An accounting software firm that officially launched a new Westbourne office in September is planning to double its existing workforce in the coming months.

iplicit is headed by CEO Rob Steele who co-founded the multi-million-pound tech solution Exchequer Software Ltd in 1986.

The 53-year-old, who lives in Poole, left Exchequer in 2007, two years after it was sold to Iris Software for an undisclosed sum.

iplicit launched in its present guise with Concept Software as its parent company in 2019.

It now has offices in London, Dublin and Westbourne.

More than 350 organisations and 5,000 active users currently access iplicit’s software daily.

The cloud software firm has international customers in 52 countries and is on track to deliver the service to over 2,000 organisations and more than 30,000 active users by 2025.

iplicit has 30 staff across its three offices including 12 at the newly launched Customer Services Centre in Westbourne .

It is aiming to take on a further 40 to 50 staff, 20 of which are expected to arrive within the next 18 months.

Between ten and 15 individuals are to be recruited for the Dorset operation.

The Westbourne office marks a welcome return for many iplicit employees, including Rob.

It aims to provide further flexibility for hybrid working staff as well as bolster the company’s growth plans.

Rob said: “We’re continuing to respond to the challenges of Covid-19 with agility.

“That’s why we’ve not only invested heavily in customers – in terms of platform choice – but also our employees so they can have more of a work-life balance throughout a challenging economic climate.

“Our Bournemouth-based Customer Services Centre will be a critical hub of activity where we can strengthen our relationships and prioritise the user experience, as well as develop our talented team’s skillsets even further.”

Throughout 2021, iplicit has rolled out several key software features.

They include authorisation workflows to provide organisations with transactions and approvals control, automated currency rates with live updates of exchange rates, dashboards – via iplicit’s mobile app – to better understand KPIs, and purchase-to-pay solutions so businesses have visibility of requisitions, orders, goods received, and invoices.

A stock control function is set to be launched before the end of the year.

In 2020, iplicit received the Accounting Excellence ‘Mid-market and Enterprise Accounting Software of the Year’ award.

Rob and co-founder Eduardo Loigorri started Exchequer Software Ltd in a garage after leaving college in the late 1980s.

They built up the accounts software business from just the two of them to a payroll of 70 employees.

It exported across the globe and had distributors in Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore and Australia.

In 2013, Advanced Computer Software Group plc acquired Computer Software Holdings, then owners of Iris Exchequer, for £110m in cash from private equity house HgCapital.