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Sage ® is a business management software company that is quickly gaining traction in the space with products designed to cater to businesses of all sizes, providing software designed to streamline not just accounting, financial management, and compliance but also human resources, customer-response management, and business management across industries.
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Key Takeaways
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They offer a range of product levels, but their Sage Intacct software suite, used by more than 17,000 businesses in a range of industries [1], is becoming one of the highest-scoring and most favored tools for fast-growing businesses, especially in the medium and larger size range.
What Is Sage Intacct Accounting Software?
An accounting software system at its core, Sage Intacct is also an enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform that features powerful technology and a highly customizable infrastructure that enables businesses to share data across departments, locations, and organizations to gain a real-time, global view of their businesses, operations, strategy, performance, and management through multi-dimensional reporting capabilities and a host of third-party integrations.
Sage Intacct's Primary Features
Dashboard and Reporting
Sage Intacct's platform features a fully customizable user dashboard. The dashboard features real-time, up-to-the-minute reports, metrics, and financials. Additionally, it facilitates strategic, data-driven decision-making with visual and virtual, interactive insights. Plus, the dashboard encourages collaboration by improving communication and teamwork across the business.
Read More: 6 KPI Charts to Drive Performance & Profitability in Your Business
Extensive Customizations and Industry-Specific Features
One of Sage Intacct's primary selling points is its highly customizable capabilities that make it possible for users to, in a sense, design their own software solutions to meet their business's specific needs. This includes options for industry-specific customizations, features, and compliance.
Core Financials
Sage Intacct, of course, is set up to handle and automate your business's core financials (accounts payable, accounts receivable, cash management, general ledger, order management, and purchasing). Unlike other software solutions, it does this with real-time visibility throughout your company's workflow.
Billing
Sage Intacct offers powerful project costing and billing with the quick, automated issuing of invoices and revenue recognition. Additionally, it provides SaaS-specific billing features to accommodate contract and subscription pricing models and billing schedules.
Advanced Functionality
In addition to providing core financial management features, Sage Intacct also offers advanced functions such as:
- Dynamic cost allocations with fully customizable categorization and automated allocation
- Automated, comprehensive, and flexible asset management
- Intelligent time tracking
- Powerful inventory management and strategic cost-saving tools
- Unlimited global and multi-entity consolidations
- Project-based management, planning, and accounting
- Revenue recognition (compliant with IFRS 15 and ASC 606)
- Global tax and sales solutions, centralized for better management
- Vendor payment
Sage Intacct Integrations Through the Sage Intacct Marketplace
Sage Intacct provides users with a unique marketplace where they can browse an array of Sage-approved and fully integrated applications. The marketplace offers solutions for everything from customer response management, human resources, and time tracking to document management, e-commerce, point of sale, project management, and more. These applications pair well with Sage to turn their financial management software into a complete suite of enterprise resource planning and management tools.
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How Sage Intacct Can Help Grow Your Business
Sage Intacct's robust suite of dynamic accounting software tools is designed specifically for fast-growing SMEs (particularly small businesses that are on the larger side and medium-sized businesses that are growing). The software is designed to streamline financial management and integrate a full suite of business management and operation tools for full automation, simplified compliance, improved financial planning, better business strategy, and maximized growth.
Sage Intacct's highly customizable tools that are designed to accommodate the swiftly changing needs of growing businesses will save time and resources. Sage Intacct reportedly saved one multi-location clinic in California an estimated 50 hours each week in data entry and expense categorization alone, helping the business achieve 25% growth [2].
What Kinds of Businesses Can Benefit From Sage Intacct Accounting Software?
Sage Intacct is a high-level solution for businesses with robust automation and financial management needs. Typically, Sage Intacct is recommended for growing medium-sized businesses, as it can help these companies quickly scale their tools and streamline their operations as they expand. Additionally, businesses that are poised to go public can continue relying on Sage Intacct, as it can also accommodate the needs of larger, enterprise-level companies.
While some quickly growing small businesses might benefit from Sage Intacct's robust suite of software, there are other tools, such as QuickBooks ® that can often better accommodate the needs of smaller businesses.
Sage Intacct vs. QuickBooks: How Do These Accounting Software Options Compare?
Sage Intacct is best compared to QuickBooks Enterprise, which is designed to accommodate the larger end of its commercial market. Some notable comparisons between the two software solutions include:
- Sage Intacct has no user limits, while QuickBooks Enterprise limits users to 30.
- Sage Intacct offers robust customizations.
- Sage Intacct is endorsed by the AICPA and is GAAP compliant.
- QuickBooks Enterprise is not GAAP compliant, giving it more flexibility in data storage, organization, and presentation.
- QuickBooks Enterprises has a lower, more accessible price point.
- Both offer long lists of excellent third-party integrations.
- Sage Intacct is fully cloud-based (i.e. cloud-native), while QuickBooks Enterprise is desktop-based.
How Much Does It Cost? Sage Intacct Pricing
Sage Intacct has subscription-based pricing that is quoted at a monthly rate and charged annually. The software licensing fee (subscription) is in addition to an upfront implementation fee that can range anywhere from $10,000 to $35,000.
Read More: Cost Analysis: Outsourcing vs. In-House Accounting for Your Business
Sage Intacct's pricing is not straightforward. You can't simply visit their website and compare the price of different software plans, and Sage sells this as an advantage because their software pricing is based on the unique set of functionalities and features provided to your business in addition to the number of licensed users you have and the number of entities using the software.
Using Sage Intacct In-House vs. Pairing It With Outsourced Accounting Services
Sage Intacct is appropriate for in-house use in businesses when a full, high-functioning, in-house, back-office staff is also in place. Since the software is such a high-performing and highly customizable solution, it comes with a steep learning curve. The individuals implementing and using the software need to have a high-level understanding of business bookkeeping, accounting, and compliance.
For this reason, it is strongly recommended that businesses operating without in-house finance departments use Sage Intacct software in conjunction with a professional, outsourced accounting service provider. Outsourced accounting experts can ensure that you're getting your money's worth from Sage Intacct's software solutions, that you select the best features for your business's needs, and they can also help you better understand how to use the tools provider, read your financial data, and put the information to use in your business management decisions.
[1] https://tipalti.com/maximize-erp-investment-sage-intacct/
