Stepping Up from QuickBooks – 3 Capabilities Your Next Solution Should Provide

April 6, 2021

As they start to grow, many organizations take a conservative approach to accounting software and simply add new instances of QuickBooks for each new entity or location. Unfortunately, that means the challenges and obstacles only grow exponentially.

By contrast, Sage Intacct cloud financials is designed to support the needs of organizations that operate multiple entities, multiple locations, in multiple currencies, and with multiple users.

Here are the three important ways that Sage Intacct supports multi-entity organizations as they transition away from QuickBooks.

Consolidated Information

As companies expand, accounting complexities multiply.

It might be new locations and franchises. It could be a new line of business or international subsidiaries. Or you could acquire new businesses in different markets.

When that happens, the organization hits the wall with consolidations. For instance, different subsidiaries use different charts of accounts or different programs and tools. It’s not uncommon for companies to spend days or weeks just rolling up disparate and fragile spreadsheets to create consolidated results. And of course, that introduces security issues and risks of unseen errors.

Sage Intacct automates financial consolidations including currency conversions, inter-entity transactions, local tax reporting, and more – eliminating the external spreadsheets and manual efforts! With Sage Intacct, you close the books faster enabling you to view interim summary features at any time.

Secure Controls on Delegated Tasks

One concern for multi-entity companies is ensuring data security across the organization. With QuickBooks, any user can access any information about any part of the business. For instance, a store manager in Texas could view operations results from Oakland – even if that doesn’t concern him.

Sage Intacct lets you define roles and permissions for individual users to limit their access solely to the data they need to do their jobs. Here’s one example: an AP clerk might have permission to create or delete vendors or pay bills, but not have any access to payroll data. For multi-entity organizations, this ability to segregate duties and responsibilities can also limit users to certain entities or locations.

Smarter Reporting on Multiple Entities

When managers and executives want reports and analyses (and you’re tasked with building them), you need the ability to wander freely through the organizational structure from a single program instance. You want the ability to move between entities seamlessly.

Start with top-level results. Drill down on exceptions. Analyze individual entities. Compare the balance sheet of one entity with that of its sister companies. Users needs the ability to go up, down, and sideways through the various forecasts so that they can determine which business strategies should be expanded and which ones need further refinement.

That sort of flexibility simply isn’t available in QuickBooks.

If you’re ready to step up from QuickBooks, the Accounting Technology Services team is prepared to help you take that next step. Contact Jim Norton, Senior Manager, Accounting Technology Services, at jnorton@grfcpa.com.