Puzzle is a bookkeeping and accounting platform designed for startups and small businesses, combining software with expert bookkeeper support. Founded in 2020, Puzzle serves early-stage companies and growing businesses that need clean books and financial visibility without the complexity or cost of traditional accounting firms or full-service providers.
Puzzle is designed for founders and small business owners who want to stay hands-on with their finances while getting expert help when needed. Their clients are typically pre-seed to Series A startups, bootstrapped businesses, and small companies that value software-first tools with on-demand human expertise.
Puzzle's core services include:
Puzzle operates as a primarily software-driven platform with optional human support. Users manage their own books through the platform and can request expert review or assistance as needed, rather than having a dedicated team handling everything end-to-end.
Puzzle positions itself as a modern, affordable alternative to full-service bookkeeping providers, emphasizing transparency, simplicity, and founder control. Unlike services that manage books behind the scenes, Puzzle gives business owners direct access to their financial data and workflows while providing expert support when complexity arises.
What sets Puzzle apart is their focus on the software experience for founders—clean dashboards, intuitive categorization, and real-time visibility—combined with the safety net of expert bookkeepers available on demand. They target businesses that want to understand and control their finances but don't want to figure everything out alone.
Key strengths include:
Both Omniga and Puzzle sit in the finance stack for growing businesses, but they take fundamentally different approaches to how finance work gets done and who controls the underlying system.
| Axis | Omniga | Puzzle |
|---|---|---|
| Orchestration vs Delivery | Orchestration layer + workflow hub across clients and tools | Self-service bookkeeping software with on-demand expert support for individual business owners |
| Platform-First vs Firm-First | Platform-first: infrastructure for management accounting your team controls | Platform-first for founders: real-time dashboards and tax-ready financials with optional expert help |
| Platform + FDaaS vs Service-Only | SaaS platform + full hands-off bookkeeping and finance services: use it yourself, with fractional partners, or let Omniga's team handle everything | Software-first with optional on-demand expert bookkeeper support; users primarily manage their own books with help when needed |
| Quiet AI vs Automation Visibility | Quiet AI™ in visible review queue: suggests entries, flags anomalies, humans control posting | Software-driven categorization with rule-based automation and optional expert review |
| Who It's Built For | Firms, fractional CFOs, and operators managing multiple clients/entities; complex team setups | Individual early-stage founders and small business owners managing their own bookkeeping |
| Ledger-Agnostic Architecture | Shadow Journal above QBO, designed to support multiple ledgers over time | Integrates with QuickBooks Online; can work as standalone or QBO overlay |
| Collaborative Workspace | Multi-team collaborative workspace: granular access for internal staff, fractionals, providers | Individual business owner as primary user with their own view; collaboration with outside specialists via standard QBO sharing |
In practice, Omniga makes sense when you want management-focused books that support scaling decisions (not just tax prep), delivered hands-off by Omniga's team, by fractional specialists, or managed across multiple entities on a collaborative platform. Puzzle is a strong fit for early-stage founders who want to stay hands-on with affordable DIY bookkeeping software and can call on expert help when they hit complex scenarios.
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