Reporting

Article Dean Dorton

We all strive for perfection, especially when it comes to our financials. Outdated and on-premises systems that at one time were lifesavers are now growing liabilities for today’s modern businesses.

Outdated reporting systems can wreak havoc on your data accuracy, productivity, and your team’s sanity.

The Horror is Real

We hear about accounting teams spending countless hours on Excel spreadsheets. One company had to compile and work from a master Excel spreadsheet with no less than 56 tabs – one for each entity, spanning 3 alphabets wide.

We’ve seen productivity bottleneck to a halt as one company struggled to manage 300 financial statements per month.

The nightmares of cascading errors threading through a company’s data are very real.

They happen all the time and are almost always due to manual entry and re-entry on Excel spreadsheets, most often relied upon by companies managing their financials with on-premises systems.

While on-premises systems may work in theory, in practice they can cause productivity, accuracy, and data integrity breakdown:

  • Data on spreadsheets are prone to errors from heavy manual sorting, and data entry.  This kind of reporting only offers one snapshot in time. Reporting that relies heavily on Excel spreadsheets does not have the accuracy and real-time visibility of reporting done in the cloud.
  • Multi-entity companies require workarounds to manage all of the data between them, forcing accounting departments to spend endless hours clicking between entities, managing their transactions, then performing global consolidations manually each month.
  • Productivity grinds to a halt when your teams need to navigate tedious workarounds and endless checking and double-checking, wondering at night if they made a mistake.

Don’t let these horror stories happen to you…

Write Your Own Ending

Sage Intacct, a best-in-class cloud-based financial management solution streamlines, integrates and customizes your accounting processes for greater speed, accuracy, and productivity.

  • According to a recent case study on one Sage Intacct customer, Tandem HR, they saved 500 labor hours by eliminating their reporting workarounds.
  • Because it integrates with other popular solutions, like Nexonia, HRPyramid, and SalesForce, Sage Intacct significantly reduces manual entry and increases data accuracy.
  • Teams can use customizable reporting features to create and send current-to-the-minute data with deep drill-down capability to the source transaction, and options to add notes on journal entries for faster closings and cleaner audits.
  • Sage Intacct’s unique chart of accounts tagging system means faster organizing in the GL, and less manual entries.
  • One-click consolidations. Skip tedious manual consolidations, regardless of how many entities your company has.

If your company is still relying on Excel and manual entries for reporting, don’t wait until you encounter a data disaster. Re-write your story now! We can help you find the right solution to make your financials work for you.

You’ll gain a clear understanding of:

  • The risks and limitations of spreadsheets within financial processes
  • How cloud ERP software accelerates the monthly close, improves time and expense management, and automates revenue recognition processes including preparation for the transition to ASC 606
  • Practical steps organizations can take to eliminate spreadsheets and operate more efficiently

Good Riddance to Spreadsheets

Download our free whitepaper “Eliminating the Cost of Spreadsheet Errors”

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Article Dean Dorton

nexonia spotlightMassey Consulting’s area of expertise is accounting software solutions, with our primary focus on ERP systems like Microsoft Dynamics GP and Sage Intacct.

ERP systems like Sage Intacct and Microsoft Dynamics GP operate at the core business and provide the most value when integrated with other mission-critical applications.

Massey Consulting understands this and has evaluated and researched a variety of different add-on solutions that integrate seamlessly with the systems they already have in place. Need something for tax compliance? Look no further. Want a robust payroll processing system? We got it. What about automated time and expense management? Keep on reading.

This month, we’re highlighting Massey Consulting’s partnership with Nexonia, one of the leading time-and-expense-management solutions for organizations of any size. The partnership between Nexonia and Massey Consulting developed in 2015.

About Nexonia

Nexonia, established in 2004, is part of the Certify, Inc. family of brands. The company focuses on serving clients primarily across North America, with offices in Portland ME, San Francisco, San Diego, and Dallas. Nexonia has customers in over 60 countries and also two offices in Canada.

