The real power of finance data, and the AI built on top of it, starts from the bottom up. A strong data foundation begins with uniform naming, structured onboarding, and disciplined entry at the transactional level. Companies that build from clean, consistent inputs will unlock faster closes, better insights, and true AI leverage. Those that don’t will spend their time fixing what better design could have prevented.

Tipalti has raised $200M and rolled out new AI features, from natural language reporting to predictive bill approvers. While these enhancements make the platform easier to use, they feel more incremental than transformative. For CFOs, Tipalti remains a strong payables tool. But there's only so much you can do as an AP module.

QuickBooks AI Agents: Smart Enhancements, Not a Full Virtual Team As a longtime QB user, I was eager to explore Intuit’s newly announced AI agents. These tools are meant to automate core business workflows like invoicing, transaction categorization, financial analysis, and customer engagement. The marketing describes them as a “virtual team” — but after watching a few hands-on reviews and testing some of the features myself, I’d describe them more as smart enhancements than a