Sage Intacct

Article Dean Dorton

Intacct 2016 Release 1 – New Enhancements to the Solution

We are very excited about the Intacct 2016 Release 1 – we think you will be as well. There are a number of features, some of which we’ve listed below. The best way to ensure that you understand all the new features is to join us for a one hour webinar where will discuss the new features:
Intacct 2016 Release 1 Training (Free)
February 25, 2016, 2:00 PM ET
Click here to register 
There are a number of new enhancements to Intacct Financial Accounting solution.
Intacct Collaborate
One of the Intacct enhancements we’ve been looking forward to is ‘Collaborate!’ – and it is now available. Intacct Collaborate is a new feature that uses Salesforce Chatter and allows users to interact and collaborate on individual transactions or records without needing to leave your Intacct session. Think of it this way: Intacct integrates with an existing Salesforce instance and connects sales and finance teams. This results in speedier approvals, problem resolution, and the ability to better respond to new trends.
Benefits of Using Intacct Collaborate

  • Eliminates back-and-forth emails about transactions
  • Operates with an existing Salesforce instance or with Intacct alone
  • Gives users the complete picture as they converse with in-text communication
  • Captures dialogue and decisions for later reference in the system of record
  • And much more 

Intacct Collaborate Training (Free)
April 21, 2016, 2:00 PM ET
Click here to register 

Other Intacct 2016 Release 1 enhancements:

Administration

  • External authorizations and external users – separated at last
  • Increased security with longer, more complex passwords
  • Browser version support

Project Accounting

  • Find missing time sheets within a specific period
  • Enhanced billing insight: Preview your invoice total before you bill
  • Workflow and global management
  • Create transactions at the top level, entity level, or both
  • Reduce transaction definition maintenance with entity document templates
  • Use unique entity numbering and/or global numbering on transactions
  • Automatic inter-entity funds transfer with different currencies

Insight enhancements

  • Graph design made easy: what you see is what you get
  • With Waterfall charts, change is easy to understand
  • Let Intacct do the work: automate metric counts for better insight

Ease of use, customer driven

  • Quick insights into days aging in transactions and aging reports
  • See the date criteria you used for filtering key AP and AR reports
  • Reconcile using auto-matching that works for you
  • AP/AR draft transactions – feel the power
  • How did I pay that bill?

You have selected the very best financial accounting solution on the market. You have invested in a very powerful tool. We want to make sure that you are using Intacct to its fullest. Be sure to visit our calendar page frequently to see the free training sessions available to you.

Article Dean Dorton

A continued fictional account of very real circumstances…

Elsa Markos, CEO and co-owner of the Arendelle Ice, just finished reviewing a series of financial statements in preparation for a meeting with a potential new arena investor.  She was able to quickly review income statements based on the types of events (sports vs. concerts vs. family) as well as breakdowns by event specific information (hockey division, music genre, sport type, etc.).

But, how did she do it?  Especially since we stated earlier than her chart of accounts was only one segment in length with four digits.  How did she get all those financials?

We can explain it with two concepts and in four words…  “dimensions” and “custom fields.”

While the Ice only has a one-segment chart of accounts, they utilize Intacct for their accounting software, which allows them to use a multitude of “dimensions.”  What is a dimension?  This of a dimension as a “transaction tag.”  How does that help the Ice?  Let’s explain…

Intacct provides users with greater than ten dimensions – or transaction tags – in the standard product.  Dimensions are available on every transaction in Intacct.

As for the custom fields, Intacct allows – in the standard product without ANY add-ons or additional fees – the ability to add custom fields to ANY window in the system.  “That’s nice”, you say.  “But, how does that do anything for financial statements?”  Well, dimensions can be used in financial statement layouts.  Custom fields can be placed on windows where dimensions are maintained.

But how did dimensions and custom fields help us in this case? You want details, right?

For starters, we renamed a dimension to “Events”.  Intacct encourages companies to rename the dimensions in order to make them more familiar.  This helps foster adoption of the system since users see familiar terms.  Renaming a dimension is easy.  Simply choose the setup menu item labeled terminology, select the dimension to rename and save.  Once you refresh the browser, all usage of the dimension becomes your new term.

Next, we opened the Custom Fields window in Intacct and created a few fields and tabs.  The tabs were created to segregate the fields into groups by type of event.  The fields were created to give differing details about each event type.
 

To satisfy the requirements of the Ice organization, we created one tab each for “Sports”, “Concerts” and “Family” as those are the different types of events that are tracked – and reported on – by the arena accountants for the Ice.  As you can see in the image below, each type has a tab.  We also created a picklist field for “Event Type” with the values of “Sports”, “Concerts”, “Family” and “Other”.  Other is always an option to allow for future expansion without immediate panic!  Finally, we created an “Event Date” field on the main tab of the card so that event based reporting can also be created by dates the events took place.

One of the reporting requirements for the Ice was to get income statements by event and by event type – comparing and contrasting the profitability of their different events.  To accomplish this, we needed to create custom fields at the event type level to allow us to distinguish sub-types of events.

