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Here is how easy and fast it takes for you to set up for Puzzle once you have a Mercury account:
Puzzle worked with Mercury to create a custom onboarding flow that literally takes one click to set up your accounting for scale. Why didn’t this exist before? We don’t know either, but now it does.
Why is setting up my Puzzle accounting so fast with Mercury?
The Puzzle and Mercury team worked together to create a custom API for accounting automation, allowing capabilities not possible in QuickBooks or Xero. It allows for secure, read-only access to all your Mercury accounts across cash, card, and spend. All you have to do is authenticate via OAuth.
And then I get financial statements, startup metrics and financial insights?
Yup. Our system typically takes ~3 minutes for most startups, and you will see your reconciled financial statements, startup metrics, spending trends, financial health insights… all generated by our software. We then have a network of on-demand bookkeepers and tax experts for any final polishing before taxes or fundraising, usually at a lower cost (because of our automation).
How is this possible?
Puzzle is the first generative accounting solution, meaning our software and AI organize your accounting according to GAAP standards. With Mercury, we see an average of 98% of categorization and reconciliations automated due to their product and APIs. Compare this to other banks and spend solutions, where we can still automate between 50-80% of your future monthly financials, but we don't get all historical data. In QuickBooks, for example, bookkeepers manually categorize and reconcile your accounts, which is slow, expensive, and error-prone.
Why is Puzzle better accounting software versus QuickBooks for founders?
Verifiably accurate accounting
QuickBooks is similar to Excel; you have no idea who did what, when, or why. Puzzle is an immutable, append-only system where you can trace your financial statements to the transaction, allowing anyone to verify anything, anytime.
Compliance through scale
QuickBooks is designed for cash accounting, which has an exemption from the IRS. Venture-backed startups and revenue-generating companies should do accrual accounting, but it is more expensive and time-consuming as you need to do accrual schedules in spreadsheets and then manually enter them into QuickBooks. Puzzle is the first solution where you get both cash and accrual accounting in a single solution.
Designed for founders who want visibility and control
QuickBooks is designed to generate your financial statements, ignoring how valuable all the data underneath accounting is. Puzzle also monitors and alerts you to significant changes in cash, spend or burn, all in real-time, all included. The way accounting should be.
Fundraising confidence
Puzzle gives you what you need (burn, runway, ARR—all non-accounting metrics) plus the financial statements you need to close that next round of funding with confidence and accuracy. We also offer free templates for financial planning and budgeting and connect with popular tools like Causal, Runway, Meow, and Sturppy.
Lower total cost of accounting
QuickBooks is very manual, which is why it takes so long for bookkeepers to close your books. With Puzzle’s automation, built-in collaboration, and AI categorizer, our goal is that no early-stage company should require more than 90 minutes per month, or 15-20 minutes per week, to complete accounting. Compare this to 5-7 hours on QuickBooks.
See for yourself at puzzle.io.
