Customer Stories

Award-winning architects complete major finance transformation with AccountsIQ and Rapport3

Formed in London in 1985, David Chipperfield Architects (DCA) are now widely recognised for their award-winning, innovative work across the world. Since Alex Gilbert joined as CFO in June 2021, they’ve completed a major digital transformation of their finance function. This involved implementing two new systems simultaneously: moving from Sage and Deltek (project management software) to an integrated solution of AccountsIQ’s Cloud-based Financial Management Software and Rapport3 (for project costing and reporting).

“Getting AccountsIQ up and running was quick and easy. It’s worked really well from day one; our month end is smooth.” Alex Gilbert, CFO, David Chipperfield Architects 

New finance team members at DCA have also found AccountsIQ easy to navigate, even though they’d never used the system before. “When systems cause problems, I tend to know about it as that’s when I’m forced to get involved,” says Alex. “I’ve never had to deal with anything to do with AccountsIQ. The team can handle it all themselves; AccountsIQ just works. Rapport3 is also a fantastic system, with a good online interface.”

The integration between AccountsIQ and Rapport3 was built completely from scratch for DCA. It was an iterative process that was turned on in phases. First, we synched the codes of the two systems and tested that. Then we worked on sales invoices, purchase invoices and purchase orders.

"The main advantage of this fully integrated AccountsIQ/Rapport3 solution is more accurate and timely reporting. To ensure we’re driving the business in the right direction we need to base our decisions on reliable and real-time data. Both systems working together enables us to do that.”

DCA are doing a huge amount of work on data and analytics across the business. They’re extracting project data from Rapport3 and visualising it using Power BI. The result is that each project now has its own dashboard that finance can share with project teams and architects.

"This AccountsIQ/Rapport3 integration is transforming everything. We will be able to ensure everyone has complete visibility on how their projects are going.” 

AccountsIQ now has several customers using the integration including Costello Medical, a consulting firm in the medical space.

Another big benefit of software integrations is that there’s no duplication of data entry or day-to-day finance processes. For example, at DCA project expenses now go into Rapport3 and are synched to AccountsIQ. Non-project expenses go direct into AccountsIQ. The systems are seamlessly integrated, so finance has complete visibility – by project and at company level – in AccountsIQ.  

“We don’t have to duplicate anything,” says Alex. “Everything just synchs straight across. I’d say this saves us 1-2 days a month and it helps with our cashflow forecasting because we know what expenses are coming down the line.”

The fact that both systems have full multi-currency capabilities is another big win for David Chipperfield.  They run projects around the world and the architects want to know how their projects are doing in the local currency. “It’s hugely important to have the ability to look at everything in local currency,” says Alex. “It’s not just that it’s more accurate, it’s that it avoids misunderstandings. Now, FX is easy; we just set the rates in AccountsIQ, and it flows through to Rapport3.”

Find out more about the AccountsIQ/Rapport3 integrated solution for Architects, Engineers and Project Managers, request a callback from Sales.

AccountsIQ supports DG International’s transformation by providing a Cloud-based accounting system that can grow and adapt as the business evolves.

DG International is a specialist freight forwarder offering a range of logistics services to clients importing into the UK from Asia via sea and air. The range of services includes Horizon, an all-in-one digital supply chain solution that allows customers to self-serve, offering cost-effective and convenient global logistics. The business has grown rapidly since it launched in 2009 and now handles more than 15,000 consignments each year.

Ian Dennis, Financial Director, DG International

Identifying the benefits that digital technologies can bring to the sector, DG started out on a path to “digital transformation” in early 2020 that saw an overhaul of the core operating system and a shift of several key systems to the Cloud. This included adoption of Salesforce as a CRM and integrating logistics management to create Horizon. Integrating supply chain logistics with Salesforce data allows DG International to offer customers an advanced self-service experience; tracking delivery in real time, accessing invoices and other documentation.

If you want to be a freight forwarder, you have to be a digital freight forwarder,” said Ian Dennis, DG’s Finance Director.

Multi-currency, multi-company accounting and a track record with Salesforce fits the bill

With the customer experience side of the project complete, it was time to address the needs of the business support functions. AccountsIQ was chosen by the Finance team to replace Open Accounts and integrate with Salesforce, with a fully-automated, end-to-end process in mind. With the uptake of Salesforce and the development of Horizon, the business needed a solution that could integrate with these systems and facilitate efficient, accurate reporting. AccountsIQ fitted the bill with its strong track record in integrations, as well as key functionality including multicurrency and support for multiple entities.

Conor Day, Assistant Financial Controller explained,

The system we were previously using was antiquated and slow, now everything is processed through Salesforce and we’re posting directly into AccountsIQ. The process is a lot smoother, and the in-built filters and coding options in AccountsIQ really help massively with our internal reporting.”

Business-wide automation drives down costs and improves customer experience

AccountsIQ worked with DG International’s team to implement the new system which went live in May 2020. AccountsIQ, Salesforce, and Horizon are integrated in such a way that allows each of the platforms to talk to one another and sync up information. For example, AccountsIQ picks up the gross profits from Salesforce and matches it to customer invoices. Nothing is done manually, and the digitisation of documents allows for greater visibility and less paper.

AccountsIQ has helped us to automate many of our key accounting processes. No double entries. No manual entries. We used to have a filing system. Now, being able to find those documents at the click of a button is obviously a huge time saver,” said Ian.

DG currently runs ledgers in Euro, GBP and USD which is easy to do with AccountsIQ’s multicurrency capabilities. They currently have one entity set up in the system but have plans to move to multiple entities as the business evolves its core services. This is part of DG’s ongoing evolution towards cost efficiency, convenience and confidence, driven by their digital transformation strategy. AccountsIQ supports this transformation by providing a Cloud-based accounting system that can grow and adapt to DG’s business structure as it evolves.

A path of continual improvement delivers business goals

DG International’s success is powered by its commitment to “Cost-effectiveness, Convenience and Confidence”, and the digital roadmap continues to play a vital part in the company’s growth strategy. AccountsIQ’s ongoing product innovations will support the business in its future plans.

There are a lot of features in AccountsIQ that we have yet to explore. We’re on an aggressive roadmap for the future and we envisage that AccountsIQ will be developed further to support this roadmap,” said Ian.

“We’re now on phase two of our digital transformation, but I don’t think we’ll ever be in a position to say we’re done. We’re in constant development, and that’s how it should be.”

Learn More

Discover how AccountsIQ helps other customers reap the benefits of cloud accounting and solve accounting, consolidation and reporting challenges like Zarion Software.

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Irish Franchise of the Year 2022 winners, Camile Thai, find opening new restaurants a breeze with AccountsIQ’s franchise accounting software.

The Camile Thai franchise has been keeping Ireland happy with its delicious and healthy ‘good mood Thai food’ since 2010. Since then, they’ve grown to 45 branches and they’re now expanding rapidly in the UK. This phenomenal success was recognised recently when AccountsIQ’s founder and CEO, Tony Connolly, had the pleasure of presenting them with the Franchise of the Year award at the Irish Franchise Association Awards dinner.

Maurice Woulfe, Financial Controller, Camile Thai

“We’ve been using AccountsIQ as our main accounting software for about five years,” says Camile Thai’s Financial Controller, Maurice Woulfe. “We moved from QuickBooks because we were growing so fast. AccountsIQ facilitates growth; we can add new restaurants and still consolidate monthly. It’s all really easy.”

A single finance platform for the entire franchise

AccountsIQ’s software suits a franchise business model because every franchisee can use the same Cloud-based system.

“Each restaurant has its own database,” explains Maurice. “I guess like other companies might have departments, we have a separate database for each restaurant. But, because AccountsIQ is Cloud-based, they’re all integrated and can talk to each other. That’s crucial for us because we need complete visibility across the network.”

Making life easier for franchisees

Rolling out AccountsIQ to new Camile Thai franchisees is quick and easy and brings significant benefits.

“We always encourage new franchisees to use AccountsIQ,” says Camile Thai’s Financial Accountant, Eoghain Grant. “We can set them up and transfer the business ownership very quickly. In fact, it’s ready right out of the box. We don’t need to configure anything; our franchisees just read the help file and they’re ready to go with it.”

The head office finance team benefits from the multi-dimensional reporting

Ease of use is essential for franchisees, as they’re not normally trained accountants. But Camile Thai’s head office finance team are also enjoying the benefits of using AccountsIQ.

“Our business model is complex,” says Maurice. “But AccountsIQ gives us full visibility.”

Camile Thai’s finance team uses the multi-dimensional reporting to drill down to a full P&L for each restaurant and to produce consolidated monthly reports for their management team.

“AccountsIQ is a big timesaver at month end,” says Maurice. “It’s much easier than doing consolidation in Excel; it’s more user friendly and we have fewer errors. The user-friendly FX functionality is also important now that we’re growing fast in the UK.”

Integration with MarketMan is a huge bonus

Camile Thai have worked with the AccountsIQ team to integrate their finance system with MarketMan (a restaurant inventory management system). This will give them even more granular financial business intelligence information.

“It’s so important to us that AccountsIQ integrates with MarketMan,” says Eoghain. “It means we’ll have detailed information on everything from our stock levels to our most profitable dishes, and we’ll be able to do profit level variance analysis.”

Maurice and Eoghain are confident that integrating AccountsIQ and MarketMan will also make life easier for their restaurant managers.

“They’ll only have to use one system,” says Maurice. “They won’t have any manual invoice entry or duplications to do. But in the background all the data will go into AccountsIQ.”  

“We love using AccountsIQ,” adds Eoghain. “And I’m delighted with the way the integration’s worked. The AccountsIQ team were super-responsive; they helped us to map out what we needed and worked around our schedule to keep the project on track.”

In summary, Camile Thai have found AccountsIQ to be extremely well-suited to running the finances of a complex and growing franchise.

“It makes life so much easier,” concludes Maurice. “It’s Cloud-based so you don’t need a lot of processing power; you can run it on a small laptop in a restaurant.

There are no issues with upgrades because they’re done automatically. You also don’t need to be an experienced accountant to use it and you don’t need an IT person to install it. We just send our restaurant managers a link, they open it, job done!”

AccountsIQ gives New Statesman Media Group greater control over its finance function

The New Statesman Media Group (NS Media) has grown substantially since its launch in 1913 and as with all businesses in the publishing industry, they have had to adapt to survive in the digital era. NS Media has been on a mission to migrate all of its business systems to digital, including their accounting system, where Mark Moore, the group’s Finance Director, led the way to replace the outdated SunSystems accounting platform. Having compared several mid-market Cloud-based accounting software vendors, including Xero and iPlicit, Mark chose AccountsIQ for its full in-built feature set without the need for bespoking, as well as his confidence that the product would continually evolve and support this dynamic and constantly changing group.

Mark Moore, Finance Director, New Statesman Media Group:

We needed to move to a cloud-based accounting solution that could meet the needs of our group of publishing and media businesses. We were looking for a high level of core functionality instead of bespoke patching and a system readily capable of scaling-up. AccountsIQ is an established product and it became obvious to us the product would continue to evolve. Lastly, the pricing was very competitive, and the accreditation by the ICAEW was important to us.” – Mark Moore, Finance Director, NS Media Group." 

Better reporting for a complex business structure

NS Media’s complexity comes from the wide range of income streams and diverse businesses across the group’s 17 entities. With consolidation and multi-dimensional analysis built into AccountsIQ, it’s easy for Mark to extract the reports with as much complexity as he needs, including reporting by sector, product, distribution channel, brand and department. AccountsIQ supports up to six customisable dimensions linked to a unique BI code, plus an unlimited number of codes that can be assigned to each dimension. Mark is able to report across all dimensions and codes, and can also create bespoke reports with AccountsIQ’s Excel Add-in.

We’ve always had a complex structure and the great thing with AccountsIQ is that it can accommodate as much complexity as you want. We use BI codes and all of the dimensions because we need that level of complexity to cut across the information,” said Mark.

Group VAT reporting in line with Making Tax Digital has also been a boon to Mark’s finance function, bringing greater assurance when it comes to compliance.

Sun was terrible for VAT and we needed bridging software to do our VAT returns. With AccountsIQ we have one system that does everything,” said Mark. “It’s already integrated with HMRC which made it easy to adapt to Making Tax Digital. For compliance, it’s much better and gives us confidence in protecting the business for the long term.”

Efficiency benefits from integrations with Salesforce and Chaser

Mark is benefiting from two AccountsIQ integrations that are helping him streamline his accounts receivable process:

• Salesforce CRM for sales invoices and receipts
• Chaser for debt management and automated invoice chasing

AccountsIQ’s existing partnership with these Cloud-based apps made integration easy, despite NS Media having a complex Salesforce setup with numerous customisations. Integration support from AccountsIQ and good project management from Marks’ team combined for a relatively smooth integration. The finance team now has greater control over the accounts receivable process from start to finish.

When we invoice from Salesforce, ten minutes later it’s in AccountsIQ and we can start the collection process,” said Mark. “All of the data in our accounts receivable link up to Chaser which has automatic routines sending proactive emails to our clients to help us collect the invoice. We’re getting our invoices paid more quickly and saving a lot of time on accounts receivable tasks.”

Streamlining and automation benefits

AccountsIQ’s cloud accounting features and integrated accounting software are designed to automate as much of the accounting process as possible. Built-in automations include accounts payable, bank feeds, invoicing, expense capture, consolidation, workflow approval, and BI. By using these automations, Mark is gaining greater efficiencies in the long term that make his finance team more cost effective.

Everything is much simpler now with an accounting process that is more process-led rather than ad hoc,” said Mark. “For example, expenses and fixed assets are all automated whereas before, it took me about a week to balance everything in a spreadsheet. Things are much more efficient and we have more time to do things that provide more added value to the business. A lot of tasks like VAT used to be laborious, manual processes. Now they can be done in 5-10 minutes. That’s helping us get the best use of our existing resources and allowing us to be a leaner finance team.”

Greater control with data stored in the Cloud

With all of the data stored on the Cloud, instantly accessible, and most importantly, accurate thanks to AccountsIQ’s automations and integrations, Mark has more control over his finance function than he’s ever had before. Mark highlights several areas where these controls are particularly beneficial to the business:

• Workflow approval brings greater accountability.
• User access across the business, e.g. their IT director can update the fixed asset register, giving the finance team better visibility on assets.
• Bank payments are integrated directly with the bank.
• Integration with Salesforce and Chaser bring more control to the accounts receivable process.
• Clear view of the audit trail, with the ability to drill down into the data and easily track changes.

As an enterprise it’s much better to have a finance system that integrates with the business,” said Mark. “Features like workflow approval give a lot of control back to the finance team, and effectively we’re able to evolve. Now as accountants we’re not just people who process transactions; we have the ability to do more, contribute to strategy objectives and the overall value of the business.”

