Bookkeeping Firm Digits Buys Accounting Platform Basis Finance

Bookkeeping platform Digits has acquired budgeting and forecasting startup Basis Finance.

“With rising interest rates and a tightening fundraising environment, the importance of extending runway has become crystal clear to founders in 2024,” the company said in a news release Monday (June 17).

“Through this acquisition Digits will accelerate its [financial planning and analysis] FP&A roadmap and extend its dashboard and reporting capabilities into financial planning.”

According to the release, Basis helps companies create and maintain budgets and forecasts by integrating into hundreds of financial systems and advanced scenario comparison tools. Used by “top accounting firms,” Basis lets companies create budgets and forecasts “without pouring fifteen hours into a spreadsheet,” the release said.

Basis Finance co-founders Bebe Kim and Carlos Gil and their team will continue to work with Digits following the deal, the release noted.

“Good FP&A is an extension of good accounting,” said Jeff Seibert, co-founder and CEO of Digits. “One of the key challenges in running a good budgeting and planning process is access to clean financial data and expertly built financials. Digits is the source of that good data, and Basis will be able to accelerate the use of this data to support forward-looking decision making.”

The acquisition comes at a time when many companies — especially small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) continue to grapple with manual systems for their accounts receivable (AR) and accounts payable (AP) processes.

More than 60% of firms have initiated some degree of AR/AP automation, but only 5% have fully automated these systems, and a surprising 36% of mid-sized firms are still handling AR/AP entirely with manual and paper-based processes, research by PYMNTS Intelligence shows.

Another recent joint study by PYMNTS Intelligence and American Express found companies that have automated AP/AR processes can point to a number of benefits from this decision, including better cash flow management, more efficient and streamlined processes, and better data visibility and insights.

“With 75% of mid-sized firms expecting an increase in the number of invoices handled via their AR systems in the next three years, automating their accounting processes is essential to ensuring that they can effectively manage these increases in volume,” PYMNTS wrote.

A wide majority — 95% — of companies with fully automated AP/AR say it has given them more accurate, efficient or streamlined processes, while 84% cite greater savings, cash flow and growth from automation.

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