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Puzzle

Puzzle is AI-native accounting software for startups and SMBs that automates bookkeeping and delivers real-time financial insights.

What is Puzzle?

Puzzle is an AI-native accounting platform built for startups, small businesses, and the accounting firms that serve them. It replaces traditional bookkeeping software with a general ledger (the central record of all financial transactions in a business) that updates continuously in real time, driven by AI agents that categorize transactions, reconcile accounts, and prepare month-end close for human review. For any founder or finance team tired of waiting weeks for accurate numbers, Puzzle delivers them daily.

How Puzzle works

Puzzle connects directly to the financial tools a modern business already uses, pulling in live transaction data without manual imports. Here is how the core system works:

  • Live integrations: Puzzle syncs with Mercury, Stripe, Ramp, Brex, Gusto, Rippling, and thousands more via native APIs. Transactions arrive in the general ledger as they happen, not at month-end.
  • AI categorization: Puzzle’s AI reads transaction descriptions, vendor names, and memo fields to classify each entry against your chart of accounts (the master list of spending and revenue categories your business tracks). It achieves up to 98% accuracy with no manual rules to configure.
  • Dual-view accounting: From the same underlying data, Puzzle produces both cash-basis and accrual-basis financial statements. Cash-basis shows money in and out as it moves; accrual-basis records revenue when earned and expenses when incurred, which is what investors and auditors expect.
  • AI Close agents: At month-end, AI agents draft reconciliations and flag exceptions for an accountant to review. Nothing posts to the ledger without approval. The Complete plan guarantees a 50% faster close or a full refund.
  • Real-time dashboards: Cash, burn rate, and runway update automatically as new transactions arrive. You always know your current financial position without waiting for a manual close cycle.

What you can build with Puzzle

  • Investor-ready financials on demand: A startup using Puzzle can pull an accurate profit and loss statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement any day of the month. When investor due diligence hits, the numbers are already clean and current.
  • Real-time burn rate tracker: A founder can connect Mercury and Ramp to Puzzle and watch burn rate and runway update automatically as spend happens. No spreadsheet, no waiting for the accountant, no surprises at month-end.
  • Scaled accounting firm workflows: A bookkeeping firm serving 30+ clients can use Puzzle’s AI Close agents to automate categorization and reconciliation drafts across every client, then review exceptions in a fraction of the time previously spent on manual data entry.
  • Automated revenue recognition for SaaS: A subscription business can use Puzzle’s revenue recognition feature to automatically spread deferred revenue (money received before service is delivered) across the correct accounting periods, keeping books accurate without a manual spreadsheet.
  • Conversational financial assistant via API: Using Puzzle’s API and MCP (Model Context Protocol, an open standard for connecting AI models to external tools and data), teams can build a Slackbot or internal agent that answers financial questions, categorizes transactions by chat, and surfaces anomalies without anyone logging into the platform.
  • Fundraising data room preparation: A startup approaching a Series A can use Puzzle’s always-current books to assemble a financial data room quickly, giving investors clean and auditable records from day one rather than scrambling to reconstruct months of transactions.

Key Features

  • Up to 98% automated transaction categorization using AI, no rules to write
  • Real-time cash flow, burn rate, and runway dashboards updated continuously
  • Cash and accrual accounting from the same underlying general ledger
  • AI Close agents that draft reconciliations and flag exceptions for human review
  • Native integrations with Stripe, Mercury, Ramp, Brex, Gusto, and Rippling
  • Automated revenue recognition for subscription and service businesses

FAQ

Does Puzzle replace my accountant? +

No. Puzzle automates 85-95% of repetitive bookkeeping work, keeping your financials current without manual effort. Early-stage founders can often run their books with Puzzle alone. As a company grows, most still work with an accountant to review numbers before sharing them with investors or filing taxes. Puzzle handles the data processing; the accountant handles judgment and advice.

How does Puzzle calculate burn rate and runway? +

Puzzle calculates burn rate using net cash outflow per month, and runway by dividing current cash by that burn figure. Because transactions sync continuously via live integrations with tools like Mercury, Stripe, and Ramp, both numbers update in real time. You see your current position today, not three weeks from now after a manual month-end close process.

Is Puzzle a better alternative to QuickBooks? +

For startups and SMBs using modern finance tools, yes. QuickBooks uses rules-based categorization and updates monthly; Puzzle uses AI with up to 98% accuracy and updates continuously. Puzzle also connects natively to Stripe, Mercury, Ramp, Brex, and Gusto, and its Complete plan guarantees a 50% faster month-end close or a full subscription refund.

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