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.
At this year’s Sage Intacct Advantage conference, our customer MemberClicks was recognized as a recipient of the Sage Intacct Customer Success Award, an award designed to celebrate customers who have made dramatic improvements to their business and financial operations using Sage Intacct.
MemberClicks’ mission is to “Empower member-based organization to thrive through refreshing technology and a heart for service.” Their purpose-built suite of technology and customer-centric culture helps them achieve this allowing their customers to focus on serving its members.
For MemberClicks, 2017 was a year that largely focused on growth. With that came the challenges that all growing companies face and in 2018 they decided it was time for a new system that would help, not hinder, their company.
Sage Intacct was implemented for its ability to automate their order to cash process, manage customers’ subscriptions, and automate revenue management to keep them compliant with ASC 606, along with many other benefits!
Using Sage Intacct, MemberClicks was able to increase efficiencies throughout the organization with capabilities like:
Using Sage Intacct, they now have a consistent customer experience across the entire organization from orders to renewals to payments and everything in between. This consistency provides key members the visibility into every stage of the contracts’ lifecycle.
rinehimerbaker worked with MemberClicks to design and deploy this fully integrated solution centered around Sage Intacct. As a group, we were committed to helping migrate the company’s entire accounting operations onto a system up to the challenge of supporting their dynamic organization.
With MemberClicks recognized as one of a few winners selected out of hundreds of applicants, the journey for them proved worthwhile and demonstrates that success like this can be achieved by organizations of all sizes when you work with people and software that strive to achieve great results!
Congratulations again to MemberClicks from the entire rinehimerbaker team!
Find out how rinehimerbaker can help your company get similar results by reaching out to accounting@rinehimerbaker.com.
The annual Sage Intacct Advantage was an amazing event again this year with great opportunities to learn about the future of finance, network with our customers and the Sage Intacct team, and enjoy Las Vegas! Below are our team’s top takeaways from this year’s conference.
1) MemberClicks won a customer success Award- rinehimerbaker’s customer, MemberClicks was honored with the customer success award this year at Advantage! This award celebrates customers who have made dramatic improvements to their business and financial operations using Sage Intacct. Congratulations Brent Stringer and team!
2) Change in Thinking-There was a strong focus on how the accounting function is moving from the age of information to the age of answers. Gone are the old ways of simply reporting “what happened”; now we are focused “why it happened” which is quickly moving to “what will happen next and what should we do about it”. This focus shows how finance teams are moving away from manual work and utilizing technology to deliver strategic value so that organizations can further their mission, grow and scale more quickly.
3) Eliminating the Close– Sage Intacct continues to look for innovative ways to make accountants lives easier. They are currently working on AI capabilities that are embedded directly into the Sage Intacct Intelligent GL. The goal is to have continuous GL and eliminate the close. How? By using AI to accelerate the capture of data, to detect anomalies and ensure data is accurate and compliant, and to analyze and make intelligent decisions.
4) Sage People– This was an exciting announcement. Sage People is a new HR/benefit/onboarding/payroll solution that will be fully integrated with Sage Intacct. With this full integration, users will be able to quickly and easily view analytics, reports, graphs and dashboards related to the HR function.
5) Growth in Use– Currently 38% of the top CPA firms are using Sage Intacct. The continued growth of users shows how impactful Sage Intacct has been in revolutionizing the cloud accounting world throughout many different industries. The fastest growing verticals adopting Sage Intacct are hospitality and healthcare.
6) Orlando in 2020– Next year’s Advantage conference will be held in Orlando, FL the week of Oct 13th. For everyone that couldn’t make it this year, mark your calendars for next October. It will be a great week to learn, and network!
What is cloud accounting technology?
Everyday companies make the decision to move from on-premise solutions to the cloud. With so many companies choosing to move to a cloud-based ERP solution to drive their finance department, what’s next with the cloud is always at the forefront of their minds. You are probably already familiar with the benefits of the cloud such as, not needing IT resources to support your finance function, one login with anywhere-anytime access, and API connections with other cloud solutions. For certain cloud solutions, you can also get real-time data, easy to create reports, company roll-ups, customized dashboards, dimensions to eliminate additional general ledgers, easy intercompany payments, and a notes section for communication between your team about changes.
