As I sit here writing this article, I’m also working on some final tasks for my volunteer job with our local community theatre and our production of Seussical Jr. My daughter (now a high school theatre arts teacher!) grew up in that theater and I’ve enjoyed volunteering as treasurer and “computer person” ever since. I’ve sat through many rehearsals over the last few months, and I’ve heard one phrase over and over –

“Oh, the thinks you can think”

I know you’re reading this and asking, “What does that have to do with accounting software?”  Well, maybe it doesn’t have as much to do with accounting software as it does another lesson I recently learned at Sage Transform 2022. At the recent Sage Intacct partner and customer conference in Orlando, one theme I found applicable over and over was that we often have the knowledge and tools we need at our fingertips; we simply need to stop and think. Our days are often comprised of meetings, meetings, and more meetings and we don’t allocate enough, if any, time for thought to be creative and break through boundaries.

With that in mind, let me help you think about a few things I saw at Sage Transform 2022.

First, although we are not to the level of Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator, there is a bit of artificial intelligence inside Sage Intacct TODAY! If you have not heard already, the GL Outlier Detection is a feature built into every instance of Sage Intacct and does not cost a single penny to activate – well, other than any consulting charges that you might incur, of course. Once enabled, the tool monitors your transactions for about 30 days to get a sense of how your organization operates. Once that is complete, it looks at transactions that are entered in the GL that fall outside of the norm, flags any that are suspicious so you can review them. From there, you can either correct any problems or send them back to the submitter to correct. By monitoring your transactions in real-time, the GL Outlier Detection serves to help accounting departments to shorten the close cycle by correcting transactions while they are still fresh in everyone’s mind. After all,

“an error’s an error, no matter how small!”

Second, Sage Intacct is committed to including a functional, feature-filled, native AP Automation tool in the very near future. You should already be aware – I HOPE! – of the Vendor Payments by CSI feature that, again, is in every instance of Sage Intacct today! Granted, there is a cost for using this feature, but it is dependent on how much you use it, so it’s very beneficial to consider. What we saw at Transform 2022, though, was the next evolution of the AP Automation too, the approval workflows and automated handling of vendor invoices before the payment process. That’s right, Sage Intacct will, in 2023, become one of the few mid-market ERP systems to include a highly functional, well-designed AP Automation tool in the system that can process invoices, manage approvals, track attachments, and facilitate payments all inside the Sage Intacct application!

“Oh, the thinks they can think!”

Third, isn’t it just a pain to keep up with all those annual subscriptions that you prepay and then must remember to make journal entries each month to amortize the monthly amount? I mean if Sage Intacct just had a Prepaid Expense Amortization module that would be AMAZING, right? Well, hang on to your green eggs and ham because Sage Intacct has a Prepaid Expense Amortization module that lets you do just that – make an annual payment for a subscription or service and create a schedule, immediately, that automatically books a journal entry each month to recognize the appropriate expense.

Fourth, I’ll leave you with one final thought from Sage Transform 2022 in the fact that Sage Intacct is slammed packed with capabilities to create Smart Rules to make sure that your organization’s policies and procedures are adhered to with every click on a button. Imagine not being able to create a vendor without your new custom field called “License Date” populated IF the vendor is a certain type or any other criteria you deem required. Imagine having a rule that requires the system validate distribution line items to a master total you enter in the transaction header? Smart Rules, and their “cousin” Smart Events, are included free in every instance of Sage Intacct and can really help an organization stay on top of their data through validation upon entry.

Not many writers can match the style and prowess of Theodor Seuss Geisel, professionally known as Dr. Seuss, and not many software solutions can compete with the features and benefits of Sage Intacct – especially when you take a cue from Dr. Seuss and think all the things you can think! Sage Intacct is packed full of features and functions in each module and many of those are hidden gems that just need to be discovered. Just remember, always take time to

“think and wonder, wonder and think”

or you might just be….

“the biggest blame fool in the Jungle of Nool.”

Philip Massey, CPA | Software Services Director
pmassey@ddaftech.com
919.508.6062