Learn More

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AccountsIQ provides Humentum with a simple solution to complex accounting needs

Humentum, a leading global nonprofit working with humanitarian and development organisations worldwide, has multiple income and funding streams.

“But what I love about AccountsIQ is the simplicity,” says Jocelyn Boughton, Humentum’s Global Director, Finance & Administration. “It’s no more complicated than it needs to be.”

Humentum was formed from a merger of three partners in 2017. They all shared a mission to inspire and achieve operational excellence for organisations focused on positive societal impact. As such, Humentum now delivers training, consultancy, membership, and advocacy for NGOs worldwide.

The three organisations (in the US and UK) were using different versions of QuickBooks when they merged.

“Our main pain-points revolved around reporting and consolidating across GBP and USD,” explains Jocelyn. “We also identified inefficiencies in our manual processes. For example, we had to follow about nine steps when downloading batched invoice transactions from Salesforce to QuickBooks.”

Month-end results are much quicker with AccountsIQ

Looking to solve these issues, Humentum instigated an RFP process between four alternative finance systems: Sage Intacct, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics and AccountsIQ.

“AccountsIQ ticked all our boxes,” says Jocelyn. “The others ruled themselves out. Sage Intacct was US-based, with no VAT capabilities. With NetSuite, the implementation would be long and complex. Microsoft Dynamics came in at a high price point.”

“AccountsIQ does everything we need and it’s an ideal fit for us as the next step up from QuickBooks. With QuickBooks, month-end could almost take the whole month! Now, we do it within five working days. Getting the results out quickly makes a big difference.”

Integrations were an important part of the decision

Humentum needed a finance system that would integrate seamlessly with their other software.

They’ve integrated AccountsIQ with Salesforce, Arlo, Stripe and iCompleat. With Arlo, clients can register for Humentum’s training courses and pay by credit card or request an invoice to pay by bank transfer. The AccountsIQ/Stripe integration means clients can also choose to pay invoices by credit card (a common practice in the US).

The integration between AccountsIQ and iCompleat works well for purchase invoicing. Suppliers send PDF invoices and iCompleat reads and codes the details automatically. All that Humentum’s finance team needs to do is check it and send for approval. The approved invoices are then automatically posted into AccountsIQ.

“It’s much better than manually sending invoices around the company. In fact, the ability to do all these integrations is one of the things I love about AccountsIQ.”

Multi-dimensional reporting gives clear insights

With AccountsIQ’s multi-dimensional reporting structure, Humentum can report on their four main income streams quickly and easily. They can also drill down into the detail. As Jocelyn explains:

“In just two-minutes, I can get reports showing me what’s happening across our different service areas and locations.”

“We now have a clear understanding of exactly what consultancy, training, support, and membership services we’re providing to which organisations and countries. This wasn’t possible with QuickBooks; it would have involved lots of manual work, manipulating transactions and bringing it all together in Excel.”

The system was quick to set up and is intuitive to use

AccountsIQ’s onboarding team ensured the system was ready for Humentum’s new financial year. “In fact,” says Jocelyn, “it took less than eight weeks to implement AccountsIQ and for our finance team of four users to be up and running on the new system.” Humentum’s Client Engagement Managers are lighter users, but they use AccountsIQ to run GL transaction reports to track their expenses and the time spent on their projects.

“AccountsIQ is intuitive to use. That’s important because mistakes are much less likely to happen when all users can post things quickly and easily.”

Learn more

Find out more about how you can save time and streamline your finance processes with AccountsIQ’s charity accounting software. Learn more about how our software partners can help deliver additional efficiencies with our Integrated Accounting Software.

AccountsIQ is helping WCVA with everything from trustee reports to SORP reporting.

“The more we use AccountsIQ, the more we realise how much it can do.” 

WCVA is the national membership body for voluntary organisations in Wales. It manages funding, training and a range of support services that help charities and non-profits ‘make a bigger difference together’. In the months before the UK’s first lockdown, WCVA’s Finance Director, Tracey Marsh, recognised that they needed better financial reporting and started looking at new finance systems.

Tracey Marsh, Finance Director, WCVA

“We weren’t happy with the reporting capabilities in our existing system, Exchequer,” says Tracey. “Every time we wanted a report that wasn’t standard, such as comparing actuals to budget with variances, we had to pay extra. That was on top of an already high annual fee.”

Lockdown accelerated the need for change

When lockdown happened, this sense of dissatisfaction turned into more urgent and serious issues. As with many other organisations, the transition to home working accelerated the need for digital transformation.

“Our old system was server-based rather than Cloud-based,” explains Tracey.

“It was clunky; dropping all the time. And it just got worse and worse.  In that first lockdown, most of the pain from a finance point of view was because of the system. It meant we were working twice as many hours to do the same amount of work as when we were in the office. We simply couldn’t continue like that.”

AccountsIQ came in at a good price

The WCVA team first heard about AccountsIQ from their Scottish counterparts, the SCVO (Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations). They were already using AccountsIQ and were happy to vouch for the system’s benefits. Nonetheless, WCVA still did their due diligence and conducted a thorough analysis of AccountsIQ against Sage, Iplicit and Exchequer.

“We chose AccountsIQ partly because of cost,” admits Tracey. “It came in at a reasonable price and we liked that there’s flexibility in the pricing. With so much uncertainty, we didn’t want to commit to a fixed cost that wasn’t linked to the number of users.”

Finance processes are now automated and seamless  

WCVA were also keen to move away from old, manual ways of working to more automated, seamless processes.

“This is something I love about AccountsIQ,” says Tracey. “Everything is self- contained within the system; even our bank reconciliations are now automated. You’re also able to attach documents to transactions; our auditors think this is wonderful.”

Budget holders have more autonomy

One of Tracey’s key objectives was for budget holders to have access to certain parts of the system, so they’d be more self-sufficient. WCVA has around 40 system users. Five are finance team members and the others are set up as light users which enables the wider business to manage approvals and access reports. 

The next step will be to start using AccountsIQ’s automated consolidation features. WCVA has two subsidiaries. One has already moved onto AccountsIQ from Xero and the other will follow in due course.

Multi-dimensional reporting is so much easier

Like many non-profits, WCVA uses AccountsIQ’s BI codes and multi-dimensional reporting to manage their complex accounting and reporting needs.

“One of our dimensions is used to distinguish between restricted and unrestricted funds,” explains Tracey. “Then we have lots of projects to which we allocate salaries and other costs; that’s another list of dimensions.

We’ve also created other dimensions so we can deliver detailed reports to our trustees that show exactly what each project is contributing to the organisation. Once we've closed the accounts, I can just run this multiple KPI report for the trustees. I used to have to do that manually and now AccountsIQ pretty much does it all for me, it’s brilliant.”

AccountsIQ also helps with SORP reporting

WCVA’s finance team created their Chart of Accounts in AccountsIQ to align with their SORP reporting.

“Now, we just run the GL explorer and there's the statutory accounts. Of course, we still have to do the notes ourselves, but the balance sheet is all there. It’s phenomenal!”

AccountsIQ is so easy to use, WCVA are using it more and more

When asked to sum up the single best thing about AccountsIQ, Tracey responds:

“As soon as we had the demo with Ellen at AccountsIQ, I could see it was a user-friendly system with a logical, intuitive layout. It was just lovely to look at.

Also, Ellen was so knowledgeable and helpful, I knew we’d work well together. In fact, we’ve found that the more we use AccountsIQ, the more we learn and realise just how much more it can do for us.”

Learn More

AccountsIQ solves the often complex accounting, productivity and reporting challenges of over 100 charities such as the Archdiocese of Dublin and Lepra. View our customer testimonials.

Find out more about our charity accounting software.

The Irish Times Group Keeps its Finger on the Pulse with AccountsIQ

When The Irish Times Group acquired The Examiner Group in 2018, the enlarged group comprised a significant number of distinct business units.  With a vision of creating a more modern workplace while reducing costs, the company wanted to move away from on-premise, multi-location systems and selected cloud financial management software AccountsIQ.  Group CFO, Mikie Sheehan describes how time and resources have been recovered by simplifying processes and reporting.

One of the benefits of bringing a group together is to drive synergies in the cost base as we re-engineer how we operate day-to-day.  Systems automation is the real prize and AccountsIQ is enabling us to realise these operational goals,” says Mikie Sheehan.

Moving onto AccountsIQ financial management platform brings “twofold” savings

Reflecting on the benefits of replacing legacy systems, Mikie says, “The savings with AccountsIQ are twofold.  Firstly, we are saving costs but we also have ongoing savings through the streamlining of our processes.” 

Describing how the simplicity of the system provides him with greater control and saves precious time, Mikie adds,

It’s intuitive enough that it’s easy for me to run a report or get a quick snapshot on performance at any stage throughout the month.  Personally, I have more visibility, I can ask more questions, I can drill down into the detail and it’s simple to do all this in AccountsIQ. It has made a real change to our reporting processes. The consolidation functionality is also a huge asset within the system and significantly reduces month-end close to allow us to get that Group view immediately”

The Accounts Payable process has changed “dramatically”

With an estimated 12,000 invoices being processed a year, automating this process first seemed an obvious way to achieve real, measurable efficiency in a short space of time.

Summarising how AccountsIQ ticked many of the system requirements, Mikie adds,

The automation within AccountsIQ when it comes to things like Bank Reconciliation is really slick, and its ability to integrate document scanning and storage gives us end-to-end automation and a paperless Accounts Payable process.  It has dramatically changed the way we work.”

Due to AccountsIQ’s existing integration with advanced document scanning software Kefron AP, the Accounts Payable element was created quickly, and means they now have paperless approval of invoices. “In the current environment, where the team has been working remotely over the past 15 months, the ability to capture, analyse, distribute for approval, review and pay suppliers with all the information gathered in the one place has been a significant capacity driver for the finance team.”

Integrating advertising sales data is vital

The business relies heavily on sales data gathered in their advertising booking system, provided by another vendor, which is intertwined with their finance and reporting mechanisms. Back-office integration with both systems was an essential part of the vision of a more efficient future.

AccountsIQ’s integration with the ad booking system includes functionality that generates all weekly invoicing and manages adjustments.  It also makes an up-to-the-minute credit status of every account visible to the sales team and automates a rules-based process for issuing dunning letters.  With different letters designed to be released at different times, it removes the admin-heavy and error-prone end of the process, vitally supporting cash flow.

Partnership approach to digitally transforming The Irish Times Group

Much of the success of the project comes from a partnership approach to designing and implementing the system and building a feasible roadmap together with the other software suppliers involved. In total there were four main systems and six others that needed to be integrated with AccountsIQ.  AccountsIQ’s open API has made this task a lot easier.

With AccountsIQ, we get a real sense of proactiveness and solving problems together.  No system that you buy off the shelf is going to be an exact fit.  AccountsIQ worked with us to find ways of marginally reconfiguring the system to meet our requirements,” says Mikie.

“AccountsIQ’s implementation support is very pro-active in its response times. We have had a consistent team supporting us throughout, they are nimble and solution-oriented in their approach and work hard to understand our business, which has a degree of complexity the team may not have come across elsewhere. It is way more than “Software-as-a-Service”, and the pace the AccountsIQ team worked at to get it up and running was superb,” adds Mikie.

I am excited to see how the Partnership will develop with a timetable for future development, which we have been involved in at every stage. The whole team are encouraged at how their feedback is taken on board in this development roadmap and the expenses app, as well as the banking integration technology. These are just two of the releases that we are working with AccountsIQ on,” explains Mikie.

AccountsIQ’s COO Darren Cran adds, “We are delighted to have helped with this digital finance transformation project at The Irish Times, and adding enhancements requested by Mikie and his team, which will benefit our whole user base.  A key factor in the success was the Finance team’s willingness to adopt the way AccountsIQ solves key finance pain points.  It’s always refreshing for our customer success team when customers have this growth mindset.”

Darren adds, “Remote working has been a key shift of the last 12 months and AccountsIQ, being cloud-based, has enabled this transition for finance teams. Work/life balance is now foremost in everyone’s minds and cloud technology has made it straightforward for organisations to offer this flexibility. Most of our customers are experiencing an increase in focus and productivity as a result.”

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Discover how AccountsIQ's publishing accounting software simplifies group accounting. View our customer testimonials.

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IFX Payments use AccountsIQ to manage complex multi-entity, multi-currency accounting and support their growth needs

IFX provides global cross-border payments solutions to SMEs and payments services providers. Their finance team of six people use AccountsIQ to manage the complex accounting needs of their four entities (in Dubai, Australia, UK and Poland). They also operate in three different base currencies (£, AUS$ and PLNzl).

IFX Group Finance Director, Steve Allen.

“We were using Sage 50,” says IFX Group Finance Director, Steve Allen. “But it wasn’t Cloud-based. Even before the pandemic, our finance team was split across three office locations, so we needed a system where we could work together seamlessly.”

Steve also wanted a more flexible finance system.

“With AccountsIQ, if I see something’s wrong in the P&L, I can drill down to the transaction level (even to view an actual invoice) and change it there and then,” he says. “That makes my life so much easier.”

IFX were also keen to ensure they had effective PO workflows in place. The company was growing at a phenomenal rate. Maintaining visibility and keeping control of costs across the business were key priorities for the finance team.

“The year before last we experienced 110% growth,” Steve explains. “We could not have done that without AccountsIQ. If we were still on Sage 50, we would have collapsed or at the very least we would have needed a much bigger finance team.”

Management reporting for multiple stakeholders

The IFX finance team also needs to meet the demand for management reports from across the business, and from their external stakeholders.

“Different users require different information,” explains Steve. “But AccountsIQ has multi-dimensional reporting and analysis capabilities. That enables us to flip the data for different stakeholders using just one set of coding structures.”

That means IFX can produce the compliance data demanded by banks and the FCA quickly and easily. But they can also deliver granular, timely and accurate commercial reports for their own board.

“We can report by department, cost type and even by individual salesperson,” says Steve. “With AccountsIQ we can track the performance and contribution of every IFX salesperson. We treat them like another profit centre for reporting purposes.”

Easy for new team members to use

IFX have found that new team members can train themselves to use AccountsIQ simply by using the learning resources in AIQ Academy.

“One of the things I always rave about with AccountsIQ is the user experience,” says Steve. “It’s so easy to use; it’s fantastic.”

A finance system to support growth

“With AccountsIQ, we really feel like we’re on the right platform to support our future growth,” concludes Steve. “We can integrate other tech with it as and when we need to. For example, right now we’ve decided to use AutoEntry; that integrates seamlessly with AccountsIQ.”“Starter systems like Sage and Xero don’t really meet the needs of a complex business. AccountsIQ is a proper accounting package. It’s Cloud-based, user-friendly and meets all the accounting needs of an international business like IFX.”

