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Basis

by Basis (Essex Labs)

AI agents built for accountants that close books, prep tax, and run audits

Agent PlatformSupervised

Last reviewed 2026-06-19

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Basis is an AI agent platform built for accounting firms. Its agents take on structured, repetitive accounting work end to end (reconciliations, journal entries, closing the books, compiling financial statements, generating workpapers, document review, variance analysis, and tax return prep), then deliver finished output for a human accountant to review. The company frames the shift as "doers become reviewers," describing its agents as long-horizon, running autonomously in the background and collaborating with accountants at key decision points. The product is organized as one platform with modules per practice area: client accounting services, tax, audit, and advisory. It integrates with the ledgers, file systems, accounting applications, and ERP systems firms and clients already use, and is built on a multi-agent architecture where a supervising agent routes steps to specialized sub-agents, combining LLMs with rules-based controls. Its target customers are accounting firms, and it reports use at a meaningful share of the largest US firms. Access for new firms is waitlisted and sales-gated.

What it can do

  • Close books and reconcile accounts

    Supervised

    Runs month-end close, reconciliations, and journal entries in the background and returns deliverables for accountant review.

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  • Prepare tax returns

    Supervised

    Drafts and prepares returns; the company demonstrated an AI agent autonomously completing an end-to-end partnership (1065) return.

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  • Run audit testing and generate workpapers

    Supervised

    Performs audit testing, workpaper generation, document classification, and cross-referencing with audit-trail outputs.

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  • Extract and validate financial data from documents

    Supervised

    Ingests structured and unstructured data from documents, accounting systems, and ERPs, extracting fields and applying validation rules.

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Strengths

  • +Proven enterprise traction, reportedly in use at a meaningful share of the largest US accounting firms, with named customers
  • +Genuinely agentic scope: real end-to-end execution of close, reconciliations, workpapers, and tax returns, not just a chatbot
  • +Strong technical and investor backing, with deep OpenAI collaboration and multi-model routing

Limitations

  • −Not self-serve: waitlist- and sales-gated, with no public pricing, docs, or transparent integration list
  • −Reliance on human review by design, so fully autonomous full-task claims are largely demonstration-stage
  • −Crowded, fast-moving category with platform risk from foundation-model vendors and incumbent accounting software

Overview

Basis is an AI agent platform for accounting firms, founded in 2023 (legal entity Essex Labs). Its agents take on structured accounting work end to end and return finished output for an accountant to review, reframing the role from doer to reviewer.

What it does

Basis runs month-end close, reconciliations, and journal entries; prepares tax returns; performs audit testing and workpaper generation; and extracts and validates financial data from documents and ERPs. It is organized as one platform with modules for client accounting services, tax, audit, and advisory, built on a multi-agent architecture where a supervising agent routes steps to specialized sub-agents.

Integrations & setup

It integrates with existing ledgers, file systems, accounting applications, and ERP systems (specific brands are not publicly named). Per an OpenAI case study it uses parallel tool calling and multiple OpenAI models (o3, GPT-4.1, GPT-5) with a supervising agent, and the company has discussed unified MCP usage.

Pricing

Enterprise, contact-sales. Access is waitlisted; there is no public self-serve pricing.

Best for / not for

Best for mid-market and large accounting firms that want to automate high-volume structured work with human review. Less suited to teams wanting transparent self-serve pricing or public documentation.

Traction

Basis raised a reported $100M Series B in February 2026 at a $1.15B valuation (led by Accel, with GV; Khosla's Keith Rabois led the earlier Series A and is on the board), bringing total funding to roughly $138M. It reports use at a meaningful share of the largest US firms.

Naming note

This is the accounting agent at getbasis.ai, not the unrelated AI research org at basis.ai or other companies named Basis.

Alternatives

Ramp overlaps on AI-driven finance automation for businesses, though Basis is firm-facing accounting rather than corporate spend.

What people are saying

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FAQ

What does Basis do?+

Basis provides AI agents for accounting firms that run structured work end to end: closing the books, reconciliations, workpaper generation, audit testing, and tax return prep, returning finished output for a human accountant to review.

Is Basis fully autonomous?+

Its agents run long-horizon work autonomously in the background, but by design they keep humans in the loop reviewing deliverables. Fully autonomous end-to-end task completion has been shown in demonstrations (such as a 1065 return), while production keeps accountants reviewing.

Sources

Last reviewed 2026-06-19

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Ramp
Spend management and finance automation with AI agents that enforce policy