Bengo4.com, Inc. and Fast Accounting Co., Ltd. Enter into a Partnership Agreement

Bengo4.com, Inc. (Minato-ku, Tokyo; Taichiro Motoe, Representative Director, President and CEO, Lawyer; hereinafter the “Company”) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a partnership agreement with Fast Accounting Co., Ltd. (Minato-ku, Tokyo; Keitaro Mori, President and CEO; hereinafter “Fast Accounting”), which is implementing the Accounting Singularity initiative. Through this collaboration, the Company will integrate its CloudSign contract management platform and Fast Accounting’s AI technology to launch a joint solution. The goal of this solution is to assist businesses in complying with the new Accounting Standard for Leases, which will take effect in April 2027. The impact of this development on business results for the current fiscal year is insignificant.

■ Background and Purpose

Starting April 2027, the new Accounting Standard for Leases will be applied in Japan. The new standard requires listed companies, large corporations under the Companies Act, and their subsidiaries and affiliates to record transactions classified as leases as assets. Accounting and finance departments will face two major challenges in complying with the new standard.

1. Thorough contract management and digitization:

The challenging task of comprehensively collecting and identifying a huge number of current paper and digital contracts that may be affected by the new standard and determining if they include lease transactions.

2. Using expert judgment to identify lease transactions and extracting data:

There is a need to use expert judgment to closely examine identified contracts to identify transactions that are considered leases under the new standard, and significant person-hours will be needed to accurately extract the data (including lease payments and duration) needed for accounting.

To address these challenges, Bengo4.com, which offers CloudSign, the electronic contract service with the largest share of the market in Japan,* will collaborate with Fast Accounting, a company specializing in AI technology for accounting. The two companies will combine their strengths to jointly offer a solution that seamlessly and accurately integrates contract management, decision-making, and accounting, significantly reducing the burden of complying with the new standard.

* Market share in “New Markets of Software Business 2024” (2023 result of e-contract tools) by Fuji Chimera Research Institute, Inc.

■ Overview of the Joint Solution

This solution integrates CloudSign, a tool that digitizes all contracts and consolidates their management, and the accounting AI agent, which includes Deep Dean, an Accounting Singularity AI tool of Fast Accounting, to accurately extract key information, such as lease payments and duration, from contracts and automatically determine whether transactions should be classified as lease transactions according to the new standard. The solution will automatically identify lease transactions and convert the information to accounting data, a process that will require specialized knowledge and significant person-hours under the new standard. Using this solution, the person-hours involved in accounting staff making decisions will be significantly reduced, as will the risk of human error.

This partnership will allow legal and accounting departments to comprehensively implement a range of processes, including the identification of all contracts that are affected by the new standard without exception, the use of AI to automatically identify lease transactions, and the generation of the necessary accounting data quickly and accurately.

Both companies will support businesses in seamlessly adapting their practices to comply with the new standard. We will also enhance our collaboration to push forward with the digital transformation of accounting, legal, and finance departments. Through this joint solution, we aim to contribute to the strengthening of corporate governance, the improvement of operational efficiency, and the sustainable enhancement of corporate value.

■ Comment from Keitaro MORI, President and CEO of Fast Accounting

We are honored to announce our partnership with Bengo4.com, a leading company that has made significant contributions to the social implementation of CloudSign, Japan’s most widely used electronic contract service.* I am confident that our advanced contract analysis and decision-making capabilities, powered by Deep Dean, an AI tool we have developed, will assist our customers in addressing the challenges posed by the new Accounting Standard for Leases, which will take effect in April 2027. Fast Accounting aims to transform accounting practices through AI technology, helping customers enhance their corporate value. We are committed to implementing our Accounting Singularity initiative.

■ Comment from Kohei NEGAKI, Executive Officer and CloudSign Division Director of Bengo4.com

We are delighted that we can collaborate with Fast Accounting, the provider of the accounting AI agent. The goal of CloudSign is to help customers optimize their entire transaction process, particularly in contract work. We believe this partnership agreement will enable us to enhance operational efficiency for our customers, ensuring compliance with the new Accounting Standard for Leases and ultimately generating greater value.

■ About CloudSign: https://www.cloudsign.jp/

CloudSign is a contract management platform that enables digitization of everything from contract execution to management and AI review. The electronic signatures and timestamps are compliant with the Act on Electronic Signatures and Certification Business, ensuring smooth and secure contract execution. CloudSign also began offering Japan’s first ever My Number Card (individual number card) signature capability as part of its general-purpose contracting service in 2023. In addition, the platform shortens the time required for the entire contracting process through the active adoption of AI technology including an AI contract management capability and an AI-powered contract review service, CloudSign Review. CloudSign has become the No. 1 service in terms of the percentage of sales in the electronic contract market.*1 It has been widely adopted, and is currently used by over 300 companies and local governments.

■ About Fast Accounting: https://www.fastaccounting.jp/

Liberating accountants to focus on strategic work through the accounting singularity

Fast Accounting aims to achieve the accounting singularity and seeks to automate accounting tasks and improve efficiency. Fast Accounting offers services that leverage generative AI and computer vision, which the company developed to assist the accounting departments of numerous large companies and accounting vendors. The company aims to achieve the “accounting singularity,” to eliminate labor shortages in accounting departments and create an environment where accounting personnel can concentrate on strategic accounting that helps to enhance corporate value.

Head office | 3F Shiba Park Building A, 2-4-1 Shibakoen, Minato-ku, Tokyo

Date of establishment | June 2016

Representative | Keitaro Mori, Director and CEO