Find out more about our SaaS Accounting Software for high-growth tech companies.

About IFX

Founded in 2005, IFX Payments has grown to become a leading global foreign exchange, payment and financial technology provider. Headquartered in London, with offices around the world, we’re positioned to be a significant participant in the new banking paradigm delivering advanced payment, treasury and financial management solutions. We replace operational inefficiency with streamlined processes and replace uncertainty with control.

Bellevue Education Shapes Partnership Between AccountsIQ and iSAMS MIS for Schools.

When international schools group Bellevue Education chose iSAMS Management Information System (MIS), Finance and Operations Director Tim Carey-Yard took the opportunity to renew their accounting system too, hoping to find a Cloud-based accounting solution which would integrate with iSAMS.

Bellevue investigated integrating with Sage but felt it didn’t cater for their needs at a group level.  Having evaluated many Cloud accounting products for schools, they chose AccountsIQ; an affordable middle market Cloud accounting solution which could be tailored to their needs and meet the complex reporting requirements of the group.

“The systems we evaluated which were genuinely web-based, seemed to be created for small enterprises.  We wanted a system which could be adapted to our international group needs.  AccountsIQ suited us better than Xero, QuickBooks Online and SAP and so we began the process of integrating AccountsIQ with iSAMS.” Tim Carey-Yard, Finance and Operations Director.

AccountsIQ’s UK Managing Director Darren Cran explained, “We were really pleased to work with Bellevue on such a pioneering project and are delighted they are using more and  more features of the software. Since going live with Bellevue, we have successfully installed AccountsIQ alongside iSAMS in a number of other UK schools and internationally.”

Integrating with iSAMS

The systems were fully-integrated and installed in September, just a few months after contracts were signed. The advantage of the integrated application is that the iSAMS MIS system automatically updates all fee payer and student information in the AccountsIQ Sales Ledger, ensuring all data in the two systems is completely aligned, avoiding any duplication of data entry. Meanwhile, the Fee Billing module of iSAMS generates all the invoices for students (with an ability to have multiple fee payers for individual students or multiple students for multiple fee payers) and passes the invoices automatically via an API link to the accounting system. The AccountsIQ accounting platform then takes control of the process and updates the balances within AccountsIQ, as fees are paid, partially or in full.

Group Management Accountant Rosie Bridgman explains, “the integration with iSAMS gives us a much slicker process than we had for billing and the fee run is so much easier. It cuts down our processing time enormously.”

International Group Reporting

Headquartered in Hampton Court in England, the group has 12 independent schools across the UK as well as schools in Switzerland and Qatar, which means the finance team needs to account for income and payments in multiple currencies as well as produce consolidated group accounts.  As well as a suite of 250 pre-built reports, AccountsIQ can be customised to create tailored reports.  Bellevue created their own management reports in MS Excel which can be automatically updated from the AccountsIQ database via an “add-in” link.

Unlike other applications which encourage the exclusive use of in-built Business Intelligence tools, AccountsIQ also gives users the option to plug in existing reports modelled in Excel.  This allows businesses like Bellevue to focus on becoming familiar with the software without the worry of recreating reporting packs in the early stages.

“AccountsIQ’s Excel Add-In gives us continuity in our management reporting while we are still learning how to get the most out of the system.  It maps live and accurate data from AccountsIQ to my existing management reports.” Tim Carey-Yard. 

Day-To-Day Efficiencies

Exploring some of the automated features within AccountsIQ, Group Management Accountant Rosie Bridgman describes how AccountsIQ has made her working processes easier,

Day-to-day reports for sending out invoices are done in the click of a button rather than us having to find the document, scan it, attach it and email it.  The email features are great and we can send emails centrally from any school.

The ability to attach documents to processes saves so much time not just day-to-day but also when we prepare for audit. Other processes are also much smoother such as bank reconciliation. ”

Further Plans

Now that the system is successfully installed, the next phase of the project will include exploring AccountsIQ’s multi-company functionality further.  Tim Carey-Yard adds, “There is a lot of functionality we have yet to explore such as customising dashboards and creating live dashboard reports which consolidate our accounts.  The system’s Excel integration has allowed us to implement the system quickly and plug in our usual reports but AccountsIQ will allow us to do so much more.”  Discussing other future projects Tim adds, “We also want to implement AccountsIQ’s Purchase-to-Pay process which will give us better management of costs versus budget.”

Rosie Bridgman adds, “The real benefit AccountsIQ brings is the time we save every day on tedious and time-consuming tasks.  So much of it is automated in the system.”

Tim Carey-Yard continues: “The multi-company functionality allows us to work in any of our companies and we plan to implement the consolidation module to enable us to enter consolidation adjustment journals and produce consolidated management accounts and multi-company.”

Continuum Commerce Adopts AccountsIQ's Cloud Accounting Software for Real Time Management Information

Continuum Commerce CEO, Eamonn O’Shea, states,

I would have no hesitation in recommending AccountsIQ to anyone that conducts business in multiple locations. It can significantly simplify your management reporting process, while at the same time significantly improving its output. The Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) pricing means we have a full accounting and business analysis system for a fraction of what I would have expected to pay to implement an on-premise solution.

The Challenge

Continuum Commerce was founded in 2000 (formerly known as GCX – Global Currency Exchange) as an independent online payments solution provider.  Based in Ireland, Continuum also has operations in mainland Europe, the UK and the Asia-pacific region and has a management team that spends much of its time abroad. Remote board meetings and management updates were previously handled by sending spreadsheets created by re-keying information from their previous accounting package to participants by fax or e-mail. This information was therefore often out of date before the meeting had begun and decisions were being made based on inaccurate information.

Gerard O’Brien, the CFO of Continuum Commerce says,

We evaluated many alternatives and found AccountsIQ offered the most compelling solution. While it provided all the functionality we needed and is available over the web at any time, its reporting capability and especially its Digital Dashboard has proven to be the ‘killer app’ for GCX. There is a wealth of standard reports, and I was able to customise a couple of key reports that I use on a daily basis. The senior team can log on at any time to review our performance metrics. It has really streamlined our business planning and measurement.

The Solution

Continuum Commerce adopted AccountsIQ for all its financial requirements consisting of:

• AccountsIQ online accounting platform
• Full multi-currency processing throughout
• Integration with Continuum’s billing engine
• Customised management information dashboards with specific KPIs

Results

Gerard O’Brien told us that benefits to Continuum include that AccountsIQ represents incredible value for money with no upfront capital cost. They find that reporting is a key strength – with them rarely needing to export to Excel or re-key anything. The digital dashboard capability significantly improves the management information available to them and a key benefit is that AccountsIQ has extensive functionality which can scale with them as they grow their business. With AccountsIQ’s open API, it was easy to integrate Continuum’s billing engine directly to AccountsIQ which has streamlined their processes and brought considerable efficiency advantages.

Accounting software gives Kingsworth School the ability to grow

Kingsworth International School, based in Paris, is relatively new and expanding rapidly, having opened a second school at the beginning of 2016, with further expansion envisaged thereafter. They required an online accounting software that offered the ability to scale as the school grows whilst minimising the capital outlay from the beginning. They also wanted to future-proof their IT strategy and to maximise workflow efficiencies, by ensuring the accounts system was fully integrated into their MIS system. This needed to be flexible enough to integrate accounting software into any further IT systems they may implement in the future.

Flexible pricing model with no upfront costs

Kingsworth International selected AccountsIQ due to its flexible pricing model with no up-front capital costs, and which allowed them to only pay for the schools they required on the system from day one. They liked the SaaS pricing model, selecting and paying only for the functionality they required. As the school expands they can add functionality as required to the school accounting system and use it for additional new schools, ensuring they only pay for what they use and keeping cost to a minimum during the start-up and expansion phase. Kingsworth International also liked the fact that AccountsIQ has a full integration and partnership with iSAMS school administration software.

Integrated solution with iSAMS

The accounting and MIS systems are fully integrated and supported on an ongoing basis. Being dynamically linked, any changes made in iSAMS automatically update AccountsIQ and vice versa. The first class hosting and support of the integration gives Kingsworth International the peace of mind that the two systems work in conjunction at all times.  As more and more schools look to Cloud hosting for their software services, the iSAMS and AccountsIQ partnership offers schools cutting-edge technologies designed specifically for Independent Schools.

When we set out on our journey to implement a new accounting system for the Kingsworth Group of Schools, ease of use, integration with our current MIS, friendly relations and great customer service were top of our pre-requisites.  With AccountsIQ, we have all of that and more.  The team at AccountsIQ have been outstanding; from our initial contact and discussions, right the way through to helping our finance department implement the system in the best way for us. AccountsIQ is a system that is adapted for our needs, rather than us adapting to its capabilities, indeed its capabilities and possibilities are huge.

Tony Standing, Director of Information at Kingsworth International School

Established in 1997, Insomnia Coffee Company has grown at a phenomenal rate, with over 120 stores in operation and continued expansion into the UK. Currently rolling out a number of high street franchise stores, Insomnia needed hospitality accounting software solution that would allow for integration with their current EPOS and retail systems as well as providing in-depth sales analysis.

Insomnia needed a strong retail accounting software solution that could support the launch of their High Street Franchise initiative. They also wanted an in-depth breakdown of sales per item per store which would allow them to monitor performance and easily analyse best performing stores and products.

Insomnia initially looked at buying an on-premise accounting package and the required servers and infrastructure but they had little access to local IT support. Fortunately AccountsIQ was recommended to them and we were able to implement a full cloud retail accounting solution at a fraction of the cost of installing an on-premise solution.

We are impressed with the reporting capabilities of AccountsIQ, and with the support we got from the AccountsIQ team in implementing the new system.

A cloud solution makes so much sense for a multi-location business like ours. We now have a strong foundation on which to manage and grow our operations and develop our franchise model, while maintaining tight control. Barry Kehoe, Chief Financial Officer, Insomnia Coffee Company

The Solution

Insomnia chose to adopt AccountsIQ accounting software for all its financial requirements because of its extensive functionality consisting of:

• Full featured accounting system
• Full EPOS integration capabilities
• Ability to report by location, individual product and store
• Transaction upload via excel

Key Benefits

• Cloud based system allowing for concurrent logins.
• Simply monthly fee with no upfront capital cost on local servers etc
• Strong sales and profitability reporting – no need to export to Excel or re-key anything.
• Extensive cloud accounting functionality meeting their requirements but with a system than can grow with them.
• Integration with their EPOS system
• Departmental reporting

The TAS Group (now Altify) Moves Group-Wide Accounts Online to AccountsIQ

Executive Chairman of Altify, Donal Daly, explains,

We needed an accounting platform that allowed us to manage our global business with local and central access. AccountsIQ has been a huge improvement on our previous systems, giving our management team instant access to the latest information from all locations. AccountsIQ’s SaaS pricing model meant no upfront capital investment was required to put our group accounting systems in place.

Altify (previously known as the TAS group) was formed in 2006 following the merger of sales software company Select Selling with Siebel’s training arm to create sales effectiveness training and software solutions for large sales organisations internationally.

The Challenge

Altify had grown to a stage where it had subsidiaries in the US, Europe and the UK to deliver training and consulting services to a wide range of international customers, as well as a software development subsidiary in Ireland. Their existing systems were struggling to cope with increased volumes and the multi-jurisdiction aspect of the business provided challenges for the finance team in terms of monitoring its activities across different timezones and processing transactions in multiple currencies. They needed a platform that allowed them to manage the business across multiple geographies and currencies with access both locally and centrally.

Financial Controller, Dan Murphy, explains,

Our team evaluated a number of online solutions, and selected AccountsIQ, mainly because it handled all our complex multi-currency issues very well. We also wanted a solution we could later integrate with Salesforce to allow confirmed orders to be automatically transferred, and that integration was already in place.

The AccountsIQ team was able to convert all our historical data and was even able to facilitate us changing year ends after the first year, including re-aligning prior year values for comparative purposes.

The Solution

Altify decided an online accounting solution would complement its use of Salesforce and evaluated a number of solutions before choosing AccountsIQ. The solution included the full version of AccountsIQ with all its accounting modules and product-based sales invoicing and pricing. They also implemented the consolidation module to allow group-wide results to be produced including customer sales analysis.

Results

• World-wide access for subsidiary companies in US, Europe, UK & Ireland.
• Easy roll-out giving everyone an up-to-date view of company results at anytime.
• Handles multi-jurisdiction, multi-currency transactions with ease
• Visibility of group results and group sales analysis at the touch of a button
• Retained a full transaction history and facilitated altering the group year-end easily.

Worky Gained A Strong Accounting, Inventory Management Solution For Continued Growth Across Its Business

Founder of Worky, Ray Nolan, explains,

Having setup a new operation , we needed to implement a solution quickly . We initially looked at buying an on-premise accounting package and the required servers and infrastructure but AccountsIQ was recommended to us and we were able to implement a full solution within 4 weeks at a fraction of the cost of installing an on-premise solution.

Worky is for job seekers, freelancers, entrepreneurs and small business owners and for anyone who wants to promote their work profile online to potential contacts, clients, and customers. Companies can create a free online profile on worky.com to promote their products, services and job vacancies.

The Challenge

Worky needed a strong accounting, order processing and inventory management solution for continued growth across its business. They needed accounting software which would allow them to gain a broader understanding of their revenue streams by analysing their operations through the use of departmental analysis group and codes.  It was essential that the software could be accessed online at all times by any of the accounts team.

Ray Nolan, Founder of Worky, explains,

We trade all over the world and in this case needed a solution that was available to the local operation but was also accessible by us remotely. AccountsIQ provides us with a solution that is simultaneously accessible to everyone without us having to worry about the IT infrastructure to achieve this. It allows us to closely monitor profitability of the operation and participate in operational decisions on pricing etc. when required. We are delighted with the solution and particularly the reporting capability and have found the support to be excellent.

Solution

Worky chose to adopt AccountsIQ for all its financial requirements consisting of:

• AccountsIQ online accounting system
• Full multi-currency processing
• Inventory management including ability to roll up landing/shipping costs
• Control over sales pricing with ability to change to suit market dynamically
• Local withholding tax requirements
• Consignment profitability reporting

Key Benefits

• Single system with online access for teams in Ireland & Africa 24/7
• Simple monthly fee with no upfront capital cost on local servers etc.
• Strong sales and profitability reporting – no need to export to Excel or re-key anything
• Extensive functionality and scalable

Agra Trading was incorporated in 1975 and is the trading arm of Kepak Group, one of Europe’s leading food businesses. Originally involved in the production and trading of beef, they have expanded their product range over the years to include lamb, pork, poultry, seafood, processed goods, fruit and vegetables, and food ingredients. Agra is a market leader in the Irish, European and South American food industry, with a strong presence throughout the world.

