automation

Article Dean Dorton

For most of the history of bread, it was eaten by either tearing off chunks or, eventually, slicing each piece one at a time. As store bought bread became more popular, manufacturers made it softer and softer to entice the buyer with its “fresh” appearance – rendering it extremely difficult to cut.  Along came an intrepid inventor named Otto Frederick Rohwedder who invented the machine that could cut a full loaf of bread into consistently sized slices and enable it to be packaged for sale, out on the market in 1928.  Not only did this make producing, selling, and eating bread much easier, but it also generated an increase in sales for toasters and delicious spreads. (When Was Sliced Bread Invented? | History of Sliced Bread (goldmedalbakery.com)

Can you imagine the pushback poor Otto must have received when he first started trying to sell his idea?  “Who needs a bread slicer? We’ve always done it this way! The loaf will be stale! No one will buy it! So, you waste a few pieces trying to cut the bread, that just means we sell more!” Yet, for the average consumer today sliced bread is such a standard that it would be hard to imagine our food life without it.

I often wonder how many of those same changes – world changing or even just life improving – are passed up every day? Do we continue with the same repetitive tasks, manual processes, and unorganized useless data in spreadsheets just because we haven’t thought of trying something new? What if you were open to exploring new ideas and ways of working that might significantly change the way you do business?

Perhaps, starting down this path would be easier if you thought about it in simpler terms. After all, Otto probably didn’t set out to become the recognized standard for “The Greatest Thing” of modern times.  Make a list of all the repetitive and/or manual tasks you (or your team) perform every week and the amount of time required to complete them. Further identifying if they occur on a daily or weekly basis might help. It is quite possible that you will be shocked at the length of the list, particularly if you add up the amount of time chained to these items. Even the smallest of tasks can add up across time and repetition.

After reviewing the list, the next step is to begin the process of envisioning how the underlying business needs for these tasks could be accomplished via other, more efficient, means. As an example, you might consider putting in place an approach that provides any of these options – and crosses key items off your list!

  • Automating routine processes
  • Capturing data once, and pushing it to the right locations
  • Identifying and resolving discrepancies in information
  • Validating contract terms for compliance
  • Managing approval processes

As our team continues to work with customers to automate and improve their business processes, along with increasing data visualization and analytics, we’ve focused heavily on using Microsoft’s Power Platform. The toolset within this platform provides an extensive amount of functionality to easily accomplish all the items on the list above – plus so much more!

In fact, we’ve put together an approach to process transformation that organizations to work at a speed and budget that fits their internal needs – and we are right there with them on the journey every step of the way. Each quarter we walk through the list of items that are keeping team members from focusing on the accomplishing the work they need to be doing and identify the top priorities to retool and transform. This ongoing process allows the impact of the changes to be felt quickly – and measurably – so that the real work of the organization can flow through.

How much time would you like to regain in your work week? Perhaps enough to squeeze in a lunch with some really good bread?  Let’s talk soon.

Article Dean Dorton

Whether your company intends to buy or build properties, time is of the essence. Taking advantage of the red hot real estate market that exists across the country means satisfying demand before a rival company can or before the situation takes a downturn. That leaves a short window to reap what promises to be massive rewards.

Unfortunately, acting fast isn’t easy. Onboarding new people can be a slow, laborious, and error-prone process. And with the construction industry facing a labor shortage of 650,000 workers, there needs to be a lot of onboarding completed as quickly as possible. The same goes for bringing new properties online. Finding tenants, completing paperwork, and checking every box takes no small amount of time and input. And if the process isn’t efficient for all involved, it could lead to vacant properties or depressed rents.

Improving onboarding while simultaneously dealing with booming demand sounds like a tall order. And it certainly is for construction and real estate companies without the right tools at their disposal. For those with Sage Intacct, however, the opportunities are endless.

Integration + Automation = Optimal Onboarding

Every company onboards people and properties differently, but the process suffers from the same problems everywhere: disconnected information sources, paper-based processes, manual inputs, and time-consuming redundancies. These problems might have been acceptable or seemed inevitable in the past. But that’s not the case anymore.