Join us for a cocktail hour where we discuss where cloud accounting technology is headed
Where is cloud accounting headed?
As cloud accounting continues to develop the user interface and open API’s are a top priority for ERP solutions. Both of these factors are leading the way due to users continuing to want easy-clean way to run real-time reports and create an audit trail. The evolution of the user interface is a top priority. These changes will make or break companies’ decisions to move to their solution based on the quickness their employees can get through tasks.
The open API is an important factor for continued development as companies continue to want a best-in-class solution instead of a one-in-all solution. This means continuing to create seamless API connections on the back end with other top cloud software vendors.
Finally, the most exciting trend for cloud accounting technology is the use of artificial intelligence and the influence it will have in ERP solutions. Companies demand their technology to work for them and eliminate manual work, coding, and clerical employees will continue to lead to a need/desire for technology that can do more automatically.
Overall, over the past decade, cloud accounting technology has continued to go develop and change the landscape of finance departments. With the anywhere, anytime access, and consistently updates throughout the year, the technology can only allow for capabilities to drastically improve with less and less manual effort to accomplish tasks.
Sign up for our Cloud Accounting Technology Future webinar
Join us for our webinar on November 21st at 1 pm eastern time to deep dive into where cloud accounting technology is headed, and the updates we see with the software we provide every day to customers.
Sage Intacct dimensionality replaces the old with the new to simplify the way businesses manage their general ledger. The days of having thousands of accounts to track different business segments (department, location, etc.) are over.
Sage Intacct has several native dimensions making it easy for you to streamline the general ledger and increase the trust and visibility of your company’s finances.
Simplify Your Accounts:
The dimensions within Sage Intacct simplify your company’s general ledger and allow you to easily tag transactions recorded within a primary account code.
For example, traditional systems would require 30 account code combinations to be able to track consulting fees across 3 locations and 10 departments. Sage Intacct keeps it simple by having a primary account code and transaction tagging with your location and department.
As your business changes, you can add on dimensions and tags, there is no need to create hard-coded account combinations to segment your business.
Tracking – How it Works:
Sage Intacct has innovated the way tracking can be done. Once a dimension is created you can use it for any transaction as well as operational data. This allows you to easily organize your data without hard coding the transactions to individual accounts. Filtering through data from an overview of the entire company to a specific segment has never been easier. A great example is a Country Club viewing the organization as a whole and filtering down to see activity by the type of membership (social, golf, etc.) as well as different areas such as the grill room or pool snack shack and bar. This can be done in just a few simple clicks within one system.
Streamlining Your Reports:
Using dimensions and “tagging” allows you to have a flexible financial foundation to view performance from any angle. With this level of visibility into the financial and operational data, decision makers can quickly access the data needed to make decisions in real-time. Sage Intacct made this easy by integrating dimensions into the user interface of their financial report writer.
A Sage Intacct customer was able to go from thousands of separate accounts to few hundred primary codes saving them more than 30 hours of manual work each month. To find out more about this transformation download the case study.
Sage Intacct’s Dimensions are one of their unique features that differentiates their ERP software from the competition. At rinehimerbaker we want to help you see how dimensions can transform your business. Fill out the form below to set up a call with one of our top accountants.
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.
Many small to medium companies start with QuickBooks because of its easy accessibility and low entry point cost. However, as your company continues to grow, you will likely find yourself rapidly outgrowing its capabilities. Many companies deal with the manual aspects of outgrowing QuickBooks because they don’t realize there is are better cost-effective solutions. Below we will give you some things to consider when looking to switch and what the ROI will be once the switch is made.
How to know when it is time to consider a change
While QuickBooks is a great starting point there are many points in the journey that are signals that you are out growing this solution. As you are reading through the list, if you relate to one or more of the bullet points it is time to start considering a change in accounting solution.
What you should consider when changing
Once you have realized your company is ready for the next step in accounting solutions there are a few different aspects you should be considering. Below is a list of internal company considerations that will affect what you buy, how you buy it, and any additional software that will need to be integrated/purchased.