Next, we continued working in the custom fields screen to create fields for the event tabs.  The Sports tab is first as more sporting events occur than any other.  Not only is the IcePlex Arena home to the Arendelle Ice franchise, but the local university plays their basketball games there too.  And they have, from time to time, some additional special sporting events there.

With that in mind, we created a “Sports” tab that houses information for both hockey and basketball.  As you can see in the screen shot, fields were created to track the hockey opponent, whether is was a playoff game, and the hockey season that game took place in.  The opponent tracking lets us break out reporting by division since the opponents are then grouped into divisions.  We could also get year-over-year analysis by opponent as well.  Questions like “Do we make more money when any particular team comes to town?” can finally be answered.  Since the hockey season is different from the fiscal year of the Ice Holdings organization, we added the hockey season field to give the Ice the option of running reports based on hockey season.
 

Basketball fields were next, and we created a few fields similar to the hockey ones, but we added one new special field – “Basketball Type”.  This field tracks if the opponent team is in their conference or out of their conference.  A major request of the arena accountants was to know if their in-conference opponents were more profitable than the out-of-conference opponents.

What else did we do for the other event types?  And, how in the world does all this help?

Stay tuned and find out….

Article Dean Dorton

A fictional account of very real circumstances…

When last we saw Elsa Markos, she was on a plane flying from her home and work location in Arendelle to visit with a large potential sponsor based in Los Angeles.  Elsa was in the process of reviewing financials on her iPad in order to prepare for the meeting.  The sponsor was insistent on knowing the overall profitability of all the Arendelle holdings to ensure his investment is sound.

Once Elsa is settled and takes out her iPad, she logs onto the airline wireless and then onto the Intacct page for her company. In seconds, she clicks on the shortcut for her P&L – Event Summary report and the report is displayed.  Elsa still can’t believe that she can be 35,000 feet high and her way to Los Angeles (or elsewhere) and have access to her accounting data in a matter of minutes.  The cloud is really saving her time!  Now, she has to see if Intacct continues to give her exactly the reports she needs.

One of the reports Elsa most wanted to review was the “P&L – Event Summary”.  This report showed a breakdown of profitability by event type in the arena.  This is a key measurement for the Ice, and one the team could not get (without a lot of manual work) before the move to Intacct.  The report compares the different types of events that take place in the Ice Arena so that Elsa knows what she is making money on and what she is not.  Perhaps musical events are not as profitable as family-oriented events, so the business development staff should spend more time bringing family-oriented events to the arena.

The P&L – Event Summary report opens and Elsa immediately sees a comparison of Gross Profit broken out by Family Events, Concerts and Sports along with a total for all event types. 

Elsa sees in the financial that sporting events continue to be the most profitable events in the arena, followed by concerts and then family events. 

Intacct gives Elsa and the Arendell Ice Holdings organization the advantage of being able to slice and dice their accounting data in may different ways.  To further dive into the numbers, Elsa pulls up the P&L – Sports by Type. 

In the next instant, Elsa is able to open an additional tab in her web browser and pull up the P&L – Concerts by Genre.  As it is still early in the year, the concerts have not fully started yet but Elsa can see that the country concerts are driving more revenue than any other.

Lastly, Elsa opens another browser window to display the P&L – Hockey Divisions report.  She is still in awe as to how Intacct can give her an income statement with columns based on the division of the opponent from each game.  Especially since the hockey division – nor the hockey opponent – are in the general ledger chart of accounts!

In fact, the Arendelle Ice Holdings organization has a very simple chart of accounts structure of just one single segment with four characters.  The Ice accomplishes all of their sophisticated, real-time reporting with a clean, precise chart of accounts. 

How, you ask?  Stay tuned for the next post and find out!

Article Dean Dorton

I’ve been involved the implementation of accounting software for more than 20 years and have seen a great evolution of the accounting software marketplace. Currently the biggest shift taking place is the move from traditional “on premise” (the software is installed on a local server) to Cloud-based accounting systems. Because I work with both types of systems every day, I decided to highlight why vendors are moving their accounting software to the Cloud. Specifically I will focus this discussion on the investment cost associated with maintaining a traditional accounting software product versus using a Cloud-based accounting system.

Servers

For traditional “on premise” systems, you’ll typically find a server room with racks of routers, servers, hard drive arrays, and tape backup systems. Manning that room are one or more highly trained technicians who understand concepts like “active directory”, “network shares”, and “virtual servers”. All of this equipment is necessary to run the accounting system. In contrast, Cloud-based systems only require a desktop or laptop computer along with wired or wireless access in the office. The users simply access the Cloud-based accounting system from the Internet. Many companies using Cloud-based applications can rely on “IT for hire” firms for periodic IT support because their Cloud-based systems require so much less support.

