New technologies and growing expectations are changing the job of CFOs like never before. An article in Forbes put the matter like this: “Perhaps chief technology evangelizer, chief strategic engineer or chief operations partner should share the billing with the finance title. CFOs today are expected to fill all of these roles.”​

To be more strategic and a champion of growth, CFOs need to embrace technology in all its forms. Deloitte research indicates seven technologies that “have growing interaction and relevance for how the work of finance gets done:”

1. Cloud computing
2. Process robotics
3. Visualization
4. Advanced analytics
5. Cognitive computing
6. In-memory computing
7. Blockchain

“Together, [these technologies] form a toolset finance can use to improve its own performance and serve the business more effectively, especially when they are used together,” according to Deloitte.

Elevating finance to the cloud
In particular, tech-savvy CFOs are looking to the cloud to expedite financial accounting tasks and get the insights they need to grow their business. Cloud-based financial management solutions such as Sage Intacct are essential to progressive CFOs for several reasons:

1. Greater operational efficiency. Sage Intacct replaces the “million spreadsheet march” with smart and streamlined automated financial processes, including order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, and project accounting. Sage Intacct has the flexibility to automate workflows including PO approvals, automatic invoicing, and more—without a spreadsheet in sight.
   
   
2. In-depth insights, on demand. Sage Intacct provides comprehensive, real-time financial reporting and analysis, giving CFOs an up-to-the-minute picture of their entire organization. They can create any report, dashboard, or visualization they need with the precise metrics that matter to investors, lenders, executives, and department leaders.
   
   
3. More productivity, flexibility at less cost. Sage Intacct eliminate the hardware costs and IT burdens while delivering the advantages of modern financial software—with lower costs, more security, and increased productivity. In addition, Sage Intacct implementations can be adapted—including functionality, reports, and analyses—to stay in step with changing business requirements. In this way, CFOs sidestep the painful capital investments, and tap into the power of sophisticated, high-performance financial software that’s managed by experts in a world-class data center.

Kevin Craig, managing director at Concur Canada, summed up the benefits of cloud technology this way: “Ultimately, cloud-based solutions are the key to allowing CFOs to take on the evolving role they are expected to fill. With emerging technologies and increased automation helping to remove much of the mechanical burden placed on a CFO, these business leaders are free to concentrate on adding value in the form of creative innovation and strategic direction to continue moving their business forward.”

Grow your company and your role with Leaf Software Solutions
Technology in and of itself has little value without the right partner. That’s why you can trust the professionals at Leaf Software Solutions to select and implement a business technology solution for your organization—one that helps you meet current needs and provides a platform for growth.

Contact us today and let us know how we can help.

​Are you adding new locations?  Opening another office?  Congratulations!  Your business is on a growth path. While it’s exciting to cut the ribbon or open the bottle of the bubbly to celebrate, challenges await. New entities add complexities to your organization that your QuickBooks financial software isn’t built to handle.

Some of these include: decentralized payables, inter-entity transactions, multiple currencies, and global consolidations—all of which require a purpose-built financial management system such as Sage Intacct. Whether your business is global or domestic, simple or complex, now you can close the books faster and gain the visibility you need even as your operations grow and evolve.

Get quick and accurate closes with automated consolidations
Finance teams in distributed organizations struggle with QuickBooks’ inability to quickly consolidate information at period close or when it’s needed for decision making. Sage Intacct’s multi-entity structure allows you to consolidate multiple entities with just a couple of clicks. Now you get accelerated closes, improved accuracy, and better visibility. Plus, every global consolidation includes a detailed journal entry report for easy audibility.

Easily manage multiple currencies
Sage Intacct automates the management of multiple currencies, saving you time and increasing accuracy. You’ll use up-to-date exchange rates for currency conversions and revaluations, and instantly access information on currency gains and losses. You can also produce reports in your headquarters’ currency or the entity’s local currency.

