 Earning Gold Partner status with Microsoft enables Leaf Software Solutions to further meet the current and future needs of customers seeking application development and integration.
CARMEL, IND. (August 20, 2020) - Leaf Software Solutions has earned Microsoft Gold Partner status. The Gold Status is reserved for those partners who have agreed to collaborate and establish a close working relationship with Microsoft. The title communicates to the marketplace that Leaf has applied itself and has earned the highest standard of Microsoft's widely recognized competency program. Justin Kruse, who leads the Microsoft Power Platform practice at Leaf stated, “Our team, with their 50+ years of combined experience developing Microsoft applications, has proven expertise delivering quality solutions to the marketplace. By earning Gold Partner status, we are now better prepared than ever to take on the complex problems that businesses are encountering through thoughtful software development using the Microsoft Power Platform.” To earn the Gold Partner status with Microsoft, the team of dedicated software development experts at Leaf demonstrated expertise in the applications and infrastructure areas of business and technology including application development, app integration, cloud platform, and DevOps. These competencies are designed to not only prepare Microsoft Partners to meet customer needs, but also to help attract new customers who are looking for Microsoft-certified solution providers. Leaf Software Solutions now stands apart from their peers by being part of this elite tier within the Microsoft Partner Network. About Leaf Software Solutions: Leaf Software Solutions has been delivering mission critical business solutions for 33 years. Our consultative approach results in custom-tailored solutions that create value for your business. Learn more at www.leafsoftwaresolutions.com. For more information contact: Leaf Software Solutions Marty Bird 317-814-8000 mbird@leafsoftwaresolutions.com  Two Indiana companies are collaborating by combining testing and laboratory services with a software solution that tracks, monitors, and reports results.
CARMEL, IND. (August 6, 2020) - Leaf Software Solutions has developed a COVID-19 test tracking and compliance solution. In collaboration with ARIA Diagnostics, which operates COVID-19 testing sites throughout central Indiana, the software application is now being offered to organizations wishing to proactively address the sudden changes required as people return to work, school, and other activities. With a comprehensive testing, tracking, monitoring, and compliance solution, organizations will have information at their fingertips that will allow them to make decisions that prioritize the health and safety of their workforce, customers, student body, visitors, teams, etc. “Our goal from day one has been to help people return to their lives as safely as possible,” said Vipin Ahlakha, President of Aria Diagnostics. “The software application from Leaf is a valuable complement to our diagnostic testing and laboratory services. A single test result is certainly useful, but organizations require a comprehensive view to track results and have information to help keep people’s safety first as the country and the state reopen.” Chad Hankinson, President at Leaf Software Solutions noted that, “Proactive testing and tracking provides businesses, schools, higher ed institutions, and many others with the tools needed to keep safety as the top priority for their operating procedures. It makes good business sense, as does the collaboration with ARIA.” As a result of this partnership, organizations may use ARIA Diagnostics for on-site testing as well as several drive-through locations along with the Leaf test tracking application as one comprehensive solution. The tracking application from Leaf has capabilities that include an executive dashboard, individual compliance and monitoring, test tracking, system generated alerts and reminders, 360-degree views, as well as field level auditing. By using the Microsoft Power Platform, the developers at Leaf created a flexible solution that may be repurposed and customized to add value to organizations seeking to track virtually any process, such as policy and procedure testing, compliance, and skills testing. About Leaf Software Solutions: Leaf Software Solutions has been delivering mission critical business solutions for over 30 years. Our consultative approach results in custom-tailored solutions that create value for your business. Learn more at www.leafsoftwaresolutions.com. About ARIA Diagnostics: ARIA Diagnostics is a high-complexity, CLIA-certified, CAP-accredited clinical diagnostic reference laboratory located in Indianapolis with over a quarter million patient specimens’ experience delivering timely, accurate, clinically actionable information through our nationwide COVID-19 testing, medication monitoring and drug testing services. ARIA Diagnostics is committed to the improvement of patient care by expanding its national clinical laboratory network to provide population specific, decentralized, and clinician tailored testing. Learn more at www.ariadxs.com. For more information contact: Leaf Software Solutions Marty Bird 317-814-8000 mbird@leafsoftwaresolutions.com ARIA Diagnostics Susana Suárez 617-633-8927 susana@mediamoon.us  Leaf and CarDon Collaborate COVID-19 Testing and Tracking Application
