Inkle closes its customers’ books 1 week faster with Brex
Company: Inkle streamlines accounting and tax compliance for hundreds of customers.
Founded by Anand Krishna and Ranvir Singh in 2022, Inkle is a US tax and bookkeeping platform serving hundreds of companies with software to automate accounting, income tax, deadline alerts, state and federal compliance filings, sales tax, and more.
Challenge: How can Inkle improve bookkeeping accuracy and efficiency for customers?
To help their customers stay compliant, Inkle needs to be able to easily and securely access its customers’ accounts in order to close their books on their behalf — but its process for doing so used to be cumbersome and time-consuming. Since more than half of Inkle’s customers use Brex, Inkle was gathering customers’ Brex account data through the Brex bookkeeper role; however, toggling back and forth between so many accounts required a lot of manual work.
Inkle tried to make this process smoother by setting up an integration through a third party to pull in customers’ Brex data, but found that occasional disconnections led to inaccuracies, yielding even more manual work. This hindered Inkle’s ability to provide precise and timely services to help its customers close their books.
"We faced significant challenges with managing multiple customer accounts and unreliable data,” said Anand Krishna, Co-founder and CEO of Inkle. “It was a time-consuming process that affected our efficiency and accuracy."
As they acquired more customers, Inkle knew they needed a faster way to access customers’ Brex accounts at scale — and a more reliable way to pull customer data into Inkle Books, their accounting software.
“We started talking more and the partnership really took off. Using Brex pro access has saved us 10-12 hours a week.”
— Ranvir Singh, Co-founder at Inkle
Solution: Partnering with Brex and leveraging pro access allows faster, more reliable data access — speeding up month-end close.
As a Brex customer, Inkle was already using Brex corporate credit cards and expense management for its own business, and recognized the time-saving power of having a fully automated close. “I knew about Brex already and used the platform at my previous startups,” said Anand. “When we started Inkle, it was no brainer for us to tap Brex — it’s an incredibly useful product.”
So when Brex approached Inkle about becoming an accounting partner to help remedy their challenges, the team was all ears. This included exploring Brex’s pro access solution, which allowed Inkle to manage all of their customers’ Brex accounts using a single login. “Seeing many of our customers use Brex, it felt like a natural fit for collaboration,” said Ranvir Singh, Co-founder at Inkle. “We started talking more and developed a great connection with one of the Brex Startup Ambassadors, and the partnership really took off. Using pro access has saved us 10-12 hours a week.”
As the partnership grew, Inkle met with the Brex engineering team to share the challenges they were experiencing when pulling in customers’ Brex data using a third-party connection — needing a faster and more reliable method.
“We launched Inkle Books about a year ago, and at that time we were using another company to pull data from Brex for our customers, but we noticed that the pipeline was faulty,” said Ranvir. “So we worked with Brex to launch the API integration about six months ago, and it’s been a game-changer — the integration is slick and easy to implement, and we’re now able to access real-time data."
By becoming an accounting partner and leveraging Brex’s pro access program, the Inkle team can now easily toggle between managing multiple customer accounts in Brex. And by setting up the Brex API, they’re increasing data accuracy by 22% and enabling access to real-time data in their own products. Inkle is also continually sharing feedback with the Brex product team that’s used to build new time-saving accounting features and offerings.
“The Brex team was extremely open and came back to us saying they’re building out these features, which is incredible,” said Anand.
The partnership also extends beyond technology integration: Inkle and Brex have collaborated on co-marketing events, such as webinars and panel discussions, which has helped Inkle increase their visibility and engage with a broader audience.
Impact: Inkle is achieving 25% faster bookkeeping to ensure on-time book closure for hundreds of customers.
By becoming a Brex accounting partner, using pro access, setting up the direct API integration, and collaborating with Brex for industry events and promotional offerings, Inkle has significantly enhanced their business operations and brand exposure. Because they can easily manage 50% of their customers’ accounts with pro access, Inkle is accelerating their bookkeeping process by 25% for hundreds of customers. And by having a direct API connection, they’ve increased their ability to support customers’ month-end close on time.
"Before partnering with Brex, we had to constantly reach out to customers for statements, which often delayed our bookkeeping processes," explained Ranvir. "Now, we use pro access for efficient account management and use the API to download statements directly and complete reconciliations 3x faster — making a significant difference in how we serve our customers."
“The experience with pro access and being a Brex accounting partner was great, and was the reason why we decided to collaborate further with Brex through events and panels. We love being a partner,” said Anand. “I’ve been a fan of Brex since day zero, and even more since the integration and partnership.”
Inkle is also featured in Brex’s accountant directory, further strengthening its market presence.
“With Brex pro access, we have the correct balance and transactions available on day 1 — it’s so much better.”
— Ranvir Singh, Co-founder at Inkle
As Inkle continues to grow, the company plans to continue leveraging its Brex partnership to enhance its accounting platform and software services and explore new opportunities, such as additional integrations.
"The responsiveness of Brex’s engineering and product teams has been exceptional,” added Anand. “We’ve been able to provide feedback and work closely on enhancements that benefit both our teams.”
Becoming a Brex accounting partner can help other accounting firms and companies like Inkle simplify accounting processes, enhance data accuracy, and deepen customer relationships — all while saving valuable time. Curious to learn more? Get details about our accounting partnership offering below.