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IWI Consulting Group - authorized Sage partner Ontario, Canada
09 NovAccounting/Financials

No Need to Close Subledgers at Once — Sage Intacct Supports Multi-Ledger Architecture

Streamlining financial processes remains a top challenge for organizations. As noted by research firm Deloitte, many companies still struggle with error-prone manual operations, struggle to manage increasing purchase order volume, and lack the ability to prevent late, under, or over-payments.

Making these financial functions even more complex is the tendency for accounting software to support single-ledger architecture. With the Sage Intacct General Ledger (GL), meanwhile, multi-ledger operations are standard operating procedure.

In this piece, we’ll break down the benefits of multi-ledger architecture for business finance operations.

Sage Accounting
sage Accounting ERP

More Ledgers, More Problems?

Multiple ledgers are necessary to effectively manage company finances. Also known as subsidiary ledgers, these records fall under the larger umbrella of general ledgers. They are used by businesses to help organize finance obligations and assets and reduce the risk of accounting mistakes.

Common types of subledgers include:

  • Accounts receivable (AR)

This subledger is a record of all credit transactions and payments received from customers and business partners.

  • Accounts payable (AP)

This subledger records all credit purchases and payments to suppliers and other providers.

  • Fixed assets

Fixed asset ledgers include transactions related to buildings, furniture, and fixtures.

  • Inventory

Inventory ledgers list details about current stock, stock movement, and transactions for raw materials or components.

  • Cash

This ledger records all cash transactions including sales, purchases, or expenses.

  • Sales

Sales ledgers record both cash and credit sales.

  • Purchase

Purchase ledgers include both paid and to-be-paid purchases.

The challenge? While most accounting software supports the creation of multiple subledgers, many of these tools require companies to close all ledgers simultaneously. This means that if 3 of your 7 subledgers are complete but 4 are still processing transactions, you can’t close out the completed ledgers until all subledger transactions are finished.

The result is a more chaotic and complex close period since you must reconcile all 7 ledgers simultaneously. Not only does this increase the amount of time and resources required, but also introduces the risk of manual errors as teams look to process large volumes of information.

Single-ledger architecture can also put companies at risk of late or missed payments. For example, if it’s not possible to close out AP ledgers without closing all ledgers, teams need to wait until all other transactions are finished and then rush to make sure payments are both accurate and on time. If invoices are missed or incorrectly processed, the results could range from problems with suppliers extending credit to reduced cash flow as partners asked to be paid up-front to avoid potential mistakes next month.

How Multi Ledger Architecture from Sage Intacct can Help

With multi-ledger architecture from Sage Intacct Core Financials, every subledger in your business can be closed independently, even while you’re still working on other ledgers. This makes it possible to achieve a more efficient period end.

Consider a company that’s completed its cash and fixed assets ledgers for the month but still has outstanding AP, AR, sales, inventory, and purchase transactions to finish. Under a typical GL framework, finance teams can’t close these completed books until all other subledgers are complete. The result is time spent waiting for general ledgers to finish, followed by significant amounts of work all at once as teams look to handle multiple subledger closures simultaneously.

With Sage Intacct, meanwhile, each ledger can be closed when completed, allowing teams to focus exclusively on the accurate reconciliation of ledger details. This allows finance departments to create a step-by-step plan for ledger completion that maximizes resource use and minimizes the risk of errors.

Other benefits of the Sage Intacct General Ledger include:

  • Multi-dimensional general ledger visibility 24/7
  • Multiple entry and multiple currency consolidation
  • Robust multi-book functionality

Put simply? Sage Intacct’s powerful and innovative GL platform provides the visibility, scalability, and flexibility you need to thrive without limitations, and deliver on the potential of smarter financial management.

Making the Most of Multi-Ledger Architecture

Single-ledger software creates more work for finance teams and increases the potential for inaccurate data reconciliation, late payments, or missing transactions.

