“The market for core financial management suites has been static for many years. However, over the last 12 to 18 months, cloud core financial management suites have matured to such an extent that they have disrupted this static market. This reflects the increasing prevalence of postmodern ERP strategies.

[…] Postmodern ERP is the deconstruction of suite-centric, monolithic, on-premises ERP deployments into loosely coupled applications, some of which can be domain suites (such as core financials or HCM) or smaller footprint applications that are integrated as needed.”

2017 marked a shift in the thought process for applications, as Gartner made the same move toward the cloud for Corporate Performance Management suites last year as well.

In 2018, the market has stabilized, and enterprises are going full steam ahead toward the cloud—by 2023, 50% of all new midsize core financial management application projects and 25% of large and global ones will be public cloud implementations.

Background: 2018 Gartner Magic Quadrant Financial Management Applications

Why Cloud?

Throughout the past year, companies have shown demonstrated interest in the cloud, with specific interest in public cloud applications.

“Many large organizations with extensive on-premises business application architectures for core financial applications are investigating cloud solutions’ capabilities and gauging when they should switch to the cloud. […] Many are pursuing a postmodern ERP strategy that involves surrounding their ERP solution with best-in-class cloud solutions for ancillary functionality, where faster processing, better collaboration and easier-to-use analytics are needed (such as for travel expense management and financial planning and analysis).”

What’s pushing these organizations toward the cloud? Gartner cites five major attractions:

• The ability to keep up to date with new releases (customers are generally forced to stay within one or two releases of the current one)
• A more consumerlike interface
• Improved analytics
• Improved agility, gained through faster introduction of new functionality
• More emphasis on end users (in the office of finance) managing the applications, with less reliance on IT staff

What Defines a Core Financial Management Suite?

This Magic Quadrant covers core financial management suites that provide a view of an enterprise’s financial position through automation and process support for any activity that has a financial impact. According to Gartner’s definition, core financial management suites include:

• The functional areas of general ledger (GL), accounts payable (AP), accounts receivable (AR), fixed assets (FA), project accounting, project costing and project billing.
• Financial analytics and reporting capabilities, including provision of financial information (via profit-and-loss statements and balance sheets, for example), and of key performance indicators to managers and executives.
• Basic indirect purchasing functionality (from creating a requisition through to purchase order processing, and AP invoice matching and payment). Many enterprises — especially midsize ones — need some basic procurement functionality within their core financial applications.

What Constitutes a Cloud Solution?

Additionally, Gartner required applications judged to meet specific “cloud criteria,” which included ‘born in the cloud’ solutions designed initially as cloud applications, multi-deployment solutions, re-architected solutions, and traditional applications delivered as public cloud applications.

“Cloud solutions typically improve agility and collaboration, and offer superior analytics, ease of use, geographic coverage and industry capabilities. Consequently, the market’s focus has shifted rapidly to cloud-based solutions. The rate of cloud adoption varies widely, however — by industry, business domain and organizations’ size, sophistication and resources.”

How Vendors Are Judged

The Magic Quadrant is based on sustainability, judging vendors on their success as a company. These judgements are based on completeness of vision and ability to execute. This differs from the product analyses, which are discussed in the Critical Capabilities report to be released later this year.

Ability to Execute

• Product or Service
• Overall Visibility
• Sales Execution
• Market Responsiveness
• Marketing Execution
• Customer Experience
• Operations

Completeness of Vision

Eight components go into the completeness of vision judgements.

• Market Understanding
• Marketing Strategy
• Sales Strategy
• Product Strategy
• Business Model
• Vertical/Industry Strategy
• Innovation
• Geographic Strategy

The 2018 Magic Quadrant Core Cloud Financial Management Suites

Based on the criteria above, companies are broken into four groups—leader, challenger, visionary, and niche player. Each vendor that makes the list is defined as one of the following:

• Leader: Higher Completeness of Vision, Higher Ability to Execute
• Challenger: Higher Ability to Execute, Lower Completeness of Vision
• Visionary: Higher Completeness of Vision, Lower Ability to Execute
• Niche Player: Lower Ability to Execute, Lower Completeness of Vision

Sage Intacct Named Visionary Cloud ERP

Appearing once again on the list as a visionary, Sage Intacct continues its push toward the top right corner of the Magic Quadrant. Following Sage’s purchase of the company last year, the company has gained a powerful backer as the company looks to expand beyond North America.