An optimal onboarding process moves quickly and systematically through each step, doing everything required without delays, errors, or confusion at any point. Meeting that high standard requires a single source of truth that integrates all the associated data. Once that comprehensive information resource exists, automation can complete complex and time-consuming processes since it has all the information it needs in one place.

That doesn’t mean onboarding runs on autopilot. Instead, it means that hiring and property managers can focus on high-level responsibilities while technology streamlines and accelerates everything else. The result is an optimal onboarding process where both new hires and new properties have a positive impact in less time.

Sage Intacct: More Than Just an Onboarding Tool

Sage Intacct is a leading financial management platform that integrates huge amounts of data (financial and otherwise) in one location, then unleashes automation to do incredible things with that data.

All the different ways that Sage Intacct elevates onboarding would take a much longer article to describe. But imagine if those involved with onboarding always had the right data at their disposal, anywhere at any time, and never had to move, modify, or manage that data to advance the onboarding process forward. It’s like starting at the finish line instead of racing to get there. That way, onboarding never feels like an obstacle and never stands in the way of present or future opportunities.

Sage Intacct optimizes onboarding along with countless other important processes related to accounting, finance, operations, and more. No wonder it’s a leading solution for the construction and real estate industries.

Dean Dorton can help you implement Sage Intacct and use it to the fullest – for onboarding and everything else. Contact us to set up a demo or consultation.

Philip Massey,
Software Services Director
pmassey@ddaftech.com • 919.796.5408

Article Dean Dorton

Have you found yourself or your employees scrambling to cash in checks? Are you running to the office just to manage paper invoices and process ACH payments? During these challenging times of performing work at home and keeping up with the economic turndown, it’s critical that you have the right technology tools in place to properly manage your organization’s cash flow.

Join Dean Dorton for a high-level presentation on how automation and the right tools can make your cash processing quicker and more insightful- all while letting you successfully “shelter in place” and keep it all paperless.

Anyone who plays a financial management role in their organization including (but not limited to):

  • AR/AP Specialists
  • CFOs/COOs/Controllers
  • VPs and Directors of Finance
  • Accountants, Bookkeepers, Office Managers
  • Presidents, Executive Directors

Resources:

Article Dean Dorton

This blog is the July Edition of our CFO Minute: A Sage Intacct ERP Series.

A NIGHTMARE ON AUTOMATION STREET– We hope “Insomnia” isn’t part of your job description… For a growing company, there are bigger expenditures in both time and resources, as workloads increase in volume and complexity. For a CFO, the financial challenges are nothing new- Keeping up with faster closes, cleaner audits, smarter revenue management, deeper analyses, regulatory compliance, multinational consolidations…and the list goes on.

But with automation, fast-moving companies are finding they can have it all and CFO’s are discovering they can be in charge of accurate, data-driven decisions for their business. By taking advantage of financial management automation, developing businesses find they not only save time and resources, but they reduce workloads, even despite massive growth.

Why Automation Works: Automation streamlines processes so significantly, that today’s accounting teams have the ability to shift their attention to value-added tasks- like strategy, analysis, and forecasting– instead of importing and exporting data from systems manually, having to re-key reports and falling behind massive workloads, etc. Automation helps keep that upward movement and company growth going.

So, how do you go about creating stronger business processes through automation?

Here’s how a strong financial management software solution can contribute positively to fast growth:

Automation Speeds Up Reporting

With a more modern accounting solution, reporting processes that are taking weeks, and even months, can be reduced to just a few days. A flexible, cloud-based software like Sage Intacct has a complex report writer designed to handle large and complex volumes of data that quickly create automated, customized reports for you. This means your teams won’t spend hours, and even days manipulating data and adjusting spreadsheets.

Automation Boosts Productivity 

Ask yourself: How many hours am I spending entering data into Excel? Don’t fall victim to the CFO’s worst enemy, error-prone spreadsheets. With automated accounting technology, you and your accounting teams can ditch the nightmare of endless rekeying of data- often times a necessity if you have software systems that don’t talk to each other.

With automation AND multiple system integration options, Sage Intacct helps organizations reduces errors, save time, and boosts efficiency and accuracy.