CARMEL, IND. (June 15, 2020) – Leaf Software Solutions has recently developed a COVID-19 testing, tracking, and compliance solution for CarDon, which owns and operates over 20 senior housing communities in the Midwest. With operating procedures changing fast due to the coronavirus pandemic, CarDon needed to ensure the safety of its residents and associates by employing a comprehensive testing, tracking, monitoring, and compliance solution. That’s when they turned to the experts at Leaf based in Carmel, Indiana. Tom McClelland, Executive Director ‑ IT for CarDon stated, “From the start, our focus has been on leveraging the best technology to keep our associates and residents safe. We feel we accomplished that by partnering with Leaf.” Chad Hankinson, President at Leaf Software Solutions noted that, “CarDon offered us the opportunity to do what we do best – listen, consult, evaluate, and create a best-in-class solution to add value while meeting a true business need.” CarDon enjoys capabilities of the solution including the executive dashboard, individual compliance and monitoring, test tracking, system generated alerts and reminders, 360-degree views, as well as field level auditing. By using the Microsoft Power Platform, the developers at Leaf created a solution that may be repurposed and customized to add value to other businesses seeking to track virtually any process, such as policy and procedure testing, compliance, and skills testing. About Leaf Software Solutions: Leaf Software Solutions has been delivering mission critical business solutions for over 30 years. Our consultative approach results in custom-tailored solutions that create value for your business. Learn more at www.leafsoftwaresolutions.com. About CarDon & Associates: CarDon & Associates owns and operates senior housing and rehabilitation communities in central and southern Indiana. It is one of the largest such companies in the state, with 20 senior centers and approximately 3,000 employees. It is family-owned with main offices in Bloomington and Fishers, Indiana. Learn more at www.cardon.us. For More Information contact: Leaf Software Solutions Marty Bird 317-814-8000 mbird@leafsoftwaresolutions.com CarDon & Associates Kendra Fauth-Edwards 317-600-2040 kfauthedwards@cardon.us ### Flyer  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:”
“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:
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. Growing Your Multi-Entity Business with Sage IntacctAre 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. An example of using real data from SupplyKick as an ML experiment |
So, what exactly is Machine Learning?Machine learning is a growing concept in computer science, where scientists attempt to teach computers to learn abstract concepts just as a human would. This is a major paradigm shift from traditional programming, in which programs operate using a set of logical rules that are explicitly stated by programmers. In machine learning, the programmers instead develop a “model,” a structure that is able to learn the data that the user feeds into it. |  |
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 it is 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.
| The first thing we need to do was get an actual dataset to manipulate. We did so using Amazon’s Marketplace Web Services API. We pulled in the responses from this API and stored them as CSV files that are easy for our program to read. We then clean the data by filtering out repeat entries or records that don’t contain any data at all. Because the goal is to predict future sales, we ordered the rows by date and totaled all orders on the same day. Finally, through experimentation, we found that the model fits best to data for individual products; rather than for all products, so we filtered down to only rows containing a specific product. The result of all of this cleaning is plotted in blue. |  |
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.
| Let’s try getting some predictions! After no training, here’s how well the model fits to the training data. It’s pretty terrible, but this is what we expect without any training. This would be like walking into a calculus test without even having heard what “math” is. After training on the data 100 times we are given the following result. |  |
| It seems to be picking up the general trends in the data but doesn’t quite hit the mark. Lets try doing another 900 iterations through the data, for a total of 1000 training runs. Now the prediction is clearly fitting to the actual sales trend. Also, keep in mind that although 1000 iterations sound like a lot, the entire training was completed in about 15 seconds. However, the real challenge is fitting the model to data that the model has never seen before. Below are the predictions on the “test” dataset. Though these predictions aren’t quite as good as on the training set, this is expected, and they are still very accurate overall and likely more precise than a human’s predictions. |   |
What this could look like for you
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.
