Sage Intacct

Article Dean Dorton

As an Intacct user or prospect, you already know the value of Intacct’s cloud based ERP solution.  Intacct’s dimensions, custom fields, multi-entity capabilities and much more make it a truly amazing accounting solution.  But your company doesn’t operate in a vacuum and you have other software solutions that you must run for CRM, operations, budgeting and other processes.  So how do you make those tools work with Intacct?  Meet the Scribe Online Intacct Connector!

Why spend weeks and weeks of unnecessary time creating custom code integrating to Intacct’s API when you can plug and play Scribe online and get the job done in hours?!!  Your resources are precious, don’t waste them!
The Scribe Online Intacct Connector has a number of benefits over traditional API custom integrations.  Let’s examine seven of those benefits now.

No Code Required – Scribe Online lets you create and configure your Intacct integrations without writing any code. The drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to define the workflow and field mapping of your integration without needing to know a programming language or redeploying custom software.

Industry Leader – Scribe is an industry leader in middleware applications. Their expertise in creating and maintaining middleware integrations has helped them build Scribe Online to be in the cloud and for the cloud.

Ready to Connect – Scribe and their partners provide readily available connections to other cloud and on-premise products, preventing the need to design and implement your own integration for every product you want connected to Intacct.

Make Your Own Mapping – The Scribe Online interface lets you pick and choose which fields are carried between Intacct and your other systems. Need to change which fields are integrated later? You can make changes on the fly to how your data is used. Custom fields created in Intacct are also available for use on many of the objects, letting you store non-standard information for later.

Transform Your Data – Functions for manipulating your information are included in Scribe Online, enabling you to perform calculations, change date formats, combine values, and more.

Combine Destinations – Unlike other prebuilt integrations, Scribe Online can write to multiple destinations, letting you build a workflow the routes data where you need it to go using filters that you design. Depending on the result, the source application can also be updated with additional info.

Interactive Testing – The debugging function in Scribe Online lets you interactively test changes to your data mappings as you build them. This lets you get feedback from Intacct and fine tune your integration as you build it.

Are you curious about Scribe Online and how it can ease your Intacct integration problems and help you have a truly connected organization?  Review our Scribe information page and contact us today for more information!

Article Dean Dorton

CFOs of Associations and other Member-focused organizations are tasked with providing accurate financials and up-to-the-minute reporting to help their organization best serve its members and manage member benefits such as publications, events, as well as processing member dues and purchases.

Information needed for reporting scattered among multiple systems?

It is not unusual for an association to have multiple software solutions in place to service various aspect of the organization: membership management software, accounting software, e-stores, fundraising – to name just a few.

Typically the more solutions in place, the more work for the financial accounting team: more data collection, rekeying of data, and manual reporting.

Cloud-based solutions working together to bring you the information you need – automatically!

One of the reasons we are so bullish on cloud-based SaaS (Software as a Service). Cloud-based solutions are designed to be more open and more easily integrated and interfaced with other cloud-based solutions.

A cloud platform makes it possible to join powerful solutions like Intacct and MemberNation to make exchange of information from one solution to another automatic for easier financial reporting.

Massey Consulting Integrates MemberNation with Intacct ERP Financial Accounting for Associations

Massey Consulting has successfully integrated the popular membership management software MemberNation with Intacct to help our association clients streamline and automate their financials.

With our integration new information entered into MemberNation is brought over to Intacct. For each new journal entry, a transaction is built for Intacct using associated line items. Once all of the lines are processed, the entry is posted into Intacct.

The information brought over from MemberNation into Intacct includes:

• Standard details such as the date, accounts, amounts, etc.
• The memo for each entry populates from the description (which contains the order number)
• The name of the entry becomes the reference number
• Entity/Location (based on a formula using GL account)
• And more

The more numerous your membership, the more valuable this streamlining becomes – leaving you free to focus on analysis of data rather than data gathering.

MemberNation Key Features

• Capture and view all member interactions on a single screen
• Monitor member engagement and quickly identify at risk members
• Staff and member access from anywhere on any Internet connected device
• Built 100% on Salesforce – the most innovative platform in the world

Intacct Key Features

• Robust financial functionality endorsed by the AICPA
• Flexible, dimensional reporting for your association
• Powerful dashboard that incorporate both financial information in Intacct and member information from MemberNation
• On average Intacct customers enjoy a return on investment of over 250% with an average payback period of under six months.
• Intacct ‘Buy with Confidence’ guarantee promises 99.8% system availability, robust disaster recovery, and rapid support response time.

