Cloud solutions provider Acumatica announced the release of its Professional Services Edition, made to help support accounting and project management tasks for consultants, engineers, architects and other professionals. 

“These industry trends and direct feedback from the Acumatica Community were the main drivers for creating the Professional Services Edition, with customers, partners and developers voting it a must-have solution,” said Jeremy Larsen, vice president of product management at Acumatica. “The professional services industry is an underserved market for technology companies, providing a significant opportunity for innovation. As the fourth-largest vertical of customers we already serve, our partners have expressed strong enthusiasm about the potential impact of this release.”

The business management solution was built to address the unique challenges faced in the professional services industry, such as inefficiencies in quote-to-project setup, industry-specific billing rate structures, and customer support management. Features includes project accounting, compliance management, and AI-driven workflow automation. 

Specifically, users have access to Acumatica Financial Management, which has standard financial processes (GL/AP/AR) and reports, with additional options for multi-company, multicurrency, intercompany accounting, fixed assets, and cash management. They can also access accounts payable cost transactions related to progress billing lines from the pro forma side panel for timely vendor payments and increased billing accuracy, and tie revenue recognition to project milestones or deliverables.

It can also progress billing by percentage of completion or by quantity. Users can also manage AP workflows, from entering an invoice through approval routing and checks. Meanwhile, customer billing capacities, driven by real-time project costing, provide up-to-date labor, material, equipment, and other costs, letting users identify problem areas in current jobs and improve future project estimates.

The Professional Services Edition also boasts the ability to capture time and expense from any device, entries for which then flow to project accounting for costs and expenses related to projects or specific project tasks. Billable activities can also be marked up depending on the project, task, employee, or activity performed. The solution also has integrated payment capacities that automates accounts receivable processing to reduce back-office workloads and get paid faster.

Other payment-related features include click-to-pay links, and a self-service portal which streamlines communication with push notifications, giving customers access to support cases and payment options. The software can also specify tax calculations directly in the project and automatically retrieve and calculate all invoices, purchase orders, subcontracts, and expenses.

Project management capacities include the ability to access a complete view of project details, letting users manage and track all activities, issues, and changes, including daily field reports, actual costs, and cost projections from one central area. They can also ensure resource availability to allocate staff, equipment, and technology by team, department, and timeframe, letting users assign tasks and workflows to manage project resources and tie the costs to the project budget. Field reporting and mobility features help ensure everyone has the same project data from the field or anywhere they work and remotely enter time and expense details. There are also project productivity and insights features which use side panels for a quick and comprehensive view of key project data without navigating out of the current window. 

The new edition also features embedded customer relationship management solutions that help firms to keep detailed records of client interactions, proposals, manage contracts, payments, renewals, and compliance documents. They can also control cost overruns by automating project commitments and change order processes, meaning users can manage back charges or reduction in vendor commitments through the entry of a negative change order, as well as  streamline change orders for multiple projects with unit rate changes, custom retainage, and cost-only change requests. 

“Professional services firms face intense competition and require advanced business management technology to enhance operations and drive future growth,” said Jason Leveson, principal at Revive ERP, an Acumatica partner. “Acumatica’s Professional Services Edition is a smart step in providing these firms with the tools they need to stay agile, scale effectively and maintain a competitive edge in an ever-evolving market.”

The Professional Services Edition joins Acumatica’s existing suite, which includes the Construction Edition, Manufacturing Edition, Distribution Edition, Retail Edition and General Business Edition.

Tristan Wheelock/Bloomberg

Scammers are using fake charities in the wake of Hurricanes Milton and Helene to harvest personal and financial data from unsuspecting taxpayers.

“You should never feel pressured by solicitors to immediately give to a charity,” said Commissioner Danny Werfel in a statement from the IRS, which issued the warning. “Verify if they’re authentic first.”

