Integra, switched to AccountsIQ to consolidate their 10 entities on one user-friendly Cloud accounting platform
Integra Technical Services is an insurance loss adjuster, resolving complex claims in sectors as diverse as mining, marine, energy and cyber security. They’re global players with local offices across the UK, US, Middle East, and Asia Pacific.
Before switching to AccountsIQ, Integra’s UK business was using two different accounting systems in EMEA and North America. Finding one platform that would work well across the whole group was a big driver for change.
“We have 10 active entities on our AccountsIQ platform,” explains Integra’s CFO, Mark Hunter. “That includes our risk management business, which we’ve added recently. We’ll be adding another entity soon.”
Integra also had other key criteria they felt could only be met by AccountsIQ, as Mark explains:
“The new finance system had to be Cloud-based. We also felt we needed more functionality than our existing systems were offering.”
“With AccountsIQ, we have the ability to consolidate on one platform. We’d been using Excel for consolidation, and we wanted something quicker and more reliable.”
As one of the main finance system users, Financial Controller, Sue Evans, was keen to ensure useability was included in the software evaluation process. In fact, the whole team was impressed by AccountsIQ’s easy, logical layout.
The inter-company accounting and FX features are major time-savers
Sue finds that the inter-company accounting features in AccountsIQ make her life much easier.
“We have a lot of inter-company trading and resource transfer,” she says. “The process of re-charging costs and invoices across different entities is really smooth with AccountsIQ. It’s a big improvement from what we were using previously because I no longer have to log in and out to look at different entities.” Sue Evans, Financial Controller, Integra.
Another important time-saver for Sue is AccountsIQ’s foreign exchange functionality.
“It’s easy to map through and check you’re using the right FX,” she says. “Previously, it was complicated, and we spent a lot of time working out variances.
“With AccountsIQ, you just know it aligns. In fact, we only need to do our FX updates monthly rather than daily. It’s so much better.”
What’s next for Integra and AccountsIQ?
One year on from implementing AccountsIQ, Mark and Sue have big plans for making the system work even harder for them.
“We’re a relatively small finance team,” says Mark. “The plan with this project was always to get the system bedded down and make sure everyone is comfortable with it and using it efficiently. Now, we’re looking at what more it can do.”
One of Integra’s projects for the year ahead, is to look at how they can work with AccountsIQ, and our software integration partners, to improve their budgeting, reporting and forecasting capabilities.
“The reporting available in the system is good,” says Mark. “Our consolidated management reports now take around 25% less time than they did in Excel, for example.”
These time savings are so encouraging, Integra is now thinking how they can further refine their reports and make best use of the multi-dimensional financial Business Intelligence coding structure to really delve into the data.
“There’s a lot more we can do with the system,” concludes Mark. “What I really like about AccountsIQ is they have a good understanding of the needs of SMEs. We get great technical support from AccountsIQ. This collaborative approach is very different to some of the larger providers.”
Discover the power of AccountsIQ, take a look at our multi-company accounting software or book a 1:1 demo or join us for a quick webinar demo on Thursday 24th Feb.