“Sage Intacct provides a full suite of core financial management applications. It also offers time recording, expense management, inventory management, and contract subscription billing and revenue management capabilities. Its solution is aimed at small and lower-midsize enterprises, but scalable enough for some large ones. Sage Intacct’s customers are primarily in service-centric industries and the not-for-profit sector. Intacct had focused entirely on North America, but now, as part of Sage, it is expanding its reseller channel into Europe and Asia/Pacific, and is focused on broader international expansion.”

Noted for its strong cloud commitment, functionality, vision, and customer feedback, the company scored fourth-highest completeness of vision. Gartner noted that the company’s focus on North American midsized enterprises limits its opportunities, but does have the potential to cater to larger ones as well.

Microsoft Named Visionary for Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations

While Microsoft offers a broad variety of ERP applications, many of which we provide to our own customers on premises, hosted, and in the cloud, the only current solution that meets Gartner’s inclusion criteria is Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations.

From Gartner:

“Microsoft launched Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations in November 2016 as a repackaging of Dynamics AX7, which it released in March 2016. (Dynamics AX7 was a rearchitected version of Dynamics AX 2012, which focused on public cloud deployment in the Azure cloud.) Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations continues the “cloud first” strategy of Dynamics AX7, but hybrid and fully on-premises deployments are also possible (this document Magic Quadrant assess only the cloud product).”

Among the strengths, Gartner noted the functional capabilities, the integration with Power BI, and geographical reach, while noting that the company could work to improve its positioning, as well as fighting through the growing pains that come from being a new product in the market.

Get the Report: 2018 Magic Quadrant for Core Cloud Financial Management

If you are considering ERP in the cloud in 2018, 2019, or beyond, and would like to see where each player stands in terms of functionality, market readiness, and more, we invite you to download the entire report free of charge from our friends at Sage Intacct. Just head over to the Analyst Reports section to peruse this and other offers. Ready to learn more about our work with Microsoft Dynamics and Sage Intacct? Reach out to us for a free consultation.

The post Gartner’s Cloud ERP Magic Quadrant Lists Sage Intacct and Microsoft Visionaries appeared first on Brittenford Systems.

About the Bob Scott’s Insights Top 100 VARs

The Bob Scott’s Insights Top 100 VARs is an annual ranking of the top value added resellers in North America based on revenues, a who’s who of the leading technology consultants in the accounting space. From the BSI 100 VAR list:

“To be considered for selection in the Top 100, firms were asked to provide the number of employees and annual revenue, along with the financial software lines they care. In cases in which firms did not disclosed, revenue was estimated, taking into account the general price range of ERP applications that these firms handle.

In cases where more than one firm reported the same revenue, they were deemed to be in a tie for the same ranking on the chart. In every case, resellers derive revenue from the sale of sources other than mid-market financial applications. These include networking, infrastructure and hosting services, along with a wide variety of other lines of business. However, all VARs selected consider ERP applications to be the core of their business.”

Top Trends in the VAR Space

In addition to offering a look at the biggest and the best in the reseller industry, the report also dives into some of the top trends affecting implementation partners. Among the top trends noted by the report:

CPA Firms Going Big on Reselling, Especially in the Cloud

It’s a sensible move for CPA firms to add ‘cloud accounting and ERP technology’ to their list of services. Not only is it a smart move for companies like Wipfli to diversify their product and service offering to reflect customer needs, the focus on cloud business is perceived as ‘brilliant’ by the report.

“A standard reason given […] is that the cloud products do not require them to build infrastructures laden with technology specialists. They can concentrate on services that fall into their expertise in finance and business operations.”

As a provider of Sage Intacct, Dynamics AX/GP/SL/BC/FO, NetSuite, and QB, Wipfli provides the best of both worlds—as well as complementing technology such as Travel/Expense/Invoice Software, Business Intelligence, Enterprise Performance Management, connectors, and niche solutions.

Continued M&A

Both in the vendor space and the reseller space, mergers and acquisitions have changed the market. Whether that was from Sage’s acquisition of Intacct in 2017 or Wipfli picking up new VAR businesses in the last few years, the industry has continued to consolidate.

