- Published on
You talk about parking and peoples eyes glaze over, but once you get into parking you begin to appreciate there’s layers of complexity to parking. My name is Brian Wolff, I’m the President and CEO of Parker Technology and I’ve been with Parker almost 8 years. I joined in January of 2016.
What does Parker Do?
Parker is a software and services company dedicated to helping people get out of parking garages. 20 years ago, when parking operators removed cashiers from the lanes, they actually replaced them with machines that have help buttons. If you press a help button in nearly 900 facilities in the U.S. in the 46 states, you will get Parker’s call center. We have also developed the software platform underneath, so there are other parking operators that use our software to take calls in their own call center. What makes our software a little bit unique is that we own patents for two-way video. So if you see two-way video in the United States, you’re guaranteed that it is Parker Technology underneath.
Share the History of Parker Technology
Very early on some of the founding fathers if you will of Parker Technology, even before my time, conceived of the idea that once the cashiers were removed from the lanes, thought about putting the cashiers back in the lane virtually, which was a brilliant idea. The filed patents on that and the platform itself went through a few different iterations. We changed over to generation four, which is the platform that Leaf Software built for Parker.
We were taking 55,000 calls at that time a month and today we take 161,000 calls a month on our platform. The Technology has become critical to obviously our business, but also to our customers as we continue to move through the digital transformation of parking.
We knew that there needed to be a fourth generation. Generation three was built purposefully as a MVP (Minimal Viable Product) and an island. It didn’t talk to anything, it was a self-contained system which at the time was good for it because any of the machines or parking equipment out there didn’t talk to the outside world. But we knew as parking was going through a digital transformation we knew that our platform was going to have to be extensible and was going to have to talk to other platforms.
We were taking 55,000 calls at that time a month and today we take 161,000 calls a month on our platform. The Technology has become critical to obviously our business, but also to our customers as we continue to move through the digital transformation of parking.
We knew that there needed to be a fourth generation. Generation three was built purposefully as a MVP (Minimal Viable Product) and an island. It didn’t talk to anything, it was a self-contained system which at the time was good for it because any of the machines or parking equipment out there didn’t talk to the outside world. But we knew as parking was going through a digital transformation we knew that our platform was going to have to be extensible and was going to have to talk to other platforms.
Share your experience working with Leaf
Our experience with Leaf has been nothing but awesome from the get-go. When I think about high integrity, when I think about high quality, when I think about good people, smart, talented engineers - all of those would describe Leaf. The product speaks for itself, I mean the platform has tripled or quadrupled in its time and is still scalable. We’re working on Gen. five as we speak. We’ve been thrilled with Leaf. They’ve given us tremendous flexibility and given us the ability to grow our platform and the capabilities to grow without having to add engineers ourself which has been really valuable to us from a flexibility perspective and even from a bottom-line perspective as well.
What challenges are you facing?
One of the hardest things about parking is that it’s going through a digital transformation itself, just like technology did in the early 2000’s and just trying to keep up with that technology. To push the industry forward to be innovative and thoughtful about how platforms get connected, we believe is the future, so we’re going to continue to build a connected platform. Eventually we will be part of sort of the ‘hub and spoke’ systems of a connected parking experience for the parking stakeholders and Leaf will be in the center of that as far as I can see.
Share a benefit working with Leaf
We’ve had the ability to sort of flex the staff while we’re building different pieces and that kind of flexibility is really hard to do when you have full time FTE’s (Full Time Employees). Which is again one of the advantages of going with Leaf to give us the bench that we need and also give us the capabilities we need and forward thinking technology that it takes to be competitive in parking or any other industry for that matter.
What are your future plans?
Our plans are to continue to grow and I think Leaf will be critical piece of that because we’ll move from Gen. four to Gen. five which will cause us to build different capabilities including things like artificial intelligence, machine learning. We’re going have to continue to connect our platform to different parking platforms because we see Parker being an integral part of the parking experience. In order to deliver a great customer experience, we have to be able to talk to the different parking stakeholders. The only way we con do that is through the technology and connecting the platforms which a part of our strategy.
I’m on a bit of a mission myself to spread the word that parking is actually a lot harder than it looks. We’ve started a blog, it’s called “Harder than it looks, Parking Uncovered.” As many people as I can share, that I didn’t understand when I got here seven and a half years ago how hard parking was. Everyone thinks, you know you pull into a garage, you park your car, you leave, you pay. The fact is that parking is really complex, so if you want to listen to the podcast, you certainly can. I’d love to talk to anyone that would love to talk about parking, as boring as that sounds, if they have questions about parking, I’m happy to help them.
I’m on a bit of a mission myself to spread the word that parking is actually a lot harder than it looks. We’ve started a blog, it’s called “Harder than it looks, Parking Uncovered.” As many people as I can share, that I didn’t understand when I got here seven and a half years ago how hard parking was. Everyone thinks, you know you pull into a garage, you park your car, you leave, you pay. The fact is that parking is really complex, so if you want to listen to the podcast, you certainly can. I’d love to talk to anyone that would love to talk about parking, as boring as that sounds, if they have questions about parking, I’m happy to help them.
- Published on
Streamline your project accounting, track your employee time and performance, and uncover project trends that can boost your profitability Data sheet.
Optimize project performance with Project Intelligence and streamline your project accounting. Track your employee time, performance, and uncover project trends that can boost your profitability.
Gain real-time insights into employee time and performance.
Project Intelligence provides project managers with real-time insights into employee utilization and profitability through a set of curated dashboards that are built on industry-leading best practices.
Leveraging these powerful dashboards and reports, you will gain an in-depth understanding of employee efficiency and uncover valuable
project trends, empowering you to make more informed business decisions.
Fully automated project metrics
Many companies extract timesheet data to Excel to calculate employee KPIs and manage projects in third-party systems. These practices often lack the timeliness and accuracy to review project
health quickly. With Project Intelligence, eliminate manual processes and offer your employees quantifiable metrics to evaluate their performance.
Dynamic dashboards at your fingertips
Project Intelligence provides a comprehensive set of dashboards and reports to evaluate employee performance and availability while also
identifying project trends to drive intelligent business decisions.
Project Intelligence provides project managers with real-time insights into employee utilization and profitability through a set of curated dashboards that are built on industry-leading best practices.
Leveraging these powerful dashboards and reports, you will gain an in-depth understanding of employee efficiency and uncover valuable
project trends, empowering you to make more informed business decisions.
Fully automated project metrics
Many companies extract timesheet data to Excel to calculate employee KPIs and manage projects in third-party systems. These practices often lack the timeliness and accuracy to review project
health quickly. With Project Intelligence, eliminate manual processes and offer your employees quantifiable metrics to evaluate their performance.
Dynamic dashboards at your fingertips
Project Intelligence provides a comprehensive set of dashboards and reports to evaluate employee performance and availability while also
identifying project trends to drive intelligent business decisions.
Utilization
Obtain detailed metrics for individual employees and groups. Determine who is achieving their billable targets, identify those needing more chargeable hours, and support those who might be over-allocated.
Realization
Explore the revenue contribution, effective rate, and write-offs of your team members, allowing you to quantify employee performance on more than billable hours.
Advanced Project Analytics
Gauge the health of your projects. Provide crucial project metrics for service leaders and managers, including project hours against the budget, projected efficiency, and core financial metrics such as accounts receivable, revenue, and profit.
Profitability
Evaluate the profitability of your service team through a detailed analysis of the projects, clients, and employees driving revenue. Identify growth opportunities and areas for improvement.
Discover the incredible impact of Project Intelligence and see your business thrive with better productivity and smarter decision-making.
Obtain detailed metrics for individual employees and groups. Determine who is achieving their billable targets, identify those needing more chargeable hours, and support those who might be over-allocated.
Realization
Explore the revenue contribution, effective rate, and write-offs of your team members, allowing you to quantify employee performance on more than billable hours.
Advanced Project Analytics
Gauge the health of your projects. Provide crucial project metrics for service leaders and managers, including project hours against the budget, projected efficiency, and core financial metrics such as accounts receivable, revenue, and profit.
