LazyBooks Launches at $19 as Gilbert + Tobin and Google Expand AI

Small-business accounting software, corporate legal workflows, and digital cultural preservation highlighted three newly unveiled platforms this week as Dallas-based LazyBooks launched a $19-per-month QuickBooks alternative, Australian corporate law firm Gilbert + Tobin detailed 87% active AI adoption, and Google Arts & Culture debuted the first online retrospective of South African artist Dr. Esther Mahlangu.

In small-business software, the Castro Valley Forum published a release announcing that LazyBooks, founded in Dallas by entrepreneur and podcast host Chris Koerner, went live on November 9 at $19 per month covering up to 3 organizations ($5 monthly for each additional organization) after a 60-day free trial, comparing against QuickBooks Online's $38-and-up paid tiers or free tier capped at 1 user and 2 monthly invoices. Before building the platform, Koerner surveyed 589 small business owners, who prioritized financial reports at 62%, bank connections at 46%, and invoicing at 41%. LazyBooks shipped all three features at launch alongside account reconciliation, a chart of accounts, QuickBooks and CSV data imports, Plaid bank connectivity, and Stripe invoice payments with no added markup.

In the legal sector, OpenAI profiled Australian corporate law firm Gilbert + Tobin and Partner and Chief Executive Officer Sam Nickless, who guided the firm from early sandboxes into ChatGPT Enterprise, ChatGPT Work, and Codex with Australian data residency and role-based governance. Enabled users at Gilbert + Tobin have reached 87% active usage—more than double the firm's typical software adoption rate. Nickless also built a custom GPT "digital twin" trained on his writing and working style so direct reports can test ideas before meetings, and used ChatGPT Work to process spreadsheets, generate PDFs, and bundle confidential annual review materials for 120 partners in minutes at a dashboard cost of about $62.

In global arts and heritage, the Google Blog announced the first online retrospective of South African artist Dr. Esther Mahlangu on Google Arts & Culture—titled "'Then I Knew I Was Good at Painting': Esther Mahlangu, a Retrospective"—celebrating her 91st birthday with more than 45 curated stories and exhibitions. Led by Dr. Nontobeko Ntombela, Senior Lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand, in partnership with Google DeepMind, Google Arts & Culture Lab, and Domestic Data Streamers' synthetic memories initiative, the team conducted interviews to bridge an archival gap from when Mahlangu started painting at age 10 using feathers until her first documented works in 1980, turning synthetic still images into video memories with Veo alongside collections from Art of Contemporary Africa, Iziko Museums of South Africa, the British Museum, the Jean Pigozzi Collection, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and Serpentine.