- Qonto is accelerating its transformation: after the acquisition of ACASI and the announcement of integrated certified accounting, the fintech will terminate Regate by the end of the summer in order to concentrate all its developments on a single platform.
- Accountants denounce a brutal transition: migration within a tight schedule, manual recovery of part of the data and additional operational burden, while the generalization of electronic invoicing is already heavily mobilizing firms.
- An assumed industrial rationalization: for Qonto, maintaining multiple platforms no longer makes economic sense. The disappearance of Regate is part of a vertical integration strategy bringing together banking, accounting and financial services within a single infrastructure.
- Accounting becomes a battle of platforms: Qonto, Pennylane, Indy and the major ERP publishers are converging towards the same model where banking, payment, invoicing, treasury, financing and artificial intelligence are integrated in a single environment.
- The real strategic asset is no longer the accounting software: the value is shifting towards control of financial data and the daily interface used by managers, which will power artificial intelligence and management services tomorrow.
- The profession of accountant is evolving: production tasks are gradually automated, while advice, financing, complex taxation and strategic support become the main relays for value creation.
- Regate could be the first domino: behind the disappearance of software, there is a lasting recomposition of the market, where integrated financial platforms are redefining the balance of power between banks, software publishers and accounting firms.
In a few days, Qonto occupies the media space with a succession of structuring announcements: the resumption at the helm of the Paris Commercial Court of ACASI first, then the upcoming launch of certified accounting integrated directly within its platform.
At the same time, another project is progressing much more discreetly. By the end of summer, Qonto will terminate Regate, the pre-accounting solution acquired in 2022, intended for SMEs and accounting firms. Designed to automate the collection of supporting documents, bank reconciliations and collaboration between companies and accountants, it has until now constituted one of the main building blocks of the fintech accounting offer.
Its users are gradually discovering that Regate will disappear in favor of a unique environment integrated into Qonto. Several firms denounce a particularly tight schedule, functionalities that are still incomplete in the Qontable Space and a migration that they will have to carry out while the reform of electronic invoicing is already heavily mobilizing their teams. The exchanges published in recent days on social networks demonstrate a marked discontent among part of the profession.
Questioned by FW.MEDIA, Qonto fully embraces this orientation. “ The decision to gradually phase out this solution is independent of the acquisition of ACASI. It is part of our desire to simplify our offer by concentrating our developments on a single platform, integrated into Qonto. »
An anger that goes far beyond Regate
For firms, Regate was not a simple invoice submission software but a link in their production chain. Its disappearance involves reforming teams, supporting customers, recreating processes and absorbing a temporary drop in productivity.
Added to this is an additional difficulty, Qonto specifies that the history of customer invoices, expense reports and purchase requests will not be automatically transferred to its new platform. The data can be downloaded, but their recovery will remain the responsibility of the users. In a context already marked by the generalization of electronic invoicing, many see it as a largely underestimated transition cost.
Yet a coherent strategy
From an industrial point of view, the decision appears coherent, maintaining several platforms simultaneously involves financing several technical architectures, several product roadmaps, several development teams (the two co-founders of Regate actually left the company at the beginning of last year to create Allia) and, tomorrow, several layers of artificial intelligence. By concentrating its developments on a single platform, Qonto follows a classic logic of rationalization.
The acquisition of ACASI, the launch of integrated certified accounting and the disappearance of Regate are chapters of one and the same story, namely that of a company which stops adding software bricks to build a unified financial infrastructure.
Dialogue becomes more difficult
If Qonto assures that it wants to strengthen its collaboration with accountants and recalls that more than 10,000 firms already use the Qontable Space, on the ground, many interpret the disappearance of Regate as a sign that the roadmap is now designed primarily for entrepreneurs. And this is the paradox of this sequence, where Qonto sees a rationalization of its architecture, the firms see above all the disappearance of a production tool and the operational costs that result from it.
Accounting becomes a battle of platforms
Beyond Regate, the entire architecture of the market is being recomposed. For decades, everyone occupied a clearly identified territory: banks managed accounts and payments, publishers developed software, accountants produced accounts and supported their clients.
This organization is now being shattered by electronic invoicing and artificial intelligence. Financial data is born directly in the platforms, circulates in real time and feeds functions which until now were the responsibility of separate actors.
Competition therefore no longer only pits banks, publishers or firms against each other, it now brings together integrated platforms which each seek to become the manager’s unique interface. Qonto is gradually enriching its offering to include certified accounting. Pennylane brings together banking, accounting production and financial management in the same environment. Indy continues the same logic by continually expanding its management capabilities, while large ERPs add financial services and artificial intelligence capabilities.
They all have the same goal of becoming the financial operating system for SMEs. In this race, accounting ceases to be an autonomous product to become a building block of a platform integrating banking, payment, electronic invoicing, treasury, financing, management and artificial intelligence. The real strategic asset is therefore no longer the accounting software itself, but the platform which concentrates uses, data and, tomorrow, artificial intelligence agents.
Accountants remain essential… but no longer in the same place
However, Qonto’s strategy is not to replace accountants. The company assumes a distribution of roles consistent with current technological developments. The most standardized tasks (document collection, accounting posting, bank reconciliations or tax preparation) are gradually being absorbed by automation, electronic invoicing and AI.
Conversely, tax advice, financing operations, restructurings, acquisitions, asset optimization or strategic management remain activities with high added value. The profession is thus gradually evolving from a role of producer of accounts to that of strategic advisor to managers.
Regate is probably only the first domino
In the short term, the disappearance of Regate will above all leave the memory of a costly transition for firms, forced to absorb a complex migration at the very time when electronic invoicing is already mobilizing their teams. An industrial strategy can be coherent, but it remains costly for those who must absorb the operational consequences.
But the main thing is elsewhere, Regate is probably the first symptom of a transformation where financial platforms are gradually absorbing functions hitherto distributed between banks, software publishers and accounting firms. For the latter, the challenge will be to remain the manager’s trusted advisor, even as the platforms seek to become his daily interface.