Multi-ledger architecture, meanwhile, makes it possible for teams to close ledgers as needed to streamline the close-of-period process and improve overall efficiency.

Enhance multi-ledger management with Sage Intacct Core Financial. Ready to get started? See how IWI Group can help. Let’s talk.

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26 OctAccounting/Financials

Sage Intacct: AP and AR Automation

For businesses to succeed, cash management is critical.

Companies can’t get by on estimates and guesswork. They need to know how much they owe to vendors and partners, and how much they’re owed by partners and purchasers to both manage day-to-day operations and create long-term plans.

In practice, this requires improved control and oversight of two key processes: Accounts payable (AP) and accounts receivable (AR). Here’s a look at the role of each process, how they work together, and how companies can make the most of AP/AR with automation from Sage Intacct.

What is Accounts Payable?

AP refers to the money owed by companies to their vendors or suppliers. In many cases, vendors allow companies to purchase goods or services on credit with payment due after goods and services have been received. In some cases, vendors request payment in full while in others they may offer installment plans. Payments are considered liabilities for accounting purposes.

Effective AP management is critical for companies to ensure they understand how much they owe, who they owe it to, and when the amount is due. As noted by recent research from Deloitte, however, 35% of companies report that high AP processing costs are one of their biggest challenges, and 30% say that despite increased spending, payments are often late.

What is Accounts Receivable?

AR, meanwhile, refers to the list of all monies owed to a company for the products or services they sell. These outstanding invoices appear as asset accounts on the company balance sheet because customers have a legal obligation to pay their debts. As a result, they’re considered part of a company’s working capital and can be used to secure loans or as collateral for other purchases.

According to data from IDC, top challenges in AR include manual collection processes and Excel-based reporting. Manual processes can increase the time between invoice and payment by up to 67%, while spreadsheets introduce the risk of mistakes — research found that 88% of spreadsheets contain errors.  

How do They Work Together?

AP and AR are two halves of the same coin.

Consider a company that extends credit to a business partner for the purchase of product components. For the supplier partner, this credit counts as AR — there’s a legal obligation for the business partner to pay the balance per the terms stated on the invoice.

For the purchaser, meanwhile, the credit counts as AP. It’s entered in their balance sheet as a liability that must be paid within a specific timeframe. If payments aren’t made, companies could face late penalties or interest charges or find that business partners are no longer willing to extend credit.

How Sage Intacct AP and AR Can Help

Automation can help streamline both of these processes to reduce processing time, eliminate errors, and ensure that companies have the data they need to make strategic decisions about purchasing and sales.

To achieve AP and AR automation, companies need the right foundation. This means leveraging accounts payable software and accounts receivable solutions that make it possible to stay on top of both AR and AP processes anytime, anywhere.

For example, Sage Intacct AP software can help cut AP processing times by up to 65% or more thanks to seamless integration with Sage Intacct Cash Management, Inventory, and Purchasing along with real-time access to AP transactions and data. Sage Intacct AR software, meanwhile, puts companies in control with real-time visibility into customer histories and aging balances with configurable dashboards and reports. The result? More efficient collection processes that can reduce days sales outstanding (DSO) by 25-50%.

Integrating Automation

Sage Intacct AP and AR solutions can also help companies improve payment and collection processes with integrated automation. Key benefits include:

  • Reduced errors

Reduce errors by eliminating error-prone processes such as manual data capture and entry. Not only does this help reduce time to payment but means your teams can focus on business growth rather than invoice and payment corrections.

  • Shorter invoice and payment cycles

Implementing AP and AR automation can help you achieve healthier cash flows by shortening invoice and payment cycles.

  • Automatic collection notices

Create and deliver automatic collection notices to remind payers of their obligation to resolve outstanding invoices, in turn reducing your DSO.

  • Complete data access

With real-time access to all accounts payable and accounts receivable transactions and data, your teams are better equipped to make both short- and long-term decisions that benefit your business. Enhance your AP and AR processes with Sage Intacct software and automation. Ready to get started? Contact IWI Group today. Let’s talk.