Profitability
Evaluate the profitability of your service team through a detailed analysis of the projects, clients, and employees driving revenue. Identify growth opportunities and areas for improvement.
Discover the incredible impact of Project Intelligence and see your business thrive with better productivity and smarter decision-making.
- Published on
The challenge for multi-entity healthcare
In virtually any healthcare organization, corporate accounting is the custodian and curator of financial data to monitor and manage the organization and drive it forward to new levels of success. But as any controller or CFO of a multi-entity healthcare organization can tell you, financial consolidations remain one of the key hurdles. The time-intensive nature of information assembly, validation, and reporting for many accounting groups can sometimes be measured in weeks–rarely just days.
Consolidations–grouping together all related organizations under a single parent company’s control–is an essential requirement to create a single “operational” view of the entire organization.
Whether it’s a multi-practice clinic, a group of long-term-care providers, a network of hospitals, or a chain of imaging centers, stakeholders want and need to understand various lines and businesses, allocate capital and fund the organization. Consolidation eliminates all inter-group activities and balances to report transactions with external third parties as if the entire group of companies was operating as a single entity.
Consolidations–grouping together all related organizations under a single parent company’s control–is an essential requirement to create a single “operational” view of the entire organization.
Whether it’s a multi-practice clinic, a group of long-term-care providers, a network of hospitals, or a chain of imaging centers, stakeholders want and need to understand various lines and businesses, allocate capital and fund the organization. Consolidation eliminates all inter-group activities and balances to report transactions with external third parties as if the entire group of companies was operating as a single entity.
Different legal entities (clinics, diagnostic centers, medical labs, and practices) are created by a parent company for a range of reasons and purposes. Some are legally driven to limit liability exposure, while others are created to optimize the tax profile or through strategically driven initiatives like mergers, and acquisitions.
The challenges of consolidation today
Consolidations are a staple of accounting of course, but their intensity and complexity have changed as the healthcare industry continues to undergo significant changes. Today, CFOs must contend with factors such as:
Consolidations are a staple of accounting of course, but their intensity and complexity have changed as the healthcare industry continues to undergo significant changes. Today, CFOs must contend with factors such as:
- Expansion of facilities and service lines across regions and states.
- The varying and changing nature of accounting rules as regulatory frameworks evolve.
- Emphasis on growing the business through both organic new ventures or by acquiring others.
- Increasing inter-relationships and inter-company activities between entities within the parent company.
The timelines for consolidation are compressing and are driven by factors such as:
- Tighter reporting deadlines and the desire to improve the timeliness and transparency of reporting to stakeholders.
- Transparency of information for industry and government regulators.
- The need for a well-documented and well controlled consolidation process that preserves and enhances financial reporting integrity.
1. 2017 Benchmarking the Accounting and Finance Function, Financial Executives Research Foundation and Robert Half.
The consolidation process
The traditional approach to consolidation, still used by many healthcare organizations, combines old fashioned manual labor, semi-structured processes, and a range of different technologies to bring together data and information. In many healthcare organizations, financial consolidation roughly follows a pattern that comprises the following four steps.
1. The close follows a detailed calendar with target dates for each business unit to close their books and submit results to the corporate accounting group. Many business units (e.g. a particular hospital or specific practice group) need a week or more to close their books, which means the corporate accounting group is unable to start the close until a week or more after the period-end date.
2. Many corporate accounting teams receive results from each business unit through indirect mechanisms such as spreadsheets or by email. Such a process not only requires extensive manual rework to harmonize the various results, but may also be unprotected and out of compliance with HIPPA. The team must then place the data into consolidated accounts that conform to accounting policies and account grouping structures–a painstaking, laborintensive process.
3. Some accounting groups set up a consolidation entity inside the financial reporting system to separately house the consolidation and elimination journal entries. However, others rely on a simple spreadsheet for this purpose. Whether it’s journal entries or separate columns and/or rows, the inter-company activities and the investment/ equity accounts get eliminated, and the books for any acquisition related balances (e.g. goodwill) adjusted.
4. The consolidated accounts are manipulated to put them into a financial reporting framework. This is often the beginning of the “last mile of financial reporting.”
Consolidations: the next generation
The new way to consolidate comes from leveraging leading cloud financial management systems. The characteristics of this type of configuration include four critical differences from other traditional, on-premise solutions.
1. The scalable accounting foundation enables automation
Healthcare firms are often adding virtual and physical entities to their corporate structures. However, traditional accounting and finance systems struggle to add these entities. On-premise solutions cannot replicate the systems and processes for new entities and across geographic jurisdictions.
Cloud-based financials alleviate this shortcoming, enabling you to add new business units seamlessly and without any additional investments in hardware, software, or configuration. When one integrated system gets leveraged, training and user resources are readily available to support the implementation.
When all business units–regardless of location, old and new–use the same system, you achieve significant productivity gains. Automation means you can redeploy corporate accounting staff to more strategic activities. Finance’s role changes from a mere preparer to the analyzer and reviewer. It creates a shift in mindset and positions finance to add value to information and move beyond simply reporting it.
2. Supporting faster growth
Many healthcare firms are moving quickly to capitalize on growth and M&A opportunities. Finance must be agile enough to support rapid changes by establishing books and records that align with the rest of the company. A turnkey solution can get systems and processes up and running to generate valuable information to support all of the decisions that happen when a new entity is created or acquired. At the same time, the corporate accounting group wants and needs to roll-up a new entity without missing a beat.
Cloud financial management systems are ideal for ramping up new entities. Existing practices, perhaps with similar business models, can be used to quickly configure the accounts of new entities. Report writers can adjust to the reporting needs and meet different GAAP and healthcare-industry requirements. You can adapt the chart of accounts to meet the needs of the new business unit.
At the same time, because one system forms the backbone of the organization’s systems and processes, you have the luxury of centralizing core finance functions, such as accounts receivable or accounts payable. That translates into a significant opportunity to leverage one database of customers and vendors across the consolidated organization.
3. Managing the consolidation process
Cloud-based financials allow for all consolidation information to be fully integrated at any point in time. This puts all the data from every geography, business line, specialty, or other segments at the fingertips of the corporate accounting staff. This can virtually eliminate the back-and-forth emails between corporate accounting and the various business units. The corporate accounting staff has drill-down transparency into the data of each business unit to enhance its own understanding of the financials as the results roll-up.
Leading cloud-based finance systems also have collaboration and documentation tools built in, such as chat functions and electronic notes that can be documented and attached to relevant accounts and reports. Say goodbye to cumbersome binders or file directories full of spreadsheet backups.
Leading cloud financial management systems centralize the set up and management of inter-entity relationships. Bringing greater visibility to inter-corporate transactions between entities. Since the data is housed inside a single system, the elimination and consolidation entries can be automated. Intercompany accounts are automatically reconciled and elimination entries posted to deal with intercompany transactions and balances. This mitigates the risk of missed postings of inter-company transactions on one side or the other.
4. Better insight
Traditional consolidation processes often create a data gap between systems and spreadsheets that inhibits transparency, limits insight, and creates a latency between when activities happen and when they get reported.
Cloud-based financials eliminate the gaps between the consolidation and the data–which has a profound outcome. Real-time consolidated financial information becomes available to decision-makers at the push of a button. This eliminates the “black box” of accounting that often arises when the executives must wait weeks to see consolidated financial results, which can disrupt and delay important decisions.
Healthcare firms are often adding virtual and physical entities to their corporate structures. However, traditional accounting and finance systems struggle to add these entities. On-premise solutions cannot replicate the systems and processes for new entities and across geographic jurisdictions.
Cloud-based financials alleviate this shortcoming, enabling you to add new business units seamlessly and without any additional investments in hardware, software, or configuration. When one integrated system gets leveraged, training and user resources are readily available to support the implementation.
