CIO Bulletin

WebAccountPlus: Accounting firms may expand their advisory business, while banks get a better understanding of the SMEs need

For the past decade, digitalization has been the talk of town. Converting texts, documents, and pictures into digital form makes them easier to process on computers. But whenever the topic is brought up in the context of financial services, it was always meant for mobile banking, payments, and credit cards, and mostly for private customers. The idea of accounting and digitalization of administrative processes for corporates seems to just fit, but it is hard to find a company that provides these accessibilities in a holistic platform and open ecosystem. However, the vision was turned into reality by WebAccountPlus.

WebAccountPlus is the first organization in the world to offer corporates of all sizes complete digitalization of incoming mail, expense and invoice management, CRM, HR, accounting, multi-banking, analytics, securities portfolio analyses, outgoing mail and digital corporate advisory. This is consolidated across any location.

For an SME bank, WebAccountPlus offers digitally supported corporate advisory - supplemented with strategy consulting including ongoing monitoring, which was previously unthinkable for small businesses. Also included are automated leads (for investments and financing) based on real-time data as well as fully automated credit monitoring. In 3 months, a bank can offer its clients a completely new advisory concept at very manageable costs. The Target Operating Model (TOM) is completely redesigned. In the same manner, the entire company forms an ecosystem, from SME to business banking; it can almost entirely be automated.

Founders and Partners, the emergence of the company

The company was founded by partners who are mostly educated Swiss bankers and digital leaders with over 20–40 years of experience. They often studied business informatics or economics and had been working independently as consultants for various international corporations for multiple years.

Roland Stähli, founder, and Patrick Schöni, co-founder, worked together on a mandate in corporate banking; however, they ran into a problem when they couldn’t understand why not to make annual credit monitoring more efficient and consequently give the bank better information on the client. The concept was never properly implemented for a variety of reasons.

Since they were both entrepreneurs at the time and were familiar with the various problems of an SME, they understood immediately that the problem needed to be looked at from a global point of view, as compared to the previous perspective from the bank’s point of view. Stähli, during his previous work in South Africa, had come across many talented entrepreneurs who, unfortunately, never had the opportunity to get financing because they were unaware of the concepts of accounting and were thereby rejected by the banks.

SMEs are, however, one of the most important prosperity and wealth drivers and a true economic engine all across the globe. Keeping this in mind, the founders logically brought this perspective into the overall concept.

Their approach was therefore different; a more holistic view, with all the facts and issues put in clear sight by all market participants, analyzed, and then made the necessary cuts.

As the world was turning in the IT sector, ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) ratings were suddenly on the table. With the political and economic crisis, the leading indicators became a blur. The founders soon realized that the only way around it was to build their own platform. The idea was to develop the basic foundation and create a core that was their very own design and could integrate relevant peripheral systems seamlessly and affordably, and most importantly, be global.

The founders spent nearly five years exclusively analyzing the various market players and their problems, whether they were micro clients, SMEs, multinationals, asset managers, family offices, banks, insurance companies, tax advisors, accountants, management consultants, the government, the World Bank, or even the UN. The ulterior motive, however, was to use digitalization for the benefit of all parties involved.

The goal eventually became to provide individual SMEs with the opportunity to maintain their data in a secure cloud while freeing them from tedious accounting work.

They negotiated integration possibilities, white label, technology status, functional scope, and pricing with the very first software manufacturers well in advance. After which, they finally worked on their first prototypes.

It was clear from the start that Stähli and Schöni wanted the holding company to be located in Switzerland;. Switzerland still remains one of the safest and most politically stable countries with a strong currency when compared globally.

In order to achieve global scalability and be able to respond to country-specific conditions, they have to create a well thought through company structure with local subsidiaries. When it comes to digitalization projects, they had to keep in mind different countries and their local residents, making sure they received concrete work and benefits. The company therefore relies heavily on the Microsoft Azure Cloud in order to elevate technology instantly.

The Foundation and Beginning

Once the above criteria were in place, they got started. After a lengthy preparation period, they founded the holding company in November 2021. The holding company included a patent box, software development, standardization for rollouts to various countries, and contracts with other partners. Following which, the Swiss subsidiary was founded and is operational since June 2023.

The local subsidiaries and financial partners operate accounting factories; their approach is to make sure every company receives all the software in the accounting package for free. In concrete terms, this means the local accounting company does all the work for the customers in its dedicated cloud provider, at a fixed monthly price while simultaneously offering customers the entire software package in white label, that is, in the name of its own brand, at no extra charge.

This method helps the accountant to substantially save on administrative costs as a result of the automation of most of the accounting process. The freed-up capacity then offers new professional advisory service possibilities, like cooperation with a bank, succession planning, strategy consulting, etc.

With time and effort, WebAccountPlus was able to raise and invest millions of US$ from the private sector.

How WebAccountPlus works

The corporate organization of WebAccountPlus consists of a holding company and future local subsidiaries in any country in the world, which are operated in the joint venture as so-called accounting factories. While the holding company provides the subsidiaries with all software licenses and the platform for use, the subsidiaries offer the accounting services to their end customers, i.e. SMEs. Bookings and country-specific reporting are operated on the local accounting systems, which are connected to the platform via API.

