Digits

Best QuickBooks Alternative for Accounting Firms Managing Multiple Clients

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 07:00:00 GMT

Every accounting firm managing multiple clients on QuickBooks knows this pattern. Each client in QuickBooks has its own set of rules to build and maintain. A new client means a new chart of accounts to configure, new categorization rules to set up, and a new reconciliation workflow to manage. When a vendor name changes or a transaction pattern shifts, the rules break. Someone on your team fixes them.

Multiply that by 30 clients. By 50. By 100.

That is not a software problem. That is a structural one. Adding more people does not solve it. It scales the cost.

The best QuickBooks alternative for accounting firms is not a better version of QuickBooks. It is a platform built around a different model: one where the software runs the routine work across the entire portfolio, and the firm's expertise compounds instead of being rebuilt client by client. When the compliance baseline runs itself, the firm's capacity opens up for the work that actually grows the practice: CAS, review, and advisory.

For accounting firms managing multiple clients in 2026, Digits is the strongest QuickBooks alternative available.

What should accounting firms look for in a QuickBooks alternative?

Accounting firms managing multiple clients should look for a platform that reduces per-client overhead as the portfolio grows, improves over time across every client, and prices based on outcomes rather than just access.

Most alternatives to QuickBooks are built the same way QuickBooks is. New interface. Same rules engine. The overhead doesn't go away. It's just a different car with the same engine.

The right platform doesn't start from scratch for every new client. It learns from the firm's existing work and applies that knowledge going forward. The tenth client should be faster to onboard than the first, not equally manual. And the routine bookkeeping should move forward without a person pushing each step.

When evaluating any platform that claims to use AI, the questions to ask are specific. Does the intelligence live inside the ledger, or in bolt-on tools sitting on top of it? Does the company publish accuracy data? Does the price change based on what the software actually does for the firm? If the vendor charges the same subscription whether or not your work gets easier, the business model is telling you something.

What is QuickBooks?

QuickBooks is one of the most widely adopted accounting platforms in the world. For many firms, it has been the default for client accounting work for decades. It was built for that era. The foundation is a relational database designed to store and retrieve transactions, not to understand them.

At the foundation, there is no native semantic understanding. No native pattern recognition. The database stores what happened — it doesn't interpret what it means. That is what the AI layer was added to compensate for.

Intuit has added AI on top of that foundation: automated categorization, an Accounting Agent on higher plans, and AI-powered reconciliation. But the foundation underneath hasn't changed. The system was never built for AI. It was built for data storage, and AI was layered in later. AI capabilities also vary significantly by plan, meaning the automation available depends on what each client pays.

That architecture creates a specific problem for firms. What QuickBooks learns for one client stays with that client. A new client starts from scratch. There is no firm-level intelligence that encodes how the firm operates and applies it across the portfolio.

As the portfolio grows, the overhead grows with it. Each client requires its own setup, its own learning period, its own maintenance. The software gets more complex to manage, not less.

QuickBooks works. It doesn't scale the way firms need it to.

What is Digits?

Digits is the world's first AI-native accounting platform — built for firms, informed by real accounting work, priced on outcomes, and designed to reduce the need for a close entirely, not layer AI onto the workflows that make a close necessary in the first place.

Digits is both AI-native and agentic. They describe different things, and Digits meets both.

AI-native in architecture.

Digits was built around AI from day one. The Agentic General Ledger™ is trained on more than $875 billion in real business transactions. The system uses a semantic data model where transactions, vendors, customers, and categories are represented as related objects, not text rows in a relational table. The intelligence lives inside the ledger.

Agentic in behavior.

The Agentic General Ledger™ categorizes transactions, reconciles activity, keeps financials current, and brings humans in when judgment is required. It doesn't wait for a person to move each task forward. When the system is confident, it moves the work. When it's not, it routes the exception, learns from the correction, and performs better the next time. Every correction an accountant makes teaches the system how the firm thinks across clients.

That is the difference between AI added to a system and AI built into one.

How does Digits handle multi-client workflows differently from QuickBooks?

Digits handles multi-client workflows differently at every level of a firm's operations.

Tiered intelligence.

Digits doesn't rely on a single model. Client-level models handle each specific business's recurring patterns. Firm-level models encode how the firm operates across all clients — its conventions, judgment calls, and quality standards. Global models trained across millions of transactions provide the broad baseline. Fallback agents handle anything the other layers aren't confident about, researching vendor context and classifying with guardrails. Each layer catches what the previous one missed.

Setup time.

In QuickBooks, every new client requires the same manual configuration: chart of accounts, categorization rules, and reconciliation workflow. In Digits, new clients inherit everything the firm has already built. The firm's conventions, judgment calls, and quality standards are already encoded. The tenth client is faster to onboard than the first, not equally manual.

Review load.

Most AI tools for accounting sit outside the ledger. Every handoff between systems is a seam where data can drift. That's truth drift. In Digits, a separate AI layer verifies the work before it reaches the accountant, and both operate on the same data inside the same system. No handoff. No sync lag. This isn't spot-checking. It's continuous verification at the source.

Scalability without headcount.

In most accounting firms, adding clients means adding staff. The two scale together. Since Digits handles the routine work across the portfolio, that equation changes. The portfolio grows. The overhead doesn't.

Knowledge retention.

When the firm's best practices are encoded in the system, new hires inherit the firm's expertise from day one. Training time compresses. Consistency across the portfolio becomes automatic. That expertise doesn't walk out the door when someone leaves. It stays in the system and compounds with every close.

Capacity for advisory.

The accountant's role shifts. Less time goes to transaction processing. More time opens up for CAS, review, and advisory work. Compliance bookkeeping delivered faster is one kind of benefit. Compliance bookkeeping that frees the firm to grow its advisory practice is a different kind of argument entirely.

In December 2025, a Digits partner firm with more than 100 accounting services clients found their team had touched just 2% of transactions before close. Digits handled the other 98%.

Digits vs. QuickBooks: Side-by-side comparison for accounting firms

	Digits	QuickBooks
Architecture	AI-native: semantic data model built for reasoning, not just data storage	Legacy relational database built for data storage; AI added after the fact
Automation model	Agentic: acts on transactions, verifies its own output, routes exceptions	AI capabilities vary significantly by plan
Categorization	Continuous, AI-driven, self-verifying through embedded AI verification	AI categorization available on higher plans; capabilities vary by subscription tier
Bank reconciliation	Continuous AI reconciliation: automatically reconciles accounts to bank statements and flags only what needs review	Connect accounts to sync transactions, then review, categorize, and reconcile manually
Multi-client intelligence	Tiered: client-level, firm-level, and global models compound across the entire portfolio	Per-client rules built and maintained separately; no firm-level learning
Setup per new client	Low: new clients inherit the firm's existing conventions and model training	Significant: rules and workflows configured from scratch per client
AI verification	Embedded: separate AI layer checks the work inside the same system	No embedded verification layer
Truth drift	None: intelligence lives inside the ledger	Risk increases with each bolt-on tool added to the workflow
Published accuracy	93.5% on 17,792 GAAP-reviewed transactions; 97.8% in production	Not published
Pricing model	Outcome-based: firms only pay when 95%+ Zero-Touch Transactions™ threshold is met	Subscription tiers: plans vary in price and features; charged regardless of outcomes
Month-end close	Close automation built in	Human-driven process with workflow assistance

How does Digits' intelligence improve across a firm's entire portfolio?

Digits improves its intelligence across a firm's portfolio through Firm Models: proprietary AI trained exclusively on each firm's own client base. Every client onboarded, and every action taken makes the model smarter, compounding into a system uniquely tailored to how the firm works.

Firm Models aren't shared across firms. The firm's data doesn't go to a generic LLM or blend with other firms' client data. Each partner firm gets its own private model, trained on its own data, tuned to its workflows, and isolated by default. The uniqueness of the firm's practice — its verticals, its conventions, its judgment calls — gets captured and applied across the entire portfolio.

In a rules-based system, that expertise stays with whoever built the rules. When they leave, it leaves with them. In Digits, it's encoded. New hires inherit the firm's expertise from day one. The quality standards that the firm's best accountant applies become the baseline for every client.

This is the difference between a firm whose knowledge lives in people's heads and one whose knowledge compounds with every close.

