A Top Technology Initiative Article – March 2026
The AICPA Accelerator program was launched in 2017. This year’s ninth cohort continues the mission of “the Startup Accelerator aims to support and advance innovation across the accounting profession.” This year’s cohort included five companies transforming the accounting and finance profession with cutting-edge automation and artificial intelligence.
I had the pleasure of being included in the selection process and of attending the convening days on March 3-4, 2026, at the AICPA headquarters in New York City. As a bonus, I was able to visit my daughter and son-in-law, and enjoyed time with my granddaughter as well. It was superb to have extended conversations with these founders and with other advisors.
We like to review leading products and have discussions with thought leaders on the Accounting Technology Lab podcast. My cohost, Brian Tankersley, and I recorded a session that covers the 2026 AICPA Accelerator Cohort and the developments announced by Zoho during Zoho Day 2026 as part of our weekly program cadence.
I’m looking forward to the CPA Practice Advisor’s Thought Leader event and learning what other consultants to the profession have discovered that might help you. If you have a product or topic that you believe needs coverage, please contact me.
So, Who Was Included?
While there were dozens of applicants with fine products, those included were:
- Adaptive, an AI-native accounting platform for construction, combines financial data, project context, and agentic AI to automate accounting work and identify profit fades before they happen.
- Matt Calvano, CEO, and Cole Mier, Partnerships AE, represented Adaptive
- Sell to construction, through CPA and direct
- 1,000+ customers, 41 accounting & CPA partners, $26M raised
- Project context, budget on cost and revenue, over several months or years
- Connect to Procore, recently released voice agents
- Why work with them?
- Construction CAS
- Scale practice
- Differentiated advisory with WIP and financial reporting
- AuditPro.ai, a suite of turnkey AI applications tailored for financial statement audits and reviews, helps firms adopt AI affordably and quickly.
- Payton Baran, Founder & CEO and Page Halle, VP, Sales & Partnerships represented AuditPro
- Accounting firms quickly and affordably benefit from AuditPro.ai’s safe, turnkey AI apps tailored for financial statement audits and reviews. AuditPro.ai can be used to rapidly educate engagement teams about their clients and provide insights that help guide them throughout their financial statement audits and reviews. AuditPro.ai is an intelligent assistant that amplifies assurance teams’ expertise by automating tedious tasks and providing rapid, actionable insights, guiding them through doing a financial statement audit
- What is the product’s value proposition?
- AI Native
- Simple UX
- Intuitive
- Immediate value realization
- Affordable
- Kintsugi, which has built a global AI-powered indirect tax compliance infrastructure, enabling modern businesses to calculate, file, and remit transaction taxes across every jurisdiction with confidence.
- Pujun Bhatnagar, Founder, CEO, and Jeff Gibson, Founder, CTO, represented Kintsugi
- Currently serving 5000+ customers in 100+ countries
- In 2025, Kintsugi processed 170M transactions worth $12.5B for 630 Customers, $29M raised
- Sales tax is often done wrong
- Regulators do not forget
- Accounting nightmares, collecting and paying to a state, or return to the company OR go to prison
- Wrong jurisdiction
- Penalties compound quickly – 25-30% penalties
- In their Modern Compliance Approach, there are five pillars
- i. Exposure Monitoring
- ii. Accurate Calculation
- iii. Registrations and Filings
- iv. Deep integration
- v. Human support
- Ping Assistant, an AI-powered intelligence platform that captures client and firm context to surface revenue opportunities, reduce administrative work, and give firm leaders real-time visibility.
- Camden Bean, CEO & Co-founder and Chad Holmes, CTO & Co-founder represented Ping Assistant
- Ping is good at identifying cross-sell and upsell opportunities, reducing admin work, and giving firm leadership a clear view of growth and performance.
- Tribal knowledge becomes institutional memory
- Context stays with the firm
- Instant recall
- Keeping Service Consistent
- AI-generated SOP
- Employee scorecard
- Client health scores
- Advisory easy to start
- Advisory-Only platform
- Individual sign up
- Minimal IT lift
- Truss, an AI-native, complete tax workflow platform that handles everything from client intake, workpapers, prep, through delivery, with a unique focus on ease of use for clients.
- Daniel Pinkous, CEO, and Zach Mansell, VP of Sales, represented Truss
- What problem is Truss solving?
- Painful client experience is now user-friendly
- Fractured and inconsistent tax workflow processes are now consolidated and streamlined
- Where is this platform going?
- Agentic AI
- Strategic Partner ecosystem
- Beyond compliance to advisory
- Intelligent, guided workflows
- Deeper client insights
- Higher-value relationships
For more information, listen to our podcast on the AICPA Accelerator program.
So, What Should You Do in 2026?
While many of the products in this column are newer with different ideas on how to solve problems, your goals should still be on your team, your clients, and your firm’s profitability. Continuously improve your processes and occasionally revise your tech stack. Look for ways to complete client engagements more easily and smartly. Choose to provide the services that best fit your clients’ needs and that you and your team can handle well. This year and beyond, you can look to this column and our Accounting Technology Lab podcasts to get genuine, honest, real, authentic, and frank advice.
Past Accelerator Cohorts – https://accelerator.cpa.com/alumni
2025 Cohort (6 startups)
· Avise. AI-powered platform automating financial data analysis, forecasting, and reporting workflows for finance teams, helping accountants deliver faster advisory insights.