The Product Name Game

The last year has also been one of product names changes by Microsoft and Sage. As mentioned Sage revamped its product line, placing four products under the label the Sage Business Cloud. Microsoft did more than its share of renaming. With Sage Intacct becoming part of the Sage Business Cloud and the changes to the Dynamics 365 Line—in 2018, Microsoft cleared up part of the confusion by labelling the cloud version of Dynamics NAV Dynamics 365 Business Central, the names have evolved to better represent the products.

Get to Know Wipfli

Wipfli has been a leader in business software for years, and has continued to grow even faster recently. It’s an exciting time, and we are ecstatic to be part of it. Read the entire report here, and learn more about our products, services, and get in contact with us for a free consultation.

The post Wipfli Moves up on Bob Scott’s Insights Top 100 VARs 2018 appeared first on Brittenford Systems.

The upcoming Sage Intacct Meetup is designed for nonprofit customers looking to understand best practices for using the product, learn about new innovations. Scheduled for July 24, 2018, you can learn more about the events and register below.

What Are Sage Intacct Meetups?

Sage Intacct meetups are regional events hosted by Sage Intacct to teach customers and prospects about the cloud. At these events, attendees will learn from other Intacct customers as they share their experiences and best practices. These free lunch-time events (lunch provided) are designed to foster collaboration so you can get the most out of Sage Intacct.

These events will feature insights from Sage Intacct representatives and partners who will answer questions and demonstrate the latest product enhancements. Events include customer panels, Q&A sessions, peer-to-peer networking activities, and updates from Sage Intacct Product Management. Better yet, some events will feature in-depth training for attendees so that users can better leverage Intacct software for accuracy and insight during periods of growth.

Why Should You Attend?

Attending a Sage Intacct Regional Meetup is a great way to ask questions, get answers, understand new features, learn how to use the product more effectively, and more. While ‘learning how to make your day easier’ should be reason enough, we also understand that getting around D.C. is a challenge and doing so around lunchtime is a challenge in itself. We do feel that the benefits outweigh the commute times, and it’s why last year we discussed some of the top reasons to attend a regional meetup on the Sage Intacct blog:

1. Networking: Connect with old peers, discuss new integrations with vendors, and connect with other members of the Sage Intacct community—it’s like a mini, 2-hour, Sage Intacct Advantage.
2. Learn about New Features and Upcoming Releases: Get to know what’s new and what’s next, getting tips and tricks on how to leverage them to make your job easier.
3. Hear a Detailed Customer Journey: Every meetup includes a fireside chat with a featured customer. Hear how they made the product work for them and get inspired on how Sage Intacct can help you!
4. Free Training: Certain Meetups include additional training sessions tailored to the industry focus of the event.
5. Free Stuff: Attending the event automatically enters you into a drawing for a free conference pass to Sage Intacct Advantage, a free training session hosted by Intacct, and gift cards and other goodies from participating partners.

Nonprofits: Join Sage Intacct on July 24, 2018

Get the most out of Sage Intacct. Join us for our Sage Intacct Meetup in Washington DC! You’ll learn from other Sage Intacct customers as they share their experiences and best practices. We’ll also share product roadmap updates and the latest product enhancements.

Join us for the opportunity to:

• Connect and sharewith fellow Sage Intacct customers in your area
• Learnabout the latest product management updates and enhancements
• And so much more

Connect and share with fellow Sage Intacct customers in your industry. Whether you have a question or idea, this Meetup will provide answers and foster collaboration with others.

• Date: July 24, 2018
• Time: 11:00 AM ET-2:30 PM ET
• Location: Embassy Suites DC Convention Center, 900 10th Street Washington, DC 20001

Click here to learn and register.

The post Sage Intacct Nonprofit Meetup Headed back to Washington D.C. on July 24, 2018 appeared first on Brittenford Systems.

Leading up to the event, we discussed some of the top new features in a three-part series, and would today like to share with you a second look at these new features, as well as invite you to ask questions and see for yourself the improvements that have been made in a July 12 webinar.