How does Digits price for accounting firms?

Digits uses outcome-based pricing: firms pay only for clients where Digits achieves 95% or more Zero-Touch Transactions™. If the threshold isn't met, that client is free.

Zero-Touch Transactions™ are transactions handled entirely by Digits' AI — booked, reconciled, and verified — without a human touching them before close. Zero-touch is binary. Either the team touched a transaction before close, or Digits did. Every action in the system is attributed, so the line is clean and measurable.

QuickBooks charges a subscription regardless of what the software actually does. The vendor's revenue isn't tied to the firm's results.

Outcome-based pricing changes that alignment. When the threshold isn't met, that's Digits' problem to solve, not the firm's to absorb.

"The moment you price the outcome, you stop selling what you do and start pricing who the customer becomes — because people value results, not the work it took to get there."

— Ron Baker, co-founder of THRESHOLD

Digits launched outcome-based pricing in April 2026, the first in the accounting software category to do so.

Choose Digits if / Choose QuickBooks if

Choose Digits if:

Your firm manages 10 or more clients and manual overhead is growing faster than revenue
You want the software to handle the routine work across your portfolio, not just assist with it
You want intelligence that compounds across the firm, where each client makes the system stronger for the next one
You want to grow your advisory practice without growing your headcount to match
You want pricing tied to outcomes: you only pay when Digits handles 95% or more of your client's transactions before close

Choose QuickBooks if:

Your firm is standardized on the Intuit ecosystem (QuickBooks Payroll, TurboTax, etc.)
Your team prefers traditional bookkeeping workflows with incremental AI helpers
Your clients manage their own books and need a familiar, widely-supported platform

Frequently Asked Questions

What accounting software is best for accounting firms in 2026?

Digits. It is the world's first AI-native accounting platform, built for accounting firms with practicing accountants shaping the product from day one. The Agentic General Ledger™ maintains the ledger continuously rather than accumulating work for a monthly close. Outcome-based pricing means firms only pay when the AI handles 95% or more of a client's transactions. No other platform holds itself to that standard.

What is the best QuickBooks alternative for CAS firms?

For firms running client accounting services, Digits is the strongest QuickBooks alternative. CAS practices scale on leverage: more clients, same team. QuickBooks makes that impossible. Every client requires the same setup, the same rule maintenance, and the same manual close.

Digits breaks that equation. The routine work runs itself across the portfolio. The firm's capacity goes toward advisory. And firms only pay when the system delivers.

What is the best QuickBooks alternative for accounting firms?

For accounting firms managing multiple clients, Digits is the strongest QuickBooks alternative. QuickBooks was built on a relational database designed for data storage, not for reasoning across a portfolio. What it learns for one client stays with that client. A new client starts from scratch. When a firm runs 30, 50, or 100 clients on it, that adds up to real overhead.

Digits was built differently. Its Agentic General Ledger™ handles categorization, reconciliation, and close across the entire portfolio. Firm-level intelligence compounds with every client added and every close completed. And unlike any other platform in the category, Digits backs its model with outcome-based pricing: if the system doesn't handle 95% or more of a client's transactions before close, that client is free.

Should I switch from QuickBooks to an AI accounting platform as a firm?

For accounting firms managing multiple clients, switching from QuickBooks to an AI accounting platform makes sense when manual overhead is growing faster than revenue. In QuickBooks, every client has its own set of rules to build and maintain. The software doesn't learn across the portfolio. Each new client costs the same time to set up as the last one. Digits handles routine work for every client, applies firm-level intelligence to every engagement, and charges only when it delivers. In documented cases, firms have had their teams touch fewer than 2% of transactions before close.

Is Digits better than QuickBooks for accounting firms?

For accounting firms managing multiple clients, Digits is the stronger platform. The core reason is architectural: QuickBooks was built before AI existed. Digits was built for it. QuickBooks stores transactions in a relational database and interprets them with AI added after the fact. Digits was designed from day one with AI in mind — the intelligence lives inside the ledger, not on top of it. That difference compounds across a portfolio. QuickBooks gets harder to manage as the client list grows. Digits gets smarter. Every close teaches the system more about how the firm works, so accountants spend less time on transaction processing and more time on the work that actually grows the practice.

How is Digits different from QuickBooks?

Digits is built on AI-native architecture with a semantic data model where transactions are understood in context, not just stored. Its Agentic General Ledger™ categorizes transactions, reconciles accounts, verifies its own output through an embedded AI layer, and keeps financials current without waiting for a person to move each step. QuickBooks is built on a legacy relational database designed for data storage. AI capabilities have been added on top, but they vary by plan, and the core workflow remains human-driven.

What is the Agentic General Ledger™?

An Agentic General Ledger™ is an accounting system that actively processes bookkeeping work: categorizing transactions, reconciling accounts, matching records, and keeping financials current without waiting for manual input at each step. It uses tiered intelligence — client-level, firm-level, and global models plus agent-based fallbacks — and embeds AI-driven verification directly into the workflow. Digits pioneered and trademarked the Agentic General Ledger™, the first system of its kind built for accounting firms and businesses. It was trained on more than $875 billion in real business transactions.

How accurate is Digits compared to QuickBooks?

Digits achieved 93.5% accuracy on a benchmark of 17,792 real business transactions reviewed by GAAP accountants for ground truth. Every general-purpose model tested, including GPT-5.2, Claude Opus 4.5, and Gemini 3 Flash, scored below 73%. The full methodology is public: Beyond the AI Hype: Evaluating LLMs vs. Digits AGL for Accounting Tasks.

QuickBooks does not publish comparable accuracy benchmarks.

How does Digits' outcome-based pricing work?

Firms pay only for clients where Digits achieves 95% or more Zero-Touch Transactions™ — transactions handled by the AI without human input before close. If Digits does not hit that threshold for a client, that client is free. No other accounting software offers this model.

What is truth drift in accounting software?

Truth drift is the gradual divergence between what third-party tools think happened and what the general ledger actually reflects. It happens when intelligence lives outside the ledger: in bolt-on categorization tools, separate reconciliation apps, or AI layers that don't write back to the source of record. Every handoff between systems introduces a seam where data can fall out of sync. When intelligence lives inside the ledger itself, truth drift disappears. Digits' Agentic General Ledger keeps categorization, reconciliation, and verification inside the same system that holds the authoritative financial data.

How does Digits handle onboarding new clients for a firm?

Digits uses Firm Models — proprietary AI trained on the firm's existing portfolio — to accelerate new client setup. The system doesn't start from scratch for each new engagement. It applies what it has already learned from the firm's conventions, chart of accounts preferences, and categorization patterns. This compresses the time required to get a new client's books running at the firm's quality standard. In QuickBooks, every new client requires the same manual configuration process. In Digits, the portfolio's accumulated expertise is the starting point.

See how Digits handles multi-client operations at scale.

Introducing Digits MCP: The Ledger Agents Love Most

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 13:00:00 GMT

Firms and business owners are already building workflows on top of their financial data. The advantage goes to those running on a ledger designed for AI from the start.

Digits was built for this. The Agentic General Ledger™ is AI-native by design, and Digits MCP Server connects it directly to the tools you already use.

The "Truth Drift”, Fixed

The accounting profession patched gaps in legacy software by layering tools on top: receipt matching apps, reconciliation platforms, AI categorization add-ons, etc. Each one pulls data out of the ledger, changes it, and pushes it back in.

Every step introduces risk.

Did that categorization sync correctly? Is reconciliation status consistent across systems? Accountants end up double-checking everything, comparing Tool A against Tool B.

AI amplifies the risk. When it runs on fragmented systems, it produces answers that look right but aren’t grounded in any source of truth. The accountant still has to audit the output against the books.

When everything runs inside the system that holds the data, that problem disappears. There’s no handoff to break and nothing to reconcile.

Real-Time Data, Finally

Legacy accounting systems only reflect work after it’s been done. Books two weeks behind means AI two weeks behind.

Digits updates the ledger in real time. The AGL® auto-books 95%+ of transactions, continuously categorizing, reconciling, and reviewing. When AI queries your data, it starts from clean, current books.

