After launching in February and raising $75 million in funding, San Francisco-based Accrual, a platform that unifies tax preparation and review into a single system, is jumping into client accounting services with both feet after announcing its first major acquisition on Wednesday—the accounting firm-specific technology and business of AI-native accounting platform Puzzle.
Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. The transaction is expected to close in the coming weeks, subject to customary closing conditions.
As part of the transaction, Accrual will add Puzzle’s AI-native ledger and month-end close products. In addition, Puzzle founder and CEO Sasha Orloff and members of the Puzzle team will join Accrual.
The acquisition expands Accrual beyond tax preparation and into CAS, advancing the company’s ambition to give accounting firms one intelligence layer across tax, audit, client accounting, and advisory, rather than another disconnected tool, said Cosmin Nicolaescu, co-founder and CEO of Accrual.
“Puzzle has built exceptional ledger and close technology, and Sasha and his team have a rare understanding of both accounting work and the software required to improve it,” he said in a statement. “Together, we can bring production-ready AI to CAS faster and help firms modernize a critical part of how they operate.”
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Founded by Orloff in 2019, Puzzle has built an AI-native accounting workspace centered on its ledger, AI Close, Cowork, and Chat products. The company provides services to more than 7,000 startups, small businesses, and accounting firms, according to a Sept. 2 media release. Accrual says it has also relied on Puzzle to run its own books since early in the company’s history.
The deal to acquire Puzzle’s accounting firm-specific technology and business accelerates a CAS roadmap that’s underway at Accrual, the company says. Its CAS offering is already in early access with accounting firms.
The combined teams can direct more product and engineering investment toward modernizing client accounting and advisory work, Accrual says, “giving the accounting profession a faster path from isolated AI tools to production workflows built around firm methodology and review.”
According to the media release, Puzzle will continue to operate independently for startups and small businesses that use its AI-native general ledger and accounting platform directly.
“The structure gives each business a clear mandate: Accrual is built for accounting firms and the clients they serve, while Puzzle continues supporting its established base of businesses,” the media release states.
In a statement, Orloff said, “Cos and I share the conviction that AI is changing accounting at the engagement level and changing what teams prepare by hand while keeping professionals responsible for judgment and review. That shift is now happening in production. Combining Puzzle’s ledger and close technology with Accrual’s broader platform gives us a chance to create something much more valuable for accounting firms than either company could build separately.”
In a LinkedIn post on Wednesday, Orloff noted that Puzzle chief marketing officer Ozgur Uzuner will take over as CEO of “Puzzle 2.0.” Why Puzzle 2.0? This is what Orloff wrote on LinkedIn:
After 7 years as CEO of Puzzle, I’m stepping into a new chapter.
And Puzzle is stepping into one too.
Over the last few years, we’ve built some of the most automated accounting software in the market. Along the way, two things became increasingly clear:
1. Customers wanted more than software. They wanted a complete accounting and tax solution that is AI-powered but human-led.
2. And the best accounting firms using Puzzle wanted us to help them grow.
So that’s what we’re doing.
Puzzle is evolving from accounting software into an integrated accounting platform, combining our technology, our customer acquisition engine, and a small group of ambitious accounting partners.
For customers, the goal is simple:
→ One place to run it all
→ Great accounting + tax
→ Transparent, fixed pricing
→ Powered by AI and automationFor our accounting partners, Puzzle can become your growth engine.
Bringing them customers, technology, automation, and infrastructure so they can serve far more businesses without building all of it themselves.
We think this creates a much better alignment of incentives.
As Puzzle automates more of the underlying accounting work, customers get a better product and better economics, while the accountants responsible for the work can build larger, more profitable practices.
There’s another important benefit.
This model makes Puzzle one step closer to profitability, funded by our revenues and no longer dependent on the next round of venture capital. That gives us the ability to build for our customers and for the long term.
We can keep investing in our customers and our product without depending on continuously raising more venture capital.
Puzzle isn’t disappearing.
We’re building the next version of it.
And we are around to stay.
Excited to share more,
Ozgur Uzuner, CEO of Puzzle 2.0
Jason Mitchell, CTO (and recovering CPA) of Puzzle 2.0
Since its February launch, Accrual’s platform has been adopted by firms such as Armanino, Aprio, H&R Block, Creative Planning, BMSS, and Stephano Slack.
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Following the deal’s close, Accrual said it expects to begin incorporating Puzzle’s ledger and close capabilities, with broader availability planned by the end of 2026.
Photo caption: Accrual co-founder and CEO Cosmin Nicolaescu
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