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19 OctERP/Business Solution

Material Requirement Planning (MRP): How a Sage X3 Module can Help

MRP systems help companies calculate the materials and components they need to manufacture finished products. These tools include inventory management of on-hand materials, identification of missing components, and the ability to schedule the purchase of necessary parts.

The challenge? As regulatory demands around product data capture — such as tracking material origins, composition, and intended destination — become more complex, legacy MRP tools may not be up to the task. In addition, ongoing material shortages can frustrate efforts to create simple material plans.

Here’s a look at current market challenges and how Sage X3 can help.

The State of MRP

While the past few years came with unexpected disruptions to materials availability, several issues have persisted even as public health pressures began to ease.

As noted by Retail Dive, for example, materials such as semiconductors, aluminum, plastics, and building materials are all in short supply. For businesses, this means longer lead times and higher prices: Nonresidential construction prices are up 23.2% in 2022 compared to 2021.

Also challenging are evolving traceability requirements. In many cases, companies are now required to record the registered name and address of manufacturers or importers, the date of component manufacture, the location of manufacture, the batch number or ID of materials, and any associated SKUs.

The result is a dual challenge for material requirement planning (MRP). Businesses need a way to track what they have, what they need, and where they can get it, and need processes in place that streamline management once materials have arrived.

Material Requirement Planning

How a Sage X3 Module can Help

Sage X3 can help companies improve their MRP approach.

This starts with the Sage X3 solution itself. Cloud-based, powerful, and intuitive, X3 makes it possible for companies to take control of their operations and provides visibility into key processes. Sage X3 ERP solutions deliver a trifecta of functional benefits that include collaboration, personalization, and mobile support.

Easily manage workflows across multiple sites with X3, and personalize your workspace with timely and relevant data. Then, increase your reach with mobile integration that lets your team work anywhere, anytime.

When it comes to production and manufacturing, meanwhile, businesses can also benefit from the implementation of a Sage X3 MRP module. Benefits of this approach include:

  • BOM Planning

Understand what you have, where it is, and how it can help your business with bill of materials (BOM) planning. With both single and multi-level BOM management, your team can achieve greater product consistency, quality, and collaboration across operations. In practice, this gives you complete control over all product data along with the ability to connect related product details for easier search and discovery.

  • Projected Stock Management

With comprehensive projected stock management capabilities, companies can see what they have, what’s on order, and when it should arrive. This helps inform both short- and long-term materials requirement planning along with pinpointing potential roadblocks such as shipping delays or low supplier stock levels.

  • Time Bucket Customization

Time buckets help companies understand the balance between materials supply and requirements over a given time period. With the Sage MRP module, these buckets can be customized to provide reliable data about projected, current, and expiring stock levels in relation to the specified time period. This period could be a day, a week, or a month, depending on your planning requirements and current state of production.

  • Master Production Schedule (MPS) Integration

Master production schedules are critical for companies to determine how much stock is required to meet demand, and when this stock is needed to meet production goals. The Sage X3 MRP module provides complete MPS integration, meaning your team can spend their time on materials planning to meet emerging demand — instead of switching between multiple applications to find critical MPS data.

Making the Most of Materials Requirement Planning

Better materials planning means reduced waste, improved operations, and enhanced ROI. But this doesn’t happen by accident. In a world of ongoing material gaps and evolving compliance regulations, companies need solutions that deliver collaborative, customizable, and comprehensive MRP support.

Ready to improve your MRP process with complete visibility and control? See how Sage X3 can help — contact IWI Group today to get started. Let’s talk.

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07 SepWarehouse Management

Sage X3: Transforming the Distribution Processes through Digitization

Supply chains are more complex than ever. Driven by bottlenecks brought to light during the pandemic, manufacturers have rapidly diversified supply lines to help reduce the risk of shortages or delays.