ROI you can expect with a cloud ERP
Changing to a robust ERP can seem overwhelming from an implementation or upfront cost perspective. However, the return on investment is vast and long term can end up saving you money. How you ask?
Fill out the form below to contact rinehimerbaker if you would like a free consultation to discuss the possibility of moving off QuickBooks.
Hospitality companies can grow quickly with new locations, and new business lines (such as an additional bar, restaurant, golf lessons department, etc). With quick growth companies who aren’t using the best software can feel growing pains and create their own automation gap unknowingly. Below we review what the top pain points are and where the automation gap is created. At the end we discuss what the best steps are to eliminate your growing pains and get rid of the manual work through cloud solutions.
Hospitality Company Growing Pains
Growing pains can be sometimes be hard to distinguish because you find them becoming an accepted part of your day-to-day operations. Only when you start looking at best practices and how competitors are operating do you realize you are behind the curve in technology that gives time back to your organization. Top growing paints for hospitality companies are:
Where the Automation Gap can be Created for Hospitality Companies
The automation gap is created in hospitality companies when their growth is faster than their current software solutions can scale. This leads to manual processes for your team and creating hours of additional work. While at first this process many seem simple such as signing 5 checks a week, by the time you get to 40 checks a week you are now taking up hours a month on something that could be automated. Another example is timesheets. When you start out with one business area or location you may have four people which is easy to do manually. You oversee this team directly and can validate they worked the hours they have written down. By the time you have 35 employees you are looking at additions to your total business, more on your plate taking you out of the day and day, and managers that are now in charge of payroll. By leaving this process on paper and manual you will be prone to errors as well as inaccuracies because you aren’t there to know exactly what time everyone worked. This is the automation gap.
If you have said yes that is an opportunity in my company, yes I face that same difficulty every week, then we have a few solutions that will work for you. Read through the chart below to identify where your company falls, and then fill out the form below to talk with our team.
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| Solutions | Find an Accounting Solutions Firm that has an experienced team that can advise on new technologies, implement best practices, and lead your company to growth.
They will provide:
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Find an Accounting Software partner that can implement a cloud-based solution that eliminates manual processes, and provides data faster
They will provide:
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Sage Intacct is the leading cloud-based ERP solution for franchise management. Franchise owners can easily manage multiple locations, access in real time data, and gain insights into each location’s performance without sacrificing roll-up reporting capabilities. All of this is made possible by Intacct’s best-in-class multi-entity management / consolidation capabilities and open API. Intacct relieves business owners of IT worries, all while eliminating cumbersome consolidations and manual reporting. Franchise finance and accounting teams can become proactive team players by refocusing their time on high value analytic tasks. Below are a few recommendations of how Sage Intacct can provide the boost your franchise’s finance team has been looking for:
Multi Location Reporting
Managing multiple entities or locations can be overwhelming with the wrong software. With Sage Intacct you can quickly see each individual location’s financial data, as well as the financial health of your entire franchise. The high configurability of Intacct makes roll up reporting for the executive team a breeze. Now decision makes can quickly analyze their total business with real-time data and seize time sensitive opportunities, both on the franchise and individual store levels.
Secure, Granular Permissions
Sage Intacct’s user permissions allow you to easily assign and update user permissions, giving each person access to only the location(s), reports, and financial data necessary to their role within your organization. With their own login, managers can see their store(s) financial information without sacrificing the security of other franchise financial data or them having to wait to receive manual reports from the corporate finance team. Now franchises can structure their accounting system to fit their organizational structure, instead of modifying employees’ roles to fit the accounting system’s capabilities.
Streamlined Tech Stack
Sage Intacct has a fully open API for seamlessly connection to your franchises’ other systems, such as your POS, HR management, and business intelligence software. Being able to connect all of your business tools to Sage Intacct means you can now pull data from disparate systems into one place for expedited review. Imagine having a dashboard showing sales from your POS, headcount from your HR system, and comparative report showing revenue by headcount across all your locations.
Hassle Free Expansion
Adding a new store location in Intacct can be done in a matter of hours, not days or weeks. Intacct was designed for rapidly expanding businesses, meaning your new franchise location or holding company can be added quickly without any IT resources or reconfiguration of existing locations.