Comprehensive Document Attach

One of the biggest improvements to the platform was the “Comprehensive Document Attach” functionality, which enables users to attach multiple documents to Items, Customers, Vendors, Assets and Transactions. It makes it easier and reduces the number of clicks to get information by having instant access to documents like signed documents, W-9’s, Contracts, Credit Reports, Customer POs, pictures.  Any document you can think of can be attached or you could attach a link to a OneDrive site or SharePoint. Document Attach was built with the intent to expand based on user needs, and this new functionality expands on the original iteration. We discussed this feature in depth here.

Workflow Improvements

Microsoft made some important improvements to workflows, adding three new workflows to the product based on informative feedback from the Dynamics Community. These new workflows appear for the GL Account, Receivables Transactions Workflows, and Purchasing Invoice Workflows, which we will display below. We discussed workflow enhancements in part 2 of our blog series, and you can learn more here.

There were many other enhancements discussed in our three-part series (part 1, part 2, part 3), but to really understand what it can do for your business, you need to see it for yourself.

July 12 Live Webinar: What’s New in Dynamics GP 2018

Being a regular user of Microsoft Dynamics GP, you’ve probably thought of some features that could be easier, faster and more convenient for you — and you’re not alone. In GP’s 2018 release, Microsoft has listened to its customers and used their feedback to make a wide range of enhancements.

Find out what’s new and how it benefits your business in Wipfli’s complimentary webinar, “What’s New in Dynamics GP 2018.” We’ll go over everything you need to know about the new features, including how Microsoft:

• Made document attachment much more comprehensive across the application
• Improved the user experience with easier ways to find the data you’re looking for
• Enhanced Workflow capabilities, such as with copy step and reminder emails
• Optimized the Financials and HR/Payroll experience

Don’t miss out on learning how these new features can further streamline your processes and help you make faster decisions. Click here to register.

The post Webcast: What’s New in Dynamics GP 2018? appeared first on Brittenford Systems.

Dynamics 365 Business Central

However, in April, Microsoft split the ERP portion of Dynamics 365 into an enterprise platform (Finance and Operations—based on Dynamics AX) and a small and midsized business platform called Business Central. As we discussed in our blog on the topic:

“As of April 2, 2018, Microsoft refocused its Dynamics 365 ERP applications, moving from Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations—Business Edition and Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations—Enterprise Edition to Dynamics 365 Business Central and Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations.”

Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, Business edition, is now Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central—a powerful all-in-one business management solution. Along with a new name, Business Central also includes an all new user experience and enhanced capabilities to help you grow and connect your business. Designed for smaller businesses, this software option is the D365 version of Dynamics NAV and starts at $70/user/month for Essentials and $100/user/month for Premium.

This platform offers powerful functionality for growing businesses, and we would today like to invite you to join us on July 18 to learn more.

July 18, 2018: Get to Know Dynamics 365 Business Central

Like a supply chain, when all the pieces of a business fit and work together, it leads to efficient processes, maximized profitability and happy customers. But keeping all facets of your business in sync is about as easy as ensuring no piece of a supply chain ever goes wrong.

That’s why Microsoft Dynamics 365’s newest application, Business Central, is so crucial to organizations that want to make smarter decisions. Business Central is an all-in-one business management solution that helps you:

• Manage your financials and improve forecast accuracy
• Improve your customer service and how you sell
• Holistic view of your business with built-in intelligence
• Gain efficiency with automated tasks and workflows making use of familiar office tools like Outlook, Word & Excel
• Transform multiple disconnected systems into one

Is Business Central right for your business? Join Wipfli’s upcoming webinar where we demo Business Central and answer questions so you can:

• Learn what Business Central is capable of and how it can benefit your organization
• Understand how Business Central fits into the existing suite of Microsoft D365 products
• Learn how it can help your business optimize processes and improve decision making

Click here to register and learn more.

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More Than Half of Respondents Still Use Email and Spreadsheets for BPF

We don’t know which part of the statement is more shocking—the fact that more than half of the respondents are attempting to get everyone on the same page by relying on endless email chains to collaborate, or that they are using software that’s dangerously flawed when attempting to complete necessary budgeting and planning initiatives.

It’s easy to see why spreadsheets would often be the choice of financial professionals in the budgeting and planning process—they’re familiar, they come as part of the Microsoft Office suite, and they are also somewhat useful for basic measurement and analysis. However, when managing the budgeting and planning process at an organization, these error-prone, manual-process tools are ill equipped to handle the intricacy and complexity of this process.