Workstation compatibility

Traditional “on premise” accounting systems use the computer hardware, operating system, and network to make the system work. This requires that the workstations and servers meet the software vendors “compatibility checklist”. If the product will not run on Windows 8, then you would need to order new workstations with the older Windows 7 product until your accounting software catches up. Network servers need to be compatible too, so Windows Server 2003 or SQL Server 2005 might not work with your traditional system, requiring further upgrade and expense. Cloud-based systems are “OS agnostic”, meaning that as long as you can connect to an Internet browser you can log onto the accounting software. That also means users can run Cloud-based systems on a Dell laptop, an Apple IPad, a Galaxy tablet, even a smartphone if it can browse the Internet.

Updates & upgrades

Most traditional “on premise” systems require updates to resolve software bugs or compatibility issues. Software upgrades, which represent major changes to the accounting software, typically take one to several days and require that all of the users are out of the system. During that time the accounting staff cannot perform their functions while the software team performs the upgrade. If the business has invested in custom programming of the accounting system, they typically need to wait until the programmers have re-programmed their product to be compatible with the new release, and thus most users wait much longer before moving to a new version that might offer new features or functionality. In contract, Cloud-based accounting systems typically offer updates every three to six months, and provide that functionality to users as part of their normal subscription. Users can elect to turn on new features as they deem necessary, or keep their system exactly as they like it.

Data security

Now that data backups can be made over the Internet, system backups can finally be secured off the customer site. But in the event of a disaster (e.g. server failure, catastrophic weather event like a hurricane, etc.) the recovery of the accounting system still requires that the accounting system be down for a period of time until the computer system can be recovered. The recovery of the system could take as little as several hours or may stretch for days or weeks, depending on how much equipment needs to be replaced, its availability from the vendor, and how much data needs to be restored. Statistics on disaster recovery cite that one in four businesses that experience a disaster never recover. Cloud-based accounting systems are typically backed up in redundant locations, so that if one location experiences problems, it’s second (or third or fourth) can continue to allow users to access the accounting software without interruption. Further, if the users cannot access the business environment (the office was devastated by a hurricane and has no power), Cloud-based users can simply make a connection to the Internet from another location and continue to perform their accounting work.

In conclusion, Cloud-based accounting systems offer an opportunity for businesses to quickly recover their initial investment through a lower cost of ownership. They can also benefit from a quicker ROI (Return on Investment) while enjoying enhanced performance using the latest technologies available through the Internet.

Article Dean Dorton

A fictional account of very real circumstances…

Elsa Markos, co-owner of the Arendelle Ice, an American Hockey League franchise, settled into seat 4A for her flight back home.  Elsa is on her way to secure a new sponsor for her team.  The sponsor is a large public company and could be a huge boost to the team – and the organization’s bottom line – so Elsa herself is making the trip along with a team of top executives. 

Once the plane reaches a safe altitude, passengers can use electronic devices, so Elsa pulls out her iPad.  In addition to reviewing the presentation they are going to give, Elsa wants to review the latest financials for the team and for the other entities, such as the arena the Ice play in.  The potential sponsor has been very interested in knowing how profitable the organization is to ensure their investment in the Ice is not wasted on a team that will disappear due to financial distress.

Fortunately for Elsa, the Arendelle Ice made a change recently to a cloud-based accounting software system called Intacct.  Not only does Intacct fit their needs for a high-powered, flexible accounting system, but also the cloud delivery method allows her anywhere and anytime access.  Elsa and her executive team are no longer tied to their desks in order to get financials.  Nor do they have to call and have reports emailed to them as they did with their previous on-premise accounting software.

Even before Elsa stays at a Holiday Inn Express, Intacct gives her the power to stay up-to-date with real time financials.  In addition, Elsa and the Ice executives are able to use the unconventional General Ledger structure that Intacct provides to produce a myriad of financial reports sliced and diced in the exact manners that they want them.  Her Intacct implementers even thought of ways that Elsa’s team could report that she had not.

Intacct gives the Ice the ability to report revenue by event type, music genre, hockey division, basketball opponent and much, much more.  It has truly reduced the burden of producing financials as well as shortening the month end close cycle and providing access to reports from a plane at 35,000 feet! 

But, how could she get such data in her financials?  How can they break down the arena events by type?  How does the accounting system know what division the hockey opponent is in?  How in the world can she get all these reports with a few clicks of the mouse? 

Stay tuned…

Article Dean Dorton

Will I Be Able to Track Funds and Monitor Budgets?

Whether you are funded by public grants, private grants, or donations – tracking the status and use of your funds is crucial. If you are tracking funds and budgets via spreadsheets, you know how cumbersome and time-consuming the creation of those are—not to mention maintaining them.

Accurate, easily accessible, and up-to-the-minute budgets are critical not just to accounting but to every program manager and organization executive.

Intacct software for nonprofits makes it easy to review budgeted amounts, dollars spent, committed funds, and available budget. Quickly produce comparative statements for your management staff and board of directors showing the budget-to-actual position for your programs, grants, departments, and other cost centers. Easily estimate future periods and calculate forecasted financial positions, including “what-if” scenarios for better decision making.

The above Q&A is question number 4 from our whitepaper titled “13 Questions Nonprofit Organizations Need To Ask When Buying A New Accounting Solution.”  To get answers to all 13 questions, download the full whitepaper.