PwC Australia’s new AI-leveraged accounting software alliance
The firm has joined its UK and German counterparts in announcing a new strategic alliance with end-to-end accounting platform, FloQast.
PwC Australia will collaborate with finance and accounting operations platform FloQast to revolutionise its financial transformation offerings.
The firm joins its German and UK counterparts in collaborating with FloQast, meaning it too will have access to the company’s AI-leveraged end-to-end software.
In April, FloQast announced it had successfully closed its series E funding round, which raised US$100 million, bringing the company’s post-money valuation to US$1.6 billion.
“Today’s businesses face mounting demands to modernise their accounting and finance functions, with the goal of ensuring greater accuracy and producing actionable insights crucial for shaping organisational direction,” said FloQast in a statement announcing the relationship.
“This imperative extends to bolstering internal controls to meet regulatory standards, ensure audit preparedness, and fortify business resilience. FloQast addresses these needs by offering accounting teams a wealth of resources to improve communications and transparency, automate time-consuming tasks, and assure financial accuracy.”
Virtual close software, also known as close management software, allows accounting teams to complete the financial close cycle remotely, including bill payment, expense approval, reconciling accounts, etc.
It is cloud-based, meaning teams can access real-time updates on month-end close activities, and it can integrate with enterprise resource planning (ERP) and forecasting tools to collate financial information in one place.
Companies like FloQast are applying AI beyond workflow management to the core, substantive accounting operations.
According to KPMG, three-quarters of large Australian companies use or trial AI in financial reporting. By 2027, 99 per cent are expected to have come on board.
Generative AI, which remains a fringe phenomenon in financial reporting, is expected to account for the brunt of the transformation.
Nine per cent of large Australian companies are using gen AI in their financial reporting, while 52 per cent expect it to be their top focus among all reporting technologies by 2027.
Companies are using the technology to identify anomalies in financial data, generate financial reports, evaluate internal controls, and to identify inefficiencies.
“We are hugely excited to embark on this journey with FloQast to help businesses in Australia to accelerate their digitisation of finance, transform ways of working and deliver operational excellence,” said Mathea Beck, partner, PwC Australia.
“By combining our expertise in system implementation, business transformation and embedding risk and compliance into the design with FloQast’s best-of-breed advanced workflow automation, we aim to deliver comprehensive solutions that address the unique challenges faced by finance teams today.”
Like PwC, KPMG Australia has formed alliances and partnerships with AI providers to lead the financial transformation.
While concerns around data security, accuracy, data privacy, copyright, and cyber-security are inhibiting a broader rollout of gen AI in accounting, many are hoping that strong governance and supervisory procedures will rise to the challenge.
“Given these emerging and dynamic risks, the role of robust AI governance becomes central to an organisation's success. It is crucial to establish strategic supervision over the ethical and safe creation and application of AI systems,” said Shane O’Connor, KPMG audit head of AI.
“But these are all issues that can be overcome. Our survey shows that generative AI is the imminent next step for many companies, both here in Australia and globally.”
“GenAI will take financial reporting to the next level of analytical excellence as it can not only evaluate massive data sets and every transaction, highlighting anomalies, but can create audit reports from its analysis of data and tailor them to the needs of different stakeholders.“