But these financial professionals are seeing that their current processes and technologies are ill equipped to handle the needs and have noticed that there is a push towards faster and more accurate budgeting, planning, and forecasting—71% say that the pressure to deliver faster BPF data will increase substantially over the next 12 to 18 months, as well as seeing a push towards integration in BPF.

Notably, they have realized that spreadsheets are not the answer and they are putting in effort to find an enterprise-ready solution that facilitates their budgeting, planning, and forecasting processes while reducing errors and providing increased flexibility.

The entire CFO.com report discusses the challenges that organizations face in the BPF process, explores why the traditional spreadsheet-laden BPF process doesn’t work, and shares some of the key reasons that CFOs should consider as they transition to cloud-based enterprise performance management (EPM) solutions including:

• Why finance needs to phase out spreadsheet-based planning and reporting
• The benefits of cloud-based technologies to streamline planning and reporting
• The advantages of partnering with IT and business leaders to transform EPM
• A look to the future of EPM solutions

Download What CFOs Need to Know About Enterprise Performance Management to learn more about transitioning to a cloud-based EPM solution.

The post Why an Increasing Number of CFOs are Embracing Cloud EPM appeared first on Brittenford Systems.

Are You Losing Your “Agile Advantage”?

If you know the feeling, it’s only a matter of time before you lose the “agile advantage” and start to notice that your people are wasting more and more time on the necessities and less and less time on positioning your business for growth. Add on top of this the risks that come from overworking people and relying on manual processes, and you are building a growth ceiling when you should be building your business.

It’s at this point that you should begin to take a look at your people, processes, and technologies to identify where you can find ways to work smarter, not harder.

A recent study by Oxford Economics discussed the advantages in agility and innovation that Small and Midsized companies have and can maintain their competitive advantage as they continue to grow by finding smarter ways to leverage the finance department and the technologies they use.

Boosting Performance: How Leading SMBs Operate

In the study, the team surveyed 1,500 executives at companies making less than €1 billion in annual revenue to discover best practices and to learn what leaders (top 11.5% of respondents) did differently:

“By emulating an elite group we call Finance Leaders, finance executives at smaller companies can leverage their size and position to boost performance. This becomes especially important as smaller companies directly compete with larger companies in today’s flattened, global economy. And as they grow, their finance operation will need to run effectively and efficiently at scale.”

What Separates Leaders from the Rest of the Pack

According to the study, researchers found that leaders did six specific things that kept them ahead of the pack:

1. Have strong influence beyond the finance function
2. Drive strategic growth initiatives
3. Improve efficiency with automation
4. Are very effective at core finance processes
5. Collaborate regularly with business units across the entire company
6. Work closely with governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) and are well equipped to handle regulatory changes

Leveraging People, Processes, and Technologies for Smarter Growth

For growing companies that hope to continue their momentum, one of the biggest hurdles that stands between them and their goals is their current technology stack (or lack thereof). Too often, finance has the potential to be more agile, but either fails to use technology effectively or fails to embrace the value that it poses to their company. According to the survey, leaders are much more likely to see technology investments as important compared with their average peers; when asked which of the following technologies were very important or critically important, they responded in the following manner:

Per the study:

“Furthermore, whereas Finance Leaders almost unanimously say modern digital tools like cloud-based applications, ERP platforms, and Big Data are very or critically important to the finance function today, less than two-thirds of small and mid-size companies do. […] They may feel overwhelmed by what they see as the complexity of technology: 74% of small and mid-size businesses say new or emerging technology is increasing the function’s complexity (vs. 58% of larger companies).

In addition, smaller companies may be challenged to find the resources to update their systems—61% said the difficulty of updating technology without disrupting daily activities was a top-ranked challenge to making their finance function more efficient. Still, these businesses could risk future growth if they ignore the tools that are so important to top-performing businesses.”

It Pays to Select Technology Early

The study found that growing businesses often see a move to enhance their technology stack as risky and potentially business-disrupting. While there is nothing easy about an implementation project, consider the risks of waiting even longer to complete one. The larger your company gets, the more challenging each day becomes—more work, more risk, and more overworked employees who will become increasingly sick of doing work that doesn’t add value to the business.