Architected for AI

Legacy accounting systems rely on names. The same vendor might appear as “Uber,” “UBER TECHNOLOGIES,” or “Uber Technologies, Inc.” To an AI, those are separate entities.

Digits models data as structured objects with stable identifiers. Names can vary, but relationships don’t. It knows how much you spent on Uber rides, no matter what you called it.

When AI queries your data through Digits MCP, it works with consistent entities, not guesses.

Open by Default

Your financial data should work with any tool you choose. No paywalls. No gated access.

The Digits API is free. So is Digits MCP. It connects directly to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible tool. Setup takes just a minute. Add the connector. Authenticate. Done.

The Ledger Is the Leverage

Even with AI layered on top of legacy platforms, the core issue remains: the data still needs manual cleanup before it can be trusted.

The new model asks: how good is the data your AI can see?

Digits is the only accounting platform built for that question with real-time processing, object-oriented architecture, autonomous bookkeeping, and open access for your AI tools.

The best AI tool for your accounting is whatever you prefer. The best ledger for your AI tool is the ledger agents love most: Digits.

The Possibilities are Endless

With clean, real-time data flowing through MCP, use cases move from theory to practice:

CAS firms can build a budget once and track performance in real time, with variances surfacing immediately.
Founders can ask, "How's my burn trending this month?" and get an answer from their live financials. Connected systems through the MCP turn Digits into the financial hub of your AI stack.
Developers can create custom workflows, reporting, and automation – all on top of a source of truth.

Digits MCP is live!

Digits MCP is now available as an official Claude Connector, making it even easier to connect your real-time financial data to Claude.

Connect it to the tools you already use and run it against your real data. See what happens when your AI doesn’t have to wait on cleanup.

We can't wait to see what you create!

Digits vs. Puzzle: Which AI Accounting Platform Is Actually Built for Firms?

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 18:50:00 GMT

Digits and Puzzle both call themselves AI-native accounting platforms. The difference is what sits underneath that label — how the AI actually works, whether the company publishes proof, and whether the pricing model is tied to outcomes or just access. This is a side-by-side comparison built for firms evaluating both.

What is Digits?

Digits is the world's first AI-native accounting platform. It is built for accounting firms and the businesses they serve. Its core product is the Agentic General Ledger™ (AGL), a system that continuously categorizes, reconciles, and validates transactions using a model trained on $875 billion in real business transactions. Digits publishes how its AI works, what it was trained on, how it performs, and how it is measured. Digits regularly benchmarks its AGL against leading frontier LLMs and other accounting platforms, and publishes the results.

What is Puzzle?

Puzzle is an AI-assisted accounting platform designed primarily for startup founders, startup finance teams, and accounting firms serving venture-backed startups. Puzzle describes its approach as "governed AI," meaning the software helps prepare the work while humans stay in control of approval and posting. Puzzle uses a rules-based categorization workflow where transactions matching existing rules are processed automatically and those that do not require human intervention. Puzzle does not publish comparable details on how its AI works, how it was trained, or how its performance is measured.

What is the difference between Digits and Puzzle?

Digits is the world's first AI-native accounting platform, built for firms, informed by real accounting work, priced on outcomes, and designed to reduce the need for a close entirely instead of layering AI onto the workflows that make a close necessary in the first place.

Puzzle is a modern accounting platform built for startup founders and finance teams, structured around a rules-based, governed close process, priced like traditional software, and designed to make the close more manageable rather than eliminate the work that makes a close necessary in the first place.

Puzzle claims to modernize the traditional close. Digits is designed to eliminate the need for it.

Does Digits compete with accounting firms?

No. Digits does not compete with accounting firms, and it does not operate as one.

Digits is a software platform built for accounting firms and small businesses.

During its research and development phase, Digits operated an internal accounting practice. That practice served roughly 150 real clients across industries and stages. The goal was simple: run the software under real-world conditions in a real firm environment and get direct, unfiltered feedback from the people it was being built for: accountants.

Every workflow, edge case, and failure showed up there first. The product was shaped inside the work itself, not around it.

When the system reached maturity, that practice was intentionally transitioned to a Digits partner firm. More than 100 clients were transitioned, expanding that firm's portfolio while maintaining continuity for the clients, who stayed on the platform.

Digits did not build its software by guessing what firms needed. It built the system inside real accounting work, under real pressure, with real clients. That is why the product feels different. No other accounting platform can say that.

Today, Digits supports firms through its partner program and routes service demand through the Digits Accountant Directory. Hundreds of businesses have already been connected with dozens of participating firms.

Digits used real accounting work to build better software, then turned that same platform into a growth engine for firms.

How does Digits' AI work differently from Puzzle's?

Puzzle is governed, rules-based, and layers AI into the close. Digits is agentic, AI-native, and built with AI at the core of the ledger and the workflows around it.

Those differences change the workflow from the very first transaction.

Puzzle uses rules to decide where transactions belong. When a transaction fits a rule, the system moves it forward. When it does not, the process stops, and a person has to take over. That is what "governed" means in practice: the AI helps, but the human still drives the workflow.

Digits works from a very different foundation. Its proprietary AI was trained on more than $875 billion in real business transactions, so it does not need every decision mapped out in advance. It looks at the full context of the transaction, including merchant text, historical patterns, amount ranges, related activity, and the chart of accounts, then makes an informed categorization decision from the start.

When Digits is confident, the work moves forward automatically. When it is not, the system routes the transaction to the accountant, learns from the answer, and gets better the next time. That is what makes Digits agentic: it takes action first, then brings humans in where judgment is needed.

That is why Digits does not depend on rules you have to build and maintain. It learns patterns from your data and from what your team confirms or corrects, then strengthens its own logic over time. Digits also learns at the client level and the firm level, so the system starts strong and gets more tailored with use.

Puzzle waits for rules. Digits moves the work.

AI category	Digits	Puzzle
AI operating model	Agentic and AI-native	Governed and rules-based
What starts the work	Trained AI evaluates the transaction from the start	Rules determine what happens first
What happens when the system is unsure	Routes the exception for review and learns from the answer	Waits for human input
How the system improves	Starts with a strong baseline, then learns at the client and firm level over time	Improves as humans build rules and correct transactions over time within each client environment
Guarantee	95% zero-touch before close, or the client is free	No outcome-based guarantee

Whose AI is more accurate: Digits or Puzzle?

Digits is the only one of the two that publicly publishes comparable AI accuracy benchmarks.

That matters.

Most software companies say their AI is good. Digits chose to prove it. The company benchmarked its Agentic General Ledger™ on 17,792 real business transactions, with GAAP accountants establishing ground truth for every single line.

The result was 93.5% accuracy. Every general-purpose model in the test, including GPT-5.2, Claude Opus 4.5, and Gemini 3 Flash, scored below 73%. Not one came close.

The whitepaper is public: Beyond the AI Hype: Evaluating LLMs vs. Digits AGL for Accounting Tasks. Read the methodology. Check the numbers. That is what it looks like when a company is willing to be measured.

Puzzle has not published comparable benchmarks, training methodology, or evidence at that level of detail.

Digits also treats performance as something to measure continuously, not just claim once. Digits tracks every transaction, whether a human or the AI handled it, and ties firm pricing to a clear result: if 95% or more of a client's transactions are not zero-touch before close, Digits is free for that client.

That is a different standard of accountability. Digits publishes the benchmark, measures live performance, and prices to the outcome. Puzzle has not shown the same proof publicly.

Marketing claims do not prove the system works. Measured performance does.

Do Digits or Puzzle back up their AI claims?

Digits backs its AI claims with a guarantee. Puzzle does not.

Digits didn't stop at the benchmark. For accounting firms, Digits only charges for clients where 95% or more of transactions are Zero-Touch Transactions™ before close. If the system does not reach that threshold, Digits is free for that client.

That is not a slogan. It is the pricing model.

Puzzle has not published comparable benchmarks and still uses a standard subscription model, whether the AI delivers the outcome or not.

That is the real difference. Digits publishes the benchmark and guarantees the outcome. Puzzle asks you to pay first and trust the AI later.

Which platform is better for accounting firms?

Digits is the stronger platform for accounting firms. Puzzle is a modern product for startup finance teams and startup-focused firms. Digits is built around the workflows, constraints, and scale that accounting firms actually deal with.

