through LLMs hosted via Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and SuiteCloud Developer Network AI, designated for partner applications leveraging SuiteCloud Platform APIs and/or third-party LLMs; and AI development resources that provide partners with the tools and engineering support needed to integrate and manage third-party LLMs of their choice within OCI and accessible directly from the SuiteCloud Developer Network portal.

New partnerships, integrations, M&A

Accounting platform Sage announced it has acquired Criterion, a human capital management (HCM) software provider. The move enables both finance and HR teams to automate, streamline, and scale operations on a single, intelligent platform. Criterion's solution brings together Core HR, Payroll, and Talent Engagement. … Accounting solutions provider insightsoftware [sic] announced the release of its new LeaseAccelerator, which boasts out-of-the-box functionality that simplifies the connection between lease accounting and SAP. Leveraging Process Runner from insightsoftware, this integration provides a no-code solution for transferring journal entries directly from LeaseAccelerator into SAP. … Bloomberg Tax and Accounting has partnered with tax incentive solutions provider Incentify to launch Bloomberg Tax Credits & Incentives Tool. This advancement embeds Incentify's discovery engine directly into the user experience, leveraging the company's proprietary C&I dataset to deliver enhanced capabilities. With this integration, Bloomberg Tax clients can now search address-level incentives—allowing them to locate any U.S. address and instantly surface federal, state, and zone-specific eligibility, such as Opportunity Zones, Enterprise Zones, and more. … Spend management solutions provider Coupa announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Scoutbee, an AI-powered supplier discovery platform and network.The deal will combine Scoutbee's AI-powered search, supplier network and dataset, and collaboration tools with the Coupa platform and network of 10M+ buyers and suppliers. The deal is expected to close within Coupa's fiscal quarter to kick off integration efforts. … Indirect tax solutions provider Vertex today announced the launch of Kintsugi powered by Vertex, a new AI-native tax automation solution developed in partnership with Kintsugi, on the heels of Vertex's $15 million minority investment in Kintsugi earlier this year. The solution automates key compliance functions including nexus monitoring, registration, product-level tax categorization, calculation, filing, and remittance. It also provides real-time dashboards for jurisdictional liability and exposure tracking, empowering finance teams with visibility and control. … Big Four firm Deloitte announced an expanded alliance to modernize data management services for tax departments in cooperation with cloud data management solutions provider Databricks. The alliance extension will enable Deloitte Tax to utilize the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform and enhance visibility into enterprise-wide tax data and provide a single source of truth for tax-related information. The expanded alliance between Deloitte Tax and Databricks will focus on several key areas, including a unified data architecture, automated digital tax documentation, and advanced solutions for global tax complexity. … Payment solutions provider REPAY announced a technology integration with AP automation solutions company Yooz to create a unified platform for businesses in automotive, construction, manufacturing, and heavy trucking to more efficiently execute vendor payments. The partnership expands automation capabilities for businesses operating on the Yooz platform, helping to ensure error-free on-time vendor and partner payments. … Accounting firm network CPAmerica announced client collaboration platform Truss has been selected as a new Preferred Provider for the association. Truss is designed to streamline client engagements from start to finish, without logins or passwords.

New hires and appointments

Accounting automation solutions provider Trullion announced the appointment of Arthur "Artie" Minson as Chief Executive Officer. An early investor in Trillion, as well as an advisor and board observer for over five years, Minson was mostly recently president and CEO of LeafLink. The current CEO, Isaac Heller, will assume the role of President, focusing on new product development and strategic partnerships across the accounting, audit and technology ecosystems. Heller will remain as Chair of the Board. Minson will oversee core business functions, including finance, legal, human resources, sales, marketing, communications and customer success. … Cloud ERP provider Acumatica announced the appointment of Jordan Weitzen as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). In this role, Weitzen will oversee Acumatica's global finance and accounting organization and help drive strategic growth initiatives across Acumatica's core industries. Before joining Acumatica, he served as CFO of Pacvue, a global e-commerce software platform, and CFO of FabFitFun, a lifestyle subscription and e-commerce retailer. He also held senior roles in corporate development and strategic finance at NBCUniversal and Hulu.

Other news

Everyset, an entertainment industry-focused solutions company, announced a $9M raise of fresh capital and the launch of a new, integrated solution for fast and accurate payroll on set. Led by Crosslink Capital and Haven Ventures, the latest funding round has enabled the company to launch the next evolution of its payroll platform, Everyset's Background Payroll. The new solution delivers payroll precision on-demand - replacing vendor handoffs with a centralized, SAG-AFTRA approved platform that automatically calculates overtime, penalties, and premiums earned by actors on-set. … JustPaid.ai, a finance platform, launched a free, 30-minute course that helps accounting and finance professionals streamline billing, contracts, and reporting. It will be worth 1 CPE credit. The lesson will, through quick hands-on modules, explore how AI automation can save hours on manual tasks like invoicing and collections. Those interested can check out the course at justpaid.ai/course.