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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

K1x Bets $175 Million to Beat the K-1 Bottleneck

Can AI bring order to one of tax’s most stubborn problems?

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By Seth Fineberg
For CPA Trendlines

K1x is putting $175 million in new investment behind an expansion of its K-1 technology platform, with plans to accelerate product development, broaden its offerings and build a more standardized system for managing partnership tax data.

MORE K1x: K1x Secures $175 Million for Private Markets AI Tax Tech | Private Market Tax Is Heading for a Collision | The 3-Part Framework Firms Are Using to Fix K-1 Chaos | Why the Future of Tax Isn’t Compliance—It’s Timing | How to Turn K1 Problems into Profits with A.I. Automation | Break the K-1 Bottleneck | AI Tax App Crashes Financial Stocks on Wall Street | MORE A.I. | MORE CPA Trendlines Streaming Network

CEO John LaMancuso says the company is pushing beyond automating individual K-1 tasks. K1x wants to connect K-1 creation and aggregation into a unified platform that can move tax data among CPA firms, investment funds and investors with less manual handling.

“Start with the bottleneck, not the technology,” LaMancuso says.

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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

One K-1 Package. Twelve Hundred Pages. Now What?

K1x is betting $175 million that AI can bring order to one of tax’s most stubborn bottlenecks.

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google/YouTube, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Player FM, Audacy, RSS.

By Seth Fineberg
For CPA Trendlines

K1x is putting $175 million in new investment behind an expansion of its K-1 technology platform, with plans to accelerate product development, broaden its offerings and build a more standardized system for managing partnership tax data.

MORE K1x: K1x Secures $175 Million for Private Markets AI Tax Tech | Private Market Tax Is Heading for a Collision | The 3-Part Framework Firms Are Using to Fix K-1 Chaos | Why the Future of Tax Isn’t Compliance—It’s Timing | How to Turn K1 Problems into Profits with A.I. Automation | Break the K-1 Bottleneck | AI Tax App Crashes Financial Stocks on Wall Street | MORE A.I. | MORE CPA Trendlines Streaming Network

CEO John LaMancuso says the company is pushing beyond automating individual K-1 tasks. K1x wants to connect K-1 creation and aggregation into a unified platform that can move tax data among CPA firms, investment funds and investors with less manual handling.

“Start with the bottleneck, not the technology,” LaMancuso says.

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PRO Member Exclusive

Wealth Management: Can You Afford Not to Provide It?

Advisory begins with conversations.

By Seth Fineberg
The Holistic Guide to Wealth Management.

Today we are cresting the biggest waves of change that I’ve seen in my 20-plus years of covering the accounting profession. I’m talking about the need for CPAs to go beyond simply being the trusted tax guy (or girl) for their clients and to help them manage all aspects of their wealth. This movement has been building for the better part of a decade, but only recently has it gone from “I’ll think about it” to “Can I afford not to get on board?”

Not to sound the alarm bells here, but CPAs must soon choose between riding the financial planning wave or being swept under it.
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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Kenji Kuramoto: Basis Moves to Close AI’s Biggest Gap

When accountants and AI agents work side-by-side

“The future of the profession is accountants and agents working together,” Kuramoto says.


By Seth Fineberg
For CPA Trendlines

“Managing partner-in-residence” is not a standard role in accounting, and that was the first point of friction when Kenji Kuramoto was asked to explain his new job at Basis, the accounting AI agent company. What does that actually mean?

The answer goes beyond one hire. It points to a shift now underway in accounting: artificial intelligence is moving out of experimentation and into operations, and firms are not yet prepared for what that requires.

MORE Kenji Kuramoto: Behind Sorren’s Roll-Up: $170 Million, 1,000 Employees, 85 Partners | Kenji Kuramoto: Rules? What Rules? | Getting Real: Accounting Tech Decisions You Need to Make Today
MORE CPA Trendlines Streaming Network

Basis, at getbasis.ai, says that Kuramoto, founder of cloud pioneer Acuity, joined full-time to help firms transition to AI-enabled operations, working directly with customers and shaping the product. The company made clear this was not a symbolic role. “Kenji isn’t here to advise from the margins,” CEO Matthew Harpe says. “He’s a full-time member of this team… creating the product with us.” Kuramoto is embedded with the company, not observing from the outside.

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INNOVATION & CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Can AICPA CEO Koziel Deliver what CPAs Want?

Koziel says to look beyond the CPA for new answers.

Koziel: ‘With the variety of skill sets needed in a growing practice, looking outside of those letters seems necessary.’

By Seth Fineberg
At Large

One thing that’s clear from the annual AICPA & CIMA Engage conference (arguably the largest in the profession) is that the association’s new leader, Mark Koziel, has much on his plate.

MORE Mark Koziel: Mark Koziel: The Future of the Profession | Opportunity Awaits Incoming AICPA CEO | Koziel to Succeed Melancon as AICPA CEO

For years, the CPA brand, its value, and the profession it stands for have been challenged, to say the least. In his first year as the Institute’s leader, its membership made its needs abundantly clear to him. More importantly, it appears there is much support behind him to see that they are addressed.