Add on top of this the risk that implementing further down the growth calendar poses (imagine trying to implement a business-changing software when your company is 10%, 20%, or 100% larger than it is today), and you’ll find that the benefits of implementing today greatly outweigh the risks.

Per the report,

“Although lack of budget is a major issue for small and mid-size companies, a larger stumbling block may be their outdated technology. The use of established (like cloud, Big Data, and ERP platforms, analytics) and emerging (like IoT and blockchain) technologies can provide a major efficiency breakthrough to the finance function at smaller companies. This, in turn, can boost performance across the company and inform better decision-making.”

As your company grows, it’s important to find technology that empowers employees, reduces risk, and positions your company for comfortable growth. Additionally, it’s vital to select technology that is proven—not only for your company’s needs today, but in the future as well. We invite you to download the entire report, Small and Mid-Size Companies Can Boost Performance Through Finance from our friends at SAP Concur, and learn more about the technology we implement here.

The post Why SMBs Shouldn’t Wait until Later to Implement Technology appeared first on Brittenford Systems.

While we have discussed many of the advances experienced by the finance department and have found that even in the wake of these advances that most financial professionals’ job prospects will remain safe, finance needs to ride the wave of advancing technology and leverage it for job growth. One of these tools is that of intelligent financial planning and analysis, a platform designed to provide information to users when and where they need it, increasing accuracy, decision-making, and collaboration.

Coined as iFP&A by Digitalist Magazine, we would today like to explore the role of this platform in informing budgeting and planning decisions throughout the organization.

Understanding Intelligent Financial Planning and Analysis

While the practice of financial planning and analysis is straightforward—the process of establishing a budget based on information about expenses and income—anyone who has had experience running a budgeting session understands that there are hundreds of moving parts that could affect the way the budgeting process works. Balancing assets, liabilities, and dozens of other metrics while planning can turn a seemingly straightforward process into a headache—especially when non-financial contributors get involved.

Enter iFP&A, a smarter way to leverage current financials to make better decisions through automation, acceleration, and alignment. These three factors are proven to allow organizations to access information instantly, continuously collaborate, and spearhead innovation.

Three Benefits of Intelligent Financial Planning and Analysis

As organizations work to improve their processes, many have turned to cloud technologies like Host Analytics to make smarter decisions—no matter how complex or fast growing the organization is.

Instant access

In today’s fast-paced business environment, decisions need to be made quickly. Too often, these decisions get held up in analysis, resulting in missed opportunities. Today’s finance department needs to be able to answer questions about the future—today. Decisions can’t be made after the fact, and per Digitalist, “the value finance needs to provide must be live, and that is only possible with instant access to information.”

To make this happen, an iFP&A solution needs go beyond the basics to enable collaboration, provide advanced, ready-to-use visualizations and analysis, and provide finance professionals with deep insight into the numbers, giving them the ability to analyze, plan, predict, and report in one unified environment.

Beyond this, an effective iFP&A solution needs to help finance leaders think beyond the finance department—giving them the power to work with business leaders to achieve organizational goals. Often, this is easier said than done. Business leaders aren’t paid to analyze charts and graphs, and many solutions aren’t tailored to help them understand the numbers due to a steep learning curve or lack of business user-focused functionality. To address this, Host Analytics recently introduced MyPlan, the first product designed specifically for budget owners, allowing finance to fully engage and collaborate with them in the planning, budgeting, and forecasting process.

Diversification

Finance departments don’t act in a vacuum, and while they often control how the money moves, many decisions should be made with the input of additional departments. This is one of the key selling points for advanced iFP&A offerings, which allow you to extend your planning and analysis to all departments. For example, marketing can track program spend, IT can forecast equipment purchases and depreciation, and sales can forecast deals.

While effective cross-departmental planning may be feasible, it would ultimately result in endless email chains, meetings, and constant editing that would end with more cross-department disdain than collaboration. With an iFP&A solution, you can discuss issues on the fly, whether it concerns a report, an allocation method, or a budget driver.

Intelligence

While it may not be prudent to immediately jump on “the next big thing,” certain trends have more weight than others, and the rise of machine learning and augmented intelligence are two trends that Gartner believes are here to stay. iFP&A automates the mundane, accelerates business decisions, and aligns the enterprise, giving everyone the ability to analyze data like never thought possible—without the data science education. Everyone is working to the best of their abilities, resources are being used effectively, and the organization is moving in the right direction—together.