Automation Helps Close The Books Faster 

Global consolidations and multiple journal entries can slow down your process of closing the books faster than you can blink. However, when powerful software solutions exist that can perform lightning speed entity setups and faster consolidations, book closings can be reduced significantly.

Sage Intacct’s automation features allow CFO’s and finance leaders to:

  • Perform one-click global consolidations, add entities, quickly perform currency conversions, and speed book closings with their chart of accounts, building features that cater to business complexity.
  • Reduce, even eliminate, the need for Excel by offering strong cloud-based reporting options for up-to-the-minute accuracy on your company’s performance and growth, available 24/7/365.
  • Connect with other leading cloud-based systems, like SalesForce, that companies rely on for their other important tasks.

“After implementing Sage Intacct, Legacy has a completely different accounting department. We close faster than we ever have before.”

– Jay Huffman, Former CFO of Legacy Healthcare, Winner of Sage Intacct’s Customer Success Awards

Overall, if your company is growing- don’t stifle that growth, but instead, use a system that will help accelerate your development. Avoid using yesterday’s software to solve today’s problems… it might be time for a change to a software solution that will ignite productivity as it scales with your company’s success. Got more questions? Reach out, we can help!

Article Dean Dorton

This blog was reposted from our partner, AvidXchange.

We all know that the accounts payable process isn’t a straight and narrow path. Several small steps can make a big difference when it comes to paying vendors on time—invoice entry, approvals, and handling different payment methods. These steps aren’t all that simple, especially with paper.

Paper is the reason for most problems plaguing finance departments. Common obstacles that stem from paper include hours of manual labor, errors, and fraud risks that could cost your business thousands of dollars. The time and money spent solving these problems are one of the many reasons why finance decision-makers are considering a paperless accounts payable process—AP automation solutions.

Currently, there’s a lot of buzz around finance departments transforming from paper to paperless accounts payable processes. They want to reduce the time spent on manual tasks and streamline the process without missing critical steps. Businesses want flexibility, visibility, and security when paying vendors, which just isn’t possible with paper.

If your finance staff is facing any of the typical payment problems, we have four simple solutions to ease the pain:

4 accounts payable problems and reasons to seek a paperless AC process

1) Your paper-based accounts payable process makes it impossible to improve long-term strategies and visibility.

Even though paper-based accounts payable processes and strategies may be working just fine for your finance department, they’re not the best. Storing invoices, receipts, and vendor information in a file cabinet makes it nearly impossible to predict financial problems or opportunities accurately. Chances are if you’re analyzing payment data with piles of paper and Excel files, there’s a high chance of errors and limited visibility into ineffective spend or vendor costs over time. Not to mention the amount of time spent analyzing information, rummaging through file cabinets, and looking for lost printed invoices and vendor records.

With a paperless accounts payable process, finance leaders have easy access to historical payment information and customized reports to make well-informed decisions without paper or manual labor. The AP staff has all information needed for audits, tax season, and month-end closing, all in one cloud-based SaaS. AP automation’s increased level of visibility helps finance leaders stay ahead of potential overspend based on payment history.

2) You’ve established poor vendor relationships thanks to problems with paper.

Let’s face it: vendors dread calling your accounts payable department to checking on invoices or payment statuses. The reality is, that they just want their payments on time. AP specialists waste hours combing through piles of paper to answer these emails and phone calls from vendors.

Paper-based accounts payable processes often lead to late payments. Late payments and lack of communication often lead to poor vendor relationships. From a supplier’s point of view, they’re counting on your business’ payments from their sales to avoid debt and effectively manage their budgets just like your business. With paper-based accounts payable processes, it’s nearly impossible to provide vendors with real-time updates and visibility into your finance department’s accounts payable process.

The best solution to keep the supplier happy is a paperless AP process. AP automation solutions allow companies to log in to the supplier portal to get real-time updates on each invoice and view payment history without phone calls and emails. Many AP automation solutions also have the option to pay vendors in batches when using electronic payments. There’s also less worry about managing different payment types. For example, the AvidPay Network handles the heavy lifting of contacting vendors to verify payment types to save your finance department time and money.

