Are You Reporting Like It’s 1999?
A few years ago, Sage Intacct did a webinar entitled “Stop Reporting Like It’s 1999”. I ran across it today and thought it might be interesting to compare how I was reporting in 1999 to today with Sage Intacct.
So here it goes:
Issue
1999 Solution
Sage Intacct Solution - Today
Sage 100 could not natively combine groups of accounts in financial reports.
Sage 100 could not combine reporting units like locations into user defined reporting units, like divisions. Many times, like in the restaurant or hospitality industry, locations would frequently be reassigned to another division, yielding a GL segment solution useless.
Reporting on period activity by Customer, Product, Vendor or Job.
Reporting of period activity by ledger account by employee.
Time consuming to identify intersections of data in custom report writers.
Use of third party tools - complex report distribution
Time consuming to identify intersections of data in custom report writers.
Use of third party tools - complex report distribution
I was either using FRx or F9 in Excel to combine accounts into single rows. Later I would use a product called BizNet in Excel.
I was either using FRx or F9 in Excel to combine accounts into single rows. Later I would use a product called BizNet in Excel.
Since this level of detail was not accessible in the ledger account, now we would be looking at Crystal or possibly an Excel dump (later a Query and Pivot table) to extract data and report on the data intersections. Frequently, the data would not tie to ledger activity for the same period because the ledger account was updated by multiple subledgers or no subledger (like a journal entry) that would throw the two worlds out of alignment. Multiple reports or subreports might need to be run to get the data requested. Expensive data warehousing was used at times but is still subject to an out of balance condition with the ledger.
Usually requested by someone once a year. Discouraged in environments of high employee counts due to the impact on the general ledger chart of accounts.
Each intersection of row and column data had to be defined in FRx and Excel Add- In tools. 15 locations and 10 account groups meant 150 intersections to address. Excel based reports helped with copy down and copy across.
FRx and later Excel based tools required server access and/or additional “viewer’ licenses to purchase and manage
Each intersection of row and column data had to be defined in FRx and Excel Add- In tools. 15 locations and 10 account groups meant 150 intersections to address. Excel based reports helped with copy down and copy across.
FRx and later Excel based tools required server access and/or additional “viewer’ licenses to purchase and manage
Reporting by Account Groups or Group of Account Groups built in. The dimensional nature of the account itself simplifies the process, creating a smaller chart of accounts to have to work with.
Reporting by dimension (ledger account, location, department, customer, vendor, item, warehouse, employee and project) are built in to Intacct’s powerful financial report writer. Any line or column can be expanded into rows or column by dimension value selected. A powerful feature called dimension structures allows you to build a group of dimensions, name it and report on it.
These are dimensions in Sage Intacct. They can be reported on from their ledger activity - many times without the need to go to the subsidiary. They always balance to the ledger, because the data came from the ledger. It is possible to identify transactions not tagged to the dimension like: No Customer, No Vendor or No Item. Ensures ledger balancing at all times. Subledgers can be locked into balancing to the ledger by requiring a dimension value every time you post to an account. A/R always has to have a customer, A/P always has to have a Vendor, Prepaid Expense always has to have a Vendor (if you desire) or you can set up Deposits to always have a Customer identified. I can now produce a trial balance of Inventory Activity by Item from the Ledger account directly without the need to analyze subsidiary ledgers.
Reporting activity by employee adds no additional overhead and does not increase the chart of accounts. Simply another dimension tagged to the transactions.
Dimension intersections are already identified and summed. Define the row structure and the column structure and the intersections are already computed for you. Eliminates computation, coding or formula errors.
Sage Intacct utilizes built in personalized Dashboards for report distribution as well as scheduled report generation and email distribution. Account Groups, however grouped, can be presented as rows, performance cards or graphs and charts on dashboards.
Dimension intersections are already identified and summed. Define the row structure and the column structure and the intersections are already computed for you. Eliminates computation, coding or formula errors.
Sage Intacct utilizes built in personalized Dashboards for report distribution as well as scheduled report generation and email distribution. Account Groups, however grouped, can be presented as rows, performance cards or graphs and charts on dashboards.
Are You Still Reporting Like It's 1999?
Are you still struggling with any of the issues described above? How much time does data analysis and manipulation add to your reporting process? How many errors are making it through that process more often than you would like?
Maybe it’s time to rethink general ledger.... Maybe it’s time to consider Sage Intacct.