Agra needed strong retail accounting software, order processing and inventory management solution for new joint venture operations in Africa. They had no local IT support to implement or manage an “on premise” solution and needed to provide simultaneous access to both the local operation and Head Office. Food products (meat & fish) are imported in consignments and sold locally. Key requirements were the ability to “roll up” shipping and landing costs into overall stock item cost and dynamically manage sales pricing. The ability to report on revenues and margins by product, product group and customer as well as the profitability of each consignment was also important.

Key Challenges

• Single system with online access for teams in Ireland & Africa 24/7
• Simply monthly fee with no upfront capital cost on local servers etc
• Strong sales and profitability Reporting – no need to export to Excel or re-key anything.
• Extensive functionality meeting their requirement but with a system than can grow with the company.

The Solution

Agra Trading chose to adopt AccountsIQ retail accounting software for all its financial requirements consisting of:

• Full multi-currency processing
• Inventory Management including ability to roll up landing/shipping costs
• Tight control over sales pricing with ability to change to suit market dynamically
• Local Withholding tax requirements
• Consignment Profitability Reporting

Results

Having setup a new operation in Africa, we needed to implement a solution quickly to start trading. We initially looked at buying an on-premise retail accounting package and the required servers and infrastructure but had little access to local IT support. Luckily AccountsIQ was recommended to us and we were able to implement a full solution within 4 weeks at a fraction of the cost of installing an on-premise solution.
Kevin Ruane, CFO Agra Trading

Agra now has a turnkey solution that is accessible worldwide and it was implemented within 4 weeks with no up-front capital expenditure on hardware, comms or software.

We trade all over the world and in this case needed a solution that was available to the local operation but was also accessible by us remotely. AccountsIQ provides us with a solution that is simultaneously accessible to everyone without us having to worry about the IT infrastructure to achieve this. It allows us to closely monitor profitability of the operation and participate in operational decisions on pricing etc when required. We are delighted with the solution and particularly the financial reporting capability and have found the support to be excellent.

Kevin Ruane, CFO Agra Trading

UCD Teaches its Students Business Processes and Financial Management on AccountsIQ

UCD is the largest university in Ireland with 30,000 students and 5,000 staff. UCD uses AccountsIQ’s cloud accounting platform to teach their commerce undergraduates business processes and financial management.

The Challenge

UCD needed a reliable, robust and secure cloud accounting module to allow students to login for tutorials and to enable a secure and tailored session for up to 150 students to work simultaneously on the tutorials.  The student cohort of 520 is split into 11 groups of 50 each with sometimes three of the groups overlapping and needing to work in parallel in three different lecture rooms.

As AccountsIQ is cloud-based, it meant that UCD required no local infrastructure and minimal set up, which is a real advantage given that over 520 students each year need to access the software, each using their own laptops. With AccountsIQ no hardware or servers are required and the system can be accessed through a standard web browser, with minimal support required from the University.

It was also a fundamental requirement of the system, that the students can learn, take an exam and have their work graded.  Added to that, the platform had to be reliable and robust, so that the students can complete their work without any problems, down-time or rescheduling.

The Solution

AccountsIQ designed a solution to fit UCD’s needs creating a version of the software that would enable students to learn and be tested. The University can set tutorials and reset all companies used for each tutorial to a starting position afterwards. Each year the AccountsIQ system is cleared of data and re-supplied to UCD for the fresh intake of students. In the five years that UCD has been using AccountsIQ over 3,000 students have been trained on the platform.

UCD’s IT lecturer Linden Lee says:

AccountsIQ is more logically set out than some other systems, its features are easy to grasp and students can see quite clearly the progression through various business processes such as the expenditure and revenue cycles. It’s intuitive and well thought-out.

AccountsIQ is easy to use for both lecturers and students. Each student is required to take a series of four tutorials which culminates in a 3 hour exam. The student learns the flow through all business processes and has to set up debtors, creditors, push through orders, and then produce a stock pdf, which then tests if the student has entered the correct information. This set up enables students’ performance to be easily assessed.

As Linden explains, “With AccountsIQ it is easy to get the idea of what they’re doing and why. It’s very easy for the student to visualise the process and it gives them confidence that they’re doing the right thing.”

Linden continues: “We’ve been using AccountsIQ for five years now and thousands of students have used the system and been tested on it. It’s great for teaching as we can set exams with literally no set up required. Students can follow it easily and we can see clearly how each student has performed. Batch files are set up each time and it’s a proven method that simply works.”

Anne Somerville, Financial Controller & Company Secretary at American Chamber of Commerce Ireland started looking for accounting software in late 2016 to replace their TAS system, now part of Sage.

The organisation is a not for profit membership organisation representing both US companies in Ireland and Irish companies with businesses in the US.

They wanted to find an efficiently priced, user friendly and intuitive system that could help them conduct their business transactions and develop their reporting structures and were delighted when they found AccountsIQ.

The challenge

Anne knew her organisation needed an accounting system suitable for charities that was easy to use, efficient and effective, giving them the custom reporting functionality they required. As her team was not always sitting at a desk, Anne was interested in what a cloud solution could offer.

The problem with their old system was that it was clunky to use and was time consuming in the reporting functionality. It was cumbersome to extract the data or get the level of reporting required, even though the transaction volumes were not large.  They would spend a lot of time downloading data into Excel and ‘playing with it’ to get the information in the format they needed.

The solution

After evaluating four charity accounting software products, AccountsIQ was selected, because of its clear, simple and intuitive way of working.

Originally Anne felt they should complete their year end reporting and audit before looking to implement the new system.  However, 4 months into their search for a new accounting system, AccountsIQ was implemented and ready to use for their new financial year starting January 1^st, six months ahead of their expectations.

Key benefits

AccountsIQ has been in use for 7 months now and Anne has found month end reporting a vast improvement:

AccountsIQ is really excellent. It’s intuitive, simple to use and the implementation was outstanding. Now we have complete transparency and visibility of our financials. We can easily drill down to individual transactions and even down to items on an individual invoice without having to pull out any invoices or back-ups.

AccountsIQ’s implementation team helped design and create a set of customised reports for Anne, which she adds:

The reporting is high quality, AccountsIQ has created a set of custom reports for us and it’s very simple now to extract the information we need. It’s a vast improvement on what we had before and I can see the long-term benefits of the system being invaluable for our organisation.

Another key benefit of AccountsIQ is that it has been integrated with their bank accounts, which enables them to manage all payments and receipts online directly with the bank and download all bank transaction data directly and post automatically to AccountsIQ and complete bank reconciliations seamlessly.

The plan is now to implement the AccountsIQ Approval Workflow module to automate approval of purchase orders and invoices.  The final phase is to integrate with the organisation’s CRM system, which will enable the team to look up customer details, see balances etc from within the CRM, without having to log into the finance system.

AccountsIQ Helps Kefron Stay Ahead with Cloud Integration Strategy

Established in Dublin in 1989, entrepreneurial storage business Kefron made an evolutionary move in 2013 when the business expanded into the UK.  Kefron has also been successfully extending its digital proposition since then, using technology to help businesses find more efficient ways of storing and managing documents by offering digital solutions such as M-Files Document Management and Kefron AP, accounts payable invoice automation software. With a good understanding of the digital landscape, Kefron decided it was crucial to move its own business processes to the cloud, but was tied to its old accounting system, Exchequer, which had been heavily customised during implementation ten years before.  It wasn’t until Kefron reviewed AccountsIQ that their leadership team found an affordable, cloud accounting and consolidation system which could replace Exchequer, and provide a more integrated solution with improved reporting across the group.

Kefron’s Financial Controller Sinéad Brennan explains,

Exchequer consumed a lot of resources and came with a heavy maintenance overhead.  We had to wait for new features to become available; in the ten years we used the system, it never really changed.  With AccountsIQ, we have an up-to-date, intelligent financial management system which integrates with our billing system and our own Kefron AP automated invoicing solution.  It also makes consolidation really straightforward.”

Maintaining business operations during change

Kefron had invested heavily in Exchequer during implementation with a considerable amount of bespoke work.  Although this proved a good solution for the needs of the early business, it proved restrictive in the longer term: newer, cloud-based platforms replace the need for heavy implementation projects because the technology allows processes to be tailored with minimum effort, automated, and easily integrated with other data sources.  If Kefron was to make the most of new technology, it would need to move its financial management hub to the cloud.

Outlining her initial concerns about switching from Exchequer to AccountsIQ, Sinéad admits; “We thought switching from Exchequer would be problematic as we relied on a number of key processes which had been tailored for our business.  For example, our direct debits were handled in a complicated way which required extensive use of Excel.  We realised we had come to develop our processes around the limitations of the Exchequer system rather than using the system to improve processes.”

AccountsIQ’s UK Managing Director Darren Cran explained, “To ensure business continuity, we implemented the core elements of AccountsIQ first while dual-running Kefron’s bespoke elements on the old system.  That also gave us a secure platform on which to build further integrations with other applications.  By breaking the project down, we were able to complete it in practical stages without interruption to the day-to-day operations, eventually replacing all legacy systems.”

Removing the headache of consolidated reports

Today Kefron boasts a portfolio of six storage facilities and two scanning bureaux as well as its own Electronic Content Management (ECM) solution and an estate of serviced offices.  With lines of business and locations included, Kefron needs to consolidate no less than 15 entities for audit purposes.

Describing the transformation in how she produces complex group reports, Sinéad adds, “Before AccountsIQ, we had to spend a lot of time at year end exporting data and performing a lengthy, manual consolidation process which had systematic errors.  We now have a system which allows us to retrieve and review consolidated reports, in real time across the business lines, in just a couple of hours.”

AccountsIQ comes with an optional consolidation module for businesses with multiple entities.  Rather than simply amalgamating accounts and leaving much of the tricky work to be done in spreadsheets, AccountsIQ can create and automate more complex protocols; a whole range of branch level ledger codes can be linked to a common set of group codes, which allows entities to have individual coding structures and their own level of reporting, while still providing a group level view across the entire group, in real time.

The system also solves an age-old problem for Kefron in handling inter-company charges.  Sinéad adds, “Recharging in AccountsIQ has become a very simple process and saves me lots of time; once I post a debit, a credit automatically appears in the corresponding company.  The system automatically handles currency exchange when it is needed.”

Extending workflow business-wide with smarter integration

Exchequer had been integrated with some of Kefron’s other business applications the old-fashioned way; a piece of middleware was hosted on a server to allow the accounting system to share data with payroll and the direct debit system.  Built in the cloud, AccountsIQ’s system architecture means that the integration of these elements is now easier to maintain and doesn’t rely on additional development projects each time the software is upgraded.

Sinéad explains, “People are our biggest cost so it made sense to integrate our finance system with payroll.  AccountsIQ was able to replicate the process previously created in Exchequer without any hiccups.  Our operational billing system incorporates the real data-heavy side of the business.  The volume of transactions means integrating billing with AccountsIQ now saves us at least half a day at month end.”

Additionally, the integration offers Kefron the opportunity to improve its service to customers by creating customised billing reports for those whose industry regulators require reports in a particular format.  AccountsIQ is able to generate the required information and issue it as standard with customer billing statements.

Paperless invoice processing

With the ability to capture and verify key information from paper or digital invoices, Kefron has been able to develop its own paperless workflow solution for invoice processing.  Developed using the latest OCR technology, Kefron’s scanning and automated data entry system reduces paper, administration time and errors for its customers across the UK and Ireland.  The system is also used internally.  Accessing AccountsIQ’s Open API (a portal which facilitates easy integration between two or more Cloud-based systems), Kefron has been able to integrate this with AccountsIQ’s ledger system to create a seamless and automated, two-way process between the systems.  The integrated workflow process for Accounts Payable begins with Kefron’s automated document input, registering invoices in AccountsIQ then sending out automated and paper-free approval for budget holders business-wide.

Sinéad adds, “Our accounts payable process is now completely digital and all documents are stored and managed in the system in digital formats.  With our old system, we had problems displaying digital invoices on screen and, in the end, we had to print them.  With AccountsIQ, we can view and use documents in a variety of formats.”

From business reporting to business intelligence

Financial Controller Sinéad Brennan has plans to take AccountsIQ to the next performance level across the business.  Citing her new consolidation reporting pack as an example of how reports have become insights, Sinead continues, “Phase II with AccountsIQ will involve deploying the information it provides me to the operational heads across the business.  Just being able to summon a report from my tablet in a meeting using real-time insights is a real benefit. There are so many other parts of the business which could use these insights to help form management decisions at various levels.  With a group of managers involved, we could design reports which draw out some really great intelligence.”

Summing up her experience implementing AccountsIQ, Sinéad concludes, “The big difference for me is in the flexibility of AccountsIQ and the ease at which you can access information.  I can produce data on my screen at a management meeting which helps to answer questions and solve problems.  Integrating best of breed solutions in the Cloud was the right way for us to go; our old system couldn’t change quickly enough and wasn’t sustainable long-term.  Our new, integrated model gives us a level of efficiency we have not previously been able to achieve.”

MBSL Partners with AccountsIQ to offer Cloud-based outsourced accounting

Chartered accounting firm MBSL is set apart from others in the outsourced services sector by its dedicated approach to technology and security.  In February 2010, it became the first accounting firm in Ireland to obtain ISO27001 Certification: a highly-sought after international standard which requires the firm to employ a strict and methodical approach to data security and information management.  The business has also been paperless since 2008 and continues to expand by improving systems and processes.

Moving MBSL’s business services onto a Cloud accounting software has been a priority for Associate Director Elaine Ryan who chose AccountsIQ as the firm’s preferred application for Cloud-based, outsourced accounting. Elaine explains,

We needed to get onto a Cloud-based system.  We are a tech-driven business and a Cloud infrastructure is part and parcel of our whole proposition.

AccountsIQ helped us to move away from the old model of sharing data sets with clients, delays in data processing and ongoing data reconciliation. Now we can work in complete partnership with our clients, sharing access to the same, live information stored in the Cloud.

Why MBSL Chose AccountsIQ

In tune with the firm’s approach to innovation, it was important that MBSL found a software supplier which they could work with in a collaborative way.  Having evaluated a number of Cloud products including Sage and Xero, Elaine explains why she selected AccountsIQ:

AccountsIQ’s approach and profile as a service provider is very similar to ours.  We needed a partner more than a supplier – a developer who could respond to our needs and work with us to continually improve the accounting service we provide to clients.  We didn’t want to be the junior partner in the relationship.  With AccountsIQ, we feel the areas we want addressed will be addressed.

