The ins and outs of ICAEW Technology Accreditation

Finance professionals: remember the feeling of passing accountancy exams after months of blood, sweat, and tears? It’s kind of how we feel at Payhawk. Following our extensive assessment, we’re delighted to announce that we’ve become ICAEW-accredited.

But what does the ICAEW Technology Accreditation mean for us, and what difference can it make to your business?

Let’s get into it.

What is the ICAEW Technology Accreditation?

The ICAEW has been around since 1880 and upholds excellence in accounting and finance across England and Wales. Over 20 years ago, they launched an accreditation for technology companies to support their mission and help accountants find software providers.

The certification covers various niches across finance, compliance, and business operations, such as:

• Expense Management
• Audit
• Financial Analysis
• Enterprise Tax
• Property and Lettings Management
• Business Management
• Document Creation

As the ICAEW describes on their site:

The scheme's independence is very important as it means software companies cannot simply pay to join the scheme but must meet the required criteria laid out in the questionnaire.

How does Payhawk tie into the ICAEW accreditation equation?

At Payhawk, our solution provides a seamless, headache-free expense management experience. Finance teams get ultimate spend control, improved efficiency, customisable coding to identify cost savings, and more.

How can businesses benefit from ICAEW-accredited software?

For a start, accredited software solutions have been through rigorous assessment so finance teams can feel confident that the software ticks a lot of the boxes they need. Secondly, they can feel reassured that the accredited software has multiple features designed with finance professionals in mind.

Our customers feel the benefits of using Payhawk for tons of different reasons. If you became a customer, you could:

• Take control of company spend - Issue corporate debit or credit cards instantly, set individual or company-wide spend limits and workflows, and create team cards and budgets. You could also enjoy the flexibility of risk-free, zero-balance cards with easy fund requests and respond quickly to misuse or suspicious activity by blocking or freezing cards.
• Close the month fast with real-time reconciliations - Optimise AI-powered receipt and invoice data capture and categorise spend with custom fields. From the first card tap to the month-end close, you get a seamless data flow between our platform and your ERP.
• Automate procure-to-pay processes - Efficiently manage key parts of the procurement process within Accounts Payable and oversee and approve expenses before they happen. We help unify request approvals, purchase order generation, automation (set your own discrepancy limits), and 3-way matching through one easy-to-use integrated platform.
• Simplify business travel expense management - Consolidate tracking for mileage, per diems, and out-of-pocket reimbursements with time-saving automation and auto-approvals. Pack your bags, and leave the receipt chasing to us.
• Support sustainability efforts -Monitor spend-linked carbon emissions and streamline data collection for sustainability and ESG reporting. Get deeper insights into the environmental impact of your operations and supply chain with Payhawk Green.
• Better manage global operations - Simplify your global expense management with a single provider offering corporate cards in over 32 countries and various currencies. Standardise your expense management across entities with a group dashboard offering real-time spend visibility over upcoming expenses and available funds. Plus take care of supplier invoices easily, with automated approval workflows, payments, and OCR data capture in over 60 languages.

Stay safe with our robust security measures

Learn more

Why Payhawk pursued ICAEW Technology Accreditation and the process involved

As Unbiased describes, “A chartered accountant offers specialist accountancy services and business advice in a range of important areas. The difference between an accountant and a chartered accountant is that the latter is typically more highly qualified and will be a member of a professional body. If you’re seeking straightforward accounting services, you may not need to pay the extra cost of hiring a chartered accountant.”

At Payhawk, we build the highest-quality expense management solutions. Why? To help companies simplify finance operations, automate spending processes, and meet compliance standards. So, seeking ICAEW accreditation was a natural step.

Here’s the process we completed to get accredited:

1. We carefully researched ICAEW’s guidelines, standards, and procedures to understand the criteria for accreditation fully
2. We completed an extensive questionnaire about Payhawk, covering details like our solutions, infrastructure, security, data processing, and usability
3. Our team performed a self-assessment of our software. And outlined small areas for improvement to qualify for ICAEW Technology Accreditation
4. Our management met with an ICAEW representative to express interest in accreditation. And we sought advice on the process specific to our circumstances
5. The ICAEW completed an evaluation of our software and made recommendations
6. We addressed the ICAEW’s improvement suggestions
7. We underwent compliance testing
8. And finally, we secured ICAEW accreditation

The best software for accountants and finance professionals

We're thrilled to earn our stripes as a trustworthy finance companion with ICAEW accreditation. From corporate cards and expense management to multi-entity dashboards and procure-to-pay features – we've got you covered.

Our ICAEW recognition underscores our dedication to boosting finance team efficiency so you can focus on the things that matter (like growing your business), offering innovative and effective solutions you can rely on with confidence.

‍