Accounting Platform Functionalities

An apparatus, comprising:

• at least one processor;
• and
• a non-transitory computer readable medium communicatively coupled to the at least one processor, the non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon computer software comprising a set of instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the apparatus to:
• access, from a first accounting software system among a plurality of accounting software systems, at least one data file associated with a first entity among one or more entities, the at least one data file comprising accounting information associated with the first entity, wherein the plurality of accounting software systems each operates based on corresponding one of two or more commercial accounting software that are at least one of different from each other or incompatible with each other and that are published by different accounting software developers;
• autonomously extract the accounting information from the at least one data file, by extracting transaction data corresponding to a transaction entry for each individual transaction among a plurality of transactions from the accounting information contained within the at least one data file, each transaction entry comprising at least one general ledger account that is debited and at least one general ledger account that is credited, wherein a total number of debited accounts among the at least one general ledger account that is debited equals a total number of credited accounts among the at least one general ledger account that is credited;
• autonomously generate a transaction-based trial balance based on the extracted transaction data, the generated transaction-based trial balance serving as a living trial balance that is continually updated based on updated or new transaction data that is accessed from the first accounting software system;
• and
• autonomously generate one of a tax trial balance or an adjusted trial balance, based on the generated transaction-based trial balance, wherein the generated tax trial balance facilitates autonomous generation of tax returns for the first entity by aggregating items to input at proper input fields or lines of a tax return form based on information obtained from the generated transaction-based trial balance, wherein the generated adjusted trial balance facilitates autonomous generation of financial statements by aggregating items to input at proper fields of a financial statement based on information obtained from the generated transaction-based trial balance.

A system, comprising:

• a computing system, comprising:
• at least one first processor;
• and
• a first non-transitory computer readable medium communicatively coupled to the at least one first processor, the first non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon computer software comprising a first set of instructions that, when executed by the at least one first processor, causes the computing system to:
• access, from a first accounting software system among a plurality of accounting software systems, at least one data file associated with a first entity among one or more entities, the at least one data file comprising accounting information associated with the first entity, wherein the plurality of accounting software systems each operates based on corresponding one of two or more commercial accounting software that are at least one of different from each other or incompatible with each other and that are published by different accounting software developers;
• autonomously extract the accounting information from the at least one data file, by extracting transaction data corresponding to a transaction entry for each individual transaction among a plurality of transactions from the accounting information contained within the at least one data file, each transaction entry comprising at least one general ledger account that is debited and at least one general ledger account that is credited, wherein a total number of debited accounts among the at least one general ledger account that is debited equals a total number of credited accounts among the at least one general ledger account that is credited;
• autonomously generate a transaction-based trial balance based on the extracted transaction data, the generated transaction-based trial balance serving as a living trial balance that is continually updated based on updated or new transaction data that is accessed from the first accounting software system;
• and
• autonomously generate one of a tax trial balance or an adjusted trial balance, based on the generated transaction-based trial balance, wherein the generated tax trial balance facilitates autonomous generation of tax returns for the first entity by aggregating items to input at proper input fields or lines of a tax return form based on information obtained from the generated transaction-based trial balance, wherein the generated adjusted trial balance facilitates autonomous generation of financial statements by aggregating items to input at proper fields of a financial statement based on information obtained from the generated transaction-based trial balance.