With over 40 clients supported on AccountsIQ and rising, Elaine describes how the Cloud accounting app will become an integral part of the firm’s ongoing development. She adds, “AccountsIQ is part of our strategy to move forward.  We are currently working on an automated Accounts Payable process and integrating our banking platform. We also have a client who is working on integrating their CRM software with AccountsIQ.”

Traditionally focused on providing a service to other service-based businesses, AccountsIQ will also help MBSL to enter new sectors. Elaine adds,

Automating our Accounts Payable with AccountsIQ will allow us to process much higher volumes of transactions.  It will give us the opportunity to offer our services to new consumer-based sectors such as retail.”

McInerney Saunders Builds Strong Client Bond Using AccountsIQ

AccountsIQ has assisted our firm with the growth of our outsourcing business. It allows real-time collaboration with our clients, because its concurrently accessible by us and our clients, allowing us to maintain excellent client contact and to review timely and accurate management information with our clients as required. Neal Morrison, Partner, McInerney Saunders

Introduction

McInerney Saunders is a firm of Chartered Accountants based in Swords, County Dublin. The firm was founded in 1980 and offers accountancy and taxation services to businesses and not-for-profit clients. Currently the practice comprises six partners, and is supported by a team of qualified accountants, taxation practitioners, dedicated management support and outsource personnel. The firm is the overseas associate member for Ireland of the UK 200 Group of Chartered Accountants that comprises approx. 140 firms throughout the U.K.

The Challenge

McInerney Saunders required a business solution that would make them stand out from their competitors. They wanted to provide an accountancy service with a difference, that would ensure clients’ ongoing loyalty and ultimately add greater value to their practice.

The solution needed to be online and accessible 24/7, allowing clients and management simultaneous access, without requiring information to be sent via traditional methods e.g. email and post.

“We pride ourselves on providing advice and support to clients on an ongoing basis rather than simply meeting them once a year”.

The Solution

The AccountsIQ Cloud-based accounting software was selected to be rolled out to clients replacing the existing desktop applications. This allowed both practice staff and clients to collaborate on the same data and work together in real time.

We can now give clients on-demand access to their accounts, reports or analysis. Creating new clients is quick and easy, and we can import data from any software making their data transition extremely hassle free.

Key Benefits

AccountsIQ has enabled us to take on more clients without increasing headcount, plus:

• Practice staff are freed up to focus on more value-added activity.
• Our clients have increased visibility of the quality of service they are getting with daily progress on their accounts, not just end of month.
• AccountsIQ has extensive reporting and analysis capabilities allowing us to produce powerful management information (including graphs and KPIs)
• The Pay as you go model meant no upfront capital cost for us or our clients
• The service we can now provide by using AccountsIQ enhances client satisfaction
• AccountsIQ handles multi-jurisdiction, multi-currency transactions with ease
• Visibility of group results and group sales analysis is accessible at the touch of a button
• Easy roll out giving everyone an up-to-date view of our results at anytime.

Fevore Group Simplifies Consolidation with AccountsIQ

Fevore needed to replace the group’s accounting software when the motor dealership part of the business was sold, leaving a smaller group of diverse businesses which range from insurance to leasing.  Having previously relied on accounting software which was specifically designed for the motor trade, Group Director Felicity Field allowed her search for replacement software to be led this time by the consolidation needs of the new group.  Having ruled out Sage X3, she chose Cloud accounting and consolidation software for groups, AccountsIQ.

Felicity explains; “If we had chosen the Sage package, we would have needed to adjust our processes to fit the software.  It would have governed how we approve invoices, for example, whereas AccountsIQ can be adjusted to suit our processes, and it also works with alternative less complex accounting packages which are in place in our smaller subsidiary companies.”

Prior to using AccountsIQ, consolidation was done using spreadsheets.  Felicity describes the manual process as, “time-consuming”.  She adds, “If a mistake occurs somewhere in the consolidation spreadsheets, you need to scrutinise the entire process and often redo your workings.”  With AccountsIQ, consolidation is simplified and draws consistent information from across the group.  She continues, “It saves me a huge amount of reporting time and I am confident the information is accurate.”

Performance Benchmarking

Despite the diversity in the group, AccountsIQ allows the leadership team to benchmark performance across the various businesses and measure performance against a similar set of KPIs.  Felicity adds, “One of our KPIs measures whether or not the business has been able to meet budgets.”  This is tracked at Group level using AccountsIQ.

Automated Invoice Approval

In addition to group consolidation, AccountsIQ is installed in one of Fevore’s entities which processes thousands of purchase and recharge transactions a month.  Felicity remarks,

AccountsIQ automates these transactions and reduces all of the manual inputs. Since implementing AccountsIQ, the day-to-day tasks for the team are much more interesting and less repetitive.  We spend much more time problem-solving and carrying out pre-emptive checks.”

AccountsIQ’s integrated Fixed Assets module allows Felicity’s team to further replace spreadsheet-based tracking processes.

Another benefit Fevore enjoys is AccountsIQ’s ability to integrate with other business applications, streamlining processes.  The group uses iCompleat’s automated invoice approval system which fully integrates with AccountsIQ.  Felicity adds, “You can even see the original document in AccountsIQ which removes the need to flip from one system to another.  We save so much time in re-keying information and retrieving documents.”

Smooth Implementation

Regarding the implementation process, Felicity notes, “The process was extremely smooth and the support was personal and tailored to our needs.  The guidance before we implemented the software was clear, allowing us to prepare accordingly, and the implementation consultants were not prescriptive, they listened to our needs and worked with us in a very supportive way.”

To conclude, she says, “When you implement a new system, there is often a moment when you stand back and say, ‘What have I done?’, but that hasn’t happened with AccountsIQ.

Describing future plans for AccountsIQ in Fevore Group, Felicity says,

I look forward to what AccountsIQ will deliver next; there is always something interesting and useful on the product roadmap.  In the short time that we have been using the software, we have already seen improvements in journal entries as well as the release of additional features such as integrated Fixed Assets.”

Hampshire Cultural Trust Implements AccountsIQ Across Both Trust and Trading Entities

Hampshire Cultural Trust (HCT) was formed when two Councils decentralised Hampshire’s museums and cultural centres.  Previously posting its financial transactions to the Councils’ centralised SAP system, the newly-formed Trust needed to find an affordable solution which could handle its complex accounting needs across 23 locations, consolidate two legal entities and produce sector-compliant and meaningful reports from Head Office.  With the help of advisors BDO, the Trust chose Cloud accounting and consolidation software AccountsIQ to handle accounting across the estate which comprises 23 museums and art centres.

HCT’s Director of Finance and Resources, Charlie Inigo-Jones, joined the Trust in 2016. Charlie says, “In 2015 the Trust needed to set up its own accounting system very quickly.  Under my predecessor, we simply took AccountsIQ out of the box, imported the general ledger and cost centres from the Council’s system, and started to process its own transactions. That was it!  We have since set up monthly accounts reconciliation and reporting processes, and are now beginning to explore the software’s full potential using multi-dimensional coding to meet our reporting needs.”

Working with AccountsIQ’s charity implementation team, Hampshire Cultural Trust’s project consists of two phases: designing and implementing the system infrastructure and reporting across their 23 locations and at Head Office; and completing a number of integration projects with ticketing, EPOS, payroll and other systems which will bring consistency and efficiencies across the group.

Phase I:  Reporting Across the Trust

As well as 23 locations, the Trust has two separate legal entities, and a number of restricted or programme-based funds which need to be separately accounted for and reported.  Each transaction needs to be posted to the correct location, entity, and fund.

AccountsIQ has enormous potential to produce Management Information Reports.  In order for us to create those automated reporting packs and make dashboards meaningful, we have been working with AccountsIQ’s very flexible coding structure to ensure it is optimised for our purposes.  The ability to define user access and create custom reports will allow us to cascade reporting throughout the Trust in a relevant way. Charlie Inigo-Jones 

AccountsIQ is particularly suited to supporting a charity’s need to account for restricted funds.  Charlie says, “AccountsIQ solves the accounting for restricted funds problem by using a third dimension of coding.  The use of project codes make the information easy to grab.  We could actually set up more layers of coding to extract sub-project information if we needed to.”

Phase II:  Integration and Automation

Many locations across the estate sell entry or event tickets and some incorporate retail outlets and cafes.  HCT has installed two systems on a trial basis which will provide automated ticketing and Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS).

Charlie says, “Introducing ticketing and EPOS systems will help us implement codes at the point of sale, so the system captures what it is we have sold, what for, and the other information we require in order to provide meaningful retail management reporting.  Integration with AccountsIQ will fully automate the process of posting sales from both retail sales systems, and help us to transform our financial and stock control processes.  It will be a massive win when data from each venue can be reconciled to the tills, the bank and amounts received from card payments – all on a daily basis and with clearly defined reporting.”

Asavie Adopts AccountsIQ to Support Growth

As the Internet of Things (IoT) booms, the requirement for Irish-based connectivity provider Asavie gained demand. The Internet of Things is the next wave of internet evolution; IoT systems facilitate the remote control of electronic devices across a secure exchange. Asavie provides highly-secure middleware which enables the growing numbers of IoD devices in use to connect with the Cloud. At this time, the opportunity in the telecoms sector alone fuelled a year-on-year growth rate which, at its peak, consistently topped 100%. As the business developed further revenue streams and began working in multiple currencies, its accounting needs became more complex.

Outgrown Sage

Having outgrown an early iteration of Sage, Asavie’s accounts team led the way in finding a new business system which would tick boxes on consolidation; currency handling; Fixed Assets and workflow. Financial Controller Emma Whelan began the search which included more recent versions of Sage and FinancialForce. Describing her reaction to proposals from both vendors Emma said,

Neither product was comparable to AccountsIQ from a performance or price perspective.  We didn’t need the likes of SAP or Oracle but we have some fairly complex accounting needs.  AccountsIQ fits us perfectly.”

A “Successful and Collaborative” Relationship

In 2016, Emma began to work with the support team at AccountsIQ to plan the implementation which addressed needs in the short, medium and longer term. This plan still evolves today and is proactively evaluated by AccountsIQ’s Customer Success team on a two-weekly basis as the software is continuously tuned to meet changing needs. She says,

The best thing about AccountsIQ is the successful and collaborative relationship we have with the support team; we have completed a number of projects with them and they never seem to tire of listening to us and working with us to adapt the software for our own and for every other user’s benefit.  It almost feels like we are all part of the same development team.”

She adds, “Having qualified accountants at the end of AccountsIQ’s support line is priceless; they instantly understand the accounting problems we are trying to solve and this allows us to arrive at a technical solution quickly.”

Improving functionality across the business

Other projects on which Emma has worked closely with the support team have included an integration with Concur’s automated expense management and processing system; and the introduction of AccountsIQ’s Purchase Order Approval which uses workflow technology to enable more efficient processes, engaging budget holders across the business. Future plans include integrating AccountsIQ with the business’s preferred BI reporting app which will create a seamless data exchange between the accounts and the management reporting pack in a format which is already familiar to the business. Summing up, Emma says,

AccountsIQ solves so many problems for businesses like ours; it can be configured to tackle quite complex accounting issues but without the overheads and ongoing costs associated with some of the vendors at the higher end of the market.”

AccountsIQ provides a flexible and easy to use accounting infrastructure that easily adapts to the needs of this rapidly growing business

When EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum, part of the CHQ group, first opened in May 2016, its founder Neville Isdell had a vision to create a “local museum that could connect with people globally”. Since then, the museum’s innovative use of digital displays and interactive galleries has fostered year on year increases in visitors from both Ireland and overseas. In 2019, EPIC was voted Europe’s Leading Tourist Attraction at the World Travel Awards, further cementing the museum’s growth potential.

EPIC required a flexible accounting system that could easily evolve and adapt to the needs of a growing museum and EPIC’s Head of Finance, Aoife Smith, relies on AccountsIQ’s financial management software to provide this foundation for growth.

Efficiency through adaptability and integration

EPIC is part of the CHQ group, who use AccountsIQ for consolidation. EPIC has three legal entities using AccountsIQ: the asset company, the museum, and the retail store. The company’s main sources of revenue are from ticketing and sales in the gift store, where EPIC uses Access Gamma’s visitor management software for ticketing and retail purchases. AccountsIQ integrates with Access Gamma, which effectively shortcuts much of the manual data entry work, that would otherwise be required, by creating automated reports via the integration.

Aoife also makes use of AccountsIQ’s Purchase Order processing module for further efficiencies.  She says,

Prior to AccountsIQ, purchase orders were cumbersome involving emails and handwritten requests. With the PO module we’ve been able to automate all of this, removing overheads, and even tailoring invoices for specific customers. It’s user-friendly and we’re very happy with it.”

Innovation as priority

Innovation has been key to EPIC’s success since its opening. As a 100% digital museum, it must demonstrate technological savviness through both its public displays as well as through its own back-end infrastructure. With AccountsIQ, EPIC can leverage Cloud-based technologies to streamline its processes through automation, anywhere access, and integration with existing systems. All of this combines to increase efficiency so that resources can be spent on facilitating growth. Aoife says,

AccountsIQ has really helped us maximise efficiencies by being so user-friendly and versatile, with some really useful tools. I especially like that we can adapt much of the system ourselves, which is work that previously required the input of an accounts support team to complete. My favourite tool is the GL Explorer, which allows us to review both live and retrospective P&L and balance sheets instantly, as well as drill down to a transactional level. Also, the automated bank reconciliation is very efficient.”

Building for growth

One of the key benefits of AccountsIQ's charity accounting software is the ability to scale easily as EPIC grows. Aoife Smith anticipates that consolidation will soon be on the agenda:

Having had such great results from AccountsIQ’s core features, we are now looking forward to utilising the consolidation module which will help us go further in laying the foundation for our growing museum, and will enable us to provide quarterly consolidated accounts to the Board across the two main entities. We also have three other entities currently using a different accounts package, which we plan to migrate to AccountsIQ before the end of the year.”

Aoife sums up AccountsIQ’s role in laying the foundation for the future:

To grow the museum we need an infrastructure that is flexible and easy to use. We are still growing and will hopefully continue to grow over the next few years. We are confident that AccountsIQ can fulfil our needs as our company grows. It is working really well for us and we don’t anticipate any issues in the future.”

Enclude helps charities bridge the digital divide by implementing AccountsIQ

IT charity consultancy Enclude was formed with the aim of helping other charities adopt technology to improve their data management, communications, CRM and financial management processes. Sylvester Murphy is Enclude’s CEO and also implementer of cloud-based financial management system AccountsIQ, Enclude’s preferred accounting platform for its charity clients.