Resources
For the purposes of this post the concepts mentioned are heavily abstracted. However, if you’d like to learn more about the field here are some other resources you may want to look into:
- 3Blue1Brown- YouTube channel with amazing visual representations of abstract mathematical concepts
- Two Minute Papers- YouTube channel that distills recent machine learning research papers down to 2-minute videos
- Siraj Rival- YouTube channel with tutorials on lots of machine learning concepts
- Google Machine Learning Crash Course- Web tutorial series on machine learning (has more of a business/real-world focus)
- Machine Learning Mastery- Website with tons of machine learning tutorials and resources
- Colah's Blog- In depth explanation of ML concepts by Google Brain Scientist
- Distill- Explains abstract concepts through interactive machine learning widgets
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If you have questions or are interested in learning how Machine Learning could impact your business, please get in touch with us.
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How to Enable ‘Doc Date Verify’ using Professional Services Tools Library
By Samantha Higdon, Microsoft Dynamics GP Consultant
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!
Once PSTL is installed, configuring Doc Date Verify is a simple process
 | 1.) Navigate to PSTL in your Navigation Pane.  2.) Click on “PSTL Main Setup” – if this is the first time entering, it may take a few minutes to open. |
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!
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!
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For more information on Doc Date Verify, other PSTL tools or Microsoft Dynamics GP, please contact Leaf Software solutions:
317.814.8000 or gpsupport@leafsoftwaresolutions.com |
How are Microsoft 365 ENTERPRISE and Microsoft 365 BUSINESS, Different?
By Justin Kruse, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Senior Consultant
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 Enterprise:
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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.
 | Microsoft 365 Business:
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8 Ways Nonprofits Can Be Financially Transparent
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.
| In fact, these two principles are foundational to the rating system used by Charity Navigator, the nation's largest and most-utilized evaluator of charities. Charity Navigator offers these two definitions:  Accountability is an obligation or willingness by a charity to explain its actions to its stakeholders.  Transparency is an obligation or willingness by a charity to publish and make available critical data about the organization. |
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.
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.
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The National Council of Nonprofits lists several ways your nonprofit can - and in some cases, must - demonstrate financial transparency:
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Nonprofits face significant challenges as a result of thin staffing, tight budgets, primitive financial management tools (e.g., spreadsheets), and far-flung management teams. Financial transparency may seem almost impossible.
Fortunately, there’s cloud-based fund accounting software from Sage Intacct. Now you can create greater levels of transparency across every dimension of your organization and get real-time visibility into your organization’s financial health. Key stakeholders like the Board of Directors have instant, actionable insight to make smart decisions about your nonprofit’s future.
Let Leaf Software Solutions guide you to greater financial transparency and accountability. By focusing on your business needs first, so we can design a solution that scales as your nonprofit grows. Call us at 317-814-8000, or email us to get started today.
Fortunately, there’s cloud-based fund accounting software from Sage Intacct. Now you can create greater levels of transparency across every dimension of your organization and get real-time visibility into your organization’s financial health. Key stakeholders like the Board of Directors have instant, actionable insight to make smart decisions about your nonprofit’s future.
Let Leaf Software Solutions guide you to greater financial transparency and accountability. By focusing on your business needs first, so we can design a solution that scales as your nonprofit grows. Call us at 317-814-8000, or email us to get started today.
Off The Circle Podcast with Douglas Karr and Mike Wilson
 Douglas Karr | Off the Circle is an Indianpolis Business Podcast, sharing motivating stories, newly discovered businesses, exceptional leaders, and other topics associated with the great city of Indianapolis. On episode 32, Douglas Karr interviews Mike Wilson, Chairman of Leaf Software Solutions. Leaf has been helping businesses reach their corporate goals since 1987. At its core, Leaf takes great satisfaction in being a principle-centered company. We believe in fairness, kindness, effectiveness, and significance. The four principles are deeply embedded in our corporate DNA. Listen to Mike share his thoughts on why these principles are at the foundation of building the right corporate culture. |  Mike Wilson |
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
July 18 // 6 - 8 pm
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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!