Save time and effort with simple setup and maintenance
With Sage Intacct, all your business entities reside in one system. You can quickly set up policies, procedures, workflows, and reporting for new entities regardless of the complexity of your multi-entity structure. For example, you can easily configure each new entity with unique definitions. Or automatically “inherit” centralized definitions—workflows, charts of accounts, period definitions, and lists—across entities for a standard, organization-wide configuration. You can also opt for automated inter-entity transactions with manageable rules, making it easier to centralize payables and receivables.

Give the right people the right access with permissions
Sage Intacct provides permissions that can be scaled to just the location the user works in and to just the area that person needs to see. For example, you may want a person to be able to enter sales orders for their entity, but they don’t need to see everything that’s going on in purchasing. Also, you may want a manager to be able to pull a report just for their department without being able to delve into the financial information of the whole company.

Take advantage of fast, flexible reporting
Giving people self-service access lets them get to the information they need—when they need it—to help their part of the company grow, and you don’t become a single source for constant requests. And Sage Intacct makes it easy to quickly produce accurate financial reports, regardless of your organization’s complexity. You can get insights from real-time visibility with instant roll-up reporting (single currency) or push-button consolidations (multiple currencies). What’s more, you can easily switch between consolidated and local views for further insights into the figures.

Growing businesses trust Leaf Software Solutions
QuickBooks, while excellent for new businesses, wasn’t designed for the complexities of multi-entity organizations. Whether you’re expanding geographically or diversifying your business, rely on Sage Intacct to keep you in control across your company. The professionals at Leaf Software Solutions can create and implement a technology solution that meets your unique business requirements—now and as you grow. Contact us by phone or email and let us know how we can help. ​

SupplyKick is an innovative online e-commerce company specializing in selling goods online on Amazon.com and other online retailers. Their mission is to simplify and revolutionize the world of e-­commerce and grow manufacturer’s brands to their full potential through lasting partnerships.

​The goal with this project was to find a more accurate approach to predict sales, to inform order restocking and inventory levels. As an Amazon retailer, overstocking leads to high warehouse storage charges, while understocking risks running out of inventory, bringing sales to a halt. This is a very complex problem for humans to solve as each product has different ordering trends and seasonality.

​One example that illustrates the difference between traditional and machine learning is trying to read handwriting. With traditional programming a programmer could attempt to program a set of rules that determine which letter is which, but this would be very time consuming and it would be impossible to generate a set of rules that is able to identify all types of handwriting. In machine learning, a user creates a model, which can be thought of as a complex mathematical function. The programmer will feed in handwriting data for which the correct answers are known. The model will read in all of this data, attempt to make predictions on what it thinks the answers (labels) are, compares its predictions with the correct answers, and adjusts itself until its able to make accurate predictions. The machine learning model is not only much less labor intensive to produce, but also makes much more accurate predictions on many more types of data. 

​The model used in this project is a special type of machine learning model called a “artificial neural network.” These types of models have been around for over half a century, the first was theorized in 1958, however recent improvements in computation power has made it possible for practical use. Essentially, these are modeled off of the way brains (or “neural networks”) work, as they are an interconnected structure of “neurons” (or nodes) and “synapses” (or connections). Unlike real neural networks, which send biological compounds called “neurotransmitters” between neurons, neurons in artificialneural networks simply communicate using numbers. As it turns out, this seemingly basic structure is able understand complex concepts, similar to humans. It's worth noting that in this project a special type of neural network called a “recurrent neural network,” was applied, which is specifically designed to read sequences of data.  

​As we can see, the data is pretty noisy, which is not great for the model to achieve a fit. Really, we want the general trend rather than data that changes drastically day to day. In order to do so, we apply a smoothing function as illustrated in red.

​Of course, machine learning is cool, but you probably want to see the real business applications for the technology. Here’s an example of how it can be implemented in our services.