Describing his reasons for selecting AccountsIQ, Sylvester says, “We undertook research a number of years ago in conjunction with a group of charities including the Irish Charities Tax Reform Group. The purpose of that exercise was to assess the impact of emerging legislation and SORP requirements and try to identify a suitable charity accounting software package for the sector. AccountsIQ, a web-based accounts system, emerged as a great candidate from this research. We approached them and they were delighted to assist in structuring an offering for the sector.”

Meeting a range of needs with one accounting solution

Over 1,000 charities are registered with Dublin-based Enclude all of whom are seeking to improve their digital capabilities and enhance their IT systems and business solutions.

The requirements for financial management systems can vary across charity sectors and over time. In choosing a financial system, Boards and management teams are seeking solutions that are accessible, affordable and scalable. Increasingly, organisations are seeking systems that will also offer the potential for integration with other systems such as a CRM and Payroll systems.

Smaller charities can realise the benefits of improved management and controls by moving from spreadsheets to fully fledged accounting databases. For charities with incomes in excess of €500,000 with higher transaction volumes, automated processes such as bank reconciliations will save a significant amount of time. Charities in the €1-5M bracket might need to map payroll data and other expenses across different programmes and cost centres, requiring more complex coding structures. Larger charities in the €5M or greater bracket will also benefit from workflow automation and the capability to handle multi-entity organisations with groupwide data consolidation and reporting.

Sylvester adds, “We find AccountsIQ unique in that it can meet the needs of both small and very large charities. We have been able to become proficient in implementing one financial software system which, although it is often adapted differently, fundamentally suits the needs of the widest range of charities.

Helping charities achieve compliance

The Charities Act of 2009 represented a significant milestone for the charity sector in Ireland. It reformed the law relating to charities in order to ensure greater accountability and a Regulator was introduced. It triggered an ongoing narrative across the sector around transparency, governance and the need for improved systems to better manage reporting and compliance. One way in which charities could enhance public trust and confidence was through improved reports: financial reporting had to become more sophisticated, requiring charities to review their accounting models so that they could report across a variety of operating categories. Sylvester adds,

One challenge our Irish charities had in complying with the 2009 legislation was in moving away from very ‘flat’ accounting structures and introducing multi-layered reporting on income and expenditure by SORP heading and cost centre such as programmes, projects and branch location. AccountsIQ’s flexible coding structure and GL structure allows charities to classify their programme expenses with little extra effort.

In addition to the sector’s specific reporting requirements, AccountsIQ holds many standard, template reports within the system itself. It is also possible for information to be manipulated in Excel should charities need to create particular reports for specific stakeholders.

In addition to complying with the 2009 Irish Charities Act, many of Enclude’s clients also have entities based in different jurisdictions which need to comply locally as well as centrally. These accounts need to be consolidated in a consistent manner (and currency) for group reporting, all of which is handled within AccountsIQ’s integrated consolidation module. Sylvester adds, “Prior to using AccountsIQ for consolidation, the work done in spreadsheets by our multi-entity charities was hugely complex and time-consuming.”

Charity cloud accounting supporting flexible working structures

Non-profit organisations are often structured and resourced with staff and volunteers which may be part-time and working remotely. Commenting on the suitability of cloud apps in these scenarios, Sylvester says,

Cloud-based business apps like AccountsIQ give charities robust tools coupled with tremendous flexibility in how services are delivered and managed. You can access the software anytime and from any device. Also, the system allows you to define user profiles which means that you have very strict controls over who can access the system and to what degree. Providing remote access to people like external accountants or auditors can also help charities negotiate lower fees.

An implementation model which makes the most of the Cloud

Over the years, Enclude has developed a tried and tested implementation model supported by the customer success team at AccountsIQ. A phased implementation approach usually works well, allowing the charity to make steady progress at a manageable pace and to spread the costs over time.

The initial phase includes defining the data structure and chart of accounts so that data from previous systems or spreadsheets can be imported and correlated. “This ensures that fundamental reporting requirements will be met. With AIQ in place we then tend to look at potential for further enhancements such as integration with the organisation’s CRM solution.”

Where charities have implemented a cloud based CRM solution to manage their client service programmes, donor management and fundraising activities, he says it is possible to achieve further levels of efficiencies and control by integrating data feeds between the CRM system and AccountsIQ. “We have worked with a number of Charites, who have automated the processing of their donations from their web site into their CRM and onwards into their AccountsIQ financial management system.“

Enclude’s clients which use AccountsIQ are supported in the first instance by Enclude. More complex issues requiring level 2 support are escalated to Enclude’s customer success manager at AccountsIQ.

On the quality of support, he receives from the AccountsIQ’s team, Sylvester says,

The services team and support at AccountsIQ is very good and that is particularly important in the charity sector as we seek to transition the digital divide and build trust and competence in cloud solutions. The entire support process is managed within the system itself and there is a range of “How To” guides and online Help tools.”

AccountsIQ’s CEO Tony Connolly says, “It is great to see the Cloud making such a positive impact in the Charity sector. It is a pleasure to work with the team at Enclude which finds ways to make digital transformation achievable for other charities by providing experience, skills and resource.”

AES International uses AccountsIQ to help manage growth

AES International is a UK-registered financial advisory company with a branch in Dubai which pioneered the use of emerging evidence-based technologies to provide better advice to clients. AES has seen rapid growth over the last decade and in 2012, they were the 4th fastest growing financial services firm in the UK.

Having built success on their ground-breaking use of technology, AES was aware that such an approach would also benefit their internal processes. When Wayne Copeland joined AES as Head of Finance in 2017, he knew immediately that there were big efficiencies to be made in the company’s accounting practices. At the time, the company had been using Quickbooks, a starter accounting package that couldn’t handle AES’s rapid growth and multi-national accounting requirements. It was clear that the company had outgrown this system and required an alternative solution that could handle their reporting and consolidation requirements more easily.

AES selected AccountsIQ as it could easily consolidate their multiple entities, multiple bank accounts and myriad of currency transactions, and because it is easy to produce bespoke management reporting packs.

Nothing else like AccountsIQ for consolidation

Wayne Copeland, Head of Finance, AES International

Consolidation was crucial for AES International, which has multiple entities and currencies to manage. Quickbooks only allowed consolidation in sterling, requiring the cumbersome use of spreadsheets and manual effort to consolidate the accounts. AccountsIQ does this automatically. Wayne’s team can easily run a consolidation of six companies and convert the data to any currency they need.

I don’t know of any other system that can do consolidation the way AccountsIQ can. It takes a lot of complexity out of everything and that saves us a lot of time. It used to take two weeks to do our accounts; with AccountsIQ and other improvements, we now get our accounts out in five working days,” says Wayne.

Quantifiable Management Information (MI) for more efficient decision-making

While AccountsIQ’s consolidation features take away the legwork, its bespoke reporting tools make it easier for AES’s management team to interpret and action the results. AES has built on AccountsIQ’s standard reports by using API connectors to create custom reports to suit their specific needs.

With AccountsIQ we get good, accurate data coming out of a well trusted system. We are confident we have chosen the right system for our current and future growth needs.”

A digital approach that saves time and money

The move to AccountsIQ marks a change to a totally digital approach to accounting that ultimately saves AES both time and money.

When I joined AES, I took the opportunity to make accounting cloud-based. Quickbooks was server-based – we once lost a week’s worth of work when the system went down. I knew that the new system had to be cloud-based, backed up, everything stored online.”

With AccountsIQ, AES now has a cloud-based solution that makes data loss a non-issue.

In addition to its consolidation capabilities, AccountsIQ has other features that offer substantial time savings for AES. For example, the Fixed Asset Register’s auto-depreciation feature helps automate processes that would otherwise be done manually. “The fixed asset register is a great addition,” says Wayne.

“For SMEs, it’s a perfect bit of software.”

Cloud-based, with financial consolidation software a key feature, AccountsIQ provides exceptional value for AES, saving valuable time for this growing business. “For SME’s, AccountsIQ is a perfect bit of software,” says Wayne.

AccountsIQ is ideal for our complex accounting requirements. We were delighted to find a solution that is intuitive to use and enables us to report on our group structure easily, all at an affordable price.”

Getech moves from Legacy Accounting Systems onto AccountsIQ creating efficiencies across the entire group

Getech’s Financial Controller, Simon Brown, inherited four legacy accounting systems across the group business as a result of growth. Moving onto Cloud accounting and consolidation platform AccountsIQ brought a time saving of one week per month to the global geoscience and consultancy group in reporting alone, not to mention improvements in other core processes.

Simon explains why AccountsIQ was the right choice for Getech, “We had previously been using four different packages including two versions of Sage as well as the UK and US version of Quickbooks.  Consolidation was a logistical nightmare. Neither provider could meet our core requirements, in the way AccountsIQ could, for multicurrency trading and consolidation across the group”, says Financial Controller Simon Brown. He adds, “AccountsIQ saves me a week’s worth of work every month end.”

Consolidation problems solved, and new reporting options available

Before implementing AccountsIQ, Getech’s month end process involved exporting data from four accounting systems into Excel for manipulation. However, if there was an inconsistency, it was necessary to go back through four sets of data. Explaining the difference the new accounting platform makes, Simon says,

The biggest benefit that we see with AccountsIQ is that the data is dynamic; it is not just a report.  We can drill down into the data, solve the query, and re-run the report accurately.  We simply update or overwrite as necessary.”

On the subject of improved reporting, Simon adds, “We’ve taken the opportunity to redesign and rebuild our reports because of the flexibility within AccountsIQ. We are no longer restricted to what, when and how we report; it is a big step change.”

Currency handling simplified, internal recharging made easy, and batch payments underway

Primarily working in sterling and US dollars, Getech previously managed multicurrency accounting in Excel. With AccountsIQ, the exchange rates are held centrally in the system which ensures all subsidiaries in a group use common exchange rates. AccountsIQ’s currency revaluation feature creates an automatic routine in the system which ensures accuracy in the calculations and reporting. Simon also adds,

The other aspect of our internal process which has greatly improved since we have implemented  AccountsIQ is the inter-company invoicing. AccountsIQ keeps track of what we are invoicing internally.  The invoice is received and it registers automatically in the subsidiary accounts.  We will also be looking to build out batch payments and use the mass email feature soon.”

The batch payments feature in AccountsIQ allows the user to create a file which groups all payments.  The payments relating to this file are automatically made, making the process of individually processing payments with the bank a thing of the past. Automated approvals can also be set up ensuring the approver sees the payment schedule before it is sent to the bank.

“Helpful and always available” implementation team

Simon and his team, working closely with the Customer Success team at AccountsIQ, spent three months designing and building the system. Although this is longer than most users of the system spend in setting it up, it was time and effort well spent. It meant that the coding and workflows were set up with care and attention to the needs of the growing business and reporting was accurate from Day One. Simon comments, “It was an intense three months but it was time well spent as the implementation all went very smoothly and our processes were instantly improved. We were really happy working with the AccountsIQ team – helpful and always available.”

Supporting future growth

“Ours is a fast-growing business model, and the process of moving new entities onto AccountsIQ will be easy”, says Simon. The initial design of the subsidiary system becomes the template for new businesses within the group. The process for expanding AccountsIQ is simple, requiring only additional licences and the roll-out of the core system as it has been modelled for Getech companies.

Meeting expectations

Summing up, Simon Brown, Getech’s Financial Controller says, “AccountsIQ has gone in very well. We are happy with how it looks and how it performs. It’s a great success.” Talking of future plans, he adds,

There is a lot more capability within the system which we have yet to explore including a paperless PO system, more work around automating approvals, and improvements to the way we deal with payments and the bank. AccountsIQ is able to help us continue to develop our processes as well as support our growth strategy.”

Salamanca Group Chooses AccountsIQ over NetSuite for Consolidation and Reporting

Privately-held merchant banking business Salamanca Group comprises approximately 80 businesses. Formerly using Sage Line 50, the group’s Finance Director Lee Camp and his team would spend weeks each month producing consolidated accounts and management reporting packs using a complex process run from spreadsheets.

Today, using AccountsIQ, Lee spends no more than five minutes a month creating reports:

Our decision to move away from Sage Line 50 was driven by inefficiencies which Sage couldn’t address; it took two people in my team one week each to update various schedules in Excel and then I would spend many hours compiling a reporting pack. AccountsIQ allows me to produce a custom reporting pack in just minutes.”

Lee Camp, Finance Director, Salamanca Group

The Selection Process: AccountsIQ vs. NetSuite

Knowing they had outgrown Sage, Lee began the search for a replacement Cloud-based application. With quite complex accounting requirements, Lee initially looked at NetSuite, Oracle’s enterprise Cloud solution.

While NetSuite looked like it could answer some of our needs, we really couldn’t justify the cost and it still couldn’t provide the kind of customisable reporting pack we needed.  Our two main requirements, consolidation and custom reporting, were both weak in NetSuite.”

Advised to look at AccountsIQ by a friend, Lee realised that complex accounting needn’t come at such a high price.  Not only could AccountsIQ make day-to-day processes more efficient through automation, it could also solve their reporting and consolidation issues better than NetSuite.

We were genuinely shocked to see that AccountsIQ solved more of our reporting problems than NetSuite.  It also comes at a fraction of NetSuite’s cost.”

Consolidating Over 80 Sets of Accounts in one Click

Merchant banking group Salamanca manages over 80 sets of accounts.  The group’s consolidation needs are complex and management reports need to be precise and timely.  AccountsIQ developed a custom reporting pack for the finance team which links to live data and therefore provides continuous consolidation.

AccountsIQ produces a consolidated balance sheet as well as departmental P&Ls at the touch of a button.  We have a bespoke management reporting pack that works in real time in the system. As far as we could see, NetSuite couldn’t do that for us.”

Making Complex Reporting Simple

Salamanca’s finance team already knew exactly how the monthly management reports should look and what data needed to be included for analysis.  This meant that Lee Camp and his team were well-prepared to implement a new system in a very short time, with much of the configuration already documented.  All they had to do was find a system which could extract the data that they needed.

Many of the products we looked at had quite sophisticated-looking charts and graphs.  Almost all had customisable dashboards of some kind but AccountsIQ was the only Cloud accounting application we saw that could actually extract the data that we wanted to see and present it in a meaningful way.  It really is reporting made simple.”

Future Plans to Find More Efficiencies

Already enjoying the benefits of automated processes around purchase order approval as well as automated consolidation and reporting, Salamanca intends to explore further opportunities to improve working processes using AccountsIQ.  Future projects include implementing an expense module which will automate the process of managing and reporting expenses as well as integrating payroll.

AccountsIQ’s main success for us has been the efficiency it has brought to the business.  The product is a good fit for our pretty complex accounting requirements and AccountsIQ gives us real value for money.  We are looking forward to finding even more ways to use the system to improve the way in which we work.

I’ve spent 20 years in finance and AccountsIQ is by far the best solution I’ve come across. Hands down beats the major players and has more functionality at a cost effective price. Wish I found this years ago.”