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.
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.
Leaf earns Bob Scott's Top 100 VARS 2018 recognition
By David Caldwell, Sage Intacct Practice Lead -
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.
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.
Sage Intacct Reporting and Dashboards
Gain Visibility and Insight with Sage Intacct Cloud Financial Software
As your business grows, your finance team feels the pressure to expand the breadth, accuracy, and granularity of your financial and management reporting. Executives, investors, shareholders, auditors, and others want to know more than what’s happened—they want to know why. And you want to get this information quickly so your organization can correct problems or respond to opportunities before the moment is lost.
That’s why you need best-in-class cloud financial management solution from Sage Intacct. Its reporting and dashboard features ensure you get the deep operational and business-performance insights that tell you why—and the real-time view that enables you to act today.
That’s why you need best-in-class cloud financial management solution from Sage Intacct. Its reporting and dashboard features ensure you get the deep operational and business-performance insights that tell you why—and the real-time view that enables you to act today.
See every dimension of your business
 | With Sage Intacct, you can more easily create reports, graphs, dashboards, and visualizations that analyze performance by business driver. When you use dimensions to tag transactions and store financial or operational data along with its business context, you’ll fundamentally improve your reporting—and get fast answers to your business questions. Sage Intacct includes 10 built-in dimensions for capturing and reporting on business context, including department, item, and employee. You can also create additional custom dimensions to track other business drivers. |
Get the rich reports you need—the way you want them
 | Create reports that go deeper by drawing on your combined financial and operational data. What’s more, you can drill down to source transactions for immediate, granular details or easily view consolidated reports without waiting for period-end. With Sage Intacct, you can do it all without exporting data to a spreadsheet, writing custom scripts, or waiting on someone to customize reports. Take advantage of more than 150 pre-built accounting and financial reports—or build and customize your own reports right from within Sage Intacct. With flexible scheduling and delivery options, like email and cloud, you can get reports when you need them, where you need them. |
Make it easy for stakeholders to get the insights they need
 | Display real-time reports, metrics, and insights tuned to the needs and perspectives of all stakeholders—in finance, sales, operations, and the boardroom—wherever and whenever they need them. Dashboards provide at-a-glance views of what matters most: cash balances, project profitability, deferred revenues, revenue per square foot—practically any ratio or metric you need. Plus, data visualization features let you easily flag important trends, display critical comparisons, highlight missed or hit targets, and more. Skip the hassle of exporting data to a spreadsheet or presentation program and emailing it; instead, just build a dashboard once, then let Sage Intacct update it for you in real time. |
Elevate your success with Leaf Software Solutions
 | Sage Intacct unlocks valuable insights that help you plan smarter and lead with confidence. And Leaf Software Solutions offers a proven yet flexible framework for successfully implementing business cloud applications like Sage Intacct, so you can focus on your business and not on technology. Ready to set your sights on success? Contact us today! |
5 Ways to Be a Tech-Savvy CFO
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.
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.
 | 1. Embrace automation. Technology powers the new tools and processes you need to transform your organization, while keeping pace with rapid growth. As you put that technology to work, you will see the results in your company’s performance. For example, you can add financial controls that ensure compliance and auditability. Automation enables rock-solid accounting and bullet-proof record-keeping—allowing your company to move faster, without fear. |
 | 2. Gain visibility. Where can you accelerate your business? How can you eliminate risk? Are you seeing your data in real-time? The sooner you know, the faster you can act on the really big opportunities in front of your business. To truly understand the nature of your business, you need to leverage a single source of truth. Your teams become empowered to dig deeper, and you can move faster toward bigger growth. |
 | 3. Look to the cloud. It’s time to invigorate your organization with the cost efficiencies and freedom of the cloud. After all, the safe bet of on-premises systems has become a bust. Slow innovation delivery and nightmare implementation cycles have shown there is just no future in the old way of doing things. Today’s cloud solutions, such as Sage Intacct’s best-in-class financial management software, deliver greater productivity, lower TCO, and better security. |
 | 4. Empower the next level of growth with agility. Top-performing organizations must constantly evaluate operations to make the right strategic investments. You need the flexibility to address the shifts in your business as they occur. The decisions you make today will become the competitive advantages of tomorrow. |
 | 5. Collaborate with confidence across your entire company. Departmental silos suppress collaboration and productivity. And that challenge compounds as your business grows. Why stay constrained by the old ways of isolated decision-making and missed information, when you can achieve your best results by working together? The tech-savvy CFO uses technology to streamline processes and leverage the power of the team. |
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.
