Startups Embrace All-in-One Finance Platforms as Visma Cites Efficiency and Regulation

Visma, which provides accounting, payroll and tax software to small and medium-sized businesses, said a recent study found that 74% of small business owners and 80% of accounting offices prefer an all-in-one accounting software approach. Steffen Torp, Visma's chief commercial officer, said the integrated approach is about "having the collaboration between the accountant and the startup client." He added: "Customers are happier in general and are less likely to leave if we provide the full suite."

Torp spoke to Sifted alongside Karina Wellendorph, managing director of accounting and finance platform E-conomic, and Hege Oustad, managing director of accounting software provider Tripletex. Wellendorph said user feedback, rather than a sudden strategic turn, pushed E-conomic to combine bookkeeping, accounting, payroll and invoicing on a single platform. Previously, different systems or solutions could be linked, she said, but customers wanted more features "within the same system and just use one login and the same interface." Keeping users within one platform reduces time spent finding and using separate tools, she said, leaving businesses "with more time and attention" to run and grow.

Tripletex saw a similar shift early in its growth. Oustad said the company began as an invoicing tool and later decided to build payroll software from scratch and embed it into its own platform rather than rely on third-party applications connected through APIs, which allow separate software programmes to share data. "Since you're already doing invoicing, why not have it directly in your accounting system?" she said. "Many said we should not make a payroll system so complex but that's how we got ahead of some of our competitors who didn't have that all-in-one package."

Regulation and compliance are also accelerating adoption. Torp said the markets where Visma companies have grown fastest over the past two years are those with regulatory push. Many governments now require businesses to process invoices through digital channels such as e-invoicing. In countries rolling out new laws, including France, Germany and Croatia, the requirement applies across the board, from large corporations to small businesses and freelancers.

International expansion in financial software remains difficult because bookkeeping and finance rules vary from country to country. Visma has adopted a "local-first" strategy, expanding into new markets by acquiring local startups rather than pushing the same product across different countries. After the success of Nordic portfolio companies including Tripletex and E-conomic, the group is now expanding further across Europe and Latin America.

For Tripletex, the locally tailored model was not always the obvious choice. Oustad said the team had to advocate for it early on. "We fought for this model from the beginning," she said about the company's early days in the wider Visma group. "When we entered Visma we were very small, so we really had to fight for this way to do it." Tripletex, based in Norway, benefited from having E-conomic in Denmark to learn from, Oustad said. "We could see a lot of similarities [in] how we built our product and how we built the organisation."

Editor's Summary

Visma executives say startups are increasingly adopting all-in-one finance platforms that combine accounting, payroll and invoicing, with customer demand, efficiency and regulatory pressure driving the shift. Visma's local-first strategy, built on acquisitions of local startups, is being used to expand across Europe and Latin America.