Accounting Firms Aim Higher as AI Handles the Heavy Lifting

Pinion Global, one of the nation’s largest midsize accounting partnerships, is betting that artificial intelligence (AI) can do more than crunch numbers. In March, the Denver-based firm added Adaptive AI, a platform that automates data capture and basic bookkeeping, to its technology stack after a monthslong security review, principal Bill Mills said.

“The tool is exactly what we’re looking for, which is taking the human element out of the transactional process,” Mills told PYMNTS. By letting algorithms post invoices and reconcile ledgers, Pinion expects to free staff accountants to spend more time interpreting results and advising clients.

Early returns have impressed one hard-to-please constituency: home builders and construction contractors. Preparing loan-draw packages for banks “has historically been a paper-driven bane for everyone involved,” Mills said.

Adaptive’s workflow plugs into field apps and the firm’s cloud ledger, generating digital loan documents that borrower and lender can review in real time. The shift, he added, “is a door-opener” when pitching new clients and has begun to shorten approval cycles.

Accounting firms have long worried that AI still needs too much human oversight to be reliable, especially in regulated services. Mills conceded the learning curve is steep. “The hurdle is education — unwinding work habits and conveying the benefit,” he said. But he argues that machine efficiency outweighs the adjustment costs, citing Adaptive’s ability to deliver “better, faster, more reliable information at lower cost.”

Next on Pinion’s roadmap is automated, industry-specific reporting that turns raw data into customizable dashboards. Perfecting that loop, Mills said, would leave advisers to “interpret, explain and plan,” moving them further up the value chain even as software handles the grunt work.

Pinion’s early experience comes as Adaptive this week rolled out what it calls its next-generation platform for construction accounting, a segment the company estimates includes nearly 100,000 U.S. contractors with combined revenue of about $850 billion.

The privately held firm says its latest release was built with input from design partners including CliftonLarsonAllen and Pinion and is aimed squarely at helping accounting practices scale construction services without adding staff.

Unlike generic AI tools that attempt to automate bookkeeping across industries, Adaptive’s software is designed around construction’s idiosyncrasies like job-cost coding, draw management and the maze of lien waivers and insurance certificates that accompany each project.

“Accounting firms know construction is a growth opportunity, but the manual processes have put a ceiling on how many clients they can serve,” Adaptive Chief Executive Matt Calvano said. The new version, he added, “removes that ceiling” by standardizing workflows firms typically build from scratch for each client.

The vendor’s pitch comes at a moment when many midtier and regional firms are reevaluating their service mix. Tight labor markets and rising audit-quality expectations have pushed practices toward recurring, advisory-heavy offerings. Automating the labor-intensive portions of bookkeeping, practitioners say, is a prerequisite for that shift.

“Our partnership with Adaptive has enabled us to deliver exceptionally fast and meaningful outcomes for our construction clients,” Pinion principal Lisa Baalman said, citing quicker turnaround on financial statements and improved visibility into cash flow.

Adaptive’s software integrates with QuickBooks, major U.S. banks and project-management systems such as Procore. Once connected, it reads invoices, assigns costs to jobs and cost codes, and routes payment applications through a web portal. Accounts receivable, accounts payable and expense tracking modules feed real-time work-in-progress reports, while a compliance module monitors insurance expirations and lien waivers.

Implementation, according to the company, requires two or three remote training sessions and comes with a white-label option so firms can present the portal under their own brand. Adaptive also offers daily webinars and live-chat support — features that help smaller firms lacking dedicated IT staff.

Still, accountants caution that no amount of automation eliminates professional responsibility. Construction bookkeeping is notoriously detail-oriented; a misclassified cost can cascade into flawed revenue recognition. Regulators have also begun to scrutinize how firms validate AI outputs, raising the prospect of new guidance on documentation and internal controls.

Adaptive’s approach — pairing automation with firm-level onboarding and support — may mitigate some of those concerns. Yet the broader question is how quickly accounting practices can adapt their own processes and billing models. Mills expects a period of dual-running systems before staff and clients fully trust the software. “We’re rolling it out in phases,” he said. “Accuracy has to be proven over time.”

For firms willing to take the plunge, the payoff could be significant. Automating data entry and reconciliation typically cuts per-client servicing hours by 25% to 40%, according to estimates from consultancy CPA.com. That capacity can be redeployed to higher-margin advisory work — forecasting, tax planning or securing financing — services construction companies often lack in-house.

Pinion, for its part, is content to let the market develop while it measures internal results. “We’ll evaluate labor savings and data accuracy over the next quarter,” Mills said. If the numbers hold, he expects to migrate the majority of the firm’s construction clients to the platform by year-end.

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