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.
2018 Best Places to Work in Indiana - 7 years running
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.
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.
 | This statewide survey and awards program was designed to identify, recognize and honor the best employers in Indiana, benefiting the state’s economy, workforce and businesses. To be considered for participation, companies had to fulfill the following eligibility requirements:
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Companies from across the state entered the two-part survey process to determine the Best Places to Work in Indiana. The first part consisted of evaluating each nominated company's workplace policies, practices, philosophy, systems and demographics. This part of the process was worth approximately 25% of the total evaluation. The second part consisted of an employee survey to measure the employee experience. This part of the process was worth approximately 75% of the total evaluation. The combined scores determined the top companies and the final rankings. Best Companies Group managed the overall registration and survey process in Indiana, analyzed the data, and determined the final rankings.
The final rankings will be announced at an awards dinner on Thursday, May 3, 2018, at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, then published in the May-June issue of the Indiana Chamber’s BizVoice® magazine.
What is Dynamics 365?
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.
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
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.
Converting HTML Emails to PDF in C# .NET
By Ted Elliott, Systems Engineer
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.
| We’ll start by loading up an email. For this example I’m just going to populate a System.Net.Mail.MailMessage object with some values, but in actual solution you would probably read from something like MS Exchange or some email provider service. The actual email looks something like this: |  |
Here's the code to load it:
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.
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.
Then once that is created we’ll grab some references to the head and body nodes so we can add our content. I use the AppendField helper method which just creates a little html structure with a label and it’s text like so:
Then we’ll load up the body html (or plain text possibly) into its own document, to prepare for copying it into the document that we’re creating. We’ll add a Body label to put the contents of the email body into the document.
To get the document to look as much like the original as possible we copy the styles from the head tag of the email body to the head tag in our document.
Once we’ve done that we create a div tag to hold the html body of the email and copy it in.
Once we have the email loaded and an html document generated from the email, then we save HtmlDocument to a string to prepare for converting to pdf. We pass the html string to HtmlGenerator and it gets saved to a pdf.
The resulting pdf file looks like this:
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.
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.
It’s obvious that cloud computing has moved beyond the startups. All major enterprises are making use of some form of cloud services and many are “all in”. The uncertainty and fear of moving workloads from your own bespoke data center to a cloud provider is a throwback to the last decade. How are we so sure? Consider this: McDonalds’ global Point of Sale system runs entirely on Amazon Web Services.
| But its not easy to get started. There is a rapidly growing list of services to learn in AWS alone, not to mention the other major providers like Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform. Most of the vendors in the summit exhibit hall were involved in managing, monitoring, securing, or migrating cloud applications. You don't have to navigate this ecosystem alone. Leaf's Cloud Services team would love the opportunity to help! Images Credit: https://aws.amazon.com/summits/chicago/ |  |
On Tuesday (6/20/2017), the Leaf team gathered for a round of lightning talks given by Leaf employees. The format was as follows: Speakers had 5 minutes to present on whatever they wanted. No slide deck required.
 | Developer Ergonomics and Repetitive Stress Injuries Chris Chalfant shared what he's learned about developer Ergonomics and Repetitive Stress Injuries. Some top tips from discussion included finding a tool to force yourself to take breaks away from the computer, proper posture (feet flat on floor, arms making an L shape when typing, knees slightly below hips), and the importance of learning keyboard shorts rather than reaching for the mouse (VIM lovers everywhere rejoiced!). Tap here for more information |
 | Welcome Screen - Raspberry PI Andrew Kaczorek gave an overview of the new software used to drive the large LCD welcome screen in our office foyer, allowing Leaf to have a custom welcome message for visitors to our office while being easily updated by office staff. The entire solution is being driven by BizPlay and a Raspberry PI. The custom case was also 3D printed by Leaf's Scott Beardsley.  |
Mechanical Keyboard
Jimmy Briggs gave some insight into his passion for mechanical keyboards. Using a hands-on show-and-tell approach, he gave everyone a chance to experience the feel of a mechanical keyboard as well as the variety of switch types that are available out there.
