Explaining how my brain works is difficult. Thousands of thoughts, many directions. Sometimes these thoughts are connected with articles I’ve written in the past and other times there is no rhyme or reason to the madness.
That said, I’m trying something new. From the Footnotes.
The face of the financials are simple. Clean and straight forward. That’s how I’ve been trying to write in the past. They fall into a specific section (e.g. AI for Accountants, New Age) and they have a desired outcome and progression. The footnotes are a bit different. Think loose thoughts, industry news, or anything else that feels relevant to the new age of the profession.
Let’s see how this goes.
I’m currently sitting in San Francisco looking over the Ferry Building watching the sunrise. The chilly, humid ocean air is feeling incredible today. Surprisingly clear sky this morning. Grateful to be back in this incredible city.
Last week was a big one. I attended Rillet Recon in San Francisco, Ramp announced AR, and Numeric announced the Financial Data Platform. Crazy movement shifts in the AI-native accounting tech stack world. Let’s break these down.
Rillet Recon
For those unfamiliar, Rillet is an AI-native ERP built to fully replace legacy systems like NetSuite and SAP. As of Sep 2026, Rillet has raised over $200m and is valued at $1b. This recent valuation announcement puts them ahead in the AI-native ERP race over competitors and is pointing to a very bright future for the organization.
I’ve used Rillet for over a year now. The product continually improves, is catered to the real operators of the ERP (accountants), and it’s saved our team countless hours in time to close.
However, the thing that sets them apart isn’t their product. It’s the community they are building. They have a Slack community called the Close Club, they host events that are curated to finance and accounting professionals, and they host dinners to be a low-pressure environment to get out of the back office.
I’ve been fortunate to attend both official Rillet Recon’s (I also attended their first event but was under a different name). Here are some of my main take aways:
1/ it’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when — everyone is going to be using these tools, you have to dive right in
2/ Claude and other tools are amazing frameworks but you need a human in the loop. Even the Head of Finance from Anthropic, Devin Whittle, discussed how they handle “Claude Slop” internally.
3/ tokenmaxxing and finding your ROI is still crucial. There is more than just time saved. We should consider other factors like quality of life and other key metrics.
4/ the CFO of Figma, Praveer Melwani, talked about his journey from the first finance hire to taking the company public. This advice was simple: be willing to do anything, work hard, and don’t pretend to be the smartest but hire the right people.
There were so many other things that were discussed but the general take away is that this profession is going through a major glow up. It’s unfamiliar for everyone. That said, I’ve never been more bullish on the profession and the future of accounting.
Ramp → Accounts Receivable
I’m not sure if Ramp needs any form of introduction. In talks of raising $1b and putting them at a $60b valuation… Yeah, that Ramp.
Look, I’ll shoot it straight. I’m a massive fan of Ramp. Their product is incredible. I’ve been using it since the beginning of 2022 and it’s only gotten better. In the last few months they’ve made announcements around Stack, they now have AI token monitoring, their procurement process has improved, banking has become more popular — the list goes on and on.
When I heard the announcement for AR, I wasn’t surprised. They’re slowly targeting every area within accounting. They started with expense management, they’ve mastered T&E, they now have procurement, banking, close (with Stack), and now AR — and that’s just scratching the surface.
Day one of OnRamp is today. Hopefully I’ll find out more soon on this front.
Numeric Pivot?
Back in 2024 I heard about Numeric. At the time, they were a close management software and they were taking on the larger players in the space like FloQast. We decided to take a chance on them and I was really happy with our decision. Their team is full of great people and their vision was tangible.
On September 22, 2026 they announced the Financial Data Platform (can read more about it here). Their goal is to build an ERP replacement to capture business context to service all accounting needs in one unified platform. Think, data warehouse that captures all transactions and converts to better reporting, analytics, and outputs.
In their announcement they said things like “Accountants are finance engineers, not bookkeepers” and “the accountants function is to build and govern the system that produces the accounting, not to produce it manually.” I’ve written about the Accounting Engineer and the purpose of New Age Accounting has been clear since day one “to empower accountants — at every level — to become builders, not bookkeepers.”
While I understand the shift, I’m curious to find out more on this front. Stepping into the ERP race while there are a handful of clear leaders is an interesting pivot. Technically, they’re not an ERP because they’re going to be removing the journal entries and other misc. manual tasks. And, this is really turning something that’s worked for centuries completely upside down — which is fascinating to me.
I don’t know. I’m excited to see how this pans out.
The purpose of New Age Accounting is simple: to empower accountants — at every level — to become builders, not bookkeepers. Whether you’re a staff accountant, a controller, or a CFO, there’s something here for you. Some topics will be high level, others will come with step-by-step guides, and some will include the exact prompts and tools you need to start building today.
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Can't wait to hear about OnRamp!