We’ve been converting BTerrell Group's own books to Intacct. It’s been a great learning experience, considering we are multi-entity and multi-currency requiring global consolidation, we want to measure margin by project, our project billings require revenue recognition, and our managers want customized dashboards. This setup has not been a walk in the park (but, don't worry - we're learning on ourselves so we can help our clients)! During the process, however, I’ve become fond of a few features within Intacct.
See The 3 M’s of Accounting: Multi-entity, Multi-location, and Multi-currency.
Dimensions
Transactions can be ‘tagged’ with different dimensions, which then can be used as report filters. Not only does this kick up the breadth and depth of reporting, it streamlines the chart of accounts. All office expenses are charged to account 58000, Office Expense, and depending on the setup, can require these different dimensions at entry: Department, Class, Location, Project, Customer, Vendor, Employee or Item. I hear the groans – yes, it does require some input time, but it saves much time exporting data and creating pivots around fields. Finally, the standard dimensions can be renamed to fit your business, and custom ones can be added.
Here's a screenshot of project and vendor selections as part of an AP bill entry:
Contemporaneous instances
A handy feature when looking at transactions in different entities, or comparing the setup of two different reports is ALT-D-ALT-Enter. Those magic keys open a separate instance of the same company, so that you can view and manipulate a different piece of the same real-time data in a different window. This has saved time and a few brain cells.
What's your favorite feature?
Feel free to check out Intacct for yourself during one of their product tours, or we'd be happy to give you a demo.
866.647.2611