Intelligent Financial Planning and Analysis in the Cloud

Modern enterprises need modern planning solutions. To make this happen, more and more organizations than ever have turned to Host Analytics to improve collaboration, make smarter decisions, and leverage resources more effectively.

As you look to improve the effectiveness of the finance department and the organization as a whole, we invite you to download our recent guide, Finance’s EPM Playbook: Leveraging World Class Enterprise Performance Management, designed to introduce finance to EPM, as well as the six key components of a winning playbook. We also invite you to learn more about Host Analytics here.

The post The Power of Technology in Intelligent Financial Planning and Analysis appeared first on Brittenford Systems.

Add on top of this differences in supplier management, tax rules, currency conversions, payables, receivables, intercompany transactions, and more, and the challenges begin to ramp up.

Four Reasons Multi-Entity Businesses Are Turning to Sage Intacct

Luckily, technology—especially technology designed with multi-entity businesses in mind—has made life easier for finance professionals at these businesses. Today, we would like to share some of the reasons multi-entity businesses are turning to the cloud.

Flexibility: Setting Up Your Business How You Need

Multi-entity businesses are unique. As your organization is a combination of subsidiaries and locations, there are few—if any—businesses designed in the same fashion. This means that your books and consolidations have to be set up differently than any other organization. New entities need to be set up easily, payables, receivables, and inter-company transactions need to be centralized, and you need the power to roll up and drill down. This requires a flexible, easily set up architecture that can provide you the flexibility you need and the control you deserve.

With Sage Intacct’s financial consolidation tools, you can quickly compare performance across entities. You choose your reporting currency and language. You tailor local account titles to fit local regulations. And you can easily switch between consolidated and local views for further insights.

Visibility: Getting the Information You Need

For executives and financial professionals at the headquarters, even if you never come into contact with a single location or subsidiary, you still need them to show you the money. Whether you’re tracking key performance indicators, comparing costs and profitability of multiple locations, or rolling everything up for a monthly, quarterly, or annual close, visibility into the numbers is critical.

With Sage Intacct, reporting from single locations to headquarters is simple and from financial professional to executive is just as easy. Ensure your financial statements are ready when you are, and close the books effortlessly. Comprehensive automation with one-click consolidation delivers accelerated closes, improved accuracy, and better visibility. Plus every global consolidation includes a detailed journal entry report for easy auditability.

• Journaled consolidations: Get granular visibility throughout the financial consolidation process with eliminations and currency impacts recorded as journal entries, and easily make post-consolidation adjustments
• Intercompany eliminations: Automate intercompany eliminations at the point of consolidation
• Complex ownership: Consolidate complex ownership structures such as minority and partial ownerships
• Unlimited hierarchies: Generate consolidated management reporting views of combined entities beyond your legal structure

Control: Make Changes When You Need

With the flexibility you need to manage a growing list of entities and the visibility to see what’s working well, the next component of a multi-entity financial strategy is to take control of the way you allocate resources across the organizational chart. Too often, spreadsheets, manual processes, and communication issues stand between headquarters and subsidiary, resulting in inaccurate, delayed, or off-policy—creating issues for the team trying to bring it all together.

With a well-documented policy and workflow in place, and the technology to simplify the consolidation process across the organization, you can take control of the way your business works. This requires all three components—people, processes, and technologies—for success. Without one of these components, the multi-entity consolidation process slows down, increases risk, and fails to support growth.

Scalability: Ready for What’s Next

Whether you were a multi-entity business from the outset or became one through M&A activity, growth often fuels growth, and each addition or expansion means more complexity and ultimately more paperwork—especially without the right technology.

The finance function must be nimble enough to keep up with the corporate strategy by establishing books and records that align with the rest of the company. They also need a turnkey solution to get their systems and processes up and running to generate valuable information to support all the myriad of decisions that happen at the beginning of a new entity. At the same time, those in the corporate accounting group want and need to roll-up a new entity without missing a beat.