Apera Asset Management Gets “Turbo-Charged” Accounting from AccountsIQ

Solving the accounting needs of a multi-entity, international business, Rob Shaw, CFO of Apera Asset Management chose to move from Xero to AccountsIQ when consolidation became too cumbersome and international jurisdiction requirements became too complex.  Rob explains, “I was looking for a Xero equivalent but more turbo-charged in its ability to do consolidation, meet the requirements of multiple jurisdictions, and handle foreign exchange.  AccountsIQ seems to tick more boxes than other systems designed for businesses like ours.”

Meeting multi-jurisdictional needs

The fast-growing financial services firm has seven legal entities located across Europe including businesses in London, Paris, Munich and Luxembourg.  Although the accounting processes are simple – the firm has a considerably low volume of accounting entries – the accounting processes have a greater level of complexity due to the structure of the business and its international locations.  Transactions accounted for in Munich must comply with German regulations, likewise for France, the UK and Luxembourg. Rob adds,

Xero worked really well for us for two years when we needed simple, single entity accounting, but it made international accounting difficult.  We didn’t have a need for an Oracle-like system but we had to address the multi-jurisdictional needs.”

Making consolidation simple

“Even though we are a small business, consolidating accounts across quite a few businesses was difficult and time-consuming and I could only see the problem getting worse,” says Rob.

Previously, Apera’s group consolidation was done in spreadsheets: data was exported from various systems and in different currencies, then brought together in Excel. Rob explains, “AccountsIQ’s consolidation software means there is no fiddling around in spreadsheets trying to get things to tie.  Working in Excel was not sustainable; before AccountsIQ, we had instances where we were struggling to get these reports right, sometimes until 2 a.m.”

Expense processing is automated with Expensify

AccountsIQ has been integrated with automated expense capture software Expensify which reduces paper, saves time, improves accuracy and ensures the VAT allocations are correct.  Also integrating with American Express, Expensify allows expenses to be digitally reallocated, and it automates VAT calculations.

Rob explains, “Everyone can photograph, upload and record their own expenses which feeds directly into the accounting system, everything is electronic and it is zero paper.  It is much easier for me to review from anywhere and, although I still want to manually review line-by-line, the admin-heavy part of the process is automated, making it easier for everyone.” Rob concludes,

Although it costs a bit more than Xero, it makes sense in the amount of time it saves us and I have a much more powerful system than Xero.  AccountsIQ meets all our expectations so far and there is still much more in the system for us to use.”

Apera also uses AccountsIQ’s Workflow Approval which automates and speeds up the approval process, also removing the need for paper filing as all documents are stored electronically in the system.  The firm also plans to explore the dashboard reporting and customisable reports further as the system continues to evolve and add further value to the team.

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High-Performance Software at an Affordable Price for Hibernia REIT

When Irish Real Estate Investment Trust, Hibernia REIT plc (listed on both the London and Euronext Dublin stock exchanges) was established in late 2013, the commercial office specialist chose AccountsIQ to handle complex property accounting and financial management across all its subsidiaries.  Financial Controller Nick Treanor relies on the Cloud accounting platform for simplifying complex consolidation procedures; integrating information from Hibernia’s property management system Landmark; and providing insightful management reports using dashboards.

Nick says, “AccountsIQ allows us to allocate transactions to each of the properties within our portfolio (which at 31 March 2018 totalled 32).  We can look at the P&L for any property due to the way the accounting codes framework was designed for us during implementation.  Combined with the software’s capability of simplifying our consolidation process, the system is surprisingly sophisticated for a SaaS product.  Taking into account all of this functionality, AccountsIQ is extremely competitive from a pricing perspective.”

Reporting and Compliance

As a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), Hibernia is required to produce a range of external reports for its investors and AccountsIQ assists greatly in meeting these reporting requirements.  The business is benchmarked against the IPD Ireland real estate index against which the portfolio’s annual returns are benchmarked, and the use of “Extended Business Analysis” reporting is of great assistance when reporting on a quarterly basis.  Hibernia REIT is also regulated by Central Bank which requires specific monthly reports, which AccountsIQ also provides assistance with.

Enhanced Financial Control

Supporting best practice in financial control, AccountsIQ produces extended business analysis reports which are unique to Hibernia’s management’s needs.  Internal reports are generated and visualised in custom-designed dashboards which provide actionable information relating to the performance of particular aspects of the portfolio. One dashboard shows Capital Expenditure, allowing Hibernia to get a sense of how much is spent against each project and how much is remaining.  A second dashboard presents the credit control position and summarises the payment activity of tenants – key metrics for financial management.  AccountsIQ’s dashboard replaces the former debtors report but provides much more in terms of insight and payment trends.

Nick explains, “AccountsIQ’s customer success team has helped us define dashboard reports which provide financial analysis in a very consumable way, allowing us to quickly identify areas in which we need to take action.”

A Scalable Solution for Consolidation

As a plc, Hibernia REIT breaks out its P&L and Total Assets by business segment as required by IFRS.  AccountsIQ allows the finance team to allocate properties to ‘segments’ within the coding framework.  For Hibernia REIT, these segments include office assets; residential assets; and industrial assets.  A property code is created and allocated to a segment in order that P&Ls, for example, can be produced by segment.

Nick adds, “The structure of the coding framework in AccountsIQ is extremely flexible and saves us so much time when preparing our external financial reports. We have added seven or eight entities since implementing AccountsIQ and we simply replicate the original model for each new subsidiary.  It is a very uncomplicated approach and a time-saving solution for group companies.”

Synching with Other Systems for Further Efficiency

AccountsIQ is integrated with two other business systems in use at Hibernia REIT – electronic document management system Kefron and a property management database called Landmark.

Nick explains, “From an efficiency and a control perspective, these integrations save us so much time and reduce the risk of human error.  AccountsIQ’s ability to integrate with other Cloud or non-Cloud business systems has been very useful to us.”  AccountsIQ also synchs batch payments with Hibernia REIT’s online banking, further reducing duplication of work.

Summing up, Hibernia REIT’s Financial Controller Nick Treanor concludes,

Overall, the processing time which AccountsIQ saves us in data entry from other business systems, reconciliation, and automated invoice processing constitutes about a day a week.  This allows us to spend more time on the more “value-add” aspects of the Finance function, analysing and presenting information on which the senior management team can make more informed decisions.”

PwC Chooses AccountsIQ for Outsourced Accounting

My Financepartner, PwC’s outsourced accounting service, makes all the benefits of working with a world-class practice accessible for small and medium-sized, growing enterprises (SMEs).

PwC’s clear objective is to help those businesses reach the next growth level.  Heading up My Financepartner is Tony Price whose job it is to ensure systems and processes are in place to serve the needs of fast-emerging businesses.  He has been working with Cloud accounting software providers AccountsIQ to deliver flexible and advanced accounting at an affordable price. Tony explains:

"Our challenge is to provide a consistent service to small but growing businesses dispersed across the UK and around the world.  In the Cloud accounting software market for professional services, the systems are either too low in functionality or too complex and costly to maintain. AccountsIQ’s solution is unique in that it gives businesses what they need to support growth and it gives us what we need to serve those businesses in a very secure and robust manner."

Watch the PwC My Financepartner Case Study

AccountsIQ’s Cloud Platform Brings New Clients On Board in a Matter of Hours

My Financepartner is a growing area of PwC and a key requirement is a fast and comprehensive on-boarding process for new clients.  Using the Cloud we can now generate client reporting, anywhere in the world, in a matter of hours rather than the weeks it might take using older platforms.

Darren Cran (AccountsIQ UK MD) who works closely with the MyFinancePartner Team, adds,

With older technology, you’d have to bring implementation experts out on site to install the software or, in PwC’s case, to set up a new client account.  AccountsIQ allows new accounts to be added centrally, updates are automatically available for everyone with no disruption and PwC staff can work collaboratively online with their clients.  While there is a good choice on the market of starter systems in the Cloud, there aren’t many scalable true cloud solutions that can offer the SME market near enterprise level functionality at an affordable price.”

Scalability Key for Fast-Emerging Businesses

A typical My Financepartner client is a new emerging enterprise in a high rate of growth – an ambitious SME needing sound advice to help them safely reach the next level.  Tony Price and his team depend on high quality, accurate system information in order to facilitate that rate of growth.

Strong Reporting

The reporting needs of My Financepartner clients will often vary by sector and change as the business grows, often through acquisition or expansion within a group, creating a need for consolidated reports. Adding new revenue streams or new products requires different analytics and an advanced level of reporting around KPIs.

A successful system choice needs to be configured with the client’s future business in mind as well as present needs. Tony Price explains,

I would see AccountsIQ being suitable for start-ups right up to the larger end of the middle market.  There aren’t many accounting applications out there that can do that.”

Meeting a Diverse Range of Client Needs including Integration

Although My Financepartner supports the SME market segment, PwC’s client base is diverse and many industries have specific needs common only to their sector.  This can present problems when trying to implement a system which ideally meets the needs of the majority.

Addressing the problem, Tony Price comments,

AccountsIQ has integrated with a number of our clients’ other systems which allows us to create fantastic reporting information. Some of the functionality in AccountsIQ itself is really quite sophisticated such as the use of Purchase Order Processing and Sales Order Processing.”

StitcherAds use AccountsIQ to support ambitious growth plans

StitcherAds is a Facebook and Instagram marketing partner, building technology to help advertisers scale their marketing campaigns and use data-fuelled automation to drive sales online and in-store. With offices in the U.S., Ireland and the UK, StitcherAds maintains three separate legal entities in each of these locations.

When Fiona McKenna joined the business in July 2019 to lead the finance team, she quickly realised that their Quickbooks accounting system had major shortfalls in terms of accurate reporting, with significant challenges around foreign currencies and consolidation.

Fiona explains “The key requirements were: a simple system navigable by non-accountants, capable of rapid deployment, and Cloud-based with multi-user capabilities, consolidation, and ability to scale as the business grows.”

StitcherAds has ambitious growth plans and we need to be able to slot in new entities. I compared three systems and AccountsIQ proved the best solution to meet our needs now and in the future.”

Quick to implement with responsive reports

Fiona managed the implementation of AccountsIQ within the StitcherAds finance team, with support from AccountsIQ who advised how to setup the accounting system from scratch. The whole process took about four weeks. “I found the AccountsIQ team incredibly flexible in terms of helping us with the implementation. We got great value from the service,” said Fiona.

Excellent consolidation functionality

Consolidation was critical for StitcherAds which previously used spreadsheets to manage the accounts across three legal entities. This was cumbersome to maintain and invariably led to inaccuracies in reporting. AccountsIQ made consolidation simple.

The consolidation functionality in AccountsIQ is excellent,” says Fiona. “It’s a very good solution for our stage of development and our budget.”

Find out how AccountsIQ can help you with your accounting, consolidation and reporting needs, call us on +44 (0)203 598 7350 or Contact us.

Quick to learn with better business insights

AccountsIQ has an easy-to use interface, navigation and smart query tools that are intuitive to use, even for non-accountants.

You don’t need to be an accountant to use AccountsIQ. It’s quite intuitive, the reports are very good and very reliable,” says Fiona. “It’s nice and simple to use; I don’t have to do lots of tidy ups. This is quite unusual for a platform of this kind. No manual intervention is required.”

Fiona and her team also benefit from better insights and improved visibility into the organisation assisted by AccountsIQ’s Cloud-based business analysis features and pre-configured reports. “I can log in remotely and only have to look in two places to know exactly where we’re at. In terms of business information, it’s been an absolute godsend,” says Fiona.

Time-saving benefits

The move to AccountsIQ radically streamlined and simplified the accounting process across all of StitcherAds’ entities. This not only enabled more accurate reporting, but also saved a significant amount of time.

We have a much faster month-end close, shaving 15 days off typically. We’re now closing on day 10, when we used to close the books around the 25th. Previously this was unheard of in the business. Now that we have a simpler system to use, we now have more time to dedicate to more strategic work.”

A high standard of product for fast-growing startups and medium-sized businesses

StitcherAds demonstrates AccountsIQ’s suitability for smaller businesses with big growth plans. In particular, AccountsIQ is an affordable accounting solution that can grow with the business.

AccountsIQ is a high standard of product at the right budget for a medium-sized company. As a smaller business it’s tempting to go with a simpler solution such as QuickBooks or Xero, but these platforms don’t scale as well as AccountsIQ. With excellent tools for consolidation and custom reporting, AccountsIQ offers a more robust accounting solution that can quickly adapt to the changing needs of a fast growing business like ours, while still remaining very affordable.”

AccountsIQ provides a feature-rich Cloud accounting solution for Australian SaaS business, Educrowd

Based in Victoria, Australia, Educrowd launched in 2015 as an online learning and skills management platform for multinational companies. Educrowd is a rapidly scaling SaaS business and as their clients are based in 50 countries around the world, strong multicurrency capability was a key requirement for the business. The finance team will soon need consolidated reports as they look to acquire another business. For Educrowd’s small finance team, the accounting system also needs to be easy to use, saving time on everyday processes. Morag McKeand, Educrowd’s Financial Controller, tried several other accounting platforms including Sage and Xero before deciding that AccountsIQ was the best option for Educrowd’s needs.

The time-saving details that make life easier for small teams

For a small finance team with clients in many international markets, AccountsIQ not only provides detailed analysis in multiple currencies, it is also rich with features that make life easier when it comes to daily tasks. Compared to other accounting platforms for small businesses, Morag prefers AccountsIQ for its usability:

AccountsIQ is full of really user-friendly details. Being able to have more than one screen open at the time gives you really good visibility and makes referencing or comparing things much easier. The Transaction Browser will find anything; you might need to find a customer code, for example, and you don’t have to move away from the screen you are working on to find it. When I’ve tried to do this with Sage, it was just really clunky. AccountsIQ is much more intuitive. I just go to the main dashboard and everything is there.”

Educrowd’s client base includes self-serve clients who are billed monthly. The Educrowd team also works with other suppliers who bill on a monthly basis. AccountsIQ allows Educrowd to automate recurring billing on both the customer and the supplier side. “This is very handy,” says Morag, “And multicurrency, a key factor for us, is straightforward with AccountsIQ.”

“The Email Log is a feature I like a lot” she continues. “It’s very handy when a customer is unsure of whether or not they have been sent an invoice or reminders. You can find it really quickly in AccountsIQ’s log and resend it. It helps provide a better customer service as well as keeping payments and cash flow on track.”

Australia-based support and implementation

AccountsIQ collaborates with Sydney-based Saoi Business Consulting to provide a local implementation and support service for businesses ‘down under’ looking to move up a step from Xero or Sage. Darren Donohoe, an original Co-Founder of AccountsIQ and now Head of Operations at Saoi Business Consulting worked directly with Morag to set up AccountsIQ for Educrowd. His team continues to be her first point of contact for support.