When all business units–regardless of location, old and new–use the same system, you achieve significant productivity gains. Automation means you can redeploy corporate accounting staff to more strategic activities. Finance’s role changes from a mere preparer to the analyzer and reviewer. It creates a shift in mindset and positions finance to add value to information and move beyond simply reporting it.
2. Supporting faster growth
Many healthcare firms are moving quickly to capitalize on growth and M&A opportunities. Finance must be agile enough to support rapid changes by establishing books and records that align with the rest of the company. A turnkey solution can get systems and processes up and running to generate valuable information to support all of the decisions that happen when a new entity is created or acquired. At the same time, the corporate accounting group wants and needs to roll-up a new entity without missing a beat.
Cloud financial management systems are ideal for ramping up new entities. Existing practices, perhaps with similar business models, can be used to quickly configure the accounts of new entities. Report writers can adjust to the reporting needs and meet different GAAP and healthcare-industry requirements. You can adapt the chart of accounts to meet the needs of the new business unit.
At the same time, because one system forms the backbone of the organization’s systems and processes, you have the luxury of centralizing core finance functions, such as accounts receivable or accounts payable. That translates into a significant opportunity to leverage one database of customers and vendors across the consolidated organization.
3. Managing the consolidation process
Cloud-based financials allow for all consolidation information to be fully integrated at any point in time. This puts all the data from every geography, business line, specialty, or other segments at the fingertips of the corporate accounting staff. This can virtually eliminate the back-and-forth emails between corporate accounting and the various business units. The corporate accounting staff has drill-down transparency into the data of each business unit to enhance its own understanding of the financials as the results roll-up.
Leading cloud-based finance systems also have collaboration and documentation tools built in, such as chat functions and electronic notes that can be documented and attached to relevant accounts and reports. Say goodbye to cumbersome binders or file directories full of spreadsheet backups.
Leading cloud financial management systems centralize the set up and management of inter-entity relationships. Bringing greater visibility to inter-corporate transactions between entities. Since the data is housed inside a single system, the elimination and consolidation entries can be automated. Intercompany accounts are automatically reconciled and elimination entries posted to deal with intercompany transactions and balances. This mitigates the risk of missed postings of inter-company transactions on one side or the other.
4. Better insight
Traditional consolidation processes often create a data gap between systems and spreadsheets that inhibits transparency, limits insight, and creates a latency between when activities happen and when they get reported.
Cloud-based financials eliminate the gaps between the consolidation and the data–which has a profound outcome. Real-time consolidated financial information becomes available to decision-makers at the push of a button. This eliminates the “black box” of accounting that often arises when the executives must wait weeks to see consolidated financial results, which can disrupt and delay important decisions.
Conclusion
Addressing the challenges of consolidation using a single, cloudbased financial system tool can propel your healthcare organization forward. The benefits of automating the consolidation process include:
- Accelerating the integration of new entities and solutions within your organization.
- Improved control and opportunities to leverage one financial management system across the enterpirse to centralize core processing functions.
- Drill down insight from the consolidated perspective into each operating entity.
- Greater coordination throughout the closing process between business units and corporate accounting.
- Real-time consolidated results from across the enterprise at any time without waiting for period ends.
More than ever, finance is data rich, but time poor. A truly integrated cloud-based financial system can automate the consolidation process, reintroducing quality and trust. Senior healthcare executives can view timely information with confidence, which enhances finance’s credibility and opens the door to new opportunities to add incremental value.
- Published on
Grow and drive your business with modern cloud accounting software
Financial Services organizations need scalable financial management tools that meet ever-evolving client demands and deliver data-driven insights for business decision making. From navigating complex multi-entity consolidation to the constantly changing regulatory landscape, Sage Intacct helps financial services firms seamlessly manage their financial processes and provide value to their owners by delivering insights as a single source of truth.
Multi-entity management, built for financial services
As you increase revenue and expand your product portfolio, manual processes drain your productivity and it’s difficult to analyze your growing range of data. While you’re managing multiple holding and operating companies, increased demand for more complex and frequent reports, and a changing regulatory landscape, we’ve built our financial accounting software with you in mind. Sage Intacct financial services customers have experienced efficiency gains up to 50% and dedicate more time to strategic decision making.
We provide intuitive core accounting with a dimensional general ledger, continuous consolidation and drill down across multiple entities and funds, easy-to-use reporting and dashboards, workflow automation, and rock-solid audit trail.
As you increase revenue and expand your product portfolio, manual processes drain your productivity and it’s difficult to analyze your growing range of data. While you’re managing multiple holding and operating companies, increased demand for more complex and frequent reports, and a changing regulatory landscape, we’ve built our financial accounting software with you in mind. Sage Intacct financial services customers have experienced efficiency gains up to 50% and dedicate more time to strategic decision making.
We provide intuitive core accounting with a dimensional general ledger, continuous consolidation and drill down across multiple entities and funds, easy-to-use reporting and dashboards, workflow automation, and rock-solid audit trail.
Real-time visibility and insights
Financial services organizations need visibility into financial and operational metrics to make data-driven decisions. Sage
Intacct’s robust reporting allows you to consolidate and drill down by operating company, location, instrument, currency, and more in minutes, not tens or hundreds of hours. Every transaction in the system is tagged with dimensions, so finance teams can sort, view, filter, and report on the specific information they need. Using these in-system tools, our financial services customers drive the business based on up-to-date information.
Financial services organizations need visibility into financial and operational metrics to make data-driven decisions. Sage
Intacct’s robust reporting allows you to consolidate and drill down by operating company, location, instrument, currency, and more in minutes, not tens or hundreds of hours. Every transaction in the system is tagged with dimensions, so finance teams can sort, view, filter, and report on the specific information they need. Using these in-system tools, our financial services customers drive the business based on up-to-date information.
True cloud technology with open API
As an innovator in the cloud space, Sage Intacct has honed a true cloud model. Sage Intacct was built to deliver multi-tenant
financial management, on a platform purpose-built for finance. This allows all users to be on the same version, without complicated and expensive upgrades. Our open API lets you connect to existing or future systems. This means you can leverage key data from expense management, payroll, budgeting, CRMs like Salesforce, and others to track metrics that are central to your business.
As an innovator in the cloud space, Sage Intacct has honed a true cloud model. Sage Intacct was built to deliver multi-tenant
financial management, on a platform purpose-built for finance. This allows all users to be on the same version, without complicated and expensive upgrades. Our open API lets you connect to existing or future systems. This means you can leverage key data from expense management, payroll, budgeting, CRMs like Salesforce, and others to track metrics that are central to your business.
Sage Intacct dashboards provide visibility into critical metrics that drive your business—like P&L, budget vs. actuals, cash, AUM, and more.
Capabilities include
- Accounts Payable
- Accounts Receivable
- Allocations Management
- Budgeting & Planning
- Cash Management
- Dimensional General Ledger
- Dynamic Allocations
- Fixed Assets
- Fund Accounting
- Multi-entity & Global Consolidations
- Purchasing
- Reporting and Custom Financial Dashboards
- Revenue Recognition
- Spend Management
- Time & Expense Management
- Vendor Payment Services
Recognized by finance experts
- AICPA: Sage Intacct is the first and only preferred provider of the AICPA.
- Gartner: Sage Intacct received the highest score in Core Financials for the Lower Midsize Enterprises Use Case in Gartner’s Critical Capabilities Report in May 2021: www.gartner.com/en/documents/4001422
- G2: Sage Intacct has the highest customer satisfaction score for the Accounting Software and ERP Systems categories on G2, a leading business software review platform.
“Prior to Sage Intacct, our consolidation was done outside of the
system in a very heavily manual/Excel based model. Now within
Sage Intacct for whatever period I select, for whatever entity I
select, I can see what that consolidated balance sheet looks like.
In addition, we’re also spending more time analyzing and actually
digging into the numbers that we see and doing what I would call
the core accounting and finance responsibilities that we weren’t
able to do before…”
~ Janet Welch, Chief Financial Officer, DFO
system in a very heavily manual/Excel based model. Now within
Sage Intacct for whatever period I select, for whatever entity I
select, I can see what that consolidated balance sheet looks like.