3) You’re stuck in the Stone Age of paying with paper checks.

Why are businesses still clinging to the Stone Age with paper checks? For most finance departments, it’s convenience and cost savings. However, organizations that use paper processes often have to rely on internal processes to double check for fraud, but that’s not enough. Finance departments that stick to paper run the risk of duplicate invoices which can lead to duplicate payments. Or even worse, they may mail a paper check to a scammer who sent a fake invoice.

4) Your finance department is spending more than expected on payment processing.

Most finance leaders don’t invest in AP automation solutions because they’re afraid that they won’t see a return on the investment. There’s the common misperception that AP automation solutions are for larger businesses that have high payment volume. So, naturally, these companies stick to paper-based accounts payable processes that don’t seem to cost as much money, but in fact, paper processes cost more. On average, companies are paying $22 to process a single paper invoice. According to Due.com, some companies are spending as much as $40. If your company handles at least 500 invoices per month, you may be spending as much as $11,000 to process your payables.

Paper checks also have high costs. According to PYMNTS.com, processing one check can cost your business almost $10. That doesn’t include manual labor costs and hours spent. Multiplying these costs by the number of payments received each month can add up quickly. On the other hand, AP automation solutions cut accounts payable costs by as much as 60 percent for many businesses.

Article Dean Dorton

6 Ways Cloud Financial Management Adds More Time Back to Your Day and Boosts ROI

The clock is ticking, deadlines are looming, and your finance team is stressing. There is so much to do, from month-end closing to revenue recognition to producing reports for the board. If only you had more time… 

Luckily, you have something better extra hours in the day. You have best-in-class cloud financial management software from Sage Intacct so you not only work faster, but with greater accuracy and efficiency, and in a strategic way to help you grow your business. With time-saving cloud accounting technology, you can: 

1. Automate core financial processes. If you have multiple entities, you can consolidate financials with the push of a button, automate currency conversions, and get consolidated financial statements without waiting for month-end. And you increase efficiency at month-end by closing the sub-ledgers that are ready while leaving others open as needed. Other processes are equally efficient, such as subscription billing; revenue recognition; and tracking projects, customers, and vendors.

2. Get automatic updates and quarterly releases that are touch-free for you—no business disruption and no costly upgrade projects. You can also eliminate hardware costs and time-consuming IT management from your cost of ownership.

3. Click on easy, intuitive financial dashboards to get a quick overview of your operational and financial performance, past and present. You can see key metrics from almost any perspective—business driver, entity, product, geography, channel, and more. With dashboards, you’ll never have to manually pull a report from a certain time period again.

4. Enjoy real-time visibility across the finance team. Everyone in your department has easy access to key reports, so you don’t have to waste time getting details from the CFO. And when you have new questions, it’s easy to click your way to a new custom report, dashboard, or visualization. Now it’s simpler than ever to get fast answers and make confident decisions.

5. Eliminate spreadsheets and the agony of manual entry. If your growing company is still relying on QuickBooks, chances are you are using spreadsheets as workarounds for things like tracking customer subscriptions, managing revenue recognition, or generating ad-hoc reports. Soon your staff is bogged down in manual tasks instead of focusing on value-add projects that promote growth. If you’re ready to be free from spreadsheets and other manual processes and focus on business viability, growth, and profitability, you need Sage Intacct.

6. Shrink your chart of accounts with dimensions. Sage Intacct’s dimensions capability offers an entirely new way to track and report on financial and operational data while simplifying your chart of accounts. Instead of building out a complicated, unmanageable set of codes, you only need to set up your primary account codes. And tagging with dimensions, instead of assigning transactions to hard-coded individual accounts, enables you to add business context to your data easily. With this flexible financial foundation, you gain quick access to the insights that speed decision-making and help drive growth.

Save even more time with the pros at Dean Dorton

Transforming your finance department into a time-saving powerhouse of efficiency and automation takes careful planning. The accounting technology experts at Dean Dorton will support you every step of the way, teaching you what you need to know so you can avoid repeating the same issues that cost you valuable time. Don’t wait another second—contact us for a free consultation today!