Nexonia solutions include expense automation, travel booking, invoice and AP approval, time tracking, and time-off solutions.
From small business to enterprise, Nexonia serves a wide range of businesses, with users ranging from 5 to 2,000.

Benefits of Nexonia

Users of Nexonia can expect a wide range of benefits and efficiencies around time and expense management, including:

  • Ease of expenses creation, submission, and approval routing
  • Expense policy automation and fraud reduction
  • Reduction in time and cost of submitting, approving, and entry of data into accounting software through deep integrations with ERP systems
  • Improved visibility and timing of financial data so that Finance can manage their businesses expenses and help provide better business insight

The solution is unique because of its deep integration with ERP systems. Unlike many other expense solutions, Nexonia has the ability to integrate with the client’s ERP software, which allows hundreds of configurable fields to be set up and shared between Nexonia and that ERP.

Nexonia’s flexibility means they can accommodate the individual business needs of every company, creating a truly customizable experience for the client.

“Massey is a great company to partner with,” said Rob McGarry, VP of Strategic Partnerships at Nexonia. “Nexonia’s focus on Sage Intacct as a key ERP integration is aligned with Massey’s focus. Our goal is to add value for new customers and ensure existing customers have as many important needs met by Massey Consulting’s offerings as possible. Our consultative sales approach ensures that the client gets a solution that satisfies their business needs and positions them for success.”

ERP/Nexonia integration means daily synchronization of data providing customers with up-to-date, real-time data.
Nexonia also continues to prove to be customer-centric. “One of our main differentiators from other solutions is our customer service. Nexonia ensures our customers are able to solve any challenges by working with a real person on the phone, by email, or through our online ticketing service”, said McGarry.

The solution is widely used in a variety of organizations including non-profit, professional services, financial services, government, healthcare, and technology. Some of their most notable clients are Fitbit, Marketo, and Survey Monkey.

“We have a successful partnership with Nexonia and are huge advocates of the product, but it goes further than that. We use Nexonia to manage time and expense at Massey Consulting. The efficiencies of the expense automation system and time-keeping ability are invaluable to us as an organization,” said Philip Massey, President of Massey Consulting.

Interested in More Information?

Check out our free white paper from Nexonia:

“Key Considerations for Selecting Expense Management Software”

download now

Article Dean Dorton

Written by Barbara Raess, Sage Intacct Consultant at Massey Consulting

You have done your due diligence to complete budgeting for your company. You have held working sessions with the management team for each department/location over the last several months about your business goals and creating next year’s budget. The sales team has presented their revenue estimates. Each manager has come to you with their wish list of expenditures they believe are needed to be successful in the coming year.  You have diligently worked with all involved to present a budget that has been accepted by the Company Executives and the Board of Directors.  

Now, how do you get the information into Sage Intacct in a timely and accurate manner? Lucky for you, we’ve outlined the steps to efficiently keying in your financial planning so you can enjoy Sage Intacct’s pre-built functionality without the time-consuming search for how to get it done quickly.

A) Create your Budget ID and Name. Keep it simple.  Think of the Budget ID and Name as a container, not the data in the container used on financial reports.  Creating a budget called “Operating” or “Annual” will allow you to add multiple years to a Budget ID and Name, thus eliminating the need to update the budget column on financial reports year over year.

B) Next, create your reporting periods: There are three ways to add reporting periods in Sage Intacct. (Companies using custom accounting periods will need to add new accounting periods via Company >> Accounting periods setup)

  1. Manually – you will need to create a reporting period for each period on your budget. Make sure to check the box next to “Use for budgeting.”

Sage Intacct reporting period screenshot

2.  Import via a template from the import company setup
Sage Intacct - setting up general ledger transactions

3. “Default Import” from the import company setup. Sage Intacct will look at the reporting periods in the system and determine if prior year periods, current year periods or future year periods are needed.  If only future year periods are needed, Intacct will create only future periods.

