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family offices

When Family Offices Should Move to the Cloud

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Family Offices are key to managing wealth and asset growth for current and future generations of a family. As they grow, the ownership structures become more complex and sophisticated, the diversification of assets widens, and their need for real-time information becomes imminent. With that type of responsibility on a company’s shoulders, the last thing they need is additional stress that comes with being behind in technology advancements including their accounting solution. If a family office is still using an on-premise solution for their accounting department, they are missing out on the elimination of manual work, real-time data, continuous consolidation, and easy access from anywhere. A cloud ERP solution provides all of that and more. Below are the top benefits we have seen family offices gain from switching to the cloud.

Cloud-Based

Being cloud-based is the number one asset we can provide for family offices. This gives the office and family members access anywhere, anytime. The office managers can travel with the family and, with internet access,still have access to all their data. This also means that family members can access their information at home, or on the go. Lastly, the office can be located wherever the best talent is, leaving the family with the flexibility to be where they are happiest.

Multi-Entity

Another top benefit of a cloud-based solution is a multi-entity platform with continuous consolidation. This allows offices to manage each family member individually with the option for a quick total family roll-up. Our recommended cloud-based solution allows users to manage separate entities (aka different family members or businesses) under a single log-in. This provides the capability to produce individual reports at the entity level or consolidate at the family level. The reports require a quick few clicks and are instantly completed. Report templates can be saved which allows users to swiftly access them again. With reports being easy to create and run users can quickly see their consolidation which eliminates the need to combine reports manually.

Dashboards

Custom Investor dashboards are a great asset as they can be the login screen for each user and can be customized to their daily needs. Since family offices typically deal with a large portfolio of investments, having the real-time data displayed immediately upon log-in gives the user an overall view of the financial information that’s important to them. The dashboards can be customized to each user based on their position or to a certain family member that only wants to see their personal information. The dashboards also give the user a quick way to drill down into the details of data if they want to know more about it.

Eliminating Manual Work

Eliminating manual work can save family offices multiple hours of staff work as well as help keep their team lean. An example of this is when a family office has to process dozens of checks each week. When they move to the cloud, they eliminate all of the manual work which can include the opening of the mail/ printing emails, scanning the bills, routing them via email for approval and coding along with tracking where are in the approval process, entering into QuickBooks, printing checks, signing checks, stuffing envelopes, trips to the post office, and filing. On top of eliminating all of these steps, you also get rid of the constant paper waste. This can all be automated using bill.com where the bills get emailed directly to the inbox, coded, routed for approval and paid either electronically or with a check generated by bill.com. The details are then automatically synced with your cloud solution.

 

Overall, the benefits a family office can gain from moving their accounting ERP to the cloud will transform how they operate. The elimination of manual efforts allows for a better run business, quicker decisions, and growth.

 

Find out how rinehimerbaker can help your company get results through the cloud by reaching out to accounting@rinehimerbaker.com.


dashboards

Transform Your Business Through Sage Intacct Dashboard Feature

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For business leaders a clear, concise dashboard that showcases real-time information allows them to easily see a digestible snapshot of their company’s status. Without a dashboard providing performance cards, reports, and graphs an executive or financial leader could be left in the dark on what is occurring in their business. Companies without dashboards often waste time on pulling, sorting, and formatting data rather than focusing on understanding their finances and strategizing on steps for improvement.

What does a customized dashboard look like?

8-10 key performance metrics, covering both financial and non-financial data, that are important to you and your company. You can even harness the power of Sage Intacct’s open API to integrate other software programs, allowing your dashboard to incorporate key data from other company systems, like volume, pricing, shipments, market share, and more.
Dashboards are modern and interactive, allowing you to quickly drill down with the click of a button to find out what is driving the results you are seeing. You can sort, filter, or slice and dice the data any way you want to dive deeper and truly understand your financials, ultimately giving you total power over your financial well-being.

How are you transforming?

Since the data being displayed is real-time financial leaders can use these metrics to make business-changing decisions and drive their management team’s actions. What’s even better? Each user’s dashboard can be customized to the metrics that pertain to their job. With each executive and finance team member having their own dashboard they have anywhere, anytime access to the data they need to deliver at peak performance, without comprising data security.

Dashboards will become your “finger on the pulse” of your company, forever changing how you and your team react to changes. At the end of the day, your company will have an edge on the competition by shifting from spending time aggregating data to spending time analyzing and acting upon insights.

rinehimerbaker is an outsourced cloud accounting company that can do it all. We offer consultation and implementation of cloud-based ERP solutions, outsourced accounting, and more. Contact our team at accounting@rinehimerbaker.com to find out more about how we can help you keep up with 2020’s biggest accounting trends.