​This is a screenshot of the dashboard interface we have built for the client. As you can see it already provides them with lots of useful metrics to influence their business decisions. The end goal is to have the model running on the server, constantly pulling new data from Amazon and retraining itself. Then it would be able to show a projection of future sales in order to aid the client in reordering products. 

We’ve all seen it (and probably done it but we won’t talk about that) – a transposed transaction/document date.  And, of course, we rarely catch the transposition before we post.  Thus begins the long, arduous process of correcting a lousy posting for 2081 instead of 2018.  Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to prevent that?

​The good news is that thanks to Professional Services Tools’ Library (“PSTL”), there is!  The answer to our 2081 problem is a function within PSTL called Doc Date Verify. This function prevents a user from entering a transaction date that does not exist in the company’s fiscal period set up. 

​PSTL is now available free to all supported versions of GP (Click here for a list of supported versions and life cycle information).  PSTL should be installed on all workstations/servers to ensure that PSTL’s processes can run and validate all users’ data entry, validation, etc.  Additionally, some tools within PSTL do include the modification of data so we strongly encourage users to coordinate with their internal GP administrator or contact Leaf with questions before making any changes with those particular tools and when in doubt, back up the database!

​3.)  Under the “Misc. Tools” column on the far right, there is an option for Doc Date Verify. To enable, select the radio button and check the box next to Doc Date Verify. Once checked, you can click the “X” in the upper right corner to close the screen.  Doc Date Verify is officially enabled.

​Now assuming you’ve read through the post and ensured all workstations and remote servers, have PSTL installed, users won't be able to enter transaction dates where the corresponding fiscal period is not set up.  Here is the Payables Transaction Entry screen to demonstrate.

​You’ll see below that my Doc. Date is set to 04/21/2220 which isn’t set up on my system (and hopefully isn’t on yours either!). 

​As soon as I attempt to move away from the Doc Date field to the next data entry, I receive the error message below.

Though the button option says “Continue,” all it does is revert me to the Doc Date entry.  I cannot continue with data entry until I put in a valid date (i.e., a date that is set up in your company’s fiscal period set up).

Entering a valid date does not prevent a user from keying a document date as 8/1/2018 instead of 7/1/2018 if both periods exist and are open in GP, but it is a great tool to capture those transpositions of numbers that put dates in nonexistent fiscal periods which are much harder to correct!

Microsoft 365 is a complete, intelligent solution, including Office 365, Windows 10, and Enterprise Mobility + Security, that empowers everyone to be creative and work together, securely.

Microsoft 365 Enterprise is designed for large organizations and integrates Office 365 Enterprise, Windows 10 Enterprise and Enterprise Mobility + Security.

Microsoft 365 Business is designed for small- to medium-sized businesses with up to 300 users and integrates Office 365 Business Premium with tailored security and management features from Windows 10 and Enterprise Mobility + Security. It offers services to empower employees, safeguard the business and simplify IT management.

Businessman Simon Mainwaring once said, “The keys to brand success are self-definition, transparency, authenticity and accountability.”  Transparency and accountability, in particular, are essential to a nonprofit achieving mission success.

How to show accountability and transparency
The willingness to be accountable and transparent about your nonprofit — especially finances — creates an environment of trust that encourages donations. Financial transparency and accountability are also essential for legal compliance.

Jimmy Briggs will be sharing a video game he built for the event to show how video games are created, so grab the family, head downtown Indy and check out Canal Nights this evening.  
July 18  //  6 - 8 pm

Canal Nights: Game Night + Member Night at Indiana State Museum
Join us as we celebrate summer nights out on our Canal Terrace for free activities and family fun Wednesday evenings in June and July from 6 to 8 p.m. Enjoy games, art, science and fun! Exercise your competitive side on game night or discover the science of bubbles through wacky water experiments. Each Wednesday offers a different kind of hands-on experience! 

