Thomson Reuters Steps Into Mobile SMB Accounting

Thomson Reuters is stepping into the world of mobile small business accounting with the launch of a new app, OnBalance Express.

Announced this week, the solution is a cloud-based app that provides accounting services with added functionality, including invoicing, online payments, expense management, vendor tracking, reporting, banking and other tools. In its announcement, Thomson Reuters said it collaborated with entrepreneurs on the solution to meet their day-to-day operational needs and provide real-time data.

The tool allows users to log expenses through the use of optical character recognition (OCR) technology to automate entry of receipt data into businesses’ accounting systems. OnBalance Express works with financial institutions (FIs) to pre-categorize expenses when transactions are completed, and the tool includes a mileage tracker for seamless expense management.

In a statement, Jon Baron, managing director of Thomson Reuters’ Professional segment of Tax & Accounting, said the tool was designed for accountants to meet their small business clients’ needs, and enables accurate and efficient services to augment accountants’ consulting to those customers.

The app signals Thomson Reuters’ increasing focus on small business customers. In its announcement, the company pointed to the previous launch of OnBalance Self-Employed, which debuted last November to enable self-employed individuals to track and manage expenses via mobile app.

Last month, the company enhanced its offering for larger enterprises when SAP announced an integration with Thomson Reuters, to link corporate treasurers to data on the cost and FX rate of a cross-border transaction as part of the SAP Market Rates Management tool. The company also previously introduced new solutions to address the friction of corporate tax filing, upgrading ONESOURCE to compute tax provisions across an organization’s multiple subsidiaries, units and locations.