By Business & Finance 
Cran joined AccountsIQ in 2012 when the company had just 14 employees. He helped to scale the business to more than 175 employees and 35,000 users worldwide. As COO, he established AccountsIQ’s UK office and led key investment rounds. Now CEO, Cran is driving the company’s AI strategy and oversaw the acquisition of ExpenseIn in 2024.
By Emma Montalbani
What are your main priorities and goals in your role?
Scaling sustainably while evolving from a single-product accounting system into a category-winning Office of the CFO tech stack. As of January 2025, the ExpenseIn acquisition brings accounting, expense and spend management into one connected workflow, and we’re embedding AI directly into everyday finance processes.
What are your biggest challenges as CEO?
Communication & Prioritisation. We all see the world through a different lens, shaped by different roles and needs. Aligning stakeholders accelerates decision-making. Growth creates more opportunities than you can pursue, so prioritisation is key.
How do you keep your team motivated?
People engage when they understand our purpose and how their role contributes. We regularly bring teams together across our Dublin and London offices. We’ve also invested heavily in AI training across the business, and the people are enjoying the new approach, and productivity has materially increased.
What are the challenges facing the industry going forward?
Finance teams are being asked to do more with less while delivering deeper insight. We are in an unprecedented and seismic technology shift: cloud-made data is accessible, and now compute and advanced algorithms are bringing AI into reality. AI is ideally suited to automating the transactional layer, freeing people for judgment and decision-making.
What new trends are emerging in your industry?
AI embedded directly into finance workflows, supporting reconciliations, coding and exception handling. Trust, transparency and audibility will determine adoption in finance. Finance teams deal with transactions, workflows, payments, reporting and forecasting financial data, so the AI used to manage and automate varies. Our job is creating AI capabilities through an orchestration layer linked to specific roles within finance that increases team productivity and provides real-time insights that are safe, reliable and explainable.
Are there any major changes you’d like to see in your sector?
I’d like to see stronger legislation and greater support for business modernisation. We also need a more practical approach to transformation. Too often, projects become overly complex and disconnected from how finance teams actually operate. The capability now is genuinely revolutionary, but the focus has to stay on solving real problems quickly.
As an employer, are you finding any skill gaps in the market?
We have an exciting journey ahead. Our culture, training and career opportunities help us attract strong talent. We’re seeing more individual ownership and accountability within roles, and more innovation through technology and lateral thinking. That happens when teams understand their purpose and objectives.
How did your strategy develop in the context of the banking and economic crises?
We were fortunate to have a strong foundational team led by our founders, Tony Connolly and Gavin McGahey. To this day, we continue to use a strategy formed from constraint and stay very close to the needs of our customers – that’s our north star. You might say we’re a little customer-obsessed.
How do you define success, and what drives you to succeed?
What drives us to succeed is a real ambition to stand out – we’re well on that journey to being category winners through a continuous compounding of knowledge. At the heart of it is building something that delivers early, lasting value for customers, employees and stakeholders. If we can give finance teams valuable time back, that to us is a strong measure of success.
What’s the best advice you’ve been given in business?
I’ve been lucky to have had many mentors in business, but the advice that’s stayed with me most came from my dad: “always do what you say you will do.” Another principle I’ve carried with me is to focus on a small number of priorities; try to do too much, and you dilute your impact. Strong teams can work through almost anything when people are aligned on what matters most.
What advice would you give to others starting in business?
This wave of technology will likely create more opportunities than any previous wave. It takes far less time and investment to build a new product, so the cost of validating product-market fit has probably fallen by 80%. Be clear on the problem you’re solving, stay close to your customers, and remain mindful of your competitors.
What have been your highlights in business over the past year?
Building a very capable team through in-depth training and the successful integration of ExpenseIn. We’ve made real progress with AI across the Group, and internally too, with over two years of company-wide AI usage. Being listed on the Financial Times FT1000 list of Europe’s fastest-growing companies for 2026 has been a highlight. We’ve also invested in sport, becoming the Official Data and Insights Partner for Harlequins Rugby Club and Finance and Insights Partner for Triathlon Ireland.
What’s next for your company?
Scaling our momentum the right way and bringing accounting, expense management and AI into one connected experience, expanding into new markets and growing our customer base. Our AI strategy has been underway for over two years. The first release lands this quarter, followed by an always-on release cadence so customers feel continuous value rather than waiting for big-bang updates.
Where do you want your business to be this time next year?
Most customers are using our AI tooling across at least two of our products, giving them significantly more time back and a faster month-end close. We’re launching two new products within the next year. Watch this space. We might be in a new market, too, within the Anglosphere.
What is the best book you’ve ever read (non-business) and why?
East of Eden by John Steinbeck. It’s an amazing family story, the characters we meet in life, struggle and serendipity. I spend just as much time on YouTube going down rabbit holes on tech and innovation. My favourite podcast right now is Moonshots.
What is your favourite hobby and why?
Hard to beat a Sunday dinner with family and friends, good food, good conversation, time together. A close second is a pint of Guinness with a pal.
What is your mantra for life?
Life isn’t a dress rehearsal; you get one shot. Go all in on the things you care about, but balance it with time for family, friends and switching off. I’ve also learned that chasing perfection can hold you back. What matters is being in it, solving problems together and surfing the wave.
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