The Sage Group Signs Deal to Acquire Connected Accounting Leader Lockstep

Accounting fintech Lockstep will be bought by payroll, HR and accounting tech firm The Sage Group, a press release said.

This will allow Sage’s resources to boost Lockstep’s ways of automating accounting workflows between companies, giving Sage access to the tools and skills to try and reach its goal of becoming “the trusted network” for smaller businesses.

Sage will now support Lockstep’s investing, along with supporting it to expand developer APIs and adding accounting integrations to make more apps.

Lockstep’s services help with automating customer and vendor workflows. The Platform API also lets third parties make financial and accounting applications.

“Over the years it has become abundantly clear that Lockstep and Sage have the same vision for the future of the industry,” said Peter Horadan, CEO and co-founder of Lockstep. “Since inception, our mission has been to improve and transform the way companies do business with one another. This acquisition will provide Lockstep with the resources and global reach it needs to accelerate the development of connected accounting which is imperative for accountants, finance teams, and the companies they serve.”

Meanwhile, Sage CTO Aaron Harris said buying Lockstep would be “important” because it has a portfolio full of solutions and resources which can help accelerate Sage’s own work with small businesses.

In January, PYMNTS quoted Lockstep co-founder and chief strategy officer Matthew Shanahan, who said the fact that 62% of finance professionals had delays with invoice processing and other such things was a sign that things could be changing.

Read more: Lockstep on Harnessing the Power of Virtual Cards to Improve AP Efficiency

He said there could be a new trend going on in which virtual cards are used more.

Speaking with PYMNTS, Shanahan said powering automation was a chief function for virtual cards, which is an attraction for those in remote situations.

“Getting rid of paper lets you skip having to go into the office, and using a cloud-based solution lets you get accounting workflow out of personal inboxes and into a shared workspace where virtual cards enable efficient payments,” he said.