The Sage Group, which specializes in financial business software, has announced its plans to acquire Lockstep. That is a provider of cloud-native technology to automate accounting workflows between companies.

The British Sage is after Oracle and SAP, the most important supplier of enterprise resource planning software (ERP) for small and medium-sized companies. According to the company, the acquisition of Lockstep fits ‘in its ambition to be the trusted network for SMEs.’ As part of the transaction, Lockstep’s management team will join Sage to help drive the development of that digital network.

Headquartered in the US city of Seattle, Washington, and with more than 130 employees, Lockstep develops products and services that streamline corporate accounting processes. The software aims to save time, eliminate human errors and improve cash flow. The Lockstep platform today enables network connections to more than 40 different accounting solutions, and more than 26,000 companies are already part of the ecosystem.

The acquisition has no impact on Sage’s previously communicated financial outlook and is expected to close at the end of September.