To be fair, it is not on one person or one institutional body to fix all of the profession’s issues. But advocating and addressing the most glaring challenges, especially given membership fees and the seemingly long-standing fact that approximately half of those who hold the CPA credential are either not AICPA members or don’t necessarily support what they do, is no small task. This is where Koziel, a long-standing member, small-firm advocate, and head of the Allinial Global firm association, can shine.

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OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

Is Practice Management Having Its Moment?

List via Jason Staats

VC-funded Aiwyn and Canopy seek to stand out among over three dozen contenders.

By Seth Fineberg
At Large

Often fraught with issues and features that accountants don’t necessarily use or that don’t sync with what they need, practice management software in tax and accounting has not been the easiest nut to crack.

MORE TECH: Aiwyn Enters Race for the All-in-One Practice Management Platform

MORE FINEBERG: Opportunity Awaits Incoming AICPA CEO | Where Intuit Is at with Accountants | History Could Help Accountant-Vendor Relations | Accounting Needs a ‘Rethink’ Not a ‘Rebrand’ | Big Change Comes with Deep Reflection | Three Ways to Raise the Bar for Your Business

Some, however, have grown in this space and even regained some trust in PM. New investments in Canopy and Aiwyn are great examples.

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OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

Opportunity Awaits Incoming AICPA CEO

Some CPAs don’t necessarily support the AICPA or believe it supports them.

By Seth Fineberg
At Large

The accounting profession has long been divided about the usefulness and importance of the AICPA. However, with the first regime change in 30 years, incoming AICPA CEO Mark Koziel will take the helm and have an opportunity to embrace change and bridge some gaps.

MORE FINEBERG: Where Intuit Is at with Accountants | History Could Help Accountant-Vendor Relations | Accounting Needs a ‘Rethink’ Not a ‘Rebrand’ | Big Change Comes with Deep Reflection | Three Ways to Raise the Bar for Your Business
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Moreover, it concerns the leadership and direction this industry body can potentially bring. The word “potential” is used because there is potential in this profession, both for the AICPA and accounting in general.

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PRO Member Exclusive

Where Intuit Is at with Accountants

Why vendors need to start with “why.”

Ted Callahan, Intuit director of accountant partnership and strategy: “An industry transforming itself.”

 

By Seth Fineberg

Unless you’ve been under a rock in the accounting profession, you know that Intuit—makers of some of the most widely used tax and accounting products on the U.S. market—has caused quite a stir within the profession in recent weeks, making some wonder where they stand with the software giant.

MORE: History Could Help Accountant-Vendor Relations | Accounting Needs a ‘Rethink’ Not a ‘Rebrand’ | Big Change Comes with Deep Reflection | Three Ways to Raise the Bar for Your Business
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For quick review, a growing number of accountants that use of the company’s QuickBooks Online product have had to consider how to pass on rising costs of using the product, on top of where they stand with the company and its seemingly competing QuickBooks Live service. Then, more recently, Intuit began running national TV ads promoting its TurboTax Live service with the message of “break up with your accountant.”

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PRO Member Exclusive

History Could Help Accountant-Vendor Relations

older woman showing young woman something on office computer screen

Think about where you want your business to be.

By Seth Fineberg

The phrase “history is the greatest teacher” can be applied in many ways, but to me it does not ring truer than when thinking of the current state of accountant-vendor relations. In short, it’s not all that good.

MORE: Accounting Needs a ‘Rethink’ Not a ‘Rebrand’ | Big Change Comes with Deep Reflection | Three Ways to Raise the Bar for Your Business
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The accounting profession has evolved to the point to where there is a tool for every task, and the choices have never been more plentiful or the process of selecting one more challenging. At the same time, having overseen this profession as long as I have, the thing that’s been clear is the risks of tying so much of what you do to one vendor.
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OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

Partners: Your Middle Managers Are Getting Squeezed

Staff just don’t feel comfortable asking for things that help their mental and physical well-being.

Client pressure: 84 percent can work from home at least sometimes. However, only 44 percent say the firm has their back with difficult clients.

By Seth Fineberg
Accountants Forward

Crabtree

This may seem mysterious, but when it comes to ensuring job satisfaction and retaining staff, firm leaders should pay closer attention to middle management/mid-career staff and their connection to employees and the work itself, according to a survey conducted by Tri-Merit Group co-founder Randy Crabtree, HB Publishing & Marketing Company founder Hank Berkowitz, and myself at Accountants Forward.

MORE Staffing here | MORE Surveys and Research here | MORE Seth Fineberg here

“Everything about putting your people first leads to increasing the satisfaction of those who work in the profession,” says Crabtree. “Things like firms having your back, supporting their growth or getting to know who the people you work with are matters greatly.” He added, “When you have a good variety of work to do and find you enjoy that work, you won’t mind working the extra hours at times either.”

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