Farmers Branch-based IT company Ford Squared Technologies has been granted a U.S. patent for BaCo Tech, its middleware accounting software-as-a-service technology.

The patent, titled “Accounting Platform Functionalities,” covers BaCo Tech’s ability to gather and manage all clients of a firm’s accounting records in a single location, regardless of any existing accounting software. Described by the company as a conversion tool, BaCo Tech takes an industry’s reactive workflow and turns it into a proactive workflow—offering more opportunities for advisory services. 

According to the technology’s team, BaCo is the industry’s only transaction-centered workflow. The knowledge-based technology involves little to no coding, allowing for a Certified Public Accountant to teach the platform how to identify and account for tax significant transactions.

Once its automated, the platform can make tax adjustments in real-time, giving users a view of accrual financial statements that align with their accounting software and income tax-based reporting.

We first introduced you to BaCo Tech and its origin story last year.

In 2012, Ford Baker, a CPA and the founder of BaCo Tech, had a eureka moment: Weighing in at nearly 400 pounds and storing an air mattress in his office, he realized his personal life was out of balance. 

And, according to Baker, burn-out is just another part of the CPA job—especially during an accountant’s 60-day busy season. 

Determined to establish boundaries around what he does for a living, Baker began to improve both his fitness and BaCo’s productivity. He worked to develop an in-house technology that mass gathers clients’ financial information, allowing him to look at multiple entities’ financial statements and work on tax returns in real-time. 

It was this marriage of tech and finance that spawned the (now patented) innovation. 

BaCo Tech is designed to eliminate waste and costly financial errors to optimize bottom lines. At the same time, it allows CPAs to live holistically—the technology works to replace the current infrequency in data-gathering to create a real-time anticipatory service. Balanced-based reports are no longer needed, just instantaneous raw data via transactional workflow.  

“The heart of BaCo Tech is to finally give CPAs work/life balance, via consistent workflow,” Baker previously told us. “What sets BaCo Tech apart is that we are a cure, not just a Band-Aid in this industry.” 

Most solutions for CPAs are built around a workflow that focuses on the last 60 days of a filing deadline. This means a firm is always in a “reactive mode,” putting last year’s numbers on last year’s forms.

BaCo Tech offers a command center that allows adjustments to be made back to a client’s accounting records and updates. The command center creates alerts for tax significant activity, fixed asset additions, and opportunities for preemptive problem solving.

“We hope to be embraced by the major accounting platforms and have a very productive tax season,” Baker says. “The firm will finish most of their tax returns by February 2021, which has never happened before.” 

Alex Edwards and Riley Farrell contributed to this report.

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