· Filed. Tax workflow automation platform helping accounting firms prepare 1040 returns.
· Remitian. Accounts receivable and payment automation platform that enables businesses and accountants to streamline invoicing, payment collection, and reconciliation.
· Tabs. Revenue operations platform automating invoicing, billing management, revenue tracking, and customer payment workflows for growing SaaS and subscription businesses.
· Truewind. An AI bookkeeping and financial management platform automating journal entries, reconciliations, and reporting to help finance teams close books faster.
· Keeper (now Double). Accounting automation platform focused on month-end close processes, improving reconciliation, anomaly detection, and financial reporting workflows using machine learning.
2024 Cohort (7 startups)
· Aider. AI-driven bookkeeping assistant helping accountants automate categorization, reconciliations, and financial insights while maintaining audit-ready financial records.
· Black Ore. Autonomous tax preparation platform using artificial intelligence to gather documents, prepare returns, and streamline tax workflows for firms.
· Digilence. Automated platform combining AI and structured workflows to accelerate financial investigations, risk assessments, and compliance analysis.
· Laurel. Time intelligence platform automatically captures professional services work activity and converts it into accurate time entries and productivity insights.
· Materia. An AI-powered financial analysis and accounting research assistant that interprets accounting data and delivers insights, reports, and recommendations.
· Supervizor. Continuous audit and transaction monitoring platform detecting anomalies, fraud risk, and control failures within financial systems using advanced analytics.
· TimeCredit. Marketplace platform enabling firms to outsource accounting tasks and professional services work through a structured network of vetted professionals.
2023 Cohort (5 startups)
· TaxPlanIQ. Tax planning and advisory platform helping accountants generate proactive tax strategies, scenario modeling, and client-facing planning reports.
· 4impactdata. An advisory analytics platform that measures sustainability performance and produces environmental impact reporting for organizations and accounting advisors.
· AuditSight. Audit automation platform designed to improve planning, documentation, and testing workflows for audit teams using structured digital processes.
· Synder. Accounting automation tool integrating e-commerce, payment platforms, and financial systems to automatically reconcile transactions and produce accurate financial records.
· VERIFYiQ. An AI-based document verification platform that detects inconsistencies and potential fraud in financial documentation used by auditors and accountants.
2022 Cohort (10 startups)
· AuditMiner. Audit data analytics platform extracting insights from general ledger and transactional data to enhance audit testing and anomaly detection.
· Once Accounting. Client data integration platform synchronizing accounting data across multiple systems to simplify tax preparation and financial reporting workflows.
· LumiQ. Podcast-based continuing professional education platform allowing accountants to earn CPE credits through engaging audio content and interviews.
· Knuula. Engagement letter automation platform helping firms create, manage, distribute, and track customizable client agreements efficiently.
· Caesar Sustainability. ESG data management platform enabling organizations to collect, analyze, and report environmental and sustainability metrics.
· ESG Trust. ESG reporting platform helping companies identify sustainability risks, track ESG metrics, and produce standardized disclosure reports.
· GoodLab. ESG performance management platform providing organizations tools to collect sustainability data and generate compliance-ready ESG reports.
· Fieldguide. End-to-end engagement management platform for audit and advisory firms automating workflows, documentation, and collaboration.
· Standard Carbon. Carbon accounting platform helping organizations track emissions, manage carbon reduction strategies, and generate climate-related reports.
· Sustain.Life. Sustainability platform helping companies measure emissions, manage carbon reduction initiatives, and track environmental performance metrics.
2021 Cohort (4 startups)
· ElectroNeek. Robotic process automation platform enabling accounting firms to automate repetitive back-office tasks and document workflows.
· Guardd. Fraud prevention and cybersecurity platform protecting accounting firms from email compromise, data breaches, and financial fraud.
· Saasable. Financial reporting platform designed for SaaS companies, helping finance teams manage subscription metrics and revenue analytics.
· Valid8 Financial. A transaction verification platform using blockchain and digital validation to confirm financial transactions and detect fraud.
2020 Cohort (4 startups)
· The Climate Service. Climate risk analytics platform helping financial professionals assess environmental risks affecting assets, portfolios, and investments.
· Tally Street. Automated reconciliation platform helping accountants match transactions and resolve discrepancies in accounting systems.
· Scanye. An intelligent document processing platform that extracts financial data from invoices and documents for accounting automation.
· Gilded. Cryptocurrency accounting platform enabling businesses to manage digital assets, track transactions, and maintain compliant financial records.
2019 Cohort (3 startups)
· Client Hub. A client communication platform designed for accounting firms to manage messaging, requests, and document sharing with clients.
· Dryrun. Cash-flow forecasting and financial planning software that helps accountants model scenarios and advise clients with forward-looking projections.
· Gappify. Close management automation platform that streamlines month-end close processes and improves collaboration between accounting teams.
2018 (Inaugural class selected in 2017; often referenced as the first cohort) (4 startups)
· North Capital. Financial technology platform providing regulatory infrastructure and transaction management for private securities offerings.
· RegroupTAX. Tax workflow and client communication platform helping firms manage tax engagements and client collaboration.
· TrueUp. Compensation analytics platform helping organizations analyze pay equity, incentives, and workforce compensation trends.
· Pluma. Financial advisory platform offering personalized digital coaching and financial planning guidance through technology.
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Tags: accelerator, AICPA, cohort, randy johnston, Technology, technology lab, Zoho