The Holding securely stores all data in a protected cloud (normally held in the Swiss Cloud if local law of a particular country allows it - otherwise the data is stored in a secure local cloud), all of which is integrated and linked together. The local subsidiaries are setup together with its mandates (SME) in a multi-tenancy structure. User and access rights are strictly regulated. All correspondence goes through the nationwide scanning center, where all documents (bank statements, insurance policies, invoices, etc.) are digitized and subsequently made available in the digital mailbox.

The mail is then distributed online to the respective person or department of the SME, where it can be dealt with immediately. For example, invoices are directly recognized, assigned to the correct booking account, booked, and prepared for payment so that, when the time comes, they need only be scheduled and released.

While all company mail is managed in the digital mailbox, leads, contacts, sales activities, offers, orders, and debtor invoices are managed by the CRM (Customer Relationship Management). Payment monitoring, bank account reconciliation, and bookings are entirely automated.

The SME can, at all times, see the latest account balance on a dashboard and, if there is a shortfall in the account balance, can make transfers across banks or countries at the touch of a button. All expenses are immediately scanned via a mobile app and, depending on the configured expense regulations, they either go through a special approval process or are directly forwarded and booked based on AI technology.

In addition, the client has a strategy tool, analytics with a dashboard, an HR tool, optionally a portfolio management system, and finally the centerpiece, the Digital Corporate Advisor, at his fingertips.

SME benefits at WebAccountPlus

While all company data is calculated and evaluated in real time through hundreds of predefined KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), the SME instantly receives an alert when action is required. This is done digitally for simple cases; however, for much more complex cases, the company needs professional advice. In such situations, a call to a bank expert, insurance specialist, management consultant, or tax expert is readily available, giving temporary access to relevant data when needed.

WebAccountPlus has unprecedented, readily available access to professional and proactive advice, which helps the company sustainably improve its performance. Banks and insurance companies save an enormous amount of money by offering their investment or financial products in a targeted manner.

Not far in the future, WebAccountPlus will be able to generate ESG ratings for SME’s at the push of a button.

Security and Sustainability at WebAccountPlus

WebAccountPlus was brought into being with the mission of strengthening the global economy through an intelligent, functioning, transnational corporate eco-system, all while making an important contribution to the fight against poverty and promoting digitization, specifically in emerging and developing countries, granting people equal opportunity.

The company prioritizes data sovereignty at all times. The SME decides who uses the data, under what conditions, and at what time. Anonymized data is sent to the government from micro-industries, which allows the government to react easily and instantly to negative developments.

Real time accounting makes tax fraud much more difficult and can easily fight corruption.

Similarly, sustainability at WebAccountPlus is an exceptionally important element in the fight against poverty. With the help of digitalization, fewer trees have fallen for paper production, therefore combining all aspects of a sustainable business model, economically,ecologically, and socially.

Together with their partners, WebAccountPlus strongly believes in the idea of irradiating poverty, increasing sustainability, and prioritizing security.

Achieving what they set out to do is going to be a long road with numerous hardships along the way and a massive amount of work and financial effort.

The future of WebAccountPlus

Through mere word-of-mouth, the company has received several strong prospects from the fiduciary and banking worlds wanting to use the platform. The company strongly believes that in a couple of months, they will gain thousands of clients in Switzerland alone.

The first two accounting firms with customers in Switzerland are now live. WebAccountPlus is currently looking for clients exclusively via close and long-term B2B partnerships.

With an illustrious trajectory so far, WebAccountPlus is looking forward to partner with strong contenders from all across the globe, partners who are willing to operate and co-finance the local accounting factories alongside WebAccountPlus. The accounting factories (trustees, insurance companies, and banks) provide a verified data basis for the services that build on it.

Within the coming months, the company is set to sensitize the southern European market, followed by the African market, and by the end of the year, the Asian market. With a local partner by their side, gaining a foothold in a new country will be a much easier venture. In preparation for a faster expansion, WebAccountPlus is looking towards seeking Series-A financing.

Chris Skinner, a world-renowned influencer in the banking and financial technology industries who is now a shareholder and member of the advisory board, is an example of expansion in the company. The advisory board was recently enlarged and welcomed Skinner, a previous advisor to the UN, the World Bank, and the White House, amongst others.

WebAccountPlus has naturally strong expansion plans, including wanting to offer cross-country peer-to-peer factoring, either through a partner or self-developed, integrate job portals, redeploy professionals, and more. The possibilities seem endless.

A brief biography on the Founder

Roland Stähli is the Chairman and CEO of WebAccountPlus; he grew up in Switzerland, studied computer science and completed his banking apprenticeship. For more than 40 years, he worked in the financial industry, having had multiple roles in banks, brokerage businesses, data providers, core banking software developments, and more. As an independent consultant he worked over 25 years in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, South Africa, Mauritius and Malaysia in various roles.