Massey Consulting works with association clients to implement Intacct – the best-in-class cloud ERP solution, the only one the AICPA acknowledges as the preferred provider of financial applications. Intacct brings our association clients the functional depth to automate complex processes and deliver the insights your organization needs.

Massey Consulting works with you to ensure that you get the utmost from the powerful solutions you have invested in.

Article Dean Dorton

Nonprofit Finance Directors and their organization are faced with an ever changing environment. Donor demographic changes as Baby Boomers retire, funding restrictions, changing regulations, an uncertain economic environment, more competition for grants – these are just some of the things that challenge nonprofits today as they attempt to serve their missions, communities, and constituents.

Nonprofit Finance Directors and their staff work tirelessly to provide reporting on period-end financials, budget to actual, year over year reporting, grant reporting, cross-fiscal year grant reporting, and more – often pulling data from a variety of sources, then manually compiling the information into spreadsheets in order to produce reporting that assists program managers, the development team, grant writers, and, of course, the Executive Director and the Board.

Without the proper nonprofit accounting software, the Nonprofit Finance Directors and their finance teams are buried in manual processes that limit their potential to better serve the organization and internal team members. Burdened with low-value data gathering tasks means they don’t have much of an opportunity to be strategic. Armed with the proper tools, there is so much more they could contribute to the organization and the mission.

Here are the five critical things Nonprofit Finance Directors would want the executive team and board to understand:

1. Without sound accounting, there can be no transparency

It’s hard to attend a conference, read a nonprofit publication, or attend a webcast not hear or read about the necessity of organizational transparency. Charity Navigator defines transparency as “an obligation or willingness by a charity to publish and make available critical data about the organization.”

The foundation of ‘available critical data’ is accurate, timely, financial information. It’s not the only type of data that contributes to transparency, but it is the most crucial element.

2. QuickBooks is not designed for nonprofits

The sad truth is that many nonprofits stay on QuickBooks long after they’ve outgrown the popular entry level accounting solution. This is also true for small to midsized businesses (SMB). It’s a little easier to overlook SMB attachment to QuickBooks because for many years, QuickBooks served them perfectly. Not so, for nonprofit organizations. QuickBooks simply wasn’t designed for nonprofits with multiple sources of funding and cross fiscal year reporting.

3. The more manual and paper-based the accounting and processes- the more opportunity for fraud

It’s stunning the frequency with which fraud in nonprofits is appearing in news headlines. As one article put it, the five most dangerous words (with regard to fraud) are “it won’t happen to us.” Modern nonprofit accounting software, combined with well-designed internal controls, goes a long way in limiting the opportunity for fraud to occur.

4. Instead of gathering data, let me help you analyze data

Implementing a robust nonprofit accounting software solution means less time gathering data and more time analyzing data. When systems are inadequate, accountants are relegated to the status of data gatherers rather than using their time and expertise to analyze the data. More time spent on analysis means better informed decisions and meaningful action to better serve the mission.

5. Accounting solutions for nonprofits have never been as feature rich and affordable as they are today

Nonprofits are big winners in the advent of cloud-based solutions – particularly in the area of accounting. Cloud solutions are rich in functionality and free the organization of hefty investments in servers and other network and hardware infrastructure. Since subscriptions are the payment method for cloud solutions they are far more budget-friendly than traditional on-premise solutions.

Since the application is delivered via the Internet, the solution is device agnostic, in other words it doesn’t matter if one user is using a Mac and another is using a PC. It doesn’t matter if one user is working at a desktop computer and another is using a tablet. As long as there is access to the Internet, there is access to the accounting system (provided you have be assigned a user name and password).

The question is not whether you can afford to invest in a new cloud-based nonprofit solution – the question is can you afford not to? Better information, more secure controls, streamlined processes, and better insight all add up to a more dynamic and effective organization – one that better serves its mission and constituents.

Check out: “13 Questions Non-Profit Organizations Ask When Buying a New Accounting Solution”

Article Dean Dorton

Good news for software and professional services companies – Intacct has packed colossal functionality into Intacct 2016 Release 2 with Contract and Revenue Management.  This is designed to give you the tools to adequately prepare for the most significant changes in accounting requirements to happen in the last ten years.