Jimmy Briggs gave some insight into his passion for mechanical keyboards. Using a hands-on show-and-tell approach, he gave everyone a chance to experience the feel of a mechanical keyboard as well as the variety of switch types that are available out there.
 |  |
Optimizing Unit Test Fixtures
Frederick Myers shared some of the tips that his team uses for optimizing unit tests fixtures for speed, navigation, and consistency.
Frederick Myers shared some of the tips that his team uses for optimizing unit tests fixtures for speed, navigation, and consistency.
"Strangify" - Slack and OpenCV
Mike Warren pulled back the curtain on "Strangify" -- our slack app that uses OpenCV to detect faces on images and replace them with pictures of our own infamous James S.
Mike Warren pulled back the curtain on "Strangify" -- our slack app that uses OpenCV to detect faces on images and replace them with pictures of our own infamous James S.
 | CoffeeBot - Raspberry PI James Alexander had not one, but two lightning talks. The first was an overview of Coffee Bot, Leaf's in-house IoT hack to monitor our coffee usage. Using a scale and Raspberry PI, we track when coffee is made and poured with the output of various statistics going on to an RGB LED matrix display.  |
Python Tornado web framework
James' second talk was an overview of the Python Tornado web framework that James is evaluating for IndyPY Web Framework Shootout.
James' second talk was an overview of the Python Tornado web framework that James is evaluating for IndyPY Web Framework Shootout.
It was great for everyone to get together for fun as well as an opportunity to share and learn (and have some pizza).
| The original agile manifesto has been, by far, the most dominant force the past decade on how organizations and teams go about designing, building, and maintaining software systems. It provides a basis for which requirements, communication, and organization are built around. The manifesto has spawned a dizzying array of well defined methodologies and frameworks, each with their own set of rules, rituals, and practices. Scrum, SAFe, XP, Kanban, Lean, and on and on. These frameworks have their purpose and situations where they shine and provide value. They also have situations where they introduce too much complexity and rigor where at the end of the day, the answer to the question "Does this make us better?" is "No". | By: Frederick Myers  |
The manifesto
Answering the question "Does this make us better?" is fundamental at Leaf and why we subscribe to following the principles of the agile manifesto rather than adopting a single agile framework and apply it across the board.
- Value individuals and interactions over processes and tools. Processes and tools should be there to serve a team, not the other way around. Tools are a support mechanism to facilitate organization and communication but at the end of the day, the relationships and skill of the of the people involved is what will generate success.
- Value working software over comprehensive documentation. We believe that iteratively building software with frequent feedback loops will deliver software that meets the customer's needs more efficiently and with a better results. Developers should have the flexibility to experiment with new concepts. Stakeholders should have the ability to evolve their requirements through interaction with the software to help clarify their vision.
- Value customer collaboration over contract negotiation. Ongoing collaboration between the development team and the customer supporting the iterative development of software and ensure development happens transparently and without surprises.
- Value responding to change over following a plan. We need to be nimble to respond to shifting needs – be it technical, customer, or market driven.
Post Agile
By not adhering to a single framework, we are afforded the flexibility of picking what works best for us and the customer. We incorporate practices such as daily stand-ups, sprints, Kanban flow, deploy often, automation, and retrospectives. We are able to integrate with other customers that might be invested in more formal methodologies such as Scrum or SAFe. For customers who aren't invested (or don't care) about a software methodology, by working with them we can derive project practices that make sense for both the development team and the customer based upon everyone's needs and capacity. And sometimes, that can involve eschewing agile a bit and incorporating waterfall techniques.