Accounting firms do not just need a cleaner interface around the close. They need a system that can manage multi-client workflows, reduce repetitive bookkeeping work, surface exceptions instead of raw volume, and help firms grow without adding manual effort at the same rate.

That is what Digits is built to do.

Digits is both AI-native and agentic. It does not just assist with parts of the close. It carries routine bookkeeping work forward continuously and brings accountants in where human judgment matters.

That makes it a stronger fit for firms than software that still depends on people to move the workflow forward step by step.

The pricing model reinforces the same point. If Digits does not get a client to 95% zero-touch transactions before close, the firm does not pay for that client.

For firms, Digits is built for the work, built to scale, and built to back up its claims.

Digits vs. Puzzle: Side-by-Side Comparison

Category	Digits	Puzzle
Primary fit	Accounting firms, multi-client workflows, and businesses that want AI-native bookkeeping	Startup founders, startup finance teams, and firms serving venture-backed startups
AI positioning	AI-native from day one, powered by the Agentic General Ledger™	Markets itself as AI-native and describes its workflow as "governed automation"
How the work runs	Continuous bookkeeping and reconciliation that keeps the ledger current	AI-assisted, review-heavy workflow centered on the monthly close
Bank reconciliation	Automatic reconciliation to bank statements, with only flagged items sent to review	Reconciliation still depends on statement tie-out and human verification
Close cadence	Continuous process that reduces month-end work	Month-end checklist and period-based close process
Ongoing effort	Minimal ongoing effort; 24/7 AI bookkeeping keeps books current	More upkeep through review, rule maintenance, and recurring close work
AI transparency	Publishes its AI approach and methodology	Does not publish comparable benchmark, model, or training detail
Pricing model	Subscription for small businesses or outcome-based pricing for firms	Subscription pricing
Best for	Firms that want less manual bookkeeping, more scale, and more capacity for advisory work	Startup teams that want startup-specific metrics and a more traditional accountant-controlled close

Final Verdict: Digits or Puzzle?

For accounting firms, Digits.

Digits is built to move the work forward. Puzzle is built to make a familiar workflow feel more modern.

That may sound like a subtle difference. It is not.

If you believe the future of accounting software is a better interface around the close, Puzzle makes sense. If you believe the future is a system that continuously handles routine bookkeeping, learns from exceptions, proves its performance, and only charges firms when the outcome is there, that is Digits.

Both companies use modern AI language. Only one publishes benchmark data, explains how the system works, and puts revenue behind the result.

That is the difference that matters. Not which homepage sounds more advanced. Which platform actually changes the amount of work a firm has to do.

Choose Digits if you want software built for firms, trained on real accounting work, priced on outcomes, and designed to reduce the close instead of polishing it.

Choose Puzzle if you want a more traditional accountant-driven workflow with AI layered into the process.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the main difference between Digits and Puzzle?

Digits is built to move bookkeeping work forward continuously, while Puzzle is built to modernize the traditional close. Digits' Agentic General Ledger™ keeps the ledger current by categorizing, reconciling, and validating transactions as they happen. Digits also backs its approach with published benchmark data and outcome-based pricing for firms.

Is Digits or Puzzle better for accounting firms?

Digits is the stronger choice for accounting firms. It is built around firm workflows like multi-client bookkeeping, exception-based review, and scalable operations. Digits also uses outcome-based pricing for firms: if a client is not 95% zero-touch before close, Digits is free for that client.

How accurate is Digits' AI?

Digits achieved 93.5% accuracy on a benchmark of 17,792 real business transactions reviewed by GAAP accountants for ground truth. Every general-purpose model tested, including GPT-5.2, Claude Opus 4.5, and Gemini 3 Flash, scored below 73%. The whitepaper is public: Beyond the AI Hype: Evaluating LLMs vs. Digits AGL for Accounting Tasks.

Does Puzzle publish accuracy data?

No. Puzzle does not publish accuracy benchmarks, training methodology, or details about how its AI is built at the level Digits does publicly.

How do Digits and Puzzle categorize transactions?

Puzzle starts with rules. Digits starts with what the AI has already learned. Puzzle uses a rules engine — if a transaction does not match a rule, it waits for a person to act and improves only as people correct it over time. Digits was trained on $875 billion in real business transactions before a client ever connects. It categorizes routine transactions without rules, surfaces low-confidence items to the accountant, and learns from every correction — at the client level and across the firm.

Did Digits ever compete with accounting firms?

No. Digits is a software platform built to work with accounting firms, not replace them. Early on, Digits ran an internal accounting practice for one reason: to build better accounting software. That gave the product team direct exposure to real books, real workflows, and real pressure while the system was being shaped. Once the product was ready, that practice was sold off. Today, Digits supports firms through its partner program and routes managed-service demand through certified partner firms.

Does Digits have in-house CPAs that compete with bookkeepers?

No. Digits does not operate a bookkeeping, tax, or accounting practice that competes with firms. Digits does have accountants on staff, but they work in enablement, helping firms onboard and use the platform effectively. When clients need managed services beyond the software, Digits routes that work to Digits-certified partner firms.

Is Digits an autonomous accounting platform?

No. Digits is agentic, not autonomous. The Agentic General Ledger™ handles routine bookkeeping work, then brings in an accountant when something needs human judgment. It can categorize transactions, reconcile activity, and keep the books current, but it does not try to replace the accountant. That is the difference: agentic software takes action, while autonomous software implies no human is needed.

What does "AI-governed" mean?

AI-governed means the software helps prepare the work, but a human stays in control of the decision. In Puzzle's own language, the AI drafts the work and humans approve it, with review gates, audit trails, and sign-off built into the process. Puzzle also says "nothing posts without your approval." In plain English: the AI helps, but the accountant is still the driver.

How does Digits' outcome-based pricing work?

What accounting software is best for accounting firms in 2026?

Digits is the world's first AI-native accounting platform — built for accounting firms, priced on outcomes, and the only system designed to eliminate the close rather than improve it.

AI-Enabled vs. AI-Native vs. Agentic Accounting Software: What's the Difference?

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 16:00:00 GMT

Every accounting platform now says it uses AI. But AI is not a single thing.

How the system is built and what it actually does are two different questions — and the answers determine whether the software reduces your work, or just shifts it around.

These labels—AI-enabled, AI-native, and agentic—describe different types of accounting software, and understanding the difference is key to evaluating modern AI accounting tools.

For accounting firms evaluating software in 2026, that distinction matters. Here’s what each one means, how they relate, and what to look for when choosing a platform.

What is AI-enabled accounting software?

AI-enabled accounting software is traditional accounting software with AI features added on top.

The underlying system still works the way it always has. AI improves parts of the experience. It can suggest categories, flag anomalies, and guide workflows. But it doesn’t change how the work gets done.

QuickBooks and Xero are the clearest examples. Both offer AI-powered suggestions, anomaly detection, and workflow assistance. Those features are useful. They save clicks and catch things earlier.

But a person still reviews every suggestion, confirms each categorization, reconciles the activity, and pushes the books to close. The AI assists. The work stays human-driven.

AI-enabled is an upgrade to the dashboard, not the engine. The interface looks smarter. The operating model stays the same.

There’s a broader shift firms should be aware of.

The major ledger platforms spent decades building their businesses through firms. Firms recommended the software, migrated clients onto it, and managed the relationship.

But AI is starting to collapse the line between infrastructure and service.

When a platform can categorize transactions, reconcile accounts, generate reports, and surface insights on its own, it starts to overlap with the work firms do. Every dollar a client pays for automatable compliance work becomes potential revenue for the platform.

That creates a real economic incentive for platforms to go around the firms that depend on them.

That dynamic doesn’t exist when the platform is built for firms instead of replacing them.

What is AI-native accounting software?

AI-native accounting software is built with machine learning at its core. AI isn’t a feature bolted onto an older system or an afterthought. It’s how the product was designed and how it operates.

The difference starts with how the system is built.

Legacy accounting platforms store transactions as text rows in relational tables. A transaction is just a string of characters. There’s no semantic understanding or pattern recognition. The system can’t learn what a vendor means in the context of a client’s chart of accounts. You can’t build meaningful AI on top of a system that treats every transaction as an opaque line of text.