But the introduction of more suppliers to existing supply chains has also increased overall complexity: How do companies effectively manage the sheer volume of orders, payments and distribution needs across distributed supply chains?

Here’s how Sage X3 can help.

Challenges in Streamlining Supply

According to research firm McKinsey, aerospace manufacturers typically have 200 tier-one suppliers but more than 12,000 across all tiers. Automakers, meanwhile, have 250 tier-one suppliers and over 18,000 across the entire supply chain. Even technology companies have more than 7,000 suppliers across all tiers — and given the current (and ongoing) shortage of components, even this number may not be high enough.

The massive amount of suppliers now necessary to sidestep potential supply issues, however, means that companies are now managing multiple orders and payments simultaneously. Order too much from too many suppliers and the result is wasted money and at-capacity inventory space. Order too little or lean on a single supplier too much and the result may be delays in production that could lead to consumer dissatisfaction and customer churn.

Adding to this complexity is the need for ongoing supplier evaluation. Are suppliers living up to expectations in quality and quantity? Are they meeting delivery targets? This ties directly into distribution for brands with a global supply footprint: If legacy IT infrastructure can’t keep pace with evolving supply expectations, the results could be costly.

The Sage X3 Advantage

Sage X3 makes it possible for companies to digitize key supply and distribution processes, in turn reducing complexity and streamlining key operations to improve the customer experience.

Key advantages of Sage X3 include:

Supply Chain Visibility

See what’s happening across your supply chain with real-time visibility into global supply networks. Armed with complete visibility, businesses are better prepared to anticipate potential challenges, respond to emerging issues and ensure that components and products get where they’re supposed to be ASAP.

manage your distribution process with Sage X3 software

Warehouse and Inventory Management

Sage X3 provides complete understanding of your warehouse and inventory processes. This includes product profitability, order to cash, and warehouse operations, in turn making it easier to stock, pick, and fulfill orders more efficiently.

Operations Optimization

With the ability to easily manage supplier quality and performance, Sage X3 helps companies optimize their purchasing decisions and asses product margins. This make it possible to pinpoint potential weak sports in current supply chains and make adjustments to ensure reliable distribution.

Native Mobile Support

Don’t tie yourself to desktops. With Sage X3, you can empower a mobile sales force with visibility into customer data, current stock, past purchases, product quotes and any promotions, all using any connected device.

Sales and Marketing Integration

Go beyond supply and distribution with complete sales and marketing integration that lets you easily manage sales force assignments, track team targets, and calculate commissions.

Delivering on Distribution

It’s one thing to talk about benefits — it’s another to highlight hard data. On average, companies using Sage X3 saved 5 full-time employees (FTEs) annually, saw a 13% reduction in overstocked inventory levels , and saved more than $2,080 in customer service hours.

Here’s why: When businesses are equipped with the tools they need to fully integrate their distribution functions, monitor supplier quality and compliance, visualize and optimize inventory in real-time, and leverage native mobile apps for sales and purchasing, it’s possible to make distribution part of the larger value proposition, rather than a challenge that needs to be overcome.

Put simply, Sage X3 empowers companies to take control of their distribution from end-to-end. By digitizing key functions and delivering on customer expectations, organizations can delver on the potential of business transformation.

Take your supply and distribution management to the next level with Sage X3. Ready to get started? See how IWI Consulting can help. Get in touch today.

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02 AugProject Management

How Sage Intacct helps Non Profits make the best decisions through generating automated financial reports.

Non-profits now face unprecedented demand – how do they effectively manage both donor retention and donation allocation to reduce the risk of errors and ensure mission goals are met?

The non-profit sector in Canada now employs more than 2.5 million people and represents almost 13 percent of all jobs in Canada. Two-thirds of non-profit staff work with non-profit organizations (NPOs) serving the government, and the sector is rapidly diversifying with the addition of immigrant and indigenous staff members.