In addition, we’re also spending more time analyzing and actually
digging into the numbers that we see and doing what I would call
the core accounting and finance responsibilities that we weren’t
able to do before…”
~ Janet Welch, Chief Financial Officer, DFO
- Published on
Senior living organizations face unique challenges—from cost containment and multi-entity reporting to new billing models — and a cloud-based accounting system allows you to better understand your organization and succeed in the future. As the need to use Protected Health Information (PHI) to understand the health of organizations grows, so does the need to maintain HIPAA compliance and keep PHI secure—even in your financials. At Sage Intacct, we’re passionate about building accounting software that helps you better understand your business, maintain HIPAA compliance, and succeed in the ever-evolving healthcare industry.
Built for healthcare
As healthcare grows in complexity, so does your organization. You’re managing multiple locations and practices, navigating changing reimbursement methods and initiating cost reduction initiatives, while manual processes are draining your productivity. You need insight into your growing breadth of financial and operational data, and we’ve built our healthcare accounting software with you in mind. We provide HIPAA compliant financials with continuous consolidation across multiple offices, practices and locations. Sage Intacct healthcare customers have increased profitability by 30% with better insight for informed decisions, realized 25% improvement in efficiency gains, and taken departmental reporting from 10 days to 10 minutes.
As healthcare grows in complexity, so does your organization. You’re managing multiple locations and practices, navigating changing reimbursement methods and initiating cost reduction initiatives, while manual processes are draining your productivity. You need insight into your growing breadth of financial and operational data, and we’ve built our healthcare accounting software with you in mind. We provide HIPAA compliant financials with continuous consolidation across multiple offices, practices and locations. Sage Intacct healthcare customers have increased profitability by 30% with better insight for informed decisions, realized 25% improvement in efficiency gains, and taken departmental reporting from 10 days to 10 minutes.
Real-time visibility and insights
Sage Intacct real-time reporting allows you to understand and measure performance for both financial metrics and operational outcomes. Because every transaction in the system can be tagged with dimensions, finance professionals can sort, view, filter, and report on the specific information they need. With greater insight, our senior living customers have reduced board budget reporting from three weeks to one hour and have improved visibility of location and provider performance to achieve gross margin targets.
Sage Intacct real-time reporting allows you to understand and measure performance for both financial metrics and operational outcomes. Because every transaction in the system can be tagged with dimensions, finance professionals can sort, view, filter, and report on the specific information they need. With greater insight, our senior living customers have reduced board budget reporting from three weeks to one hour and have improved visibility of location and provider performance to achieve gross margin targets.
True cloud technology with open API
As an innovator in the cloud space, Sage Intacct multi-tenant, true cloud foundation brings robust technology infrastructure to your organization, without the high costs of managing servers. Our open API lets you connect to existing systems or those you are considering in the future. This means you can leverage key data from electronic medical records, payroll, budget, CRMs (including Salesforce), and other systems to track key performance indicators.
As an innovator in the cloud space, Sage Intacct multi-tenant, true cloud foundation brings robust technology infrastructure to your organization, without the high costs of managing servers. Our open API lets you connect to existing systems or those you are considering in the future. This means you can leverage key data from electronic medical records, payroll, budget, CRMs (including Salesforce), and other systems to track key performance indicators.
Sage Intacct dashboards provide visibility into critical metrics for your senior living organization — like occupancy rate, revenue metrics, compliance, and more.
Recognized by finance experts
- AICPA: We are the first and only preferred provider of the AICPA.
- Gartner: Sage Intacct received the highest score in Core Financials for the Lower Midsize Enterprises Use Case in Gartner’s Critical Capabilities Report in July 2020.
- G2: Sage Intacct has the highest customer satisfaction score for the Accounting Software, Nonprofit Accounting Software, and ERP Systems categories on G2, a leading business software review platform.
- Avertium: Sage Intacct security safeguards have been certified as HIPAA- and HITECH-compliant by Avertium (formerly Sword & Shield). Sage Intacct will enter into a Business Associate Agreement with eligible healthcare organizations.
- Healthcare Financial Management Association: Sage Intacct has earned the designation of Peer Reviewed by the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA). We are the only financial management solution to receive this designation.
“Thanks to Sage Intacct, we’ve been able to bring more accounting in-house, and avoided hiring another 1.5 employees that we would’ve needed to keep up with our growth—at a savings of around $80,000 each year. We are now a much more agile business—making better, faster decisions about how to improve revenues or minimize expenses.”
~ Israel Ostrovitsky, Controller,
Personal Healthcare
~ Israel Ostrovitsky, Controller,
Personal Healthcare
Capabilities included
- Accounts Payable
- Accounts Receivable
- Advanced Audit Trail (HIPAA compliant)
- Allocations Management
- Analytics and Business Intelligence
- Budgeting and Planning
- Cash Management
- Dimensional General Ledger
- Fixed Assets
- Grant Tracking and Billing
- Inventory Management
- Multi-Entity and Global Consolidations
- Order Management
- Purchasing
- Reporting and Dashboards
- Spend Management
- Time and Expense Management
- Vendor Payment Services
- Published on
We’re passionate about building nonprofit accounting software that helps you navigate the complexity and demands of nonprofit financial management. Nonprofits face unique challenges: from compliance reporting to generating outcome metrics and providing real-time visibility—we want you to spend less time on administrative tasks and more time on what really matters—advancing your mission.
Built for nonprofits
As your organization grows, manual processes drain your productivity and it’s difficult to analyze your growing range of data. While you’re managing multiple donors and funding sources, increased demand for services, and changing regulatory requirements, we’ve built our nonprofit accounting software with you in mind. Sage Intacct nonprofit customers have experienced efficiency gains up to 75% and dedicate more time to strategic decision making.
We provide intuitive core fund accounting with a dimensional general ledger and accounts payable automation, comprehensive grant tracking and billing, automated revenue recognition, easy-to-use reporting and dashboards, and a rock-solid audit trail.
As your organization grows, manual processes drain your productivity and it’s difficult to analyze your growing range of data. While you’re managing multiple donors and funding sources, increased demand for services, and changing regulatory requirements, we’ve built our nonprofit accounting software with you in mind. Sage Intacct nonprofit customers have experienced efficiency gains up to 75% and dedicate more time to strategic decision making.
We provide intuitive core fund accounting with a dimensional general ledger and accounts payable automation, comprehensive grant tracking and billing, automated revenue recognition, easy-to-use reporting and dashboards, and a rock-solid audit trail.
Real-time visibility and insights
Nonprofits need visibility into financial and operational metrics to make more informed decisions about programs, fundraising, staffing, and more. Sage Intacct’s real-time reporting allows you to measure performance for financial, operational, and outcome metrics. Every transaction in the system is tagged with dimensions, so finance teams can sort, view, filter, and report on the specific information they need. Using dimensional insight, some of our nonprofit customers have increased donations up to 25%.
Nonprofits need visibility into financial and operational metrics to make more informed decisions about programs, fundraising, staffing, and more. Sage Intacct’s real-time reporting allows you to measure performance for financial, operational, and outcome metrics. Every transaction in the system is tagged with dimensions, so finance teams can sort, view, filter, and report on the specific information they need. Using dimensional insight, some of our nonprofit customers have increased donations up to 25%.
True cloud technology with open API
As an innovator in the cloud space, Sage Intacct has honed a true cloud model. Sage Intacct was built to deliver multi-tenant financial management, on a platform purpose-built for finance. This allows all users to be on the same version, without complicated and expensive upgrades. Our open API lets you connect to existing or future systems. This means you can leverage key data from donor management, payroll, budgeting, CRMs like Salesforce, and others to track metrics that are central to your organization’s operations and programs.
As an innovator in the cloud space, Sage Intacct has honed a true cloud model. Sage Intacct was built to deliver multi-tenant financial management, on a platform purpose-built for finance. This allows all users to be on the same version, without complicated and expensive upgrades. Our open API lets you connect to existing or future systems. This means you can leverage key data from donor management, payroll, budgeting, CRMs like Salesforce, and others to track metrics that are central to your organization’s operations and programs.