Sage Intacct - setting up general ledger transactions, part 2

C. Finally, add your Budget data.  You have two options for adding your budget data:

  1. Manually is best used with small data sets

Sage Intacct - budget amount details

Sage Intacct - selecting your reporting period

2. Import your data using the budget template.  There are two options for obtaining the budget template.

                 a) Download the template from “import company data”.  If you are using the template from “import company data”, you will be required to input the reporting periods for your budget. The template inserts “Budgetable Period” in the column header.

Sage Intacct - choosing the correct information

Budget Template Example:

DONOTIMPORT BUDGET_ID ACCT_NO DEPT_ID LOCATION_ID (BUDGETABLE PERIOD1) (BUDGETABLE PERIOD2)

b. Download the template by creating a budget report.   Entering the budget start and end periods and exporting as a csv importable format from the budget report will create a budget template with the reporting periods already added.

Example of a Budget template created using the budget report:

BUDGET_ID       ACCT_NO      DEPT_ID      LOCATION_ID      Month Ended January 2018      Month Ended February 2018  

As always, if you ever need help with something in Sage Intacct, check out our learning and training opportunities!

Article Dean Dorton

Essential Financial Management Practices of Biotech Companies – A 5-Part Series

Article 1: Track Costs with Project Accounting

It’s staggering when you consider the contributions biotech companies have made.

Tools that enable less invasive surgery and faster recovery.  Drugs that save and enhance lives.  Devices that improve the quality of life.  Ideas that lead to cures.  Knowledge that leads to innovations.  Research breakthroughs that reduce pain and suffering.  

Right here in North Carolina and throughout the United States, from small startups to companies on the verge of IPO, biotech companies are beginning projects that could lead to even more revolutionary breakthroughs.

It’s not all science and engineering – project management and financial accounting required

From the pre-revenue stages, throughout the funding stages, and up to the ultimate goal of merger, acquisition, going public or simply operating as a much larger, profit-yielding entity – financial accounting is a key component of effectively managing a life science or biotech company.  

Commercialization of biotech research requires a clear understanding of the costs associated with each project.

There are any number of things beyond your control that could threaten your research and projects.  Lack of sound financial accounting practices shouldn’t be one of those threats.  Technology and solutions exist that put you in control of your financial accounting. These are cloud-based and affordable solutions that can quickly bring biotech companies the accounting processes and reporting they need to satisfy funders, maintain compliance, and make data-driven decisions.

Project management and project accounting enhance efficiency and effectiveness

Project management – In any project-centric organization, an efficient, knowledgeable, and organized project manager is worth their weight in gold.  They serve as a go-to in getting up-to-date, accurate information on the project’s progress, obstacles, adherence to budget, staffing, milestone metrics and more.

“Project management is an established discipline, with degrees, techniques, and professional certification.  Yet many of the people who do this kind of work in scientific industries do it without this formal training – or they pick up that training later.”  ScienceMag.org

Project accounting – Equipping your organization with a powerful project accounting system is an essential best practice for biotech companies.  If you have skilled project managers it will make them that much more effective.  However, if you don’t have project managers (in the traditional sense the title implies) and the various responsibilities of project management fall to more than one person (accounting has a role, researchers have a role, IT has a role, etc.) then a project accounting solution is vital.

The project accounting solution you implement should automatically track all costs related to a specific project, for example, drug development – including time, materials and testing.  The solution should also help you accurately allocate shared costs to provide greater insight into potential profitability.

Evolution of Your Accounting Solution and Preparing for Growth

Graduating from QuickBooks – It’s hard to find an organization whose first accounting solution wasn’t QuickBooks.  QuickBooks is a great solution for what it was designed to do.  However, the needs of biotech companies very quickly exhaust the capabilities of QuickBooks.