Benchmarking and KPI’s
Benchmarking is made easier with Sage Intacct’s ability to consolidate and report information. Business owners can quickly see how each location is performing against their KPI’s and against other locations. This means owners and their management team can quickly identify performance issues. Also, through
Sage Intacct’s dashboards management can dive deeper into the numbers and understand the drivers of each locations’ performance.
Negotiate Pricing
Sage Intacct’s numerous reporting tools allow your team to tailor reports that slice and dice data to your company’s individual needs. With this ability, data can easily be analyzed to show how much your franchise is spending with each vendor, at each location, and what types of goods are being purchased. Management can easily leverage this data to negotiate pricing with vendors and identify opportunities to streamline operational expenditures. Sage Intacct effortlessly provides opportunities to your franchise managers for increased insight and control of operations, driving increased profitability for your entire franchise.
To scale your franchise’s growth, you need a solution that provides meaningful capabilities. Find out more about how rinehimerbaker can help you implement Sage Intacct and achieve success with your franchise. Check out this case study where rinehimerbaker leveraged Sage Intacct to drive success in a high-growth franchise.
Closing the automation gap in finance is key to running an efficient business capable of scaling. Growth in your business, by product diversification or acquisition, creates additional work on your team. If the system is designed around manual tasks and spreadsheets, your company won’t reap the rewards or experience the profit growth you expect. Closing the gap allows finance teams to transform from error-prone clerical workers to strategic advisors capable of providing data and insight in real-time.
What is the automation gap?
The automation gap is the space between what can be automated within your current system and the actual processes your staff is executing. The gap essentially represents the manual processes your team completes in order to run your business effectively. As companies experience growth, the automation gap generally increases and can overrun a finance department.
A great example of how the right system can close the automation gap is Sage Intacct’s multi-entity management capabilities. By automatically consolidating multiple companies and automating closing entries, when you grow by acquisition you no longer need to manually track the activity in spreadsheets and manually consolidate the books! With Sage Intacct, finance teams can rapidly close the books and reduce errors along the way allowing them to provide meaningful information to your management team faster.
Growing through product diversification is great but that also means companies need to understand how that impacts their compliance standards such as ASC 606. Once you understand your compliance requirements, you then need systems in place to uphold them.
When your current software doesn’t automate this for you, companies typically lean toward a spreadsheet as their process. Managing compliance in a spreadsheet is not sustainable over the long term as you experience continued growth and create new products.
Watch the Webinar: Closing the Automation Gap Now
Processes built around spreadsheets are extremely manual and the responsibility of managing and maintaining them typically falls on one or two employees who truly understand how the document works. We often find that the documentation and instructions of the process are nonexistent meaning all of that process knowledge leaves the company when the employees leave your organization.
Managing complex processes using spreadsheets is not without risk. It’s not a question of “if” there is an error, it’s a question of “when” the error is going to occur and how big of an impact is it going to cause.
Companies are trying to close the automation gap by hiring talent. However, hiring high-level talent that can create and understand complex spreadsheets comes at a premium. Continuing to hire employees at top salaries to perform these tasks is not sustainable over the long term. This also contributes to creating a company culture where the focus is on clerical work rather than strategic work.
Watch the Webinar: Closing the Automation Gap Now
Why is closing the gap important?
90% of the decision-makers are under pressure to make decisions faster but only 28% trust the data in their reports. This is largely due to the almost guaranteed mistakes that happen when a company relies on manual processes instead of working with a system that closes its automation gap.
Current CFO’s have more responsibilities than ever to strategically lead their companies with real-time data. Reacting on three-week-old data that is almost guaranteed to have some error within the report is no longer acceptable or the norm.
Are you unsure of how to discover your automation gap and implement a solution to close it? The rinehimerbaker team can help you evaluate your current processes, identifies your opportunities, and build a plan on how to close your automation gap.
If you would like to find out more, click here to watch the full Closing the Automation Gap Webinar. If you are ready to discuss closing your own gap, please fill out the form below to speak with a representative at rinehimerbaker.
