What does this mean for Accountants?

The Access Evo platform will be added to all products in our Accountants portfolio, starting early 2025. This means that our APS, HandiSoft, Elite and Access Accountants customers will all benefit from new, AI driven capabilities made available by the Evo platform.

Key functionality

• Copilot - an intuitive chat-based interface that is available in-product and on your mobile phone, powered by Microsoft OpenAI and privately hosted by Access to keep your data safe and secure. It’s your digital assistant delivering what you need while you work. Copilot is connected to your underlying practice and tax data enabling you to ask questions of your data. E.g. “Provide a list of clients who have rental properties with deductions over $5,000” or “Provide a list of companies with ultimate holding company located overseas”. In addition, our ATO website vectorisation allows users to ask questions of tax legislation and provides a summary with links back to the specific content on the ATO website saving you and your team time.
• Feed - intelligent alerts and notifications personalised to what is important for you (this is based on the products that have been activated to do this for example Applause, Collaborate, Engage, LMS and Financials Access Accountants will not provide feed data at this time).
• Mobile - the power of Access Evo in your pocket providing freedom to do more, on the move.

Security

Access Evo gives customersthe confidence to use AI software safely and securely. We are doing business AI the right way. That’s why we built Access Evo with our 3-Tier Security Model.

1. Company secure. Access use of AI remains within a secure private environment. This means no customer data leaves this controlled infrastructure. No user prompts or uploaded information will leave this secure environment or be used to train open AI models.
2. User profile permissions. Access use of AI remains within a secure private environment. This means no customer data leaves this controlled infrastructure. No user prompts or uploaded information will leave this secure environment or be used to train open AI models.
3. Individual confidentiality. We want everyone to enjoy the benefits of generative AI with confidence. Users of Access Copilot will use this feature to assist with things of a confidential or sensitive nature. Consequently, it is important that users feel free to use the system with complete confidence. The Access policy keeps an individual’s use of the feature completely confidential. No one else in the organisation can access what you have used the feature to generate, and your own use will be deleted after 30 days.

Access Evo FAQs

What is Access Evo and what are its key benefits?

Access Evo is a technology platform that will become a part of every Access product, producing a unique AI driven software experience for all of our customers.

Initially, Access Evo is focused on bringing next generation AI, data and integration technologies to all Access owned applications, opening up a new world of exciting capabilities regardless of their background. Examples include:

• Integrated suites of software applications enabling business wide, AI driven workflows.
• Generative AI assistant providing actionable insights across unified data sets across from multiple applications
• A single experience for delivering AI functionality for all users of Access products
• Private AI environment for businesses to safely and securely use with their business wide documents and data.
• Ability for all Evo data and functionality to be accessible via a mobile device.

What makes Access Evo different from other software systems?

Access Evo’s main difference is that it gives a common, AI driven user experience across multiple products delivered in a personalised way, allowing them to get the most out of the software to suit them, all done in a secure and confidential way.

Does Access Evo functionality cost more and how can you justify the additional cost?

The cost of this new technology is high, and using AI is expensive. However, we are investing heavily on behalf of our customers to bring these new technologies to our customers through innovative and affordable ways. Whilst we anticipate that some features will incur a modest additional cost, we are confident it will be warranted when considering the additional business value these new capabilities will generate for our customers.

Through the scale of our investment, we’ll keep the cost to our customers to a minimum. The value delivered in terms of the users’ ability to make productivity gains will far outweigh the increase in cost.

How does Access safeguard customer data with Access Evo?

Data security is paramount, regardless of the technology used. All our technology will never compromise data security and we are offering the use of AI at three security levels:

• Our use of AI remains within a private secure environment, no customer data is used in OpenAI systems
• User role-specific AI – the technology can only access data based on existing software permissions and controls
• Each individual’s use of our GenAI capabilities remains personally confidential.

Will Access Evo features keep my information confidential and what happens to the information I upload?

It’s at an entirely individual level, and nobody can see what a user has asked for or what systems they use. However, to allow us to check the security against permissions and controls is in place, we will run random testing, but that will be confidential and unattributed to individuals. In addition we will run queries past an automated checking system to ensure the use of AI is legal and appropriate to prevent misuse by any user.

Information that you might upload stays within the secure environment and won’t leave the Access infrastructure. No one outside of Access or your organisation will see the prompts, queries or information. We keep each customer’s information independently confidential and secure, unlike open ChatGPT, where any information you input or ask it to reformat will be used by open AI services to inform their future models and will therefore be available to others to view. You need to use a secure system like Access Copilot to protect yourself and prevent your information from being available to the wider internet.

Is AI a good thing for businesses to use?

AI brings efficiency and transformative productivity. Acting as an assistant, it can empower and enable employees to do more of what their core job requires. The application of AI to achieve efficiencies to increase revenue, reduce operational costs and enhance overall valuations is obvious. The challenge is in specifying, adopting and aligning AI with your organisation’s core objectives.

What are some examples of how AI is already incorporated into Access products today?

• Dynamically generated analytics dashboards
• Reviewing CVs and writing job specs for the recruitment industry
• Industry best practice advice search, e.g. for HR specialists
• Fast access to company policies
• Generating an email comprising information from internal systems together with external best practice guidance