Cloud financial management systems are ideal for ramping up new entities. Existing divisions or companies, perhaps with like-businesses, can be used to quickly configure the accounts of the new entity. Report writers can be used to adapt reporting needs to meet the different jurisdictional and GAAP requirements. The chart of accounts is easily adapted to localize reporting to meet the needs of the new business unit.

Learn More: Sage Intacct for the Multi-Entity Business

Too often, multi-entity businesses face the above challenges due to improper controls, workflows, or technological readiness for the workloads that come with the multi-entity close process. As your business continues to grow, one of the best things you can do to fuel this growth is to automate, integrate, and control. With a multi-entity-focused platform like Sage Intacct, your business can:

• Accelerate the initiation and integration of new entities in any global jurisdiction with the corporate consolidation function.
• Centralize the core processing functions, resulting in improved control and opportunity realization.
• Improve your decision-making with greater visibility into each entity.
• Increase collaboration throughout the close process between those working in the business units and those in the corporate accounting group.
• Speed up the close process by giving everyone from those at the unit level to the headquarters better tools to get the job done.

We invite you to learn more about the power of Sage Intacct for the multi-entity business here, read their whitepaper, Next Generation Financial Consolidations, and contact us to learn more.

Related Resources

• Sage Intacct Tutorial: GL Accounts in Multiple Entity Environments
• Challenges and Opportunities in Multi-Entity Environments
• Sage Intacct Tutorial: Setting Up Restrictions in a Multi-Entity Environment
• Tips to Manage a Multi-Entity Environment in Intacct
• Difference Between Financial Consolidations and Consolidated Reporting

The post Multi-Entity Businesses Thrive in the Cloud. Here’s Why. appeared first on Brittenford Systems.

Sage Intacct Advantage 2018: October 22-26, 2018 in Nashville, TN

Today, we would like to share with you what we know, what you can expect based on conferences in the past, and a recap of the 2017 conference.

Why Attend?

The Sage Intacct Advantage Conference is an annual meeting of users and partners in which attendees learn, network, and get inspired by a soon to be announced all-star cast of keynote speakers and more. Expected once again to top last year’s turnout, the constantly growing conference provides many opportunities to better understand the Sage Intacct platform, learning tips and tricks to best use it while being introduced to tools designed to help them do more with the software.

Likely Agenda

While the official session tracks and catalog will be announced on the Sage Intacct website in the coming days, it’s likely the conference will focus on the following areas:

• Admin/Developer—Session content is focused on the Sage Intacct technical user
• Business Leadership—The sessions in this track are non Sage Intacct-specific topics covering general industry trends and leadership perspectives
• CFO Summit—Exclusive content developed for CFOs; these sessions are limited to attendees registered for the CFO Summit
• Core Financial Product—These sessions are broad-based and focus on specific areas of the Sage Intacct solution, and are relevant for all industries
• Inventory and Warehouse Distribution—This track is designed for customers that manage warehouse distribution businesses
• Financial Services—This track is designed for customers in the financial services industry
• Insights and Reporting—These sessions focus on leveraging Sage Intacct for greater insights and reporting of your organization
• Nonprofit—This track is focused on the business issues for a broad range of nonprofits – faith-based, associations, or charitable organizations
• Partner Showcase—This track focuses on providing additional information about partner offerings to complement your existing Sage Intacct solution
• Partner Summit (partners only)—These sessions cover topics designed for our partner community
• Prospective Customers—These sessions are designed for prospective customers to answer your questions and help you learn more about Sage Intacct
• Services and Projects—These sessions are geared towards project- and service-based businesses
• Software—This track is geared towards customers in the software or SaaS industry

Additionally, you should be able to expect a CFO Summit event and the pre-conference training sessions, two mainstays in the Advantage conference. The CFO Summit is a one-day event for high-level leaders of the finance function, and the pre-conference training is designed for new users off Sage Intacct software.

Highlights from 2017

2017’s Conference in Las Vegas was a memorable, filled with an exciting learning and networking experience, as highlighted by the video below.

Stay Tuned: Announcements Coming Soon

Sage Intacct will announce new information on the upcoming conference, including speakers, learning tracks, and more will be announced in June. We invite you to learn more about past events, and talk to us to learn about our role in helping companies like yours to implement and operate Sage Intacct.

The post Save the Date: Sage Intacct Advantage 2018 appeared first on Brittenford Systems.