“Within a biotech company, things begin to accelerate rather quickly,” says Philip Massey, CPA and president of accounting software technology firm Massey Consulting.   “Each project needs to be tracked and meet the reporting requirements of the funder.  When there are multiple projects, multiple funds, and perhaps multiple locations, trying to manage the financial accounting on an entry level system is difficult, if not impossible. I have seen situations where the accounting staff was spending 40 plus hours a month working in spreadsheets to try and sort things out – which is simply an inefficient use of time and manpower, not to mention the high risk of error.”

The other drawback of continuing to use QuickBooks, spreadsheets and other manual processes is the lack of integration between different information systems throughout the organization.  In part three of this series, we’ll address the importance of unified systems in more depth.

Robust project accounting for the long haul – Outgrowing a software solution and implementing a new one will disrupt the organization to some degree.  When selecting a solution, obviously you want the solution to address today’s challenges.  But you also need to think in terms of future needs.

Your future accounting needs may include different phases of funding from the seed stage to angel investors, to various rounds of funding until you reach the Mezzanine level, make your IPO or proceed with merger and acquisition strategies.

The activity of the organization may also change in time from pre-revenue stages – concept and research, through business planning, product development, and maybe several other stages – to revenue generation, expansion and IPO.

You don’t want to be changing solutions every other year – it would be disruptive, expensive and painful.  The point is to select a solution that will sustain your momentum by delivering project-centric accounting that offers opportunities for automation, scalability, tracking, reporting, and greater insight to better manage projects and satisfy the needs of the organization and your funders.

The Ideal Project Accounting System – 5 Benefits

Informed decisions with project insights – there are five ways a modern, project-centric system can strengthen the financial accounting and project insight of a biotech company:

  1. Multiple operating dimensions
  2. A single source of the truth
  3. A statistical book of measures
  4. Self-service reports and custom dashboards
  5. Real-time project visibility

“What multiple operating dimensions means is that the system should allow you to track the various dimensions of the business and research projects,” explains Massey.  

The first to feel the positive effects of best-in-breed financial accounting and project accounting solution will be the CFO, Controller, and accounting staff.  But Massey points out that there is a ripple effect, “The executive management team, the board, and funders will be enthusiastic about the ease with which they can drill down into the areas of concern or exceptions which is facilitated by the architecture of the software – the multiple operating dimensions.

Having a single source of the truth is paramount in providing accurate, consistent, audit-ready, and traceable information tracking and reporting. It comes down to your data being able to withstand the most intense examination.  For as James Wang of San Jose-based QStock notes, “Reporting and accounting must be very clean for biotech companies because they will be scrutinized.”

The system should be able to serve as a statistical book of measures by combining operational and financial metrics for greater insights. The system should be integration-friendly allowing you to look at headcount, locations, and contracts not captured in a standard ledger.

There will be a positive ripple effect of the solution outside of accounting and the executive team.  A modern, cloud-based accounting solution should offer self-service reports and custom dashboards. “Give project managers easy access to data that’s meaningful to their work, and they will be able to manage better and drive faster results,” reports Massey.  “They will know where they stand budget to actual and be able to make data-driven decisions that will move the research forward without fear of over-spending.”

Real-time project visibility means knowing exactly what the status of a project is today – not last week, last month or last quarter.  Real-time project visibility provides optimal control and clarity and gives decision-makers and leaders the data they need to act with confidence.

As you evaluate your next accounting software for your biotech company, get the best software, domain and technical assistance you can.  Look for a consultant who understands and has worked with biotech companies before.  

It’s important to scrutinize not only the software itself but other factors such as customer reviews and references, satisfaction ratings, third-party reviews, and endorsements from accounting experts like the AICPA.  

This five-part series will continue with part two ‘Automation, Tracking, and Traceability’.

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Article Dean Dorton

For years, Geotechnologies, Inc. has been a highly-valued Microsoft Dynamics GP customer of Massey Consulting’s. However, after 12 years on Dynamics GP, they decided that their growing company was outgrowing their current software and chose to power ahead with the cloud.