An AI-native ledger works differently. Vendors, customers, categories, and transactions exist as objects that the system can relate to each other. Similar transactions cluster together naturally. The system doesn’t need a human to tell it that two vendors are similar. It learns that from the data itself.

This is the shift in accounting software: from a database that stores financial data to one that understands it.

Because an AI-native system understands how transactions relate to one another, it starts from a stronger position. Less manual setup. Fewer rigid rules. A better ability to interpret real transactions.

It also means the intelligence lives inside the ledger, not in a third-party tool layered on top. That distinction matters.

When intelligence lives outside the ledger—in categorization tools, reconciliation apps, or third-party AI layers—every handoff between systems creates a point where data can fall out of sync.

An accountant categorizes a transaction in one tool. Did it sync back correctly?A reconciliation is marked complete in one system. Is it reflected in the ledger?

Truth drift in accounting software is when your tools say one thing, but your ledger shows something else.

Firms end up spending time verifying that what happened in one system made it to another. When the intelligence lives inside the ledger, that problem goes away.

AI-native describes how the software is built, not what it does. A platform can be AI-native and still depend on humans to drive every step of the workflow. The architecture creates the foundation for stronger automation, but it does not guarantee the system will act on its own.

Architecture alone does not tell you what the software will do for your firm. That is where agentic behavior comes in.

What is agentic accounting software?

Agentic accounting software takes action inside the workflow. It does not wait for a person to move each task forward. It categorizes transactions as they arrive, reconciles bank and ledger activity, matches bills and invoices to records, keeps financials up to date, and routes exceptions for review when human judgment is required.

Agentic describes how the software behaves, not how it’s built. What matters is what it actually does.

In theory, agentic behavior can be built on any system. A legacy platform with rules can attempt to act on transactions automatically.

In practice, the foundation determines how far that can go. Rules-based systems hit a limit quickly. They can only act on transactions they’ve been set up to handle. When something falls outside those rules, the workflow stops, and a person takes over.

An AI-native foundation is what makes agentic behavior work in practice. It removes that limit. Because the system understands context, learns from corrections, and improves over time, it can act across a much wider range of transactions without needing every decision predefined.

The strongest agentic systems also use layered intelligence. Not a single model making every decision, but multiple layers working together.

Client-level models trained on a specific business's transaction history handle recurring patterns with near-perfect accuracy.

Firm-level models capture how the firm operates across all of its clients, including conventions, judgment calls, and quality standards.

Global models trained across millions of transactions provide the broad baseline.

And fallback agents step in to research new or unclear transactions when the other layers aren’t confident.

Each layer catches what the previous one missed. The intelligence compounds over time.

Beyond layered intelligence, the best accounting software verifies its own work directly in the workflow.

A separate AI layer checks the work of the first, reviewing categorizations, flagging inconsistencies, and validating outputs before they reach the accountant.

Because the AI that does the work and the AI that verifies it operate on the same data in the same system, reliability improves significantly. This isn’t spot-checking. It’s continuous verification at machine speed.

Agentic accounting software changes the accountant's role.

The accountant is no longer processing every transaction. They become the trust layer—the professional who defines quality, verifies outputs, interprets the numbers, and takes accountability for the outcome.

The value shifts from manual work to judgment, responsibility, and expertise.

How AI-enabled, AI-native, and agentic relate to each other

These aren’t steps on a ladder. They describe different things: how the software is built and what it does.

AI-enabled and AI-native describe how the software is built.

AI-enabled means AI features were added to a traditional system.

AI-native means the system was designed from the ground up around AI, with a data model built to understand transactions, not just store them.

Agentic describes behavior — what the software does.

An agentic system takes action, moves work forward, and brings humans in where judgment is needed.

AI-native accounting software can still require manual work if it isn’t agentic. Even with a strong foundation, the system may still depend on humans to move each step forward.

A platform can also attempt agentic behavior without being AI-native, but the architecture limits how well that works in practice. Rules-based systems can automate known patterns, but they can’t interpret new transactions in context, learn from corrections, or improve over time.

When the agentic layer sits on top of a legacy ledger instead of inside it, firms inherit the overhead of verifying that the AI’s outputs match the ledger.

The best accounting software is both AI-native and agentic.

AI-native defines how the system is built. Agentic defines what it does.

The architecture provides context and the ability to learn. Agentic behavior turns that into work that actually gets done.

When both live in the same system, there’s no gap between intelligence and record. No sync to fail. No second system to check.

AI-enabled vs. AI-Native vs. Agentic: Side-by-side comparison

Category	AI-Enabled	AI-Native	Agentic
What it describes	Architecture	Architecture	Behavior
How it works	AI features layered onto a traditional system	Built around AI from the ground up	AI takes action and moves work forward
Data model	Relational tables — transactions stored as text	Semantic — transactions understood as objects in context	Semantic + active — transactions understood and acted on in context
Setup required	Significant — rule configuration and ongoing tuning	Minimal — designed to learn from data	Low — operates with minimal setup and acts on transactions directly
Automation depth	Suggestions, flags, and workflow assistance	Deep categorization and a strong baseline	Continuous reconciliation and active bookkeeping
Verification	Manual review of every output	Varies — may or may not include embedded checks	Continuous AI verification across every transaction
Human role	Drives every step	Reviews and decides	Reviews exceptions, focuses on judgment, and provides advisory
How it improves	Users build and maintain rules	Learns from data and corrections	Learns at the client, firm, and global level over time
What it enables	Faster manual work	Significantly reduced processing	Bookkeeping runs continuously; humans review exceptions and focus on advisory services
Examples	QuickBooks, Xero	Puzzle, Kick, Digits	Digits

What does this look like in practice?

Take a typical month. Card spend, payroll, software subscriptions, vendor bills, transfers, and refunds are all hitting the ledger continuously.

In an AI-enabled system, the software suggests how to categorize each transaction. Someone still works through the queue manually, confirming each suggestion, reconciling the activity, and pushing the books to close.

In an AI-native system, the software has a stronger foundation for understanding those transactions in context. There is less setup, better pattern recognition, and a cleaner starting point. But the workflow may still depend on a human to move it forward.

In an agentic system built on an AI-native foundation, the software processes activity, reconciles what it can, keeps the books current, and surfaces only what needs review. A second AI layer verifies the work before it reaches the accountant, who focuses on exceptions, applies judgment where it matters, and spends time on advisory work and client strategy rather than transaction processing.

That’s the difference. AI-enabled accounting software helps with the work. AI-native accounting software is built to understand transactions. Agentic accounting software moves the work forward—and verifies it before a human ever sees it.

Why this matters for accounting firms

These are not just labels. They describe different product categories with different limits on how a firm can operate and scale.

Setup time. AI-enabled systems require rules, configuration, and ongoing tuning before automation becomes useful. AI-native systems start from a stronger baseline with less setup. Agentic systems go further, acting on transactions directly and reducing the need for manual configuration.

Review load. AI-enabled systems push most work through human review, keeping teams buried in transactions. AI-native systems reduce some of that load, but still rely on humans to move work forward. Agentic systems handle routine work, verify it, and surface only exceptions, so review becomes lighter and focused on judgment.

Scalability. In AI-enabled systems, each new client adds more rules, cleanup, and ongoing effort. Growth requires more headcount to keep up. Agentic systems keep books current with limited intervention, allowing firms to scale without adding the same level of overhead. When the system learns at the firm level, every new client benefits from the expertise the firm has already built.

Capacity for advisory. This is the real payoff.

In manual or AI-enabled workflows, teams scale roughly one-to-one with client growth due to the effort required to maintain each set of books.

When the system handles routine bookkeeping and keeps financials current, teams gain real capacity to focus on advisory, planning, and higher-value client work—interpretation, accountability, and the trust that comes from a professional who stands behind the outcome.

Knowledge retention. When a firm’s best practices are encoded into the system that does the work, every new hire inherits the firm’s collective expertise from day one.

Training time compresses. Consistency across the client portfolio becomes automatic.

This is the difference between a firm whose knowledge lives in people’s heads—and walks out the door when they leave—and one where that knowledge compounds with every close.

What accounting software has the best AI?

The best AI in accounting is the one that does the most real bookkeeping work with the least manual effort — and proves it.