Finance teams are bracing for ASC 606 and IFRS 15, which require sweeping changes to the accounting treatment of revenues and expenses. This represents a lot of painful change for subscription-based companies—from understanding the impact on existing contracts to reallocating revenues when customers renew, upgrade, or add-on to subscriptions. That is, unless you have a future ready solution to help you automate, prepare and deliver accurate reporting and tracking.

That’s right – an automated solution from Intacct

Intacct 2016 Release 2 delivers Contract and Revenue Management, the first automated solution that comprehensively addresses the new complexities of ASC 606 and IFRS 15.

Dual reporting makes it a snap to monitor change

Intacct Contract and Revenue Management includes automated dual-reporting with side-by-side results based on current and new guidelines, so you can spot the impact of the rule changes on your bottom line. Built-in forecast reports show you expected revenues, expenses, billed and unbilled revenues, and cash, based on both current and new guidelines.

You also get faster and more accurate board-ready SaaS metrics, such as churn, customer lifetime value, committed monthly recurring revenue, and customer acquisition costs.

Comprehensive, simple – and no spreadsheets required

With Intacct Contract and Revenue Management, you can automatically handle your ASC 606 and IFRS 15 requirements and see your subscription business from numerous angles using simple configurations that you choose yourself. And you even have the option to capture and edit contracts natively in Salesforce. That’s complete, automated compliance without the external spreadsheets, IT consultants, costs, and headaches.

We’re impressed with what this will mean for our clients.  But we’re not the only ones who are impressed, Blue Hill Research has published their review of Intacct in light of the coming revenue recognition changes.  Their conclusion?  “…Blue Hill finds Intacct’s solution for revenue recognition to be compelling in that it provides a governed environment and clear visibility for revenue recognition.”

Download the Blue Hill Research report ‘Intacct Leads the Way in ASC 606 and IFRS 15 Revenue Recognition‘

The analysts take it a step further, and warn against trying to prepare for the changes using manual precesses:

Blue Hill is concerned that a majority of financial analysts and accountants tasked with enacting these new accounting rules will do so through a combination of spreadsheets and customized scripting based on VBscript or other code.  However, this approach will inevitably lead to failures due to poor governance and the inability to track or scale this work across the entire organization.

With Intacct, you don’t have that worry.  Would you like a closer look at how Intacct addresses ASC 606 and IFRS 15?  We’d be happy to show you.  Contact us or attend one of the webinars on the topic.

Article Dean Dorton

As a nonprofit, you have many stakeholders who require accurate information on budget, grants, outcomes, and more – and their requests usually come with a need to have the information now. If this causes chaos and either a rejection of the request or hours of manual work on spreadsheets, your accounting system is outdated.

It’s time to closely examine new solutions and new technology. Cloud applications have matured. Feature sets are robust. Reporting and dashboard capabilities are impressive in their flexibility and accessibility. And, the benefits of cloud technology are such that your system requirements should include “cloud-based” at the top of the list.

5 Ways Nonprofits Benefit from the Cloud

Here are five benefits that we’ve seen nonprofits enjoy when replacing entry level or legacy on-premise solutions with Intacct:

1. Empowerment of Department Heads and Executive Team

Imagine being able to respond to reporting requests with a few clicks. Better yet, imagine delivering a real-time dashboard to various program managers, department heads, your executive team and even the board that display the particular data, budgets, expenses, funding allocations and comparisons to prior years.
With Intacct, they have the information they need to fine tune programs, assess program financials and outcomes, and zero in on the data they need to further the mission, serve constituents, and win more grant awards.

2. Ability to Track Funds, Cross Fiscal Year Reporting

With Intacct’s flexible chart of accounts and dimensional reporting, managing, tracking, and reporting on funds is easy – whether the funding period is a few months or extending over multiple fiscal years. There is no need to once again resort to spreadsheets, you are able to generate reports directly from the system. In fact is so easy, colleagues can access reports on their own if need be.
Every stakeholder can have the ability to quickly analyze assigned grants, funds, budgets, expenses and cash flows – regardless of the duration of the funding. With better reporting on existing funds, more time can be spent going after additional sources of funding. Armed with Intacct, you’ll have the history, data, and pattern of compliance and good stewardship.

