Written by Jim Stubanas, Senior Sage Intacct Consultant at Massey Consulting

A product that constantly evolves – All about the Sage Intacct product release process

One of the things that makes Sage Intacct so dynamic is the quarterly product updates provided to all customers.  Unlike other ERP products that typically only offer product updates every few years (mostly software patches and payroll tax table updates), Sage Intacct is committed to providing quarterly releases, along with interim releases in between!

For the release 2018 calendar, we see that the product updates are scheduled for the following dates:

The first release for 2018 took place on February 9, and included the ability to bill before a contract start date, post revenue and expense recognition offline, link inventory adjustments to specific purchases, numerous inventory improvements, as well as adding Global Consolidations to the new Action UI.  The 1.1 release came shortly after on March 12th and presented more updates to Inventory, compatibility updates for the Custom Document Toolbar, and new documentation for fixed assets and Prepaid Expense Amortization.

The most amazing aspect about this process is that the update typically starts while we’re all asleep on a Friday night (if you’re out tearing up the town!) and wraps up sometime Saturday morning.  During that time, over 14,000 Sage Intacct customers get updated with the new features. Prior to the update, users are made aware of upcoming release reminders with banners that appear when you enter various modules, indicating what types of new features are coming in the upcoming release.

So how does all of this occur?  

In addition to a long-term roadmap where Sage Intacct plans their product evolution and direction, they also take user input from customer support cases and entries made through the Sage Intacct Community for feature requests. Whenever an idea is posted to the Community, the users can vote for that idea- each time adding 10 points to the idea. Ideas posted to the Community are reviewed by the Sage Intacct Development team and considered for inclusion in future releases.  Prior to the update release, users who have submitted ideas for product improvement are notified that their idea is being included in the upcoming update.

Once the product update occurs, Sage Intacct further notifies the user base that new features have become available by displaying notification banners while logging into Sage Intacct, as well as accessing data entry screens.  If a new feature might involve a change in processing, Sage Intacct controls access to the new feature through permissions. Management can decide if a user can have access to the new feature by granting permission to the feature.

To educate the users about new release features, educational videos are available from the Home screen in Sage Intacct. Massey Consulting also offers a webinar to expose the users to new features. During the webinar, we talk about the new features and demonstrate how they are used in the Sage Intacct environment. Stay updated through our Webinar & Events page.

The next product update for 2018 is scheduled to take place on May 18, so watch for new release features to start appearing in your Sage Intacct environment!