Microsoft Dynamics 365

Article Dean Dorton

Have you been thinking about cloud accounting and wondering why more and more companies are adopting it every day?

Are you also wondering: What is the cloud anyway?Is it safe? Is it expensive? What will I gain and lose with it?

We know the subject can be overwhelming and there is never enough time in the day to learn all you need to learn. But we are here to help. We know the cloud inside out, so let’s start by answering those questions.

Q: What is the cloud?

The cloud is a network of computers hosting systems and data that are accessed through the Internet.

Let’s say you decide to move your accounting to the cloud. Once you are up and running everybody in the company can access the accounting system from any computer that has Internet access. This brings a lot of flexibility to everybody in the organization. And some systems—like Intacct—even provide mobile access through smartphones and tablets. Imagine your management team approving payments, contracts or invoices on the go!

Q: Is it safe?

Yes, it is. Just make sure you select a reliable provider that proves to you that for their cloud they use encrypted communications, the servers are in a secure location, the data is backed up frequently and they have established procedures for any server changes.

Q: Is it expensive?

No, it is usually cheaper than on-premise solutions. When you are in the cloud you save on IT costs including personnel, software, and infrastructure. You know your costs up front, the monthly or annual fee is agreed at the time you sign a contract with the solution provider.

Q: What do I gain?

In addition to the ease of access to the accounting system from anywhere you also release valuable IT resources to concentrate on more important things. The accounting software provider takes care of all the maintenance for you. Your system is always up to date.

Q: Do I lose anything?

You may think that you won’t have access to your data anymore and that your solution in the cloud will be isolated from other systems. Again, with a good software provider, you won’t have these problems. Intacct for example gives you pre-built pieces of software (APIs) that will let you create interfaces between the accounting solution and other solutions—cloud or not.

With those first few questions out of the way, you must be eager to learn more about the cloud. Click here and learn about the 11 Reasons Companies Will Move to Cloud Accounting This Year. In this easy to understand whitepaper, we bring you up-to-speed on the cloud and tell you why it is a good idea to move your accounting to the cloud now.

Article Dean Dorton

With the year-end around the corner, your heart is probably already racing in anticipation of all the tasks ahead. I know you’ll be ok and you’ll finish everything on time, but here are a few things that you can start doing now to make your life easier in January.

Prepare for 1099 Printing

It doesn’t matter when your fiscal year ends, you must print and mail the calendar year 1099 forms by January 31.

You’ll also have to file all 1099s with the IRS. Be aware the filing date changed this year! If you’re filing 1099-Misc with amounts in Box 7: Nonemployee Compensation—and most likely you are–the new filing deadline is January 31. If you don’t have amounts in Box 7, then the deadline is still February 28th for paper filing or March 31 for electronic filing.

To get ahead of the game you can run a preliminary 1099 report and review it to make sure all your 1099 vendors are set up as such in your system and their payable invoices are marked as 1099 transactions.

Prepare for W2 Printing

You also have to print and mail Wage and Tax Statements (W-2 form) to all your employees by January 31st and file the forms with the Social Security Administration by the same date. The new due date of January 31st applies to W2s for both paper and electronic filing.

To prepare for the W2 printing process, make sure you have all your workers classified correctly. Sometimes workers are classified as independent consultants when they are really employees and this is important because employees are issued a W-2 form while independent consultants are issued a 1099 form.

In addition, check your Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificates (W-4 forms). Make sure you have one on file for each employee and that they show current employee information including marital status, a number of dependents and other tax related information.

Start gathering information for the auditors

Another task that may fall in your lap when you are working on year-end is preparing for the annual audit. To get a jump start ask the auditors for a to-do list so you can gather as many documents as you can now.

One thing the auditors will check is that all the sub ledgers match the trial balance. Check this before you close the books. A mismatch will raise a lot of questions from the auditors and create a ton of additional work for you. Now is the time to reconcile your accounts receivable and accounts payable aging reports against the corresponding balances in your trial balance. Do the same with every sub ledger.
And since the auditors will most likely ask you for testing samples, ask them if you can have the requirements now. If you start pulling invoices and payroll files for months that are already closed, you’ll only have to extract a couple of months’ worth of data in January.

Install and Test Software Updates for Year-End

If you have on-premise accounting or payroll solutions, you should install and test all year-end related software updates as soon as possible. But if you have a cloud accounting solution like Intacct this is not a reason to be concerned. The team of experts at Intacct will make all changes, test them and install them for you.

Also, with Intacct, you have custom fields that allow you to organize and sort transactions for analysis. You can also upload external or complex journal entries. And Intacct dashboards and standard and custom reports reduce the time you spend producing reports and answering questions.

Contact us so we can give you more tips to prepare for year end and show you how Intacct can save you a lot of time in the process.

Article Dean Dorton

Still Using Spreadsheets for Your Accounting? It’s Time to Make a Change

Cloud-ERP-switch-Oct-1-blog.jpgYou are a leader in your company and understand numbers. You know you can gain efficiencies and improve ROI by replacing your current accounting system that relies heavily on spreadsheets with a Cloud ERP.

You’ve read thousands of articles, blogs, whitepapers and advice columns confirming that using Excel spreadsheets to complement your financial accounting software is time-consuming and error-prone.

But, still, you’re not getting any traction with the management team. They’re on the fence. Unconvinced. And you wonder: Why, oh why, do they want to continue to use Excel for finance and accounting functions?

Here are some of the most common objections I’ve heard from people who don’t want to give up their spreadsheets and replace them with an accounting software like Intacct. (And I have an answer and a few facts for each objection… )

“It’s fast and reliable.”

Maybe it’s fast if you’re an expert, but it’s definitely not reliable. Hard drives fail and servers crash. Intacct data in the cloud is protected by encryption, real-time transactional data backup and daily full data backup and is always available (1). Intacct guarantees 99.8% uptime (2).

“With Excel the possibilities are endless.”

Yes, but how much time do you spend creating each report? If you are a fast moving company, then you need reports that update in real time and are available on demand –without spending time to download and combine data entered into a spreadsheet. Intacct reporting gives you the capability to easily create reports, graphs and dashboards using dimensions that are updated constantly with new data, and you can do it all without exporting data to a spreadsheet (3). Use the more than 150 prebuilt accounting or financial reports or build your own customized report within Intacct.

“We already have Excel; it is cost effective.”

Intacct customers average an ROI of over 250% (4). DataXu cut monthly financial consolidations from 20 to 8 days across all entities (5). EZShield is saving a great deal of time on employee expense (6) and WebAssign saved $130,000 in annual salary costs (7). There are many more customer success stories on the Intacct web site.

“Excel is the best tool we have for complex calculations such as revenue recognition”.

Really? Will it handle the complexities that are coming with ASC 606? What happens when the terms change on contracts that have tiered pricing or when contracts are changed to add or drop users? You need an accounting system that will standardize and automate these processes as well as ensure compliance with the new standards. Intacct has a contract and revenue management module that gives you the tools to comply with ASC 606.

I’ve heard many more objections for giving up spreadsheets. For each objection, I always find an Intacct advantage. To name just a few…with Intacct:

you don’t have the risk of handling formulas that could eventually get corrupted.
you always know who made a journal entry or any change.
supporting documents are stored in the system making it easier to answer auditors’ questions.
the system automates your process saving you time.
you have a system that grows as your company grows.

Contact us so we can help you create a solid business case for your company to get an accounting system that will grant you independence from Excel spreadsheets.