Gain visibility into critical metrics that drive your mission with Sage Intacct dashboards.
Capabilities include:
- Accounts payable
- Accounts receivable
- Allocations management
- Budgeting and planning
- Cash management
- Dimensional general ledger
- Fixed assets
- Fund accounting
- Grant tracking and billing
- Inventory management
- Multi-entity and global consolidations
- Order management
- Purchasing
- Project accounting
- Reporting and dashboards
- Revenue recognition
- Spend management
- Time and expense management
- Vendor payment services
Recognized by finance experts
- AICPA: Sage Intacct is the AICPA’s first and only preferred provider of financial applications.
- G2: Sage Intacct has the highest customer satisfaction score for multiple accounting categories on G2, a leading business software review platform.
“Sage Intacct has been a lifesaver for us, increasing productivity so we can manage MHA’s growth without adding more headcount to the finance team. This saves around $100,000 every year, and frees my time to be proactive, rather than reactive, in my job.”
~ Sherrie Hogan, Finance Director, Montana Hospital Association
~ Sherrie Hogan, Finance Director, Montana Hospital Association
- Published on
A Financial Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is the backbone of your business operations.
Starting with a Financial ERP solution is the ideal first step before committing to other lines of business software. It serves as a centralized platform that integrates various facets of your business, such as finance, analytics, budgeting / FP&A, asset management, inventory, HR / Payroll, supply chain, and more. Here are several compelling reasons why beginning with a Financial ERP system is advantageous:
Data Integration:
Financial ERP systems are designed to streamline data across your organization, ensuring consistency and accuracy. By establishing this foundation first, you'll have a unified and reliable source of data to share across all your business processes and other software solutions.
Financial ERP systems are designed to streamline data across your organization, ensuring consistency and accuracy. By establishing this foundation first, you'll have a unified and reliable source of data to share across all your business processes and other software solutions.
Efficiency:
Implementing a Financial ERP system as the initial step allows you to optimize your internal processes, making them more efficient and cost-effective. This efficiency improvement sets the stage for more effective use of additional software solutions.
Implementing a Financial ERP system as the initial step allows you to optimize your internal processes, making them more efficient and cost-effective. This efficiency improvement sets the stage for more effective use of additional software solutions.
Scalability:
Financial ERP systems are inherently scalable, adapting to your growing business needs. They serve as a stable base upon which you can build, accommodating other software solutions as your requirements evolve.
Financial ERP systems are inherently scalable, adapting to your growing business needs. They serve as a stable base upon which you can build, accommodating other software solutions as your requirements evolve.
Streamlined Reporting:
With a Financial ERP in place, you can generate comprehensive reports and gain valuable insights into your business operations. These insights can inform your decisions regarding which specific software solutions are required to enhance specific aspects of your business.
With a Financial ERP in place, you can generate comprehensive reports and gain valuable insights into your business operations. These insights can inform your decisions regarding which specific software solutions are required to enhance specific aspects of your business.
Cost Savings:
By addressing your core business functions with a Financial ERP first, you can often reduce redundant software and administrative costs, leading to significant savings in the long run.
By addressing your core business functions with a Financial ERP first, you can often reduce redundant software and administrative costs, leading to significant savings in the long run.
Consistency and Standardization:
Financial ERP systems enforce consistency and standardization in processes and data, fostering a more organized and coherent business environment. This foundation enhances the effectiveness of other software solutions that may be introduced later.
Financial ERP systems enforce consistency and standardization in processes and data, fostering a more organized and coherent business environment. This foundation enhances the effectiveness of other software solutions that may be introduced later.
In conclusion, starting with a Financial ERP system offers a strong foundation for your business, ensuring data integrity, operational efficiency, and scalability. This approach allows for a well-structured integration of additional software tailored to your specific needs.
- Published on
Built for data-driven, healthcare organizations
Healthcare organizations face unique challenges—from cost containment and multi-entity reporting to new billing models and product offerings—and a cloud-based accounting system allows you to better understand your organization and succeed in the future. As the need to use Protected Health Information (PHI) to understand the health of practices grows, so does the need to maintain HIPAA compliance and keep PHI secure—even in your financials. At Sage Intacct, we’re passionate about building accounting software that helps you better understand your business, maintain HIPAA compliance, and succeed in the ever-evolving healthcare industry.
Built for healthcare
As healthcare grows in complexity, so does your organization. You’re managing multiple locations and practices, navigating changing reimbursement methods, and initiating cost reduction initiatives, while manual processes are draining your productivity. You need insight into your growing breadth of financial and operational data, and we’ve built our healthcare accounting software with you in mind. We provide HIPAA compliant financials with continuous consolidation across multiple offices, practices, and locations. Sage Intacct healthcare customers have increased profitability by 30% with better insight for informed decisions, realized 25% improvement in efficiency gains, and taken departmental reporting from 10 days to 10 minutes.
Built for healthcare
As healthcare grows in complexity, so does your organization. You’re managing multiple locations and practices, navigating changing reimbursement methods, and initiating cost reduction initiatives, while manual processes are draining your productivity. You need insight into your growing breadth of financial and operational data, and we’ve built our healthcare accounting software with you in mind. We provide HIPAA compliant financials with continuous consolidation across multiple offices, practices, and locations. Sage Intacct healthcare customers have increased profitability by 30% with better insight for informed decisions, realized 25% improvement in efficiency gains, and taken departmental reporting from 10 days to 10 minutes.
Sage Intacct dashboards provide visibility into critical metrics for your healthcare organization _ Like role-based dashboards, revenue metrics, compliance, and more.
Real-time visibility and insights
The Sage Intacct real-time reporting allows you to understand and measure performance for both financial metrics and operational outcomes. Because every transaction in the system can be tagged with dimensions, finance professionals can sort, view, filter, and report on the specific information they need. With greater insight, our healthcare customers have reduced board budget reporting from 3 weeks to 1 hour and have improved revenue per physician by up to 6.5%.
The Sage Intacct real-time reporting allows you to understand and measure performance for both financial metrics and operational outcomes. Because every transaction in the system can be tagged with dimensions, finance professionals can sort, view, filter, and report on the specific information they need. With greater insight, our healthcare customers have reduced board budget reporting from 3 weeks to 1 hour and have improved revenue per physician by up to 6.5%.
True cloud technology with open API
As an innovator in the cloud space, the Sage Intacct multi-tenant, true cloud foundation brings robust technology infrastructure to your organization, without the high costs of managing servers. Our open API lets you connect to existing systems or those you are considering in the future. This means you can leverage key data from electronic medical records, payroll, budget, CRMs (including Salesforce), and other systems to track key performance indicators.
As an innovator in the cloud space, the Sage Intacct multi-tenant, true cloud foundation brings robust technology infrastructure to your organization, without the high costs of managing servers. Our open API lets you connect to existing systems or those you are considering in the future. This means you can leverage key data from electronic medical records, payroll, budget, CRMs (including Salesforce), and other systems to track key performance indicators.
Recognized by finance experts
- AICPA: We are the first and only preferred provider of the AICPA.
- Gartner: Sage Intacct received the highest score in Core Financials for the Lower Midsize Enterprises Use Case in Gartner’s Critical Capabilities Report in 2021.
- G2: Sage Intacct has the highest customer satisfaction score for multiple accounting categories on G2, a leading business software review platform.
- Avertium: Sage Intacct security safeguards have been certified as HIPAA- and HITECH-compliant by Avertium. Sage Intacct will enter into a Business Associate Agreement with eligible healthcare organizations.
- Healthcare Financial Management Association: Sage Intacct has earned the designation of Peer Reviewed by the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA). We are the only financial management solution to receive this designation.
“The visibility we have in Sage Intacct has improved our overall financial performance. Every manager has the financial insight they need to manage the business day-to-day. We especially value Sage Intacct’s dimensions capability, which lets us easily tag transactions in order to group, compare, and analyze our data by customer, by clinic, by territory, or even by clinic type.”
