New Chat Bot for Accounting Helps Eliminate Spreadsheets

A new chat bot is now available inside Sage accounting systems that allows users to log expenses, check invoices, track payments and more by simply chatting with it.

Through a partnership between Sage and Gupshup, the system, called Pegg, represents a new, bot-enabled era in accounting making business software simpler, easier and better than desktop, web and app versions.

The Pegg beta was introduced on Tuesday at the 2016 Sage Summit (July 25-28^th) in Chicago. It is available on Facebook Messenger and Slack.

Pegg, powered by the Gupshup bot platform, turns the traditional accounting process on its head. The bot makes it easy for small business owners and entrepreneurs to enter and track important financial information in an instant, including filing expenses, tracking account balances and recording receipts and income. Businesses worldwide that previously relied on spreadsheets and manual practices will now be able to use a simple, yet powerful, accounting tool that requires no training or prior knowledge to use.

Pegg contains natural language processing abilities that enable users to say things in more than just one way. Pegg makes accounting invisible – the business user simply exchanges chat messages with the bot while the bot does the accounting behind the scenes. Pegg has a personality too – it’s efficient, with a slight sense of humor. Pegg’s vision is to eventually become a business trainer ever ready to provide sage advice. Pegg is available to a global audience and supports any currency. To use the bot, visit hellopegg.io.

“Over 65 percent of small businesses continue to largely rely on spreadsheets and manual recordkeeping practices that are not only inaccurate and time consuming, but also incredibly tedious and costly to maintain,” said Kriti Sharma, Global Director of Mobile Product Management, Sage. “Gupshup’s industry-leading cross channel bot platform has given us the ability to overcome the complexities of today’s accounting software and offer a fun, intuitive and accessible experience to entrepreneurs and small business owners.”

“The future of the workplace is conversational, and chatbots are now being integrated into key workflows and business processes to improve productivity,” said Beerud Sheth, CEO of Gupshup. “We are delighted to partner with Sage, an innovative technology leader that is pioneering a new approach to accounting software enabling small businesses to be more efficient and successful.”

This partnership announcement marks the second for Gupshup in the last two weeks, following closely behind the recent announcement of the company’s deal with Cisco Systems to bring chat bot functionality to the enterprise world.