Partner Article

Tech firm launches revolutionary audit software

A Sunderland-based fintech start-up is aiming to revolutionise the accountancy market with a new software product which will create several new jobs in the region.

Inflo provides affordable data analytics and automation software for accountancy firms that allows them to collect data from client finance systems such as Sage, Navision or Xero, sparing clients the burden of having to prepare detailed reports.

The software then automates significant elements of services such as external audit, making the process more flexible and providing sophisticated data analytics dashboards to both auditors and their clients to assess financial performance and effectiveness.

The company was set up by two accountants frustrated by the dated, largely paper-based processes widely used in the industry, with accountancy firms wanting more innovative solutions forced to invest in bespoke software.

CEO Mark Edmondson and COO Graham Clark, who have significant experience of accountancy between them, set-up the business in January 2016 along with business partners Grant Cooper and Tom Gathercole.

Mark Edmondson said: “After leaving my previous role I took some time to reflect on the key challenges I could see across the profession.

“Almost all of them could be solved by good software, but software for auditors was all desktop based, dated and required big up-front investment in both licences and specialist development.

“After speaking with a former colleague and a specialist developer, I knew we had the combined skills to use cloud computing to provide an alternative.

“Inflo was borne out of this gap in the market to provide an affordable and easy to adopt software solution which is accessible for mid-tier and independent firms.

“Our product and the level of support we offer our customers is truly unique to the market; we have no direct competitors and within our first year of trading we have grown a substantial client base.

“We anticipate explosive growth over the next three years and are well placed to lead significant change across the global accounting market.”

The company launched the product at an event hosted by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) in London earlier this month, which included a key note speech from ICAEW Chief Executive Michael Izza. The event was attended by over 150 senior figures from across the accounting profession and shared with an audience around the globe.

Inflo, based at the Evolve Business Centre, are now looking to quickly expand the existing team before the end of the year in a number of areas of the business to take advantage of significant market demand.

The founders have received support from Sunderland City Council and Sunderland Software City, the organisation enabling the growth of the technology sector in the North East of England.

Mark said: “The support we’ve received from Sunderland Council and Sunderland Software City to help set-up the business, fund premises and access new networks has proved invaluable in our first year.

“We now have the ideal environment in which to grow our business and excellent routes into overseas markets facilitated by introductions from the Sunderland Council Business Investment Team.

“Our product has vast export potential. We routinely receive enquiries from overseas and are already working with accounting firms from a number of different territories. We believe we can grow the business across the world from our North East base and we are targeting global roll out of the product across 2017.”

David Dunn, Chief Executive of Sunderland Software City said “Inflo is a welcome addition to Sunderland’s already world-leading community of Software as a Service companies and has the potential to become one of the city’s, and the region’s, tech-successes.

“The company is flying the flag for North East software in the Fintech sector around the world, and we look forward to supporting them further as they become a global-leader in accountancy software.”

Inflo currently have a number of vacancies for business development professionals, customer account managers and multiple software development roles and would love to hear from people with the talent or skills to help scale the business.

For more information, please visit www.inflosoftware.com

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Amy Watson .