That means more than a chatbot, a suggestion engine, or a few smart rules. It means the software can interpret transactions in context, reconcile activity continuously, keep financials current, verify its own output, and surface only the items that need review.

The strongest systems do not just sound smart in a demo. They reduce actual bookkeeping work inside the firm. That reduction in manual work is what creates leverage — giving firms the capacity to take on more clients, offer higher-value advisory services, and spend less time on routine processing.

When evaluating AI claims, look for published accuracy data, benchmark methodology, embedded verification, and whether the system actually carries work forward instead of relying on humans to move each step.

If a platform calls itself AI-native or agentic but doesn’t show how the AI performs, that’s worth noting. And if pricing doesn’t change based on outcomes, the business model is telling you something about how much work the system actually takes on.

Where Digits fits

Digits is both AI-native and agentic. They describe different things, and Digits meets both.

AI-native in architecture. Digits was built around AI from day one. Its Agentic General Ledger™ is trained on more than $875 billion in real business transactions. The system uses a semantic data model in which transactions, vendors, customers, and categories are represented as related objects—not as text rows in a relational table.

That means the intelligence lives inside the ledger. No sync lag. No second system to verify.

Agentic in behavior. The Agentic General Ledger™ categorizes transactions, reconciles activity, keeps financials current, and brings humans in when judgment is required. It does not wait for a person to move each task forward. When the system is confident, it moves the work forward. When it’s not, it routes the exception, learns from the correction, and performs better the next time.

Tiered intelligence. Digits does not rely on a single model. Client-level models handle each business’s recurring patterns. Firm-level models encode how the firm operates across clients. Global models provide a broad baseline. Fallback agents handle new or unclear transactions when the other layers aren’t confident.

Each layer catches what the previous one missed.

Embedded verification. A separate AI layer reviews categorizations, flags inconsistencies, and validates outputs before they reach the accountant. The AI that does the work and the AI that verifies it operate on the same data in the same system.

This is continuous verification at machine speed.

Published accuracy. Digits benchmarked the Agentic General Ledger on 17,792 real business transactions, with GAAP accountants establishing ground truth for every line.

The result: 93.5% accuracy. Every general-purpose model tested—including GPT-5.2, Claude Opus 4.5, and Gemini 3 Flash—scored below 73%.

With tiered intelligence in production, categorization accuracy reaches 97.8% across tested transaction sets.

The full methodology and results are published in the whitepaper Beyond the AI Hype: Evaluating LLMs vs. Digits AGL for Accounting Tasks.

Outcome-based pricing. For accounting firms, Digits only charges for clients where 95% or more of transactions are Zero-Touch Transactions™—handled by the AI before close. If the system doesn’t hit that threshold, that client is free.

This ties pricing directly to outcomes. If the system doesn’t reduce your work, you don’t pay for it.

This isn’t just a Digits-specific decision. It reflects a broader shift in how AI software is sold. Traditional subscription pricing charges for access, whether or not the platform reduces work. Outcome-based pricing ties the vendor’s revenue to the firm’s results. The vendor has skin in the game. The firm’s success and the platform’s revenue become aligned.

As Brett Taylor, chairman of OpenAI and co-founder of Sierra, has said: “The entire market is moving toward outcome-based pricing—not because it is the only way, but because it is so obviously the correct way to build and sell software.”

Digits pioneered the Agentic General Ledger™ by combining AI-native architecture, agentic execution, embedded verification, and outcome-based pricing in a single system.

That combination sets a standard that no other accounting platform has publicly matched.

What type of accounting software should you choose?

AI-enabled software gives you smarter suggestions, but the work stays the same.

AI-native software improves the foundation, but it doesn’t guarantee the system will act on its own.

Agentic accounting software changes the model. The system handles the bookkeeping, verifies its own output, and surfaces what actually needs attention. It works best when built on an AI-native foundation, with the context and learning needed to act reliably.

The real question is not which label sounds best. It is whether your software does the work, or your team does.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between AI-native and agentic accounting software?

AI-native and agentic accounting software describe two different things: how the software is built and how it behaves.

AI-native accounting software is built around AI at the architectural level, with a semantic data model that understands transactions in context rather than storing them as text.

Agentic accounting software describes behavior. It takes action inside the workflow, completes bookkeeping tasks, and surfaces only the items that need human review.

A platform can be AI-native without being agentic. Agentic behavior can be attempted on any system, but it works best on an AI-native foundation, where the software has the context and learning capability to act reliably across a wider range of transactions.

What is AI-enabled accounting software?

AI-enabled accounting software is traditional accounting software with AI features added on top.

The underlying system still works the same way. A person reviews suggestions, confirms categorizations, reconciles activity, and pushes the books to close.

QuickBooks and Xero are the most common examples. The AI assists, but the work is still human-driven.

What is an Agentic General Ledger™?

It uses tiered intelligence — client-level, firm-level, and global models plus agent-based fallbacks — and embeds AI-driven verification directly into the workflow.

Digits pioneered and trademarked the Agentic General Ledger™, the first system of its kind built for accounting firms and businesses. It was trained on more than $875 billion in real business transactions.

What is truth drift in accounting software?

Truth drift is when your tools say one thing, but your general ledger shows something else.

It happens when intelligence lives outside the ledger—in categorization tools, reconciliation apps, or third-party AI layers—and data has to move between systems. Each handoff creates a chance for things to fall out of sync.

Firms end up spending time verifying that what happened in one system actually made it into the ledger.

When intelligence lives inside the ledger, that problem goes away.

Is QuickBooks AI-native or AI-enabled?

QuickBooks is best described as AI-enabled. It includes AI features such as category suggestions, anomaly detection, and workflow assistance within a traditional accounting system. The underlying system hasn’t changed. A person still reviews suggestions, confirms categorizations, reconciles activity, and pushes the books to close.

QuickBooks was not built from the ground up as an AI-native or agentic platform.

Can agentic software be built on a legacy system?

In theory, yes. Agentic behavior describes what the software does, not what it is built on.

A legacy system with a rules engine could attempt to act on transactions automatically. But in practice, the foundation limits how well that behavior works. Rule-based systems can only act on transactions for which they have been explicitly told how to handle.

AI-native architecture enables the system to interpret context, learn from corrections, and act confidently on a much wider range of transactions.

When an agentic layer sits on top of a legacy ledger, firms also take on the overhead of verifying that the AI’s outputs match the underlying records.

What accounting software has the best AI?

The best AI in accounting is the one that does the most real bookkeeping work with the least manual effort and proves its performance with published data. Look for agentic systems built on AI-native architecture, with tiered intelligence, embedded verification, published accuracy benchmarks, and pricing tied to outcomes. Digits is the only platform built on an Agentic General Ledger™ trained specifically on accounting data, with published benchmark results and outcome-based pricing for firms.

What does agentic mean in accounting software?

In accounting software, agentic means the system takes action inside the workflow. It does not just suggest the next step — it completes routine bookkeeping tasks. An agentic system processes transactions, maintains reconciliations, keeps financials up to date, and brings humans in when a decision or exception requires expertise. The strongest agentic systems also embed verification, using a separate AI layer to check the work before it reaches the accountant.

How accurate is Digits' AI?

Digits achieved 93.5% accuracy on a published benchmark of 17,792 real business transactions reviewed by GAAP accountants for ground truth.

Every general-purpose model tested, including GPT-5.2, Claude Opus 4.5, and Gemini 3 Flash, scored below 73%.

In production, tiered intelligence — client-level, firm-level, and global models working together — reaches 97.8% categorization accuracy across tested transaction sets.

The methodology and benchmark results are published in the whitepaper Beyond the AI Hype: Evaluating LLMs vs. Digits AGL for Accounting Tasks.

How does Digits' outcome-based pricing work?

For accounting firms, Digits only charges for clients where 95% or more of transactions are Zero-Touch Transactions™ — handled by the AI without human input before close. If the system doesn’t hit that threshold, that client is free.

This ties pricing directly to outcomes. If the system doesn’t reduce your work, you don’t pay for it.

What type of accounting software is best for accounting firms in 2026?

Agentic software built on an AI-native foundation is the strongest choice for firms that want to reduce manual bookkeeping, scale without adding headcount at the same rate, and free up capacity for advisory work. The system should use tiered intelligence, embed verification, publish accuracy data, and tie pricing to outcomes.