 


Take your Business to the Next Level in 2020

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With 2019 wrapping up, many executives are looking for ways to stay relevant and innovative and stand out against their competition in 2020. Many companies are pursuing goals of increasing revenue and profitability, reducing costs, and expanding their cause. How are they going to do this? After looking at trends for next year, below are our top suggestions on how to take your business to the next level.

 

  • Improve productivity by automating

Automating processes for a growing company is a great way to get the most out of each workday. If your team is spending time on manual data entry every month, they probably don’t enjoy their work, you likely are not getting accurate data and their direction is not as focused on the purpose of your business as it could be. You may also lose the ability to make strategic decisions quickly because the data is useless by the time it becomes available. Cutting out manual processes, integrating systems and relying more on the cloud can speed delivery, eliminate the lengthy month-end close cycle and provide accurate results quickly, while data is still relevant.

 

Take a look at every team members’ daily, weekly, and monthly tasks. How many of them can be automated by upgrading your technology? While not everything can be upgraded at once, you can pin-point which manual tasks are taking too much time and which ones are costing the business by not being completed faster. This can be true for customer experience practices, month-end accounting processes, and sales activities.

 

  • Expand Your Reach

In 2020, the cloud will be even more prominent for businesses than it already has in the past two decades. By leveraging the cloud, you can influence more existing and potential customers in different markets and reach top potential employees for open positions.  The cloud improves access and collaboration like never before.

 

If you aren’t already using the cloud to grow your customer base, expand into new markets and reach the right employees for your firm, analyze which systems you are currently using for these processes and find out if they can be converted to the cloud.  If you don’t have a Customer Relationship Management system, human resource management tools and effective accounting solutions in place already, now may be the time to consider implementing one or all of these.  Most applications now have cloud-based options with open APIs allowing for seamless connections between each other. Rely on a trusted advisor who can educate you on the leading systems and processes being utilized in your industry. Consider how upgrading, integrating or implementing a best-in-class solution can give your company an advantage over your competition.

 

  • Elevate Your Customer Experience

The customer experience is what makes top companies different from their competitors. Companies who offer similar products and services must differentiate themselves from competitors and create loyal customers. How do they do that? They go above and beyond to make the customer feel special, have a memorable experience and exceed their customer’s expectations. Why is that important? Because there is so much competition that if your company isn’t memorable and competent you won’t create a loyal customer, they may not purchase from your company a second time and they will likely share their negative experience online.

 

What can you do? Evaluate your ideal customer experience and focus your efforts on delivering just that. Where do you go beyond? Where do you fall short? Are there companies that you have had a positive experience with in the past? Can you use innovation in your approach to interacting with customers more effectively?  Use the power of customer experience analytics to measure behavior, demographic and other metrics in real-time.  Find ways to reward your engaging customers, engage with them on social media and strive to make customer experience advocates out of all your employees.  Taking these initiatives can improve your current customer experience and make it a competitive advantage.

 

 


data driven

How Financial Leaders Can Become More Data Driven

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As we head into the next decade, financial leaders of fast-growing companies are focused on how they can better drive decisions based on real-time data. Having access to financial and operational metrics in real-time can influence strategic company decisions. Below are some ways the tech-savvy leader can continue to evolve.

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1)    Eliminating manual work through technology – The top way that financial leaders can become more data-driven is by eliminating manual work by modernizing technology. Companies that are taking advantage of integrated solutions and automation have shorter month-end close cycles, streamlined processes and reliable, real-time information.  By moving to the right cloud-based financial solution, finance departments gain the ability to use seamless API’s connecting multiple systems in one low maintenance ERP solution. Open API allows organizations to choose the systems that work best for them.  Having integrated systems eliminates duplicate entry, reduces the risk of human error and improves job satisfaction. Utilizing cloud technology allows leaders to have visibility to critical data and attain real-time insights.

2)    Shift the direction of the finance department to value-add analysis – Once manual work has been eliminated, your team can now focus on understanding the story the data is telling and predicting the future. By reducing the amount of time spent recording transactions, resources can be redirected to support organizational initiatives such as cost savings, growth, and pursuing your organization’s strategic mission.

3)    Use financial data to create strategic goals – Financial leaders are in a prime position to drive company goals, set KPI’s and achieve measurable results when they have accurate and timely data.  Key performance metrics may include those related to revenue, margins, sales cycle, or other operational measures of success.  A fully integrated, flexible, cloud-based ERP system allows Finance Leaders the ability to quickly model scenarios and analyze the impacts on revenue, profits and cash flow.

Make this decade one of distinguishing your organization’s strategic vision and differentiate yourself as a leader who adds value, drives growth and sets your CEO up for success.  How? Make technology a priority and move to the cloud. It is the first step in driving your company forward and becoming a data-driven financial leader.

