Accounting, fondly known as the ‘language of business,’ tells the story of how a business is performing. It is one of the oldest-known professions dating as far back as 3500 BC, when the ancient Sumerians charged royal scribes with performing record-keeping duties. (1) Fast-forward to present day and the fundamental concepts performed by modern bookkeepers and accountants remain, but functionality and performance look vastly different in the age of all things digital.
Enter the importance of a cloud-based digital financial management solution.
The current economic fluctuations, coupled with compliance and cybersecurity risks, are challenging middle-market businesses and financial teams to streamline accounting processes and leverage digital technologies and data to automate and drive growth. To truly compete, organizations need their financial teams focused on higher value, high-impact strategic activities such as financial analysis, forecasting and proactive decision-making. No longer can financial teams risk operating with manual preparation, repetitive tasks, siloed workflows and countless spreadsheets.
Accelerating Organizational Performance
A cloud-based financial management solution is a fundamental accelerator for enhancing organizational performance and igniting business growth. In fact, over 90 percent of businesses report using cloud solutions today. (2)
While many accounting solutions offer basic features for managing finances such as reports, accounts receivable, accounts payable, general ledger and billing etc., there are a few stand out performers offering custom capabilities and features that are a must-consideration for those organizations wanting to outperform their competitors. Of the top software market contenders, Sage Intacct is the platform endorsed and trusted by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).
Exploring Sage Intacct
Sage Intacct delivers comprehensive accounting capabilities including payroll, tax filing and inventory tracking tools across multiple industries, and it is built to scale, providing multi-dimensional analysis to automate tasks and improve performance. For over 40 years and with two million plus customers in 26 countries, Sage Intacct offers significant benefits and boasts over 60 industry awards. As a leader in cloud financial management software, Sage Intacct holds a customer satisfaction score of 93 out of 100. (3)
The software delivers on three non-negotiable modern era business objectives: better integration, better automation and better visibility.
Better Integration
With each industry presenting its unique business challenges, organizations need an agile software solution that is built to adapt to exclusive workflows and reporting requirements. Sage Intacct offers extensive customization options including custom fields, calculations and workflows to cater to specific industry needs. With an open API, Sage Intacct integrates with an impressive array of industry-specific cloud apps including Salesforce, ADP and Avalara to name a few. With key systems integrated, data exchange is streamlined, data silos are eliminated, manual and duplicated tasks removed, and business users alike have a holistic view of financials in real time.
With security paramount, Sage Intacct offers high security standards, data protection and built-in compliance levels. With two levels of security, permissions are customized based on user ID.
Better Automation
The more automation, the bigger impact an organization can make. It is suggested that the most time-consuming tasks for financial professionals include journal entries, bank reconciliations and transaction reviews for deviations – all manual intensive processes. Sage Intacct integrates with an organization’s system to automate repeatable and time-consuming tasks, driving costs down and saving on manual labor and resources. Automation of these tasks promotes an accurate ledger, streamlining order to cash, automating procurement, and obtaining real time insights and updates.
Better Visibility
Financial visibility in real time is fundamental for businesses competing in the modern era. The ability to consolidate financial and operational data into visual dashboards, where users can explore and drill down on finite details, offers business users a holistic view and fuels collaboration. With Sage Intacct’s front-to-back-office compliance tools, business users can collaborate and document decisions in the context of financial records, ensuring Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) compliance and future audit readiness.
Highlighting Sage Intacct Feature – Use Case
Visix, Inc., a technology company offering a robust suite of digital signage software, content designs and meeting room signs, has served clients for over 20 years, successfully delivering over 4,000 digital systems. With Sage Intacct as their accounting platform and a growth mindset, Visix, Inc. enlisted the help of Cherry Bekaert Digital Advisory to assist them with integration and implementation.
A highlight of the integration was the implementation of Sage Intacct Collaborate – a social community feature that enables real-time communication and documentation. By integrating this tool throughout Visix, Inc., the organization was able to eliminate the use of multiple platforms for communication, both centralizing their communications and documentation. Upon implementation, Visix Inc. noticed a positive increase in employee accountability and a sizeable enhancement of the value of their customer information. This helped them reduce errors and enhance the customer experience.
Exploring Sage Intacct for Industry
With a versatile suite of solutions, Sage Intacct offers software applications to serve every industry need, including enterprise resource planning, business management focused on security and compliance for scalability, human capital management, and customer resource management solutions.
With industries demanding different requirements, Sage Intacct, with its multiple applications, is responsive to helping organizations overcome their greatest challenges such as with the construction and real estate industries.
With evolving financial landscapes, the real estate and construction industries must continually pivot while delivering on tactic. These industries demand the ability to financially manage multi-entities, collaborate with operating companies and ensure compliance with evolving regulations. As client and property bases grow, a cloud-based accounting software native to industry standards is necessary to avoid the pitfalls that come with not automating. Leveraging the Sage Intacct for Construction and Real Estate solution, accounting becomes intuitive with a general ledger providing continuous consolidation and enabling the user to drilldown across entities. Users can explore data in real-time, whether by location, facility type, tenant, etc. True to the cloud model, multi-tenant financial management enables all users to operate within the same version, and the open API allows connection with other systems to leverage key data essential to the industry. Sage Intacct for Construction and Real Estate enables real-time visibility and insights, allowing builders and agents to focus on building growth.
Manually preparing and examining financial records, identifying areas of opportunity and risk, and providing solutions for businesses and individuals while ensuring compliance with local and federal laws can be time-consuming with probable errors, which can turn out to be costly and stunt financial growth. Irrespective of the scale, a modern cloud-based accounting software is a critical need for businesses competing in the digital age. Hiring a strategic consultant can play a central role in helping identify the right software, bridging the gap between escalating costs and maximizing efficiencies for financial teams. With a cloud-based accounting solution in place, organizations can improve their decision-making, empower their workforce, drive innovation and accelerate business growth.
About Cherry Bekaert Digital Advisory
Cherry Bekaert’s Digital Advisory team is comprised of strategists who have broad industry experience and keen business acumen. Utilizing an agile and flexible approach, we examine what you want to achieve with a focus on people, process, technology and culture. We help organizations manage risks, enable growth and support sustainable operations. Leveraging our strategic process, we help digitally enabled organizations – especially middle-market companies – do more with less.
Cherry Bekaert is a valued-added reseller of Sage Intacct, meaning we sell the software while offering support and implementation services to clients. Additionally, we are a North American winner of Sage’s Partner Platinum Club, which recognizes the outstanding performance of top partners who have demonstrated excellence in sales and service, strong market presence and outstanding leadership.
Cited Resources:
- Hearst Newspapers (2018, November 5). The Difference Between Business Accounting and Financial Accounting. Retrieved September 18, 2023, from www.chron.com.
- 2012 Global Cloud Computing Survey Results, TechSoup Global.
- G2 (2022, November 20). Mid-Market Grid® Report for Accounting | Fall 2022. Retrieved September 7, 2023, from g2.com