Jay Jackson, CFO
Care ATC
Capabilities include
- Accounts Payable
- Accounts Receivable
- Advanced Audit Trail (HIPAA Compliance)
- Allocations Management
- Analytics and Business Intelligence
- Budgeting and Planning
- Cash Management
- Dimensional General Ledger
- Fixed Assets
- Grant Tracking and Billing
- Inventory Management
- Multi-entity and Global Consolidations
- Order Management
- Purchasing
- Reporting and Dashboards
- Spend Management
- Time and Expense Management
- Vendor Payment Services
Note: Sage Intacct will sign a BAA
A Business Associate Agreement (BAA) is a legally binding contract between a healthcare provider (covered entity) and a third party (business associate) that outlines how protected health information (PHI) will be handled and safeguarded in compliance with HIPAA regulations. It ensures that the business associate will protect the confidentiality and security of PHI while performing services on behalf of the covered entity.
- Published on
40 essential features of a modern accounting system
Accounting systems are not something you change or replace often. However, as your nonprofit organization grows in size or complexity, you reach a point where manual processes drain your productivity, and you struggle to analyze your growing range of financial and operating data. At this point, you need a system that leverages the latest technology advancements.
At a minimum, a modern accounting system for nonprofits should automate and streamline core financial management functions such as accounts receivable, accounts payable, and financial close. But you can hardly fuel your growth and need for accountability and transparency by simply automating the minimum. Nonprofits, in particular, have accounting, tracking, and reporting needs that require specialized functionality in their financial management systems.
At a minimum, a modern accounting system for nonprofits should automate and streamline core financial management functions such as accounts receivable, accounts payable, and financial close. But you can hardly fuel your growth and need for accountability and transparency by simply automating the minimum. Nonprofits, in particular, have accounting, tracking, and reporting needs that require specialized functionality in their financial management systems.
How to use this checklist
To help you evaluate nonprofit accounting software vendors and ensure you get the modern features you need in your new system, we’ve created the Nonprofit Accounting Software Buyer’s Checklist. The checklist includes the 40 must-have features of a modern accounting system formatted in a way that makes it easy for you to do a head-to-head comparison of multiple software vendors. Simply use the blank columns for vendor comparison.
To help you evaluate nonprofit accounting software vendors and ensure you get the modern features you need in your new system, we’ve created the Nonprofit Accounting Software Buyer’s Checklist. The checklist includes the 40 must-have features of a modern accounting system formatted in a way that makes it easy for you to do a head-to-head comparison of multiple software vendors. Simply use the blank columns for vendor comparison.
Nonprofit and fund accounting
Nonprofits typically receive funding from multiple sources. Good stewardship of funds and increased compliance regulations call for transparency and accountability, creating a need for system-wide tracking and visibility across a variety of key segments or identifiers. These requirements are best met through a nonprofit or fund accounting system that provides complete fund tracking, efficient operational processing, timely reporting, and a comprehensive audit trail. Below are the key things you should look for in this system:
|
Build efficiency and accountability with a Fund Accounting framework |
Sage Intacct |
Other Vendor |
|
Simplify setup, transactions, and reporting through single, primary GL chart of accounts. |
√ |
|
|
Define, track, and report on every key organizational focus through unique, defined dimensions (e.g., grants, funds, programs, locations, etc.). |
√ |
|
|
Use the same chart of accounts across multiple entities for quick and easy consolidations and reporting. |
√ |
|
|
Access to over 150 report templates for easy and timely reporting for funders, board members, and executive team members in a manner compliant with FASB and government requirements, including: Statement of Financial Position, Statement of Activities, and Statement of Functional Expenses. |
√ |
|
|
Efficiently manage fund restrictions and grant requirements |
|
|
|
Instantly customizable dashboards that give you real-time operational and financial visibility by fund. |
√ |
|
|
Slice and dice your financial information the way you want (e.g., program, grant, department, etc.). |
√ |
|
|
Operating dimensions (e.g., grant, program, location, etc.) that allow you to quickly get a holistic view of performance and outcome measures through statistical tracking and reporting. |
√ |
|
|
Report quickly and easily on your dimension attributes (e.g., location, fund, program, etc.). |
√ |
|
|
Simplify grant, fund, and donor accounting |
|
|
|
Gain instant visibility for your team through role-based and customizable dashboards to help track, manage, and send reports to donors, grantors, volunteers, and board members. |
√ |
|
|
Track and report on funding restrictions, program outcomes, and budget to actual results. |
√ |
|
|
Automatically schedule reports for timely, proactive monitoring of fund administration and spending to ensure stronger funder relationships. |
√ |
|
|
Take advantage of 24/7 availability from any mobile device for instant visibility and control. |
√ |
|
|
Automate revenue management |
|
|
|
Decouple your fund invoicing schedule from revenue recognition, enabling you to efficiently and accurately manage even the most complex schedules. |
√ |
|
|
With automated revenue management, you can easily manage funding across accounting periods and in compliance with FASB and IASB standards. |
√ |
|
Automated, flexible financial processes
A modern general ledger is more than a standard chart of accounts. It lets you manage, analyze, and present your financial information the way you want, without adding complexity to your chart of accounts or using external reporting tools. Your accounting system should adapt to your optimal organizational structure and workflows rather than limit your operational flexibility, or force you to re-implement software or
re-write custom code. Your system should easily let you manage:
re-write custom code. Your system should easily let you manage:
|
Multiple entities |
Sage Intacct |
Other Vendor |
|
Drill down into detailed consolidating entries. |
√ |
|
|
Create multiple levels in your organizational hierarchy and various stakeholder structures. |
√ |
|
|
Choose consistent or different workflows, charts of accounts, period definitions, and lists across your multiple entities. |
√ |
|
|
Real-time GAAP, IFRS, FASB, regulatory, and compliance reports with over 150 included templates that give you the capability to drill down to the transaction level. |
√ |
|
|
Multiple ledgers (e.g., AR, AP, order management, and cash management ledgers) that can process transactions independently without degrading GL performance, and reduce the time it takes to close your books and report on financial results and outcome measures. |
√ |
|
|
Multiple books, such as simultaneously keeping books on an accrual and a cash basis, to allow you to easily report business results to multiple stakeholders based on their needs and report preferences. |
√ |
|
|
Utilize with spend management to ensure commented expenses are captured in budget/expense comparisons. |
√ |
|
|
Custom workflows and system access, so you can maintain separation of duties, match an accounting workflow to your organization’s operational processes, or provide read-only access to stakeholders like executives and auditors. |
√ |
|
Financial insight
A modern accounting system provides in-depth, real-time insight into the organization, allowing you to capitalize on new opportunities
or quickly recognize the need for corrective action. You benefit from having a thorough picture of the financial performance of your
organization, from high-level summaries down to the underlying transactions. To gain greater financial and operational insight, your
system should deliver:
or quickly recognize the need for corrective action. You benefit from having a thorough picture of the financial performance of your
organization, from high-level summaries down to the underlying transactions. To gain greater financial and operational insight, your
system should deliver:
|
Multiple operating dimensions for all transactions that let you: |
Sage Intacct |
Other Vendor |
|
Categorize each transaction by donor, program, grant, location, and more for a “clean GL” in order to avoid creating multiple separate GL accounts for each location, program, fund, etc. |
√ |
|
|
Create reports and dashboards that automatically combine operating dimensions with financial data, so you can analyze results for each operating unit, location, project, funder, and more. |
√ |
|
|
Slice and dice your financial and operational data the way you want without having to use external reporting tools or modify your chart of accounts. |
√ |
|
|
Self-service reports and custom dashboards to reduce ad-hoc stakeholder reporting, while delivering real-time updates and drill down capabilities for visibility and insight into the numbers. |
√ |
|
|
A statistical book of measures, such as impact, funding, constituents, locations not captured in a standard ledger, in order to provide greater insight into success metrics directly within your accounting system. |
√ |
|
|
Flexible and configurable reporting tools that allow your finance team to quickly and easily manage changing compliance requirements—like FASB 958. |