Darren says, “AccountsIQ is the only financial management software available in Australia or New Zealand which offers accounting, consolidation and business intelligence, all on one platform and at an affordable price. It fills a real gap for evolving businesses like Educrowd which needs scalability without a large upfront investment.”

Morag sums up her overall experience with AccountsIQ:

I have used numerous accounting packages over the years such as Xero, MYOB, Sage, Reckon, and I’ve found AccountsIQ to be the most intuitive relative to the vast amount of functionality available. Its in-depth reporting functionality is a standout for me and when management often requires variations to the standard monthly P&L, the ability to tailor the reporting parameters saves me valuable time and a lot of frustration.”

Tindle Newspaper Group Gets Multi-dimensional, Streamlined and Consolidated Reporting by Switching to AccountsIQ

Alastair Manson, Group Finance Director, Tindle

When Group Finance Director Alastair Manson joined Tindle, his immediate mission was to streamline the group, centralise processes and move the finance function away from Sage Line 50 and onto the Cloud. He quickly set about merging some 36 trading entities to become 7, and moved from locally-hosted database infrastructure, choosing AccountsIQ’s Cloud-based accounting and consolidation platform over Sage’s Cloud offering.

It was clear the Sage Line 50 platform wasn’t right for us and Sage’s Cloud option didn’t give us the necessary step up, neither did it have the level of controls that we needed around processes. AccountsIQ gives us a more sophisticated platform and automated consolidation. The process for accessing business information has changed beyond all recognition with AccountsIQ.”

Integration and automation makes for greater savings on resources

Having appointed accounting advisor and AccountsIQ implementation partner flinder, the project quickly began to take shape. flinder worked with Alastair through a number of workshops to determine the best reporting structure and to rationalise the group structure. The project also included automating processes, refining reporting, and integrating the new system with other business-critical software.

Like most local newspapers, Tindle relies heavily on the support of its advertisers to continue to bring local news (on and offline, and by radio) to communities in some of the more remote parts of the UK. The ad booking system the group uses is a bespoke piece of software which is not in the Cloud. The flinder team worked closely with AccountsIQ to ensure that a two-way data exchange could be achieved with the in-house developed system.

Additionally, iCompleat is used by the business to scan and digitise invoice processing. Alastair explains, “Because AccountsIQ integrates with iCompleat, we can drill-down to a copy of the invoice attached to each transaction, which is fantastic. Previously, we had to go into another system to look up an invoice, so it saves a huge amount of time and removes a tedious aspect of the job.”

Getting deeper business insight by moving to cloud accounting solution AccountsIQ

Prior to the system change, Tindle’s management accounting team would obtain Sage data from over 30 local databases and try to consolidate the reports. The disparity across the various book-keeping methods created inefficiencies which had to be remedied with standardisation.

Bookkeeping was done in different ways, at different times and to varying degrees of complexity across the businesses. Sage databases would be submitted from the local publishing centres and we would then have to do the reconciliation, prepayments and accruals, then send back the adjustments. All of this was risky in terms of version control. The reporting was inevitably inaccurate and late. Now, AccountsIQ allows us to report monthly management accounts within two weeks.”

The level of user controls in Sage was another issue which created inconsistencies in the information. When using Sage, Alastair was unable to close the accounting period each month. Additionally, due to low level user controls, local users could overwrite information and cancel historic transactions, throwing the data out of line. With AccountsIQ it is easy to establish and enforce controls with full user profiling and audit trail by user.

Alastair adds, “Now that we have a baseline process for reporting, getting further commercial insights will be really useful.” Next steps for reporting include being able to drill down to obtain separate P&Ls for each region, and even further to look at each publishing centre within each region.

Reporting against weekly budgets with the 4-4-5 method

Tindle’s publications are weekly, so reporting by week is more meaningful against weekly budgets. The business applies the 4–4–5 calendar accounting method which flinder was able to configure within AccountsIQ. (The method divides a year into four quarters of 13 weeks, grouped into two 4-week ‘months’ and one 5-week month.) Alastair says, “The 4-4-5 accounting method wasn’t achievable with Sage because it runs on calendar months. We always reported in 4-4-5 but that meant we had to shift invoices around in the background which left the process exposed to human error. The implementation team at flinder helped us scope this process when we were designing the system and it performs very well.”

Greater consistency, more control, and increased profitability

The new platform was implemented and operational prior to COVID-19 lockdown in the UK meaning that the system could facilitate remote-working and the business could continue to operate.

We were lucky to have completed our move to AccountsIQ before COVID-19 and it has meant we can continue operating with minimal disruption. With AccountsIQ and with the expert support from flinder, our controls are better, the information is far richer, the system is more robust and reporting is timely. It gives us better information on which to make decisions. By reconfiguring our operation and moving platform, we will likely save between three and four hundred thousand pounds per year.”

ION financial transformation specialist and AccountsIQ help Ramarketing improve reporting and reduce month end close by 40%

Ramarketing are an award-winning pharmaceutical PR and digital agency dedicated to helping ambitious and fast-growing companies in the outsourcing space grow and meet their commercial ambitions. Their previous finance system was Sage Financials, which Ramarketing needed to move from due to Sage ending the life-cycle of the product.

With the increasing demands of the growing business a scalable solution, with customisable reporting into ongoing project profitability was required.  Group consolidation and analysis was key to the business, whilst maintaining adherence to statutory legislation.

Other solutions they had previously used in the business could not accurately forecast and report on projects across the new markets that they were entering.  Access from a single server was obstructive and would slow processes down across the business.  With this in mind, going back to their previous solution was not an option

With this new stage of growth, Ramarketing required a solution that could both adapt to these changes and be legislatively compliant.  Increasing the reporting abilities would be key to maintaining margins across entities.

AccountsIQ selected as the scalable solution for Ramarketing

AccountsIQ met the business requirements on several levels, with accounting, consolidation and business intelligence – all in one unique, powerful Financial Management Software solution.  A completely cloud-based solution, AccountsIQ was able to resolve the current issues and ready the business for future success.

ION, a financial transformation specialist, was selected to support Ramarketing on a continuous basis. The support ION offer enables a point of contact for the finance team should any issues arise – whether they are knowledge or training issues, or problems in simple transacting to complex reporting.

Ramarketing were looking for an SME solution that provided a variety of insights into our project profitability, whilst managing group consolidation and multi-currency. ION helped us select, implement and support the introduction of AccountsIQ to achieve this, without compromising the statutory requirements of an accounting system.” Barry Goddard, Finance Director, Ramarketing

‍Through the deployment of AccountsIQ's media accounting software, Ramarketing are able to consolidate their final data into one complete solution using financial consolidation software.  A solution that is easy to use – yet effective in its reporting capabilities.

With AccountsIQ in place financial reporting across entities is both detailed and easy to navigate.   And, with a parent chart of accounts, adding new reports and reportable dimensions enabled the business to scale without having to overhaul their accounting structure.

As AccountsIQ is fully cloud based Ramarketing are able to access business intelligence and transact anytime, anywhere – giving the leadership team the up-to-the-minute data and metrics required to unleash business success.

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AccountsIQ helps global charity, Lepra gain rapid multi-dimensional reporting and reduce processing time by 80% by moving to the Cloud.

Lepra are a charity leading the global fight for the eradication of Leprosy. Each day over 600 people worldwide are either diagnosed with Leprosy or are starting treatment for Leprosy. More than 8% of these are children.

Based in the UK but supporting operations on a global level, like many charities, Lepra have complex revenue generation. Their revenue comes from various sources and must be consolidated into one system for accounting and compliance purposes. Recognising the need for a cloud solution which can automate their manual processes and consolidate their revenue, the Lepra team engaged ION, a financial transformation specialist, to help find the right solution for them. The support ION offer enables a point of contact for the finance team should any issues arise – whether they are knowledge or training issues, or problems in simple transacting to complex reporting.

Requirements and Challenges

Lepra’s current accounting system was not giving them the reporting breakdown that they needed, meaning it was taking too long to pull together information which advised critical business decisions. In addition, the need to manage all their revenue in one place and have access to real-time data would not only save time but also give everyone in the team more access to information.

Like many businesses, Lepra’s current system was not well connected to their CRM system, Advantage, and this meant a lot of manual processing was needed to align the two systems. As with a lot of manual processes, this was time consuming, allowed for human error and often meant the process wasn’t followed exactly as required. Through the discovery phase, their implementation partner, ION, identified a lot of functionality and improvements that Lepra wanted to implement in the future, therefore the need to have a system which could be flexible and grow with the charity was important.

The final major requirement for the team was that the implementation could be quick and seamless. With a lot of disruption to the business already and with many team members working from home, they needed a solution which could be quick and easy to get everyone on board with.

Quick-to-Implement Solution

Taking all these things into consideration, AccountsIQ was identified as a good solution for Lepra. A flexible and user-friendly cloud accounting solution, AccountsIQ could address all of their requirements and open up many other benefits.

Nick Avery, Director of Resources, Lepra

“AccountsIQ was the only solution we found that combined the ease of use of cloud based accounting systems and the multi-dimensional analysis that is needed for charity accounting at a cost that we liked!” Nick Avery, Director of Resources, Lepra.

A concern for the team was the time it takes to switch over to a new system and how this would disrupt their processes. However with ION’s quick start implementation framework and our user-friendly interface, the transition was managed with ease. The implementation was completed in a matter of weeks, and the transfer of data to AccountsIQ was seamless.

Outcomes

Like many clients, within weeks, Lepra were finding many benefits to operating within a new system. The ease of use of AccountsIQ has made the adoption across the Lepra team much easier, meaning they can see the benefits of the system straight away. Several key areas have been improved:

• Process efficiency: manual processes have been drastically reduced, with some processes now 80% quicker than before.
• CRM data connectivity: the import of data from Lepra’s CRM system, Advantage has been simplified. Removing the need for additional Excel sheets and manual intervention to import and export data sets several times is helping to save the team a lot of time and undoubtedly removing opportunities for error.
• Remote access and usability: the usability of the AccountsIQ system has been praised by the Lepra team and means that the business has more active users getting the most of the system. With many teams still working remotely, having user-friendly cloud systems has minimised training requirements and empowered decision-making across the team.
• Expenses management: switching from paper methods to a digital system, expenses are submitted to the relevant manager directly, with the employee given full traceability to monitor the status of their expense claim.
• Scalability: the integration paves the way for scalability of the system in the future. Built on a solid cloud accounting system, the team can plan for additional modules and reporting functionality when the business requirements dictate.
• Maintenance: often with new software integrations, IT teams are typically concerned about the impact that a project implementation will have on their workload, but with the right system, maintenance for internal teams should be reduced. For Lepra, they have found that the system is much easier to maintain than their previous software.

Innovative approach to multi-dimensional reporting killer AccountsIQ feature for Arts charity, Artichoke Trust

Artichoke Trust is a charitable organisation which works with artists to create large-scale public art events across the UK. Artichoke’s ambitious outdoor art projects include the Lumiere light festivals and Antony Gormley’s One & Other Fourth Plinth commission. As a charity managing multiple projects at once, each with varying budgets and funding sources, Artichoke Trust has unique accounting requirements when it comes to project accounting which need to be SORP compliant. In particular, it requires a granular level of detail to ensure accurate recording of core project costs as well as the ability to record project costs against phases.

Neil Goulder, Director of Finance & Operations at Artichoke Trust, had been using Sage Financials as his accounting tool but admits it had a “number of serious shortcomings”. When he learned of Sage’s plan to withdraw the product, it was an opportunity to look around for alternatives which might better fit his particular requirements in Project Accounting and provide the structure he needs for SORP compliance. Neil says,

I started to look for a good Cloud-based replacement that is strong on dimensional reporting and analysis codes. Among a dozen candidates was AccountsIQ. I took a peek at a demo system and really liked it. Great, scalable product, with an innovative approach to multi-dimensional coding.

‘Conditional’ dimensions for accurate posting

Strong dimensional analysis is key for Neil. AccountsIQ allows for up to six customisable dimensions linked to a unique BI code, plus an infinite number of codes that can be assigned to each dimension. Reporting is possible across all dimensions and codes. AccountsIQ’s key strength is that only valid permutations of Analysis Codes can be used when data is input, which significantly reduces the risk of human error when it comes to tracking costs. Neil explains,

Dimensions are really important to us. We looked at Sage 50, but that only had two dimensions. We needed at least four, covering cost centres; projects; project phases; and individual light installations. There are some very expensive systems which can do it but there aren’t many affordable systems which offer this level of flexibility. That was an absolute ‘must’ from our point of view. AccountsIQ is the only product I’ve seen that allows you to create these ‘conditional’ dimensions.

Greater efficiency through automation and streamlined workflow

AccountsIQ features an automated bank reconciliation functionality that has helped Neil speed up the period end reconciliation process.

I really like the way the Bank Rec module works. The system with Sage Financials was so overcomplicated we never used it and worked in spreadsheets instead. AccountsIQ is very straightforward. I like the way it recognises past transactions and fills in as much of the information as it can, which really speeds up the process.

Neil is able to upload paperwork against transactions which makes it much easier to provide information to auditors and also facilitate a mostly paperless environment. Ultimately, AccountsIQ enables Neil to keep all of his data in one place, largely automated, without the need for other spreadsheets or manual processes.

With smart use of the dimensions coding structure, I can get every piece of information needed into AccountsIQ so that I don’t have to maintain control accounts manually in Excel. It saves us a huge amount of time.

Ease of access to data for SORP reporting

AccountsIQ’s Excel Add-in offers further efficiencies for Neil, allowing him to use a real-time data link from AccountsIQ to create tables in Excel which are fed into the SORP compliant statutory accounts prepared in Word. This means updates are refreshed instantly as changes are made to Statutory accounts.

AccountsIQ is brilliant at accommodating the structure needed for the SORP. We pull the information into our format live from AccountsIQ through Excel. It’s an incredibly quick and efficient process.

Lightning-fast implementation

Having initially set an ambitious release target of two weeks, Neil was able to implement AccountsIQ at Artichoke Trust in a record-breaking two days. This was in large part due to Neil’s own tenacity in getting to grips with the BI codes and how they could best be mapped to his needs. AccountsIQ’s development team gave Neil access to a test system so he could model the BI codes before going live. He had also exported and cleaned the static data from his old accounting system such as customer information, bank account details, and the nominal ledger structure. This level of preparation allowed Neil to go live with AccountsIQ so quickly. He says,

I hoped we might break all records and implement it in a fortnight as our new accounting year started on the First of April. I signed a contract Wednesday morning