 

Contact rinehimerbaker at accounting@rinehimerbaker.com  to find out how you can become more data-driven. 


Where is Cloud Accounting Technology Headed

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Watch our webinar this week on Where Cloud Accounting Technology is Headed. The webinar was lead by Tonya Lilly and Michael Garrison. They discussed what the cloud is, what current benefits of the cloud are, where cloud accounting technology is headed, and how our team works with the cloud.

As you watch if there are questions you have please reach out to our team at accounting@rinehimerbaker.com.


1000 North Case Study

Hospitality Finance Departments Save Big with Cloud ERP Solution

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Hospitality Finance departments have been able to save money, and time by moving their ERP solution to the cloud. The cloud gives finance employees access anywhere anytime with easy to create reports that help cut close times every month. Below you will find examples of how companies have saved big by moving to the cloud. If you want to find out more about how they were able to get these results sign up for our webinar on October 30th at 1 pm Eastern.

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hospitality finance


Lure the right talent with cloud ERP

Meet the Expectations of Top Financial Talent with Cloud-Based Software

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The benefits of cloud-based software are usually cited as lower costs, process and workflow optimization, and scalability. But the attraction and retention of key finance and accounting department personnel is another benefit of implementing the best-in-class technology—one that’s not included in the “top 5 benefits” lists, but should be. The reality is that today’s top financial talent—and tomorrow’s leaders—operate in a digital world, where 24/7 access, insight, and productivity reign. Read more

Value of Strategic CFO

The Rising Value of the Strategic CFO

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Technology is reshaping the role of the CFO, moving action from the back-office into the boardroom. For a growing company, this couldn’t be more important. Back in the days of spreadsheets and desktop software, CFO primarily focused on bookkeeping and historical reporting. But today, they can look forward—and take a seat at the strategy table, where they help drive the future of the company.

Riding the Tides of Change

Administrative financial and accounting tasks have always been—and will always be—essential to business operations. In fact, the critical nature of this work is one of the reasons key financial department employees were traditionally found burning the midnight oil in front of a stack of invoices and a calculator. They had no choice but to immerse themselves in the time-sensitive, manual requirements of tracking financials, paying bills, running reports, ensuring regulatory compliance, and more.

For more insights, find out How to Know When QuickBooks No Longer Makes the Cut.

With technology, the CFO and their staff have been able to streamline their processes, one “automation evolution” at a time. For most companies, paper ledgers were transposed to electronic spreadsheets and desktop software, which are now being shifted to an online, cloud-based chart of accounts, and so on. Every system iteration brings more functionality to the finance and accounting department, however small, cutting time and improving accuracy. It has taken data out of silos and enhanced team and interdepartmental collaboration.

Learn more How Intacct’s Cloud-Based Financial Software Supports Growing Businesses with Automation.

Leading the Technological Revolution as a CFO

Tech-driven changes have freed CFOs from much of the day-to-day minutiae so they can take on more back-end and strategic and projects. They can evaluate more data, report on it in new ways, and work with other company leaders to plan for the future. With access to more comprehensive operational and financial data—and more sophisticated, even real-time, reporting tools—CFOs can easily:

  • Look beyond the numbers to understand what’s impacting performance and driving bottom-line business results across the organization.
  • Make better use of resources to increase value to customers, strengthening the top-line.
  • Identify trends, risks, and opportunities inside and outside of the company, developing a voice in M&A conversations and others that determine the company’s growth trajectory.

Depending on Technology

Without the right technology solutions in place, however, a CFO’s strategic potential is stunted—or at least delayed until the company makes the appropriate investments in solutions that deliver the data and functionality they need. Even if they’re participating in strategic growth discussions, many CFOs continue to spend too much time and energy grappling with the inefficiencies of manual processes. They’re limited by disparate and disconnected systems, insufficient reporting tools, and even impatient decision-makers.

Implementing cloud-based financial management and accounting software can be an important next step for companies and their CFOs who are in this uncomfortable position. A scalable and cost-saving system eliminates their dependence on spreadsheets and gives them access to the tools they need to take control of their processes, better manage their employees’ projects, and provide fast and accurate insights to anyone who needs them.

Don’t miss How the Cloud Provides Real Time Insights for Real Time Decision Making.

What’s more, the enhanced capabilities will allow them to do more than they could ever do before—with historical and real-time data, for example—and keep up with a rising transaction volume as the business continues to grow. The right software will make it easy to centralize their data and integrate all of their business systems, even those they haven’t implemented yet.

Is It Time to Make a Change?

If your financial and accounting organization is ready for an upgrade—so your CFO can get more strategic—contact us to learn more about your options. We specialize in connecting growing companies with cloud technology solutions customized for your needs.