√ |
|
|
Spend Management: balance cash inflows and outflows to avoid overspending and ensure budgets are followed. |
√ |
|
Cloud architecture
A modern accounting system is cloud-based, so you can lower IT costs, reduce technology risks, and improve productivity. Using the cloud also gives you the flexibility to choose best-in-class solutions that focus on ease of integration with other leading software solutions to meet your needs in each focus area versus using a suite, which makes external integrations difficult. A best-in-class cloud accounting system delivers:
|
|
Sage Intacct |
Other Vendor |
|
On-demand scalability and performance in the cloud, which dramatically reduces your total cost of ownership by decreasing your hardware and software costs as well as your IT time and expense for maintenance, upgrades, and support. |
√ |
|
|
Self-service reports and custom dashboards to reduce ad-hoc stakeholder reporting, while delivering real-time updates and drill down capabilities for visibility and insight into the numbers. |
√ |
|
|
Productivity resulting from anytime, anywhere access on any device and operating system. |
√ |
|
|
Quarterly, automatic software updates that keep you current with the latest accounting standards and software features. |
√ |
|
|
Convenient “point-and-click” integrations that don’t require IT skills with commonly used applications such as: |
|
|
|
→ CRM and donor management |
√ |
|
|
→ Human resources |
√ |
|
|
→ Inventory and fixed assets |
√ |
|
|
→ Project and program management |
√ |
|
|
→ Payment processing |
√ |
|
|
→ Payroll and ACH |
√ |
|
The right company
Be sure to work with an organization that is committed to providing you with a world-class accounting system, not just a suite of software and services that you may not need. Your modern accounting system should come from a company that meets the following criteria:
|
|
Sage Intacct |
Other Vendor |
|
Heritage and exclusive focus on accounting systems. |
√ |
|
|
Proven longevity, sustained growth, and financial strength. |
√ |
|
|
System and services focused on the nonprofit sector. |
√ |
|
|
Financial and organizational commitment to continued investment and support of the accounting system. |
√ |
|
|
Recognized for excellence by leading industry associations, such as the AICPA. |
√ |
|
|
Top ratings and reviews by customers from trusted third party sources like G2 Crowd and TrustRadius. |
√ |
|
- Published on
The services industry’s mandate:
Project Profitability
In fast-paced services industries, savvy CFOs are tracking numerous key metrics like net income, current ratios, working capital, cash balance, DSO, gross margins, and more. But the one metric that may matter more than any other for long-term growth for professional services firms: project profitability.
The nature of the “project” can range from a technology implementation or ad campaign to a marketing event, research
study, or countless other outsourced services. But the one constant? Each project typically has a beginning, an end, and employees and contractors assigned to deliver the service. Contracts can be short-term or last for years. Billing terms can also vary widely such as time and materials or fixed fee based on milestones. Since every project is unique, it’s essential for you to clearly and quickly understand an individual project’s profitability as well as the profitability of different classes of projects. After all, once you sign that contract, you own the outcome, whether it’s profitable or not.
The nature of the “project” can range from a technology implementation or ad campaign to a marketing event, research
study, or countless other outsourced services. But the one constant? Each project typically has a beginning, an end, and employees and contractors assigned to deliver the service. Contracts can be short-term or last for years. Billing terms can also vary widely such as time and materials or fixed fee based on milestones. Since every project is unique, it’s essential for you to clearly and quickly understand an individual project’s profitability as well as the profitability of different classes of projects. After all, once you sign that contract, you own the outcome, whether it’s profitable or not.
Project profitability isn’t the job of just one individual or department. When you’re seeking to raise your game with project profitability, you need teams that can collaborate throughout project lifecycles and across functional disciplines. Sales must bid on the right projects at the right fees. Project managers need to assign the right resources to that project. And your talented professionals have to deliver their work on-time and on-budget. While all of that happens, you’re charged with monitoring budgets vs. actuals to avoid overruns, ensure profitability—and analyze the data to make even better bids in the future.
Here are five important steps your firm can take to achieve, preserve, and enhance project profitability.
Here are five important steps your firm can take to achieve, preserve, and enhance project profitability.
1. Track the right metrics
With so much data (in so many formats across extensive timeframes), it’s tempting to generate screen after screen of reports, analyses, and statistics. But amid all of the information you can access, you don’t want to lose sight of what matters most. One crucial step toward improving project profitability is to determine which metrics are important to your firm’s success.
These five top KPIs for services organizations from Services Performance Insight can be a great starting point:
Consider these metrics as you develop the right set of metrics for your organization to increase project profitability.
These five top KPIs for services organizations from Services Performance Insight can be a great starting point:
- Billable utilization
- Project overruns
- Project margins
- Annual revenue per billable consultant
- Annual revenue per employee
Consider these metrics as you develop the right set of metrics for your organization to increase project profitability.
Project profitability in action: CTI Clinical Trial and Consulting Services
CTI Clinical Trial and Consulting Services (CTI) supports life sciences firms worldwide. It’s largest expense: labor from doctors, scientists, nurses, monitors, and project managers who work on clinical trials in more than 25 countries.
CTI uses Sage Intacct’s project accounting features to capture all employee billing rates and standard costs, so teams can easily calculate labor costs, manage project resources, and issue project and time-tracking reports directly from Sage Intacct. Previously, a project accountant spent numerous days gathering data from two Microsoft Access databases and manipulating it in Excel to build monthly labor reports.
CTI Clinical Trial and Consulting Services (CTI) supports life sciences firms worldwide. It’s largest expense: labor from doctors, scientists, nurses, monitors, and project managers who work on clinical trials in more than 25 countries.
CTI uses Sage Intacct’s project accounting features to capture all employee billing rates and standard costs, so teams can easily calculate labor costs, manage project resources, and issue project and time-tracking reports directly from Sage Intacct. Previously, a project accountant spent numerous days gathering data from two Microsoft Access databases and manipulating it in Excel to build monthly labor reports.
“Sage Intacct lets us create utilization, efficiency, and expense reporting at the project, task, department, or customer level for granular transparency into our labor costs and profitability across various operational categories.”
- Brian Lawrence, Senior Director of Finance & Taxation
- Brian Lawrence, Senior Director of Finance & Taxation
Sage Intacct value
- Cut project reporting time by 16 hours/month.
- Gained granular transparency into labor costs and profitability.
2. Carve out analysis time
Having the right data is one key to profitability. But, to make the right decisions, you also need time to analyze the data and make recommendations. According to a PWC survey, top-performing finance organization spend 20 percent more time on analysis vs. data gathering.1 Modern, cloud-based accounting software automates your finance and accounting processes and eliminates duplicate data entry by easily integrating with third-party tools.
Project profitability in action: Goodway Group
Goodway Group, a rapidly growing digital marketing agency, could no longer depend on QuickBooks. The finance team was spending all its time preparing financials that show historical, descriptive data. By the time the reports were ready at end of the month, it was time to do it all over again.
With Sage Intacct, Goodway Group gains insight into its financials across a variety of dimensions, such as specific projects, segments, clients, vendors, or employees. Now, executives can analyze campaigns, clients, and segment-level profitability—not just an aggregate P&L.
Project profitability in action: Goodway Group
Goodway Group, a rapidly growing digital marketing agency, could no longer depend on QuickBooks. The finance team was spending all its time preparing financials that show historical, descriptive data. By the time the reports were ready at end of the month, it was time to do it all over again.
With Sage Intacct, Goodway Group gains insight into its financials across a variety of dimensions, such as specific projects, segments, clients, vendors, or employees. Now, executives can analyze campaigns, clients, and segment-level profitability—not just an aggregate P&L.
“By understanding the cost of sales and profitability for each industry we’re in, our segment leaders can spot market opportunities, define strategic plans, and make more informed decisions.”