3. Faster, More Accurate Reporting

Accurate reporting is the primary responsibility of Nonprofit accounting. It is the foundation for transparency and accountability. Intacct has helped hundreds of nonprofits automate their reporting for faster period-end closings, cross-fiscal year funding, budget management, and program analysis.

Intacct Dimensions allows you to slice and dice data to accommodate special requests from colleagues, executive management and the board. You don’t need to fire up Excel and create yet another spreadsheet. This is perhaps the most compelling reason to replace your accounting system with cloud-based Intacct – the ability to generate a staggering variety of reports directly from the system (complete with detail documentation).

4. Budget-friendly, Subscription-based Pricing

Since Intacct is paid for via subscription, the cost of the software is accounted for month by month. Many nonprofits prefer this subscription-based pricing to traditional on-premise one time licensing fees. There is an initial implementation fee with Intacct, but following your implementation, it’s a simple monthly fee based on the number of users you want accessing the system.

Most of the time, there is a significant cost savings for nonprofits moving to the cloud. With the cloud, organizations can dramatically reduce the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) by eliminating hardware costs and reducing software and IT costs. With cloud computing, nonprofits also get the benefit of reducing their technology risk with enterprise-class security, backups, and disaster recovery – at a much lower cost than doing it yourself.

5. Anytime, Anywhere Secure Access

Snow day? No problem. Flooding? No problem. Regardless of what Mother Nature throws your way, while you might be prevented from getting to the office, you can still access Intacct. All you need is a browser, access to the Internet, and your user name and password.

While weather-related closures are (thankfully) rare, there is still a high cost in lost productivity. With anytime, anywhere secure access to Intacct you won’t have that problem. Under more normal circumstances like business-related travel, off site meetings, or the need to work from home, you have access to the system. Another advantage of cloud-based Intacct is that it doesn’t matter what kind of device you have – PC or Mac, tablet or laptop, you can get to the system directly without any intermediate interface.

We have looked at 5 ways nonprofits can benefit from the cloud – but there are many more.  With cloud technology making robust applications more affordable and easier to deploy, it’s time to take a serious look at what the cloud can do for your finance department and your organization.

Other Nonprofit resources from Massey Consulting:

White paper ’13 Questions Nonprofits Need to Ask When Buying a New Accounting System’

Article Dean Dorton

The bedrock of accountability and transparency for nonprofits is financial health. In order to best manage the financial health of your organization the finance team and program managers need complete, accurate, timely reporting on the funds they manage.

We’re kicking off the summer with two popular webcasts for nonprofit finance teams. We hope you’ll join us for these webcasts that will share best practices, the power and significant cost savings that cloud-based software can offer nonprofits, and how other nonprofits have met the challenge of accountability and transparency.

Please be our guest for these complimentary online events and register today.

Survival Guide for Nonprofit Finance Teams

June 23, 2016 webcast 2:00e

Click here to register

The demands on nonprofit finance teams have continued to increase.

You must create greater levels of transparency and visibility, enhance the governance of the organization, and strengthen decision-making and strategic focus—all while improving productivity.

Wondering how you can survive in this challenging environment?

Attend this live webinar and product demonstration to learn how Intacct and the cloud can address the key challenges facing nonprofit finance teams.

Learn how Intacct enables nonprofits to:

  • Support separate, balanced sets of books required for fund accounting
  • Distribute responsibilities to contributors and managers
  • Track general vs. restricted dollars, balance and close each fund or grant independently
  • Take advantage of the cloud to eliminate IT costs and headaches

 
 

Financial Reporting – Is Your Nonprofit Seeing The Full Picture?

July 7, 2016 webcast 2:00e

Click here to register

As a nonprofit, you have many stakeholders who require accurate information on budgets, grants, outcomes, and more—and they need access to them at a moment’s notice. But can your legacy accounting system keep up?

Join us for this live webinar and product demonstration, to learn how cloud-based financials can help.

Learn how you can truly:

• Eliminate manual, Excel-based reporting
• Provide real-time, custom dashboards and reports for board members, stakeholders, and finance teams
• Enable anytime, anywhere access to financial information for geographically dispersed stakeholders
• Easily track, manage, and analyze grants, funds, budgets, expenses, and cash flows