Accrual has launched with $75 million in funding to bring AI-native automation to accounting firm preparation and review workflows. The funding round was led by General Catalyst, with participation from Pruven Capital, Edward Jones Ventures, and a group of industry executives and founders. Accrual said the financing will support product and AI development, team expansion, and onboarding accounting firms as the company scales.
Based in San Francisco, Accrual is positioning its platform as core workflow infrastructure for accounting firms that need speed gains without sacrificing controls, auditability, or professional review standards. The company said accounting firms remain constrained by fragmented systems and manual coordination as regulations, data volumes, and client expectations rise, forcing accountants to deliver faster answers while maintaining accuracy and review rigor.
Accrual said it unifies preparation and review in a single AI-driven system, using AI agents that serve as preparers, reading and organizing client inputs, identifying missing information, generating targeted follow-up questions, and producing draft returns for professional review. The company said it structures data as it enters the system so preparation, review, and client guidance build on one another, reducing rework.
Over the past year, Accrual said it has worked closely with firms including H&R Block, Armanino, Creative Planning, and several other Top 100 accounting firms. The company said these early deployments showed recent advances in AI can remove long-standing bottlenecks in accounting workflows while maintaining accuracy, transparency, and professional judgment.
Accrual said it is initially focused on individual tax returns and can handle real-world inputs such as complex K-1s and 1099s, spreadsheets, emails, photos, and multi-hundred-page statements. The company said the platform integrates directly with existing tax engines to support prior-year data, carry-forwards, and final filing workflows, enabling firms to keep using systems they already rely on.
Accrual said firms using the platform are saving thousands of hours per tax season. The company reported that preparation time has dropped by more than 85 percent, review time has fallen by up to 60 percent, and that every 50 complex returns effectively adds the capacity of one accountant without increasing headcount, while improving consistency and accuracy.
Accrual said it is actively onboarding accounting firms across the U.S. and plans to expand beyond individual returns over time. The company also said it is hiring engineers, product leaders, and accounting experts as it builds what it describes as the next-generation accounting infrastructure.
KEY QUOTES
“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.”
Cosmin Nicolaescu, CEO and Co-Founder, Accrual
“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.”
John Karls, National Tax Practice Leader, Private Client Advisors, Armanino
“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.”
Marc Bhargava, Managing Director, General Catalyst
