Quebec company is revolutionizing assurance with AI

For many small and medium businesses, year-end is a complex process. Simon Langlois, CPA, is well versed in the matter, having spent a few years in assurance at a PwC before taking on a CFO position at a tech start-up, Poka. 

This Quebec City-native noticed that due to a lack of practitioners and underuse of automation, assurance services were becoming increasingly expensive for clients and requiring more time to complete.  

The answer lay in Stamped, an entirely cloud-based automation platform he co-founded in 2018. The objective: To modernize the procedures for tax filing, financial reporting and compilation engagements. The target clientele: Accounting firms and SMEs. 

One-stop shop 

Using APIs (application programming interfaces), Stamped connects common accounting solutions such as QuickBooks and Xero with bank accounts in a single platform. The data is then processed by a machine-learning algorithm that identifies the lines that need to be integrated — to build a financial statement, for example. The files or reports generated are then reviewed by CPAs and can be submitted electronically if required.  

“For many small- and medium-sized businesses, year-end validation, both accounting and tax, is a thorn in their side. They want to deal with it as quickly and painlessly as possible so they can move on to other things," he says. “That’s exactly what our application makes possible.  

“By freeing people from certain tasks, they can concentrate on the real added value of their role, whether that’s at the head of the company or as a trusted adviser.” 

A growing niche 

The company, which today has around twenty employees and over 500 clients, consists of two divisions: Stamped Technologies, which handles its platform, and Stamped CPA, which acts as an innovation lab and tests functionalities for small and medium businesses. “This firm-laboratory allows us to test new features and fix bugs before the solution is deployed to our licensed client firms.” 

Langlois is aware of a certain resistance in the industry to implementing new technology. After all, why would a firm want to change a system that’s been working for decades? “Because the application allows them to do more with less, to have more clients without having more employees, which generates additional profits,” he explains. 

But, Langlois adds, there’s another angle to consider. “Some CPA firms, particularly the smaller ones, find it hard to compete with the big firms when recruiting employees. Our application helps them reduce the more tedious tasks that employees tend to dislike.” This could be a real advantage, given that these days the problem is not a shortage of clients but rather a shortage of practitioners. 

On top of this is inflation, which in recent years has driven up the salaries of CPAs, including on the corporate side. “Some SMEs can no longer afford a full in-house financial department, so they outsource to a CFO who manages four, five, or six different accounting firms,” he says. “Stamped can help them by bringing everything together in one place, centralizing information, and thereby improving productivity.” 

Stamped also boasts another advantage: Langlois is not only a CPA but also an entrepreneur. As such, he speaks the language of both his investors and his clients, from firms to SMEs.  

“We don’t have to imagine ourselves in their shoes—we are in their shoes!” 

On the horizon 

After investing several years in the development of the platform, Stamped wants to turn its attention to CPA firms, to support them in automating year-end compliance services. 

“We want to move towards review and audit engagements, which require more functionality and AI. We are currently working on integrating generative AI into our platform to help practitioners document their work files and generate client queries in an assisted way, by using recent advancements in large language models (LLMs). These help build customized recommendation systems and will make it possible to address specific tax and accounting compliance needs.”  

Next year’s tax season is shaping up to be an exciting one!