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CliftonLarsonAllen Partners with Digits to Build Proprietary AI-Native Accounting Model
On July 20 2026, CliftonLarsonAllen LLP (CLA), one of the United States’ largest accounting firms, announced a strategic partnership with Digits, an AI‑native accounting platform, to develop and train a proprietary, firm‑specific AI model. The collaboration will allow CLA to deploy the model to thousands of current and future clients over the next three years.
Under the agreement, CLA will use Digits’ platform and model‑training technology while supplying the technical expertise needed to train the model on its own client data and workflows. The proprietary AI will be trained exclusively on CLA’s client transactions, with every review, categorisation or correction performed by CLA professionals refining the model’s intelligence. The aim is to combine decades of CLA institutional judgment with AI speed, delivering real‑time financial insights to businesses.
Digits, founded by Jeff Seibert, is billed as the world’s first Autonomous General Ledger (AGL®). The platform has been trained on more than 170 million transactions totaling $875 billion and claims to auto‑book 93 % of transactions in real time. Its AI‑native ledger offers automated bookkeeping, month‑end close, AI bill pay and invoicing, and is backed by investors Benchmark, GV and SoftBank.
CLA’s CEO, Jen Leary, said the partnership reflects a belief that AI should be accessible to the “heartbeat of the country” rather than only to large corporations. She added that Digits’ technology was built from the ground up for the AI era, contrasting it with other solutions that add AI to legacy software.
Digits’ CEO Jeff Seibert highlighted the value of encoding CLA’s long‑standing judgment into a firm model that benefits clients. He noted that the partnership would allow CLA professionals to focus on higher‑value advisory work.
The first rollout will target clients within CLA’s Client Accounting and Advisory Services (CAAS) practice. CAAS represents roughly 15 % of CLA’s $2 billion‑plus annual revenue and is the largest such practice in the industry. According to the announcement, CAAS clients are the closest to daily financial operations of tens of thousands of privately held businesses.
Josh Enger, CLA’s chief outsourcing officer, said the collaboration offers a “fundamentally unique experience” for clients, enabling professionals to spend more time helping businesses derive value from financial data and make informed decisions.
CLA employs nearly 9 000 people across more than 120 U.S. locations and is an independent member of the CLA Global network. Digits reports that over 7 000 accountants and business owners trust its platform.
The partnership is positioned as a step toward AI‑native accounting, a model that integrates AI at the core of the ledger rather than as an add‑on. By training the model on CLA’s own client base, the firm aims to deliver insights that only its institutional knowledge can provide while maintaining accuracy through Digits’ outcome‑pricing and firm‑specific AI safeguards.
The collaboration will unfold over three years, with CLA planning to deploy the model to thousands of clients. The announcement did not detail specific timelines for broader rollout beyond the CAAS practice.
As the accounting industry continues to adopt AI for real‑time financial reporting, the CLA‑Digits partnership represents one of the first instances of a top‑15 U.S. firm building a proprietary AI model on an AI‑native platform from the ledger up. The move underscores a growing trend toward integrating AI deeply into accounting workflows, while maintaining the professional judgment that firms like CLA have cultivated over decades.
Under the agreement, CLA will use Digits’ platform and model‑training technology while supplying the technical expertise needed to train the model on its own client data and workflows. The proprietary AI will be trained exclusively on CLA’s client transactions, with every review, categorisation or correction performed by CLA professionals refining the model’s intelligence. The aim is to combine decades of CLA institutional judgment with AI speed, delivering real‑time financial insights to businesses.
Digits, founded by Jeff Seibert, is billed as the world’s first Autonomous General Ledger (AGL®). The platform has been trained on more than 170 million transactions totaling $875 billion and claims to auto‑book 93 % of transactions in real time. Its AI‑native ledger offers automated bookkeeping, month‑end close, AI bill pay and invoicing, and is backed by investors Benchmark, GV and SoftBank.
CLA’s CEO, Jen Leary, said the partnership reflects a belief that AI should be accessible to the “heartbeat of the country” rather than only to large corporations. She added that Digits’ technology was built from the ground up for the AI era, contrasting it with other solutions that add AI to legacy software.
Digits’ CEO Jeff Seibert highlighted the value of encoding CLA’s long‑standing judgment into a firm model that benefits clients. He noted that the partnership would allow CLA professionals to focus on higher‑value advisory work.
The first rollout will target clients within CLA’s Client Accounting and Advisory Services (CAAS) practice. CAAS represents roughly 15 % of CLA’s $2 billion‑plus annual revenue and is the largest such practice in the industry. According to the announcement, CAAS clients are the closest to daily financial operations of tens of thousands of privately held businesses.
Josh Enger, CLA’s chief outsourcing officer, said the collaboration offers a “fundamentally unique experience” for clients, enabling professionals to spend more time helping businesses derive value from financial data and make informed decisions.
CLA employs nearly 9 000 people across more than 120 U.S. locations and is an independent member of the CLA Global network. Digits reports that over 7 000 accountants and business owners trust its platform.
The partnership is positioned as a step toward AI‑native accounting, a model that integrates AI at the core of the ledger rather than as an add‑on. By training the model on CLA’s own client base, the firm aims to deliver insights that only its institutional knowledge can provide while maintaining accuracy through Digits’ outcome‑pricing and firm‑specific AI safeguards.
The collaboration will unfold over three years, with CLA planning to deploy the model to thousands of clients. The announcement did not detail specific timelines for broader rollout beyond the CAAS practice.
As the accounting industry continues to adopt AI for real‑time financial reporting, the CLA‑Digits partnership represents one of the first instances of a top‑15 U.S. firm building a proprietary AI model on an AI‑native platform from the ledger up. The move underscores a growing trend toward integrating AI deeply into accounting workflows, while maintaining the professional judgment that firms like CLA have cultivated over decades.