But even as sector employment rises, new challenges emerge. More NPOs mean more choice for Canadians when it comes to their donation options, which makes both donor retention and effective donation management critical for organizations to ensure continued operations.

Sage Intacct for Non-Profits can help streamline current processes and drive sustained growth. Here’s how.

The Changing Landscape of Canadian Non-Profits

According to recent survey data, 26 percent of Canadians already use or expect to use charitable services in 2022, even as NPOs expect a decrease in the total volume of donations. What’s more, NPOs are worried about both the increasing prices of goods and services and their ability to find, train, and retain great staff.

IWI Consulting Group Non-Profit Sage Intacct blog image

The result is a two-fold challenge for non-profits: Even as demand surges, their ability to effectively manage donors and donations is stretched thin. Lacking the tools and technologies to manage multiple facets of their operations simultaneously, many NPOs find themselves dedicating more staff to manual operations, in turn limiting their overall efficacy.

Key Elements for Non-Profit Success

So what does non-profit success look like? What elements are critical for NPOs to make the most of donation volumes, keep staff happy, and ensure they’re ready to handle future challenges?

First is the ability to effectively track where donations are coming from, how much is being donated, and what purpose these donations serve. Next is ensuring that all donations are accurately accounted for across their lifecycle. This includes how much is being spent where, why, and ensuring that records are ready for potential audits by government agencies as required.

Finally, organizations need the ability to leverage this data and drive actionable insights that help inform future decision-making. For example, if donor profiles have shifted such that large donations are less frequent but more beneficial over the long term, NPOs may want to consider changing their campaign and marketing approaches to match.

In many cases, however, the disconnect between what non-profits have and what they need is substantial. Many are still leveraging legacy tools and hardware that were capable of handling donations and donor data in a pre-cloud and mobile era but now struggle to keep pace in a giving environment driven by the need for on-demand information about how money is collected, spent, and used over time.

How Sage Intacct Can Help

Sage Intacct for Non-Profits can help Canadian organizations excel in four key areas:

  • Speed

Sage Intacct makes it possible for companies to “know and show” what’s happening across their organization on-demand. Rather than waiting days or weeks for relevant donor and investment data, non-profits can maximize the impact of donor information ASAP.

  • Accuracy

Accurate data is critical for NPO success. If donation or spending information is incorrectly reported, the results can range from small mistakes that require remediation by staff to larger-scale issues that could lead to audits of current practices. Sage Intacct delivers accuracy at all stages of NPO reporting.

  • Clarity

The more you know, the better. Sage Intacct helps take insight to a new level with end-to-end visibility and clarity of NPO data, allowing teams to leverage this information for better decision-making.

  • Reporting

Finally, NPOs need in-depth reporting that helps effectively manage multiple donation and revenue streams. With Sage Intacct’s in-depth fund accounting, organizations can easily generate statements of activities, statements of financial position, and statements of cash flow.

NPOs By the Numbers

Three numbers make the impact of Sage Intacct for Non-profits crystal clear. First is time to pay back the investment: On average, it took companies just six months to pay back their entire Intacct investment. NPOs also saw an average 65 percent increase in overall productivity and enjoyed 250 percent ROI when compared with previous financial management tools.

Put simply? Sage Intacct makes it possible for non-profits to maximize their impact while minimizing the complexity that comes with managing donor sources, volumes, and distributions at scale.

IWI Consulting Group has been helping Canadian non-profits manage donations and drive future growth for more than 20 years. See how we can streamline your Sage Intacct deployment. Let’s talk.

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24 MayWarehouse Management

Intelligence Drives Advancement: Exploring the Supply Chain Impact of Sage X3

Supply chain disruptions aren’t going anywhere. According to the New York Times, a “normal” supply chain is unlikely this year, and while longer-term outlooks predict that the scope of disruptions will shrink, time alone won’t be enough to solve supply chain woes. The Times article puts it simply: “It will require investment, technology, and a refashioning of the incentives at play across global businesses.”

