Aline partners with Fieldguide on audit platform rollout

Aline Accounting Partners has partnered with Fieldguide to extend the company's audit and advisory platform across Aline's network of firms.

The rollout covers the financial audit practice of AAPG, Aline's separately licensed CPA firm for attest services. It includes reviews, compilations, single audits and employee benefit plan audits, as well as engagements in construction, healthcare, non-profit and government.

Based in Tampa, Aline was founded in 2024 as a network of independently run accounting and advisory firms. It brings together local firms under a shared operating model while allowing them to continue serving clients through their own practices.

Fieldguide's software is designed to manage audit and advisory work across planning, fieldwork and review. It will become the common system for handling those engagements across Aline's growing network.

The partnership gives Aline a single technology platform for audit and advisory work as it expands. Member firms will retain their local client relationships and service models while using shared infrastructure.

Stephanie Richardson, SQM Partner at AAPG, outlined the immediate focus of the deployment.

"Partnering with Fieldguide will mean major efficiencies both for our clients and us in planning and performing the audits as well as the reporting," said Stephanie Richardson, SQM Partner at AAPG.

Richardson also compared the software with rival products already on the market.

"Compared to the other audit software on the market, Fieldguide is years ahead. The advanced AI techniques and integration in the audit software into each of our network firms' workflows made the decision an easy one," Richardson said.

Network model

Aline's structure differs from a traditional single-firm expansion model. Rather than building one central practice, it groups established firms with local market positions and longstanding client relationships.

The model is designed to let firms keep operational autonomy while gaining shared systems and support. In this case, the shared system will sit within the audit and advisory process, where consistency in documentation, workflow and review is often central to scaling a multi-firm organisation.

For AAPG, which handles attest work within the wider Aline group, the platform is expected to cover a broad range of engagement types. These include regulated and sector-specific assignments such as single audits and employee benefit plan audits, alongside more routine review and compilation work.

Technology role

Fieldguide said its platform uses AI agents within audit and advisory workflows while leaving professional judgment and human oversight to practitioners. The company has been targeting accounting firms that want to standardise work processes without fully centralising client service.

That positioning appears to align with Aline's model as a network rather than a single merged practice. Jin Chang, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Fieldguide, said the partnership reflected that balance between scale and local independence.

"Aline is building bigger, while still protecting the autonomy of each firm in its network to do what made it great in the first place, instead of centralizing everything into one operating model," said Jin Chang, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Fieldguide.

"Our job is making sure the technology keeps pace with this aim at the center of their network," Chang said.

Fieldguide said the agreement adds to a period of growth that has also included a recent rebrand and product launches. Its client base includes several large accounting firms, though the Aline partnership centres on a newer network trying to combine local ownership with group-wide systems.

Aline said the shared platform would free up time for professionals to redirect into client relationships. The implementation is now focused on the audit side of the business through AAPG, where the network is seeking a common process across firms and sectors.