Accrual has announced its official launch and $75 million in funding, led by General Catalyst, to introduce AI-native automation designed to streamline preparation and review processes for accounting firms.
Accounting firms play a critical role in financial decision-making for businesses and individuals, yet their core workflows are often hampered by fragmented systems and manual coordination. The increasing complexity of regulations, higher data volumes, and evolving client expectations are driving a demand for faster, more accurate deliverables from accountants. Accrual aims to address these challenges by integrating preparation and review into a unified, AI-driven platform.
The platform employs AI agents that function as a preparer, interpreting and organizing client inputs, identifying missing information, formulating targeted follow-up questions, and generating draft returns for professional review. By structuring data upon entry, the system ensures that preparation, review, and client guidance are built upon a consistent foundation, reducing the need for repeated rework.
Cosmin Nicolaescu, CEO and Co-Founder of Accrual, stated, “Accounting is a deeply interconnected system, yet most software treats it as a collection of disparate tasks. We are building core infrastructure from the ground up to unify these workflows into a single system that amplifies judgment and compounds a firm’s expertise over time.”
Over the past year, Accrual has collaborated with firms including H&R Block, Armanino, Creative Planning, and several other Top 100 accounting firms. These initial deployments demonstrated that recent advancements in AI can effectively eliminate long-standing bottlenecks in accounting workflows without compromising accuracy, transparency, or professional judgment.
Accrual’s current focus is on individual tax returns, handling various real-world inputs such as complex K-1s and 1099s, spreadsheets, emails, photos, and multi-hundred-page statements. The platform integrates directly with existing tax engines, supporting prior-year data, carry-forwards, and final filing workflows, which allows firms to continue utilizing their established systems.
John Karls, National Tax Practice Leader, Private Client Advisors, Armanino, reported, “Returns coming out of Accrual are already at manager-review quality. What used to take hours of staff preparation now processes in minutes. Just as important, Accrual is catching issues that could have led to amended returns and handling documents our existing tools can’t. That shift frees our teams to focus more on higher-value planning and advisory work.”
Firms using Accrual have reported saving thousands of hours per tax season, with preparation time reductions exceeding 85 percent and review time falling by up to 60 percent. This efficiency gain translates to the capacity equivalent of one additional accountant for every 50 complex returns, without increasing headcount, while also enhancing consistency and accuracy.
Marc Bhargava, Managing Director at General Catalyst, commented, “Accounting is one of the largest and most critical professional services markets in the world, yet its core workflows have remained largely unchanged for decades. Cos and Sidd have spent their careers building software for complex, highly regulated environments and we believe are the right team to rebuild these systems using AI without compromising the trust the profession depends on.” Accrual’s leadership includes engineers and technology leaders who previously developed financial infrastructure at companies such as Stripe and Brex.
Accrual is currently onboarding accounting firms across the U.
S. and plans to broaden the platform’s capabilities beyond individual returns in the future. The company is also expanding its team by hiring engineers, product leaders, and accounting experts to further develop its accounting infrastructure.