• June 6 - STEAM Night 
• June 13 - Nature Play Days 
• June 27 - Build It! 
• July 4 - Boom and Sparkle 
• July 11 - Water Science 
• July 18 - Game Night + Member Night 
• July 25 - Jump and Play (fitness night) 

Canal nights are free and open to the public, though museum galleries remain closed.  All activities take place outside on the canal side of the museum.  In case of rain, the event will relocate inside to the Gov. Frank & Judy O’Bannon Great Hall. 
​
Parking is available in the White River State Park underground garage, and visitors will receive $5 parking with validation.

Once again, Leaf Software Solutions has gained recognition as a leading ERP solutions firm. Leaf earned the 38th position in the much-respected “Bob Scott’s Top 100 VARs 2018.” This is a list of VARs across the United States who sell and support financial software. Ranking and selection were based on revenue, employees and financial software type. Companies represented on the list were broad in reported revenue and with a particular focus on the middle market. The financial software product lines included were Microsoft Dynamics 365 products, Sage Intacct, Netsuite, and Accumatica. Furthermore, the predominance of VARS in the list represented cloud-based business software, which supports the expected industry trend where many have or are moving away from “on-premise” systems.

Leaf Software Solutions has a long-standing presence in the Greater Indianapolis area and has spent the last 31 years accelerating commercial growth for its clients. Leaf brings a unique blend of talented business and technology resources to every project. Leaf offers a full suite of financial software options, including a robust development workforce and strategy. Leaf is recognized, by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, as one of the Best Places to Work in Indiana, and has received this award for seven consecutive years.

Bob Scott has been informing the mid-market financial software sector through print and Internet-based publications for over 24 years and has served as technology editor of Accounting Today and as executive editor of The Progressive Accountant.

The role of the CFO is changing fast.  Customers, the board, your finance team, your stakeholders within the firm, and—most of all—technology is driving this change.  Of course, change is rarely easy, even if it’s entirely worthwhile. In this case, technology is both the source of your challenge and the solution you need.

Today, it takes a tech-savvy CFO—someone who understands and embraces the promise and power of technology—to navigate this exciting but sometimes uncertain future. A tech-savvy CFO seeks to modernize and transform the company’s business systems (and IT infrastructure) to boost staff productivity and give the company flexibility for the future. Even if you are in the process of becoming tech savvy, in today’s landscape, an effective CFO must have knowledge of how technology will positively impact your company.

Here are five ways the tech-savvy CFO uses technology to get ahead and stay ahead.

Transform your technology with Leaf Software Solutions
Tech-savvy CFOs know and understand the power of harnessing technology to quickly grow their business. They also know that the details of implementing a transformative solution are best left to the experts. Leaf Software Solutions combines more than 30 years of software application development with the latest technology to create a custom solution that can accelerate your company’s growth.


You can’t afford to be left behind. Contact us today to start your journey to becoming the tech-savvy CFO your company’s future demands.
​

Leaf Software Solutions was recently named as one of the Best Places to Work in Indiana. This thirteenth annual program was created by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce and Best Companies Group.  The recognition in 2018 is the seventh consecutive year in which Leaf has been named a Best Places to Work.
 
Established in 1987, Leaf delivers mission critical business solutions to financial institutions, insurance, logistics, manufacturing, and related vertical markets.  With 45 employees based in Indiana, Leaf has a track record of providing solutions that allow their customers to rapidly scale their businesses and remain competitive in their respective markets.

Dynamics 365 brings together the best of Microsoft’s CRM and ERP cloud offerings into one cloud service with specific, purpose-built apps for business functions. Sale, Marketing + Adobe, Finance, Project Service Automation, Customer Service, Operations, Field Service along with PowerApps, Power BI and Flow into one unified platform.

The apps are designed so they can be easily and independently deployed, which means you can start with the business area you need and scale as the business demands. All Dynamics 365 apps, plus the larger portfolio of cloud solutions like Office 365, will share a common data model so it will be a breeze to adopt additional capabilities.

