A recap of accounting tech developments for Q1 2026

I encourage you to skim this quickly, then block some time on the calendar, brew yourself a pot of tea, lock the door, and buckle up to deep-dive into the links of interest.

General ledgers

Tyler is keen to see better BAS reporting and analysis, as many of the clients he starts working with don’t have balance sheets that match their GST returns. MYOB has released AI BAS in beta, an agentic BAS preparation tool that helps get them ready to lodge. It reviews transactions to detect GST, flag anomalies, find missing documents and explain its suggestions. This helps reduce errors and makes BAS preparation easier and less stressful.

Another new product in the MYOB space, which I don’t think we gave enough attention to the first time around, is MYOB Solo, an app for solo or gig workers. It has all the functionality you’d expect for a gig worker, including tap-to-pay, snap expenses, and the option to connect two existing bank accounts. It’s cheap as chips, app-based only for clients, and the advisor can log in online.

Intuit has launched Intuit Accountant Suite, which is the integration of five core areas: client management, client collaboration, service delivery, business planning, and team management in one platform. QuickBooks Plus and Advanced now include personalised proposals featuring your branding, custom fields, and e-signatures. Intuit has also introduced autosave on invoices and estimates to help you save your work.

Xero Partners are being invited to early access to the new Xero Partner Hub, which combines Xero HQ and XPM, bringing practice tools and data together, improving the user experience and offering the ability to restrict staff access. The Xero community is also excited that, in the find and recode area, you can now include transactions from the locked period in the search results. Shhhhh! Don’t tell anyone I shared this with you, but Tyler’s been speaking with Xero insiders who are talking about a Xero Ultra package.

This package would lift maximum monthly transactions and enable Xero to play in the mid-sized market. "Analytics powered by Syft" has been renamed to "Analytics", and you can now bulk upload your employees’ past earnings with a file from your previous payroll system or a template provided in Xero. Be careful with that, as it could be a quick way to mess up payroll!

More concerning news from Xero is that it has changed how it charges App developers and API users. This notable shift will impact apps that interact with a lot of Xero data, such as balance sheet rec apps and multi-entity apps. The impact will result in the higher costs being passed on to clients. On a more personal note, my app-loving heart is saddened that over the years I’ve seen Xero’s open API spark a twinkle in the eyes of hundreds of entrepreneurs. The new pricing model will make many solutions unviable before they even move from the back of a beer coaster.

Tax and compliance

Tax Sorted has rebranded as Workpapers Sorted and has evolved into an AI-powered workpapers ecosystem that integrates multiple data sources, automates manual processes, and gives firms greater visibility across entities and group structures. BGL has announced a new integration between Simple Fund 360, Simple Invest 360 and Betashares Direct.

Practice management

Canopy now offers three-tiered engagement proposals. Each tier includes its own scope, pricing, and level of service. Karbon now integrates with Uncat and Microsoft Teams. Uncat helps you resolve uncategorised transactions and syncs with QuickBooks & Xero. Tyler loves Uncat and thinks it is a much slicker and easier-to-use solution than a spreadsheet. In completely frivolous news, I have Uncat beer pong cups that change colour with cool liquid.

Karbon has introduced a fully integrated billing and payments system designed to automate invoicing, accelerate payment collection, and provide real-time financial insights. Tyler is seeing a dramatic increase in accounting firms embracing recurring billing, so great to see this feature added! The Karbon product team has been busy because they’ve also introduced AI Agents - AI-Powered TeamMates to move work forward automatically.

Halaxy a practice management solution for healthcare has introduced AI File Summary, free inbuilt feature that instantly summarises your uploaded files, creating a clear, concise summary of what matters most for patient care. They’ve also introduced Ai Scribe to transcribe meetings and create richer, more consistent, complete consult notes, and automatic updates to the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) from 1 March, which includes the reintroduction of Telehealth support items. 

Tyler commented that doctors have the worst accounting; they never have a balance sheet that makes sense, and they are never happy with their finances, so an automated solution that includes the Medicare rebates is a no-brainer.

The project management and collaboration platform ActiveCollab has built a designated area for Apps & Integrations, which is useful for finance teams piecing together data. A timely reminder, if you are using a solution, it's worth periodically checking new integrations, as they may streamline your stack.

Reporting

Advisorli went live in March. It’s aimed at advisors, accountants, and SMEs and is a single platform from pre-revenue start-up through to exit. It offers forecasts, benchmarks, loan preparation, IM prep and board reporting. The founder is Andrew Paton-Smith, who many may know from the financial insights platform Jazoodle.