- Mark Mead, Vice President of Finance
- Mark Mead, Vice President of Finance
Sage Intacct value
• Team saved 40-plus hours/month on allocations.
• Gained visibility into segment profitability for informed growth decisions.
• Team saved 40-plus hours/month on allocations.
• Gained visibility into segment profitability for informed growth decisions.
3. Create dashboards for project managers
Ernst & Young found that 67% of 769 CFOs surveyed believe improving cross-functional collaboration is a high priority for finance. This is especially true for project-based companies where project managers and client services drive project execution and profitability. Finance can improve collaboration with project managers by providing information they need to be more efficient and make better decisions.
Project profitability in action: Red Door Interactive
This full-service marketing and advertising agency is known for its data-driven approach to expanding brand awareness, improving customer experiences, increasing leads, and growing loyalty and advocacy, a commitment that even extends to the finance team.
Leveraging the rich reporting in Sage Intacct, Red Door Interactive built a custom unbilled revenue report that tracks time and materials for retainer and hourly projects. Now, the firm can compare its completed project work vs. target client budgets and see how much budget remains. A Sage Intacct executive dashboard displays the firm’s twelve-week cash forecast. Client Services dashboards feature sales reports, aging summaries, and invoices in process, while department dashboards show quarterly and annual budget vs. actuals.
Project profitability in action: Red Door Interactive
This full-service marketing and advertising agency is known for its data-driven approach to expanding brand awareness, improving customer experiences, increasing leads, and growing loyalty and advocacy, a commitment that even extends to the finance team.
Leveraging the rich reporting in Sage Intacct, Red Door Interactive built a custom unbilled revenue report that tracks time and materials for retainer and hourly projects. Now, the firm can compare its completed project work vs. target client budgets and see how much budget remains. A Sage Intacct executive dashboard displays the firm’s twelve-week cash forecast. Client Services dashboards feature sales reports, aging summaries, and invoices in process, while department dashboards show quarterly and annual budget vs. actuals.
“We love Sage Intacct’s permissionsbased
dashboards, which cut days of report preparation each month, because we’ve created helpful self-service dashboards where our executives, client services team, and
department heads can find relevant, timely business insight."
- Natalie Bonczek, Controller
dashboards, which cut days of report preparation each month, because we’ve created helpful self-service dashboards where our executives, client services team, and
department heads can find relevant, timely business insight."
- Natalie Bonczek, Controller
Sage Intacct value
- Saved about 55 hours on monthly workflows and reporting.
- Achieved new insights through self-service dashboards.
4. Understand the true nature of fixed-fee project costs
The trend toward fixed-fee projects and value-based pricing continues. According to TSIA, 50% of professional services projects they analyzed are sold on a fixed-price basis across the industry. If you’re billing based on time and materials, you already have the process in place to track your labor costs through time and expense entry. If your billing is based on a fixed fee and long-term contracts, it’s also critical to know the details of your cost.
Smart CFOs use technology to understand the full project cost— and avoid the so-called “peanut butter” approach of spreading the cost evenly. Armed with detailed direct and indirect labor costs, they can make insightful decisions because they clearly understand which projects have higher margins, which clients are more profitable, and which employees are more productive. The more you know about the costs of your services at a granular level—not just at the P&L level—the more informed decisions you’ll be able to make.
Project profitability in action: Tandem HR
Tandem HR, a professional employer organization provides human resources outsourcing and operates an employee-benefits brokerage. The company operates 16 different entities that support more than 500 small and mid-sized businesses.
With Sage Intacct, Tandem HR has transformed its project accounting, enabling users to create reports about specific clients, employees, and service lines—without having to manually calculate labor costs across different entities. Tandem HR easily tracks specific employees and understands the amount of time spent on each project in order to improve profitability and identify when the company may need to adjust fees during contract renewals. Tandem HR also uses Sage Intacct to create nonfinancial reports, such as vendor reports that optimize spending across different benefit carriers, enrollers, or third-party employee assistance counselors.
Smart CFOs use technology to understand the full project cost— and avoid the so-called “peanut butter” approach of spreading the cost evenly. Armed with detailed direct and indirect labor costs, they can make insightful decisions because they clearly understand which projects have higher margins, which clients are more profitable, and which employees are more productive. The more you know about the costs of your services at a granular level—not just at the P&L level—the more informed decisions you’ll be able to make.
Project profitability in action: Tandem HR
Tandem HR, a professional employer organization provides human resources outsourcing and operates an employee-benefits brokerage. The company operates 16 different entities that support more than 500 small and mid-sized businesses.
With Sage Intacct, Tandem HR has transformed its project accounting, enabling users to create reports about specific clients, employees, and service lines—without having to manually calculate labor costs across different entities. Tandem HR easily tracks specific employees and understands the amount of time spent on each project in order to improve profitability and identify when the company may need to adjust fees during contract renewals. Tandem HR also uses Sage Intacct to create nonfinancial reports, such as vendor reports that optimize spending across different benefit carriers, enrollers, or third-party employee assistance counselors.
“I used to spend about nine hours every month just creating time and labor costs. Sage Intacct [does it automatically]. I don’t even remember how I set it up now—it works so smoothly I never have to think about it.”
- Tanya Yakhnis, Chief Financial Officer
- Tanya Yakhnis, Chief Financial Officer
Sage Intacct Value
- Saved 500 person-hours annually by eliminating workarounds.
- Optimized client service levels, staff utilization, and vendor relationships.
5. Enable data-driven decisions with trusted data
According to Forrester Research, 74% of firms say they want to be data-driven, but only 29% say they are good at connecting analytics to action. CFOs can play a critical role in fostering data-driven decision processes throughout the firm. That culture starts by providing the same reliable, trusted data in both financial and operational reporting. They want the same data that’s used create P&L reports for executives and project-margin analyses for project managers. And they need timely data, in context, in real time.
Project profitability in action: Cameo Global
This IT services company specializes in large-scale IT solutions, managed services, collaboration solutions and contact center technologies worldwide. Prior to Sage Intacct, the company controller spent one-third of his time exporting data from an old accounting program into Microsoft Excel, formatting spreadsheets, and sending them to executives and project managers.
With Sage Intacct, now they get immediate, accurate views of the business, saving time and ensuring decisions are made using the correct information. For example, the company identified one overseas business unit that was generating less than half the margin of another business. That led Cameo Global to shift its focus to more profitable lines and refine its business strategy.
Project profitability in action: Cameo Global
This IT services company specializes in large-scale IT solutions, managed services, collaboration solutions and contact center technologies worldwide. Prior to Sage Intacct, the company controller spent one-third of his time exporting data from an old accounting program into Microsoft Excel, formatting spreadsheets, and sending them to executives and project managers.
With Sage Intacct, now they get immediate, accurate views of the business, saving time and ensuring decisions are made using the correct information. For example, the company identified one overseas business unit that was generating less than half the margin of another business. That led Cameo Global to shift its focus to more profitable lines and refine its business strategy.
“As our leaders have learned Sage Intacct’s powerful capabilities, they’ve started using more reports and are employing an increasingly data-driven approach for every business decision. Now everybody sees the same data, and we have much better information with which to collaborate and make decisions.”
- Mike Munson, Controller
- Mike Munson, Controller
Sage Intacct value
- Cut a week of data entry each month through integration with other business systems.
- Enabled data-driven decision making with accurate, timely information for optimizing project profitability and billing utilization.
Conclusion
CFOs can no longer afford to simply operate the finance and accounting functions. They are becoming strategic advisors to the company—especially in project- and service-based organizations. By collaborating closely with the operations team, CFOs can have an outsized big impact on the key metric for success: project profitability. To adopt these best practices and reach that next level of sustainable, profitable growth, CFOs must modernize the accounting software foundation by adopting a best-in-class solution that’s built for the needs of professional services organizations. What’s more, a cloud-based solution with open APIs easily integrates with other systems critical to your unique business processes. A flexible, customizable solution that is available to your cross functional teams in real-time, any time. And a scalable solution that can easily support your growth now and in the future.