​Leaf empowers organizations to leverage technology to create efficiencies and become more profitable. By combining your business logic, processes, and people with Dynamics 365 we are able to build custom end to end enterprise business software that manages any of the relationships that are critical to the success of your business.

Dynamics 365 End Users benefit?
First off, it is a gorgeous application that has a modern but familiar feel that your employees love

• Start with what you need. Dynamics 365 business apps fit specific roles so you can start with what you need and grow at your own pace. Traditionally you’d have to purchase the entire ERP or CRM together but with this decoupled approach, you can start where you want, and pay only for what you need. For example, you can get finance and then supply chain operations or customer service.
• Productivity where you need it. By connecting the structured workflow of business applications and processes with the unstructured work of collaboration and productivity, employees will be empowered with a merged world that reduces task/screen switching. The common data model makes it easier to surface context across Office 365, Dynamics 365, Power BI and more.
• Gain insights from built-in intelligence. Everyone wants dashboards and dreams of predictive and prescriptive analytics. By infusing business applications and processes with big data, advanced analytics, and IoT out-of-the-box, the tools can proactively guide employees and customers to optimal decision making and outcomes. With the power of the cloud and machine learning, you can connect what matters and transform insights into action.
• Be ready for growth. Organizations can reimagine their business models with a consistent, flexible, and extensible platform. These nimble applications will let them compose, modify and extend processes in real-time. You can deploy true unified commerce at a global scale and continue to grow and evolve the business software for a lifetime — all without the cost, complexity, and inflexibility of other solutions.

We had a requirement from a customer to turn emails that they received into a pdf so that they could be stored in the system along-side the work item that was created based on the email.  I did some research and found some components to help me do that.  The final solution uses a mixture of HtmlAgilityPack, HtmlRenderer, and PDFSharp, which are all free open source libraries.  HtmlRenderer was the key to the solution as it takes html and converts it to pdf, including all the styles.  HtmlAgilityPack is used to manipulate and traverse html, while PDFSharp is used by HtmlRenderer to create pdf documents.

Once we retrieve the email, in addition to storing the body of the email, we’ll also want the subject, from, to and other relevant information for the email.  We’ll create an html document with HtmlAgilityPack to hold all this info.

​We’ll start with a skeleton html document structure loaded from an html string as this is far easier than creating each node of the html document by hand.

Last month Leaf’s Cloud Services team headed up to Chicago for the AWS Summit. Amazon Web Services holds these free summits in many cities around the world. They are a great opportunity for beginners and experienced users alike to network and learn more about the platform. They even provide the chance to take certification exams (which reminded us that we need to keep our Solutions Architect certifications up to date!).

This year it was clear that microservices are taking over. The longest lines were for sessions detailing how to run microservices on Docker or on how to implement them with Serverless techniques using AWS Lambda. The concept of breaking larger applications into smaller services is not new, but with the public descriptions of Service Oriented Architectures like those of AWS and Netflix, it is widely used. We're particularly interested in the organizational benefits of assigning small teams to building and supporting tightly-scoped, loosely coupled services.

An event like this is also a good opportunity to check in with services that have existed for a long time to stay current on new features.  A good example of these are AWS Storage Gateway and Elastic Filesystem which have both seen further development since their initial launch.  A service that impressed us thoroughly is Aurora: Amazon's enterprise-grade MySQL-compatible database engine. It shows how effectively AWS can squeeze out performance and reliability improvements when they are in control of the whole infrastructure stack. Several of our clients use Aurora, and it is good to see that this will pay dividends as we inherit regular improvements from Amazon's continued development.

​Another thing that struck us was the theme of Adrian Cockcroft’s keynote: public cloud providers have moved beyond allowing you to do the same things you did in your datacenter and are now providing capabilities that would be nearly impossible without massive investments in capital and talent. Take this example: CSPAN is annotating all of its video coverage of US politics by sampling frames and running them through Amazon Rekognition to detect the faces of politicians.