As you may be aware, many of the AI models we’re playing with at the moment are ‘Large Language Models’, and one of the important areas for the written language in our accounting world is the executive summary. Leveraging this, Fathom has released Commentary Writer, a feature that automatically generates written commentary for management reports based on the financial data and charts in the report. It allows users to add business context, such as goals, strategy, and market conditions, so AI can interpret financial results more accurately. By combining this context with financial data, the AI generates smarter, more relevant commentary that reflects what is actually happening in the business. Tyler expressed his concerns about accountants and clients relying on AI-generated commentary. Hopefully, they will use it as a foundation to add their value and insights to the commentary, encouraging more advisers to do the same.

The reporting solution Calxa intelligently automates budgeting, cash flow forecasting, KPIs, and group consolidations. Mick Devine and the team have introduced custom report templates. Users can now build their own report templates when preset reports do not meet their needs. Templates can include: actuals, budgets, and variances, different business units by column, and any date range per column.

Dashboard Insights has released five new features: a Chrome extension, automated reports, rules-based automation in preparation for BAS, and a BAS pro advisory feature that adds an intelligent analysis layer to post-BAS communication. This includes profitability indicators, cash flow, balance sheet health, and operational signals to start a conversation.

Sharesight, the investment tracking software, has introduced a demo portfolio. Let’s take a moment to encourage all solutions to provide us with access to a demo so we can test it out.

Payroll HR

Tyler commented on the Brisbane-based workforce management solution, Tanda, which released its payroll solution in mid-2023. He thinks it’s the most amazing restaurant and award franchise software he’s ever seen. With the ability to control multiple entities and rules, it can separate the teams: the management team and the front-of-house team. Tyler thinks it's definitely worth looking at if you’ve got a franchise, a multi-entity, or are navigating awards.

Employment Hero and LinkedIn have both rolled out AI-powered job creation, which pre-writes job posts from simple prompts. Jobs posted in Employment Hero automatically appear on Indeed, enabling free adverts, one-click applications, integrated screening questions, and centralised application management. Employment Hero also has Smart Match candidate ranking, AI analyses CVs and ranks applicants based on how closely they match job requirements, helping recruiters prioritise the strongest candidates to aid you in shortlisting candidates.

Accounting tools

Paid Nice is a debt collection tool, built by the programmers who built A2X. Tyler thinks it’s the best debt collection system for Xero or QuickBooks. It’s clean, and it takes ONLY 15 seconds to log in. Paid Nice offers automated statements and reminders with a limitless cap. Tyler thinks it could automate 80-90 per cent of the accounts receivable role.

 In February Enrico Palmerino, Founder & CEO, Botkeeper an an AI-driven, automated bookkeeping platform, announced the closure of Botkeeper a company he founded in 2015. Two weeks later, it was announced that Xendoo would acquire Botkeeper. It’s never good to see a business go through troubling times, but the start of the year seems to have been particularly hard on the SaaS world. As Amanda Linton, CEO of the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers, remarked on LinkedIn, along with NAB Bookkeeper, powered by Thriday, two platforms built to replace professional bookkeepers have both collapsed within weeks of each other.

Document management system

SuiteFiles has introduced a new modernised document workspace, rather than simple document storage, it combines editing, PDF tools, including powerful new PDF editing capabilities, version control, tasks, and client sharing into one environment for professional services firms. Tyler loved that you didn’t have to edit the PDFs in Adobe.

Workflow builders

Zapier has built-in AI Guardrails to safely check any zap, which will block or redact sensitive information in a workflow. If you’re using Process Street, you need to jump in and update your active runs to the latest version.

Bills and expenses

EzzyBills has released integrations with Procore and ServiceTitan and PO matching with WorkflowMax. Dext has introduced AI Assist, an AI agent that helps accountants, bookkeepers and finance teams automate everyday bookkeeping decisions. AI Assist learns from how you work, surfaces suggestions, and keeps everything transparent and reviewable. It’s designed to support professionals, not replace them.

Inventory

Tyler shared his new favourite app: Emerge, born out of Singapore, which manages stock and dropshipping and automates across multiple Xero files, including multi-national files. He went on to talk about Restock, which builds and costs menus for restaurants and integrates with the main GL’s and POS solutions. Tyler remarked that it’s an amazing AI-powered product that takes much of the pain out of the process.

Where will we be next?

Disappointingly, this year is quite quiet on the conference front in Australia. Here are a few of the Australian and international conferences on our radar. Let us know if there are any others?

MYOB Discover Live April May 26

Accounting Conference & Expo Sydney 26 Jun

Xerocon London 8-9 Jul

Accounting Benchmarking Roadshow Aug

Xerocon Denver 19-20 Aug

ABN The Bookkeeper Event Sunshine Coast 8-10 Oct

NetSuite's SuiteWorld Las Vegas 26-29 Oct 26

Intuit Connect Las Vegas 26-28 Oct 26

ICB Australian Bookkeepers Summit Adelaide 29-30 Oct

WCOA Seoul, South Korea 17-20 Nov 26

Be sure to let Tyler Caskey and I know if you find this update useful, and remember you can listen to this on the Under The Hood podcast.