A full-service geotechnical engineering firm located in Raleigh, NC and founded in 1992, Geotechnologies, Inc. is built on the foundation of technical expertise and cost-effective projects for clients. Their services come with preliminary site assessments and project testing across a diverse realm of market sectors.

As an industry where successful data analysis, project management, and customer relationship management is paramount, Geotechnologies, Inc. could not afford a financial management system with frail capabilities.

After using Microsoft Dynamics GP on-premise solution continuously for years, the firm was ready to adopt a more automated, real-time solution that would allow the finance team and business leaders to better analyze revenue, profitability, and project accounting.
Once the decision was made to move to Sage Intacct, a leading cloud-based financial management solution, Geotechnologies, Inc. has seen prominent changes within the company.

“Sage Intacct has delivered significant cost savings by allowing us to eliminate SQL servers and smaller custom systems for things like time sheets, invoices, and other workflows. It also allows our employees who spend a majority of their work week away from the office to input their time and expenses from anywhere, anytime,” said Debora Hester, Controller at Geotechnologies, Inc.
Geotechnologies, Inc. has also been able to embrace full financial visibilities across multi-operational dimensions. Sage Intacct’s project visibility through dashboards allows business users, markets, and their clients to merge in real-time, which leads to more efficient business decisions.

Additionally, the transition to Sage Intacct has been a smooth one, as the solution automates a variety of financial processes such as monthly closes, accounts receivable and accounts payable, and has led to more robust and customized reporting.
“The team from Massey provides great service, and is very accessible and prompt in replying to any questions.”

Read the Full Story Here 

Check out the full customer success story here or contact us to learn how you can revitalize your reporting and financial capabilities, too.

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Article Dean Dorton

At this year’s Sage Intacct Advantage conference in Las Vegas, Sage Intacct announced Pacioli – Sage Intacct’s future in AI.

Luca Pacioli, a Franciscan friar and friend of Leonardo da Vinci, is credited as the creator of the double-entry accounting system. Now, Pacioli is the face of Sage Intacct’s future digital assistant to their users. Pacioli products or timeframes for release have not been announced, but we can rest assured, it is something to expect from Sage Intacct going forward.  

In a digital world where AI (artificial intelligence) integrates into our daily lives, online, in our homes, and at work, we should expect nothing less than that our cloud accounting solutions will follow in stride.

We will keep on the lookout for Pacioli. What should we expect from a bot assistant and machine learning to make our financial processes faster, stronger and more secure?

Reporting and Compliance

In the future, for accounting firms, we can expect to see regulation and organizational policy compliance monitoring. This year we are seeing ASC 606 and IFRS 15 compliance guideline changes. Going forward, AI would be a welcome time-saving tool to ensure company data is being organized to meet compliance in a more automated way.

Risk Management

Because AI can catch anomalous events in your data and transactions, artificial intelligence is a great detection and support tool against fraud and human error. AI can sift through reams and reams of data to search for inconsistencies and errors to save the finance and IT departments time, effort and resources.

Trend Analytics

Machine learning and artificial intelligence have the capability to take complex data, like business metrics, in high volume to analyze and form predictions that support financial management in strategy and decision-making.

Auditing

Because AI can easily analyze large quantity contract documents and compile them into useful data, it is an ideal support tool for auditing. Having AI as a support assistant means auditors are free to focus on tasks requiring more judgment and expert analysis outside of data sorting and compiling.

When we consider artificial intelligence and how it can support financial management, we can begin to imagine more time and more specialized tasks in our grasp. AI is just one more offering that Sage Intacct will bring to their users to keep them at the forefront of innovation.  

Best-in-class financial management solutions like Sage Intacct can help your teams find the support they need to work smarter for your company’s future.  

Contact us to learn more about how innovation can move your company forward.