Tips to verify charities and spot fake ones:

• Scammers frequently use names that sound like well-known charities to confuse people. Fake charity promoters may also use bogus emails or fake websites or alter or “spoof” their caller ID to make themselves look like a real charity. Ask the fundraiser for the charity’s name, website and mailing address. Check the Tax-Exempt Organization Search tool on IRS.gov to help find or verify legitimate charities.
• Never work with charities that ask for donations by giving numbers from a gift card or wiring money. It’s safest to pay by credit card or check, and only after verifying the charity is real.
• Scammers want both money and personal information. Never disclose Social Security numbers, credit card numbers or personal identification numbers
• Scammers often pressure people into making an immediate payment. In contrast, legitimate charities are happy to get a donation at any time.

The IRS has other background on its Charity and Disaster Fraud page.

The arrival of artificial intelligence promises game-changers in all industries. But what if the rise of AI created new ways to simplify things — as well as a whole new set of complex client expectations for accountants? 

As businesses expect AI-driven solutions, accountants could find that what initially were accepted as benefits in cost-efficiency, speed, and enhanced service could be the most unexpected complications. Let us explore how AI’s promise to transform the accounting profession might go the unexpected way. 1. Faster service: When speed feels too fast for comfort. Where AI can automate repetitive tasks, accountants will process data faster than ever. This presumes that clients value that speed. 

Increased speed might mean that clients will demand information even faster than the speed at which it is created, without stopping to think about any deep analysis or nuanced judgment. 

The new challenge? Keeping up with unrealistic demands.

2. Value for money: The hidden cost of always expecting more for less. AI’s ability to perform tasks with minimum human intervention promises cost savings. However, the drive toward cost efficiency can be detrimental because it can feed into clients’ mindset that the value of professional accountants’ services would continue to drop. 

What is often left unsaid is that AI tools are costly in terms of investments in technology, learning, training, and keeping up with constant updates, and hence AI tools are not cost-neutral. Accountants will likely not sell any AI tool independently — so by itself, any AI tool won’t be a profit center. 

What is the paradox? Clients expect more for less, while accountants have to deal with higher costs to operate their practices. 

3. Better service: When AI lacks the human touch. Clients may also expect that AI will enhance service quality. After all, AI will be able to recognize patterns, predict trends, and perform complex calculations. 

In businesses where AI-driven processes take precedence over traditional ways of doing things, clients may miss the personal counsel, insight, and display of empathy accompanying human contact. AI, for all its power, cannot establish relationships and provide specific advice relevant to a client’s particular circumstances. 

The paradox arises: Better service in terms of raw data analysis does not equate to better service as perceived by the client.

4. Greater privacy: AI’s paradox of data security. Where there is AI, there is the ability to sift through enormous amounts of data at unbelievably fast speeds. This can open up a broad avenue for breach of privacy. At the same time — and quite rightly — all clients will expect AI to handle their sensitive financial data with more security than ever. 

Катерина Євтехова – stock.adobe.com

Yet the same AI systems that make accounting tasks quicker and more efficient are those prone to cyber-attacks, breaches, and intentional or unintentional mismanagement of sensitive information. It is an expectation, but the reality is that AI systems may not have perfect security, especially when it comes to human use of AI tools. Hence, it is essential to have an “AI use policy.“

5. More predictability: When clients expect crystal-ball forecasting. AI’s predictive powers promise more accurate financial forecasting, and clients may believe that AI will provide flawless predictions about future market trends, tax burdens, and revenue streams. 

However, AI is not perfect, and AI predictions are based on historical data that cannot predict unforeseeable events such as crashes, regulatory shifts, or political upheaval. 

As clients become more reliant on AI predictions, the likelihood increases that expectations will be set unrealistically high, and frustration will mount when predictions inevitably prove imperfect.

Navigating the AI-fueled expectations

With the rise of AI comes a whirlwind of expectations — faster service at lower costs, superior quality, greater privacy, and predictive accuracy. While AI can deliver on many of these promises, accountants should be aware of the new pressures created by such expectations. 

The future in accounting will be about mastering AI tools and managing the evolving and sometimes unrealistic demands coming hand in hand with those tools. As client expectations continue to grow, so must accountants balance the capabilities of AI with the irreplaceable value of human insight, judgment, and relationship-building.

It’s simple: Although AI may enhance processes, it cannot replace accountants’ multifaceted expertise. Accountants will need to communicate that to their clients effectively to be in a better position to turn these challenges of AI into opportunities for more profound, more impactful, more value-added services.