mission

Robots do bookkeeping

Here’s a very early look at how Bmbix enables AI accounting assistants to work together to process a transaction across an entity boundary. Link to video The Bmbix structured message network makes business processes internet addressible, and it these transaction rails which allow the robots to communicate independent of the underlying business system API or implementation. In this case the transaction is a very simple sale and purchase although it’s worth noting that Bmbix is not just for invoice processing: it can be used for any type of business transaction.

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mission

Autonomous Accounting Assistants

Automation and Autonomy Different AI accounting assistants are capable of different levels of autonomous activity and may be described on a scale of 0-5. As a business function, accounting already benefits from much low-level automation, such as the generation of reports and integration to other line-of-business systems. Here we distinguish autonomy from automation in that autonomy implies an element of judgement, discretion or decision making which has up to this point been the unique responsibility of a human operator.

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mission

Ransomware: the human factor

Protection from ransomware requires thinking about the ways in which ordinary human weakness can leave your organization wide open to exploitation. If someone offered you USD 1,000,000 to share your passwords to your employer’s network, and promised to shift the blame to a co-worker you didn’t like, would you be tempted? 1 Probably not. But are you confident that everyone in your organization would be just as upstanding? Most large organizations have internal controls to reduce the risk of individual mistakes or peculation.

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mission

Continuous Transaction Controls

Continuous Transaction Controls are a way of looping government agencies into live business transaction flows, to faclitate compliance with tax, environmental and other relevant laws and regulations. Introduction Governments around the world are required by their citizens to conduct their operations as efficiently as possible. Additionally, governments recognize that the burden of compliance on the private sector should be as low as possible. Whilst digital initiatives in both government and the private sector have in many cases delivered significant efficiciency gains, optimal efficiency for the government and private sector taken together has not so far been reached.

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mission

A first look at Central Bank Digital Currency

TL;DR Central Bank Digitial Currency is at an early stage of development with little hard information published. Based on a first look at a statement from the Bank of England, we publish our thoughts on what it might mean should they decide to go ahead. Introduction Central Bank Digital Currency or CBDC can be thought of as an electronic version of the paper notes and coin used by the public and provided by an institution such as the Federal Reserve, Bank of England or European Central Bank.

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mission

When things go wrong

TL;DR Sometimes you can mess up in business and it turns out to be a net positive event. The paradox arises because when you make a mistake, you can either put yourself in your customers position, or choose not to. Your ability to apply empathy at the corporate level can turn a lose-lose into that mythical win-win. A tiny problem We are paying customers of a large number of the main accounting software houses.

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mission

Accounting platform and banking connectivity compared

TL;DR Banking is bookkeeping, bookkeeping is accounting. For decades, banks have been connected to each other, delivering immeasurable economic benefits with secure, reliable transaction processing at global scale. The accounting software industry has the opportunity to deliver the same or greater benefits to society by following suit. Just as interconnectivity created new revenue opportunities for banks, so interconnectivity can create new revenue opportunities for accounting platforms. Introduction The business of managing debits and credits is known as bookkeeping, the foundation of all accounting.

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mission

Digital Natives Expect Seamless Experiences

Software user expectations are constantly evolving. As technology advances, their demands focus on speed, digitalization, convenience, accessibility. And in the arena of accounting, confidentiality and security are paramount concerns.1 The customer’s experience of using your software is a key component of your long-term success. It’s no accident that the marketing slogan of one of the major online accounting platforms chose to highlight beauty as their key product attribute. Who are these digital natives?

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mission

Joined up thinking

At one time there was quill and parchment. Today, most accounting uses some kind of digital platform. Yet for all the noise made about accounting moving to the cloud, the real prize for our economy from all this innovation is in danger of being overlooked. It took the Cruickshank Report of 2000 for the UK government to prod the banking industry into creating what became the Faster Payments network. Up to that point the status quo had sufficient inertia that the needs of the broader economy were being overlooked.

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technology

Why we don't use blockchain

When we were roughing out the initial technical design of the core Bmbix service, we gave blockchain technology due consideration. Ultimately we felt that it was overkill for our use cases. We have written this article because it is a question we are often asked — why doesn’t Bmbix use blockchain technology. Our understanding at the time was that the strengths of blockchain technology lay in no-central-authority and non-repudiation of transactions.

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mission

What is Bmbix?

Connecting the world’s accounting systems. That’s our mission. What does it mean to your business? You know how banking has evolved so that you can transfer money to/from any bank account with any bank to any bank account at any other bank, anywhere in the world? Well, that’s what Bmbix does for business documents such as invoices and credit notes. We are the glue that connects potentially all the world’s accounting systems.

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