But what does this mean for your enterprise? As the world looks to address issues at scale, how can your organization take action to improve current operations and increase overall efficiency? SageX3 can help. Equipped with intelligent, on-demand supply chain solutions, your business can get ahead of the crowd and deliver on evolving expectations. Here’s how.

Current Supply Chain Challenges

Supply chain challenges in Canada continue unabated: 90 percent of Canadian manufacturers say that they’re currently experiencing supply chain issues, which are in turn reducing production volumes and driving a downturn in sales. While differing industries face their own unique challenges in supply and demand, four factors are common:

Supply Chain Management ERP

 

Supply Chain Management – IWI Consulting Group

  • Global unrest

Geopolitical tensions have ramped up significantly in the wake of the pandemic. From global conflicts to rapid changes in national health policies, companies are hard-pressed to get accurate information about when supply chains will operate as expected and when they will experience significant delays. While many businesses have expanded their supply chain framework to avoid the risks of single-sourcing, additional suppliers require additional management time and oversight.

  • Ongoing staff shortages

Sea- and airports around the world continue to experience staff shortages due to both illness and evolving job markets. As a result, shipments are often sitting in docks or hangers for far longer than expected, in turn making it harder for companies to create reliable production and delivery timelines.

  • Increasing freight costs

While the global cost of shipping peaked in late 2021, costs are once again on the rise this year. According to the IMF, these costs are likely to persist at least through the end of 2022, making it a challenge for companies to get what they need, when they need it — without breaking their budget.

  • Sudden supply changes

Given the unstable supply chain climate — from initial goods acquisition to packaging, transport, and arrival — it’s easy for shipment details to change at a moment’s notice. For example, a company might discover after shipments have arrived that they received only half of the promised materials, putting their production quota and delivery volumes in doubt.

How Sage X3 Can Help

Supply chain tools are now commonplace among businesses to help manage and monitor the movement of raw materials, completed products, and logistics providers from end to end. The problem? Many of these tools are outdated. Designed to work with legacy systems and solutions, they often lack the ability to connect with cloud resources or leverage data on-demand. The result is a data delay — businesses don’t have the supply chain information they need until it’s too late.

supply chain management ERP like Sage X3 can help equipped with intelligent operations and intuitive controls, Sage cloud offerings can help your business advance in three key areas:

  • Better decision making

Intelligent data analysis empowers better decision-making. Equipped with information about where supply chains are operating as expected and where they’re encountering issues, companies are better prepared to make decisions that drive business success. For example, if Sage X3 analysis suggests an emerging problem with a current supplier, companies can transition to alternative options until the issue has been resolved — rather than waiting until the problem has already affected production.

  • On-demand collaboration

The global nature of supply chains means that companies benefit from real-time, on-demand communication. Sage X3’s centralized, single source of truth paired with instant communication tools makes it possible for teams to quickly connect with suppliers and determine where quotas will be met, where problems may occur and where actions are necessary to address specific issues. Access to reliable communications also makes it possible to minimize overspending upfront and control costs over time.

  • Superior supply chain visibility

What you can’t see can hurt you. Given the complexity of multi-source supply chains, it’s now critical for companies to achieve end-to-end visibility. Lack of clarity at any point in the supply journey from raw materials suppliers to component producers to goods transporters can have significant downstream effects as companies struggle to realign production quotas if only some — or none — of the promised materials arrive. Sage X3 automates the collection and management of supply chain data, in turn giving your team the information they need to follow up on potential problems and identify effective solutions.

Ready to take on supply chain challenges with Sage X3? Get in touch with IWI — for more than 20 years, we’ve been helping Canadian businesses make the most of Sage solutions.

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28 MayAccounting/Financials

Why Non-Profits Should Move to Cloud Solutions

Non-Profits have a number of compliance requirements and need to produce various reports for various stakeholders. To deliver on these, non-profits have to respond using their limited IT resources and non-profit accounting software that can require extensive manual works.

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