Digits is the only platform that combines an Agentic General Ledger™, published accuracy benchmarks, embedded AI verification, and outcome-based pricing for firms.

How does the accountant's role change with agentic software?

The accountant shifts from processing every transaction to governing the system's output. They become the trust layer — the licensed professional who defines what quality looks like, verifies that AI-generated outputs meet regulatory and business standards, interprets what the numbers mean for the client's business, and takes accountability for the outcome. The value is no longer in the labor. It’s in the judgment, the signature, and the responsibility that comes with it.

See what it looks like when your accounting software does the work

Introducing Outcome-Based Pricing for Accounting Firms

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 13:00:00 GMT

Digits is the only accounting platform that works for you - and guarantees it.

Every month, your team does the same work.

They pull the bank feed. They match the transaction to a vendor or customer. They book it to the chart of accounts. They reconcile. They do it again for the next transaction. And the next – across every client, every account, every period – creating and maintaining rules along the way.

That’s tedium. Not accounting. Accounting is the diagnosis, the judgment, the work that actually requires expertise.

We built Digits to handle the first kind of work so your team can focus on the second.

We track every transaction: what happened, when, and whether a human or our AI did the work.

In December, a partner firm with 100+ CAS clients found their team had touched just 2% of the transactions. Digits handled the other 98%.

What “handled” actually means

We call the transactions we handle Zero-Touch Transactions™. These transactions were neither created nor edited by a human accountant before the books were closed.

Digits ingests transactions from anywhere–live bank feeds, API integrations, CSV files, PDF bank statements, receipt photos–and auto-books them, reconciles them, reviews them, and aggregates them for reporting. Automatically. No prompting required.

Zero-touch is binary. Either your team had to touch a transaction before close, or they didn’t. That clarity is intentional: since every action in Digits is attributed to your team or to our AI, we can draw a clean line. And that line is the basis of a new kind of agreement between Digits and the firms we work with.

If we do the work, we should get paid. If we don’t, we shouldn’t.

For decades, accounting has operated inside the logic of the service economy: firms bill by the hour and software vendors charge subscriptions. Neither model asks whether the work actually got done.

Starting today, we're changing the business model to guarantee our results. Digits is introducing outcome-based pricing for accounting firms.

Firms only pay for clients where Digits actually eliminates the tedium, meaning 95% or more of that client's transactions are zero-touch: booked, reconciled, and reviewed without your team ever touching them before period close.

If your team has to do more than 5% of the work for a given client, you still have to deal with some tedium. Digits is free for that client.

This approach does something that subscription pricing never can: it completely aligns our incentives with yours. When a client hasn't hit the threshold, that's our problem to solve—not yours to absorb. We focus our engineering on the transaction types and edge cases where we haven't gotten there yet. We push the automation rate up every month because that visibility creates a continuous feedback loop that improves accuracy and performance over time. We only get paid when we've actually earned it.

Ron Baker, co-founder of THRESHOLD and one of the most influential voices in the accounting profession, has long argued that this shift is inevitable. Speaking about Digits’ new model, he put it simply:

"The moment you price the outcome, you stop selling what you do and start pricing who the customer becomes—because people value results, not the work it took to get there."

That’s the bet we’re making with outcome-based pricing. We deliver zero-tedium to accounting firms–and we only get paid when we do.

Welcoming Reggie Marable

One of the pioneers of outcome-based pricing is Sierra, which has scaled rapidly in the AI customer service space by deeply aligning its business model with a single metric: autonomous issue resolution.

Today, we're excited to announce that Reggie Marable, Head of Sales at Sierra, has joined Digits as a strategic advisor to help us bring outcome pricing to the accounting profession.

As Reggie puts it:

“When AI can do the actual work, you shouldn’t pay for potential—you should pay for results. Digits has built the only accounting platform that can deliver end-to-end outcomes, creating a new business model that redefines how accounting firms and tech companies partner together to deliver real value to clients.”

The bottom line

Accountants have waited a long time for software that actually does the work. We've proven it's possible—with real firms, real data, and real results.

And today we're putting our money where our mouth is.

Ready to move your firm to the future?

Introducing Digits Desktop

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 14:00:00 GMT

We hear you. You installed QuickBooks Desktop from a CD-ROM in '97. You've run a thousand clients on it. You haven't paid for accounting software in years. When your clients asked for cloud access, you set up a remote desktop connection, called it “cloud,” and carried on.

You've been hearing from Intuit about “the sunset” for what feels like a decade now. Every year, another version number quietly goes dark, and you just hope it’s not the one you're on.

Yesterday, we launched Digits on mobile. Today, we're going the other direction.

Introducing Digits Desktop. Yes, brand new desktop accounting software in 2026! (Take a breath. We’ll explain.)

Here’s what happened

Accountants fell in love with Desktop because it worked! Then, the biggest name in desktop accounting stopped investing in it. Usage declined. They pointed to the decline as proof the market had moved on, killed the product, and sent the sunset emails.

That doesn’t mean Desktop is dead. Yet.

So we built it

It doesn't have a version number. There is no Digits Desktop 2026. There will be no Digits Desktop 2027. We won’t ask you to pay for the same software twice because the calendar year changed.

It does your accounting at 3am. You don’t even have to keep your computer on. We've figured out how to make desktop software work while your desktop is off. Offline to the max. Digits categorizes transactions and reconciles bank statements while you sleep. When you open Digits Desktop in the morning, it has already flagged the four transactions that need your attention. No desktop product has ever done that. Most couldn't even download your bank feed without you clicking a button.

It's free (basically). Digits Desktop is free for everyone with a Digits account. Just like the desktop software you already know and love. We want you to feel at home. You liked it when nothing changed. We heard you.

System requirements: A desktop computer (optional). A healthy skepticism of the cloud. The fading memory of software that once respected your time.

Happy April Fools' Day!

Jokes aside

The sunset notices aren’t a joke. If you're dealing with one right now, we built something real for you. It's not a desktop app. It's better.

Head to digits.com/desktop/ and experience the future of 24/7 AI-native accounting. Even when you power down your desktop.

Introducing Digits for iPhone & iPad: Your finances, wherever you work.

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 13:50:00 GMT

Need your cash balance? It's on your home screen! Got a bill to pay? Just tap to approve. Handed a receipt? Snap a photo, upload it, let Digits match it, and you're done – before you even leave the parking lot.

Say goodbye to the backlog of receipts in your pocket, bills waiting for nights and weekends, and tasks you’ll handle when you get back to your desk.

Today, we’re making Digits available natively on iPhone and iPad!

Know where you stand instantly

Open the app and you have answers. Cash across every account, profit for the month, what you owe, and what's owed to you. Not a summary page that links back to the desktop version. All your real numbers, live.

Skip the app entirely if you want. Add a Digits widget to your home screen and see your cash balance the second you unlock your phone.

Don't just view the work. Do it.

Viewing data is table stakes. Most accounting tools barely get you that. If you’re lucky, it’s a static report you have to interpret yourself. Digits goes further. It gives you the power to actually run your business.

Approve, pay, reject, and route bills right from the app. Send invoices. Capture receipts the moment you get them. Forward documents from email, or upload them from your bank app. They’re automatically saved in your Digits Document Vault.

You cross off work as it happens, not in a batch at the end of the day, week, or month.

Skip the reports and just Ask Digits

Now the full power of the world's smartest finance agent is right in your pocket.

Ask Digits: "Why is my cash lower this month?" or "How much did I spend with this vendor last quarter?" Get accurate answers from your live financials. Ask follow up questions and Digits keeps the conversation going.

Stay in sync without the back-and-forth

When your accountant shares something or flags an issue, you can review and respond immediately. What used to take days of back-and-forth in an email thread now gets resolved in minutes.

The most powerful, yet lightest weight accounting app

All of this comes with the blazing speed and rock-solid performance you expect from Digits. While the competition clocks in at 450MB, "takes forever to load", and "crashes constantly", the Digits app is just 30MB (93% smaller!) and launches instantly.

OK, how? In the past 6 months, our engineering team pulled off a technical triumph: over 250,000 lines of native Swift (with no webviews!), optimized network request batching, offline caching, and live home screen widgets result in a groundbreaking experience whether you're on the go or in the office. You have to experience it to believe it.

Get the app today

The Digits app is available today for all Digits users across iPhone and iPad.

Introducing Expanded Payroll Connectors

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

From wages and employer taxes, to benefits, reimbursements, and departmental budgets, payroll is one of the most complex and consequential flows in your financial stack. And yet, for many teams, getting payroll data into their ledger still means CSV exports, mapping columns, manual journal entries, and time-consuming reconciliation.

It's one of the most tedious parts of accounting.

When the mapping is off, the export is stale, or someone ran an off-cycle payroll that didn’t make it into the file, you find out during close review.

A process this routine shouldn’t require this much manual effort.

Today, that changes. Digits is expanding payroll connectivity beyond Gusto to include 18 additional providers, pulling payroll data directly into Digits Agentic General Ledger™ (AGL®).

Connect the Payroll System You Already Use

Digits connects to 12,000+ banks, cards, payroll providers, and modern financial platforms, and today that list grows. Digits has expanded its payroll integrations to include 18 additional providers:

ADP Run
ADP Workforce Now
AlphaStaff
Counter Point HCM
ECCA
Heartland
OnPay
Paychex Flex
Paycom
Paycor
Payday Payroll
Paylocity
Proxus HR
QuickBooks Online Payroll
Sequoia One
Square Payroll
TriNet HR Platform (fka Zenefits)
UKG Pro

No CSV exports. No file uploads. No duplicate entries. A secure connection that brings payroll data into Digits automatically.

Payroll That Books Itself

Payroll isn’t a single line item. It's wages, employer and employee taxes, benefits, reimbursements, deductions, and a dozen other components, each of which needs to land in the right place in the ledger.

The AGL handles the categorization automatically. Entries post when the payroll run completes. If something lands in the wrong place, you can edit it directly in the ledger and the correction takes seconds without rebuilding the journal entry or re-exporting the file. Digits learns instantly and will mimic your preferences on the next payroll run.The result? Cleaner financials and less time spent on reconciliation.

See Payroll by Department

As teams grow, payroll visibility becomes harder to maintain. Exports don't map to departments. Journal entries collapse everything into a few lines. By the time you're trying to understand burn by function, you're rebuilding context that should have been there from the start.

Digits automatically maps payroll expenses by department, giving you clear insight into team-level spend. Wages, taxes, and benefits flow into the ledger already structured by team. Whether you’re tracking burn, forecasting headcount, or analyzing margins by function, your payroll data is structured in a way that actually supports decision-making.

Built for Real-Time Accounting

Digits isn’t just syncing data. It’s maintaining a living, AI-native ledger.

Once connected, payroll flows directly into your financial reporting workflows. Your books stay current. Your reporting stays accurate. And your team spends less time stitching systems together.

Bring Payroll Into Your Ledger

Payroll is too important to live in a spreadsheet.

With expanded payroll connectivity in Digits, you get broader coverage, intelligent automation, and real-time financial clarity, all inside the world’s first Agentic General Ledger™.

Ready to connect your payroll?

Streamlining Financial Management: Announcing Our API partnership with BILL

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

We’re thrilled to announce our latest API partnership with BILL, the intelligent finance platform trusted by half a million businesses to manage, move, and maximize their money. Together, we’re transforming financial operations for businesses and accountants by turning tedious back-office tasks into seamless, automated workflows—all updated in real time.

Everything in One Place

Imagine having all your bills, invoices, and payments effortlessly synced—no more juggling multiple platforms. Our integration with BILL makes this a reality, turning what used to be tedious tasks into smooth, automated operations.

Connected in Real-Time

With Digits, you get real-time financial data and insights powered by our Agentic General Ledger™. Track and analyze your finances with ease and precision. As a modern accounting platform built on the world’s first AGL®, Digits gives you immediate visibility as activity occurs. And with BILL connected, your accounts payable and payment data update automatically, offering a complete and connected view of your financial landscape.

Empowering Your Growth

Free yourself from manual inefficiencies and focus on what truly matters—growing your business. With Digits handling the accounting work and BILL streamlining your bill and payment workflows, you get cleaner, more accurate financials with far less effort—giving you the clarity and confidence to take on new challenges.

Why You’ll Love This Integration

No More Manual Entry: Automatically read and sync bills, invoices, and their payments. Digits ensures every transaction from BILL is effortlessly captured and booked as a journal entry, freeing you to focus on growth.
Complete Financial Picture: Keep tabs on accounts payable aging with real-time tracking. Everything you need for smarter decisions is right at your fingertips.
Flawless Financial Records: Enjoy the peace of mind that comes with automated transaction matching. Digits seamlessly aligns all imports, including bank data, for accurate and clear financial oversight.

Digits' integration with BILL is a game-changer. What I love most is how it automatically syncs bill payments and matches them with bank transactions, reducing manual hassle and the risk of duplicates—a huge efficiency boost for our team,” said Senior Accountant at Hiline, Katie Burns

Ready to Level Up?

Discover how Digits’ Agentic General Ledger™ and our integration with BILL can transform your financial operations and free your team to focus on growth.

Dive in and experience the magic of Digits and BILL today.

Digits Now Thinks, Acts, and Answers

Mon, 08 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT

For decades, accounting software has been dumb. Literally. Accountants, business owners, and finance teams spend hours booking and reconciling transactions, and then more hours exporting, pivoting, analyzing, and reporting on the data. When they log out, grab coffee, unplug for the night, or take a breather, all work stops, and their financials sit there at rest, doing nothing.

You deserve to take breaks, but your financials don't!

At Digits, your accounting software doesn’t wait for you. It works for you, 24/7. Last month, we launched AI Bank Reconciliations and announced that Digits now auto-books 95%+ of small business transactions in real time, as they happen.

Today, we're bringing agentic intelligence to the review, analysis, and reporting side of the monthly close—and letting you Ask Digits for whatever you want, whenever you want it!

Meet Ask Digits

Ask Digits is your central hub for interacting with the full power of Digits—an always-available assistant that empowers you to command, question, and collaborate with the AI agent working across your books.

Ask questions about your finances in plain English, search for any transaction, vendor, or customer in a split second, trigger quick actions like creating transactions or reports, kick-off and monitor the progress of background tasks like bank statement reconciliations—all from one central place. Ask Digits provides contextual prompts to guide you when the agent needs input to complete work, creating a simple yet powerful collaboration loop.

Fast, Accurate & Secure

Unlike other accounting platforms that send your full, raw financials to ChatGPT and hope for the best, Ask Digits is built right in. The agent maintains direct access to your books and leverages Digits’ powerful financial modeling engine to guarantee the math always adds up.

“Digits is SOC 2–certified with end-to-end encryption, delivering fast, accurate financial answers — with full context carried forward every time you Ask Digits.” It remembers your financial world, not just the last question.

Multi-Modal, Multi-Channel

Ask Digits also speaks images, documents, and email! Drop a PDF bank statement to start reconciling. Drop a receipt to find and match the right transaction. Or simply forward them via email to <your company>@digits.cc and the agent will get right to work.

Your Firm's Signature

For our accounting firm partners, Ask Digits becomes even more powerful, learning and expressing the uniqueness of your firm to your clients.

Today, we're announcing an add-on available through the Digits Accountant Partner Program: the Firm Signature package.

Building upon our work on Firm Models, Firm Signature grants access to deep customization of the end-to-end Digits product experience, including a branded Digits interface—so every client sees your expertise, your standards, and your name. It allows firms to embed their identity and best practices directly into Digits through:

Private Firm Models trained exclusively on your firm’s clients and team workflows
A branded Ask [Firm] experience, including firm logo, agent name, and tone
Firm-standard templates for charts of accounts, reports, and dashboards
Practice-area customization for firms serving multiple specialties or verticals

The Firm Signature package is available today. Contact your Partner Manager for details.

Experience Agent Intelligence Today

Ask Digits is the result of years of heads-down engineering work, with the initial product vision and prototypes dating back to early 2023. I want to thank our product design and engineering teams for their tireless work in bringing this capability to reality.

Ask Digits is available today, for free, for everyone on Digits. We can't wait to hear what you think!