Finnish accounting firm Talenom aims to make the everyday life of entrepreneurs easier thanks to its handy e-tools and highly automated services. While Talenom has previously focused on serving medium-sized SMEs, it is now expanding to meet the needs of smaller businesses through its scalable Accounting Alex product family. In addition to Talenom’s accounting system, Accounting Alex and Talenom Online customers also benefit from comprehensive banking services such as payment cards and IBAN accounts.
The advent of the PSD2 EU Payment Services Directive has enabled the creation of new services on top of existing banking interfaces. And with simultaneous market development and internationalisation, it has become more common for a range of service concepts to be implemented in cooperation between two or more service providers. Accounting Alex is an excellent example of an innovative service that capitalises on this trend to provide businesses with new and easy-to-use services.
“As a new challenger to the banking sector, we believe we can leverage our extensive experience with small businesses in a unique way. The do-it-yourself accounting system, bank account and, on-demand paid services that support you right up to the end of year financial statement can now, for the first time, be provided through a single platform that, above all else, operates under the so-called Freemium principle. Although the basic version of Accounting Alex is free, paid accounting services are close at hand when needed. I encourage every entrepreneur to try Accounting Alex because it costs nothing,” says Talenom’s Miikka Hätälä, Business Director responsible for the product concept.
The first version of Accounting Alex was launched in October 2020 and an updated version with added banking services has now been released.
Lexia is on board to support the Accounting Alex product family not only with legal requirements specific to payment services, but also with contract law, the implementation of anti-money laundering processes, and insurance matters.
Client Manager at Lexia, Senior Associate Anna Huuskonen’s core expertise is closely connected to the payment ecosystem and new payment services, which makes the Accounting Alex client relationship a perfect match for her.
“With Accounting Alex, I get to expand my special expertise in payment services”, says Anna. “We’re actively discussing the use of interfaces with banks and the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority, among other things. Everyone involved is operating at the cutting edge of developments in this area and in interpreting PSD2 and its implications – this is also very interesting from the perspective of my own expertise,” she goes on to explain.
There are ambitious plans for Accounting Alex in terms of the future of banking services and the expansion and internationalisation of the product family. Lexia’s role in the Accounting Alex growth story involves providing support in mandatory regulatory processes and in creating a network of partners in Sweden, where Accounting Alex plans to expand next over the course of 2021.
“The project’s need for legal input has been exceptional and Lexia’s expert legal advice has been invaluable in developing the right formula for work firmly embedded in the world of fintech. As we’re coming from the world of accounting, we’ve faced quite the uphill struggle to gain traction in this area. Our long-standing partnership with Lexia has provided us all the assistance we need. The collaboration has been incredibly smooth and the expertise hits all the right notes with respect to the high requirements of the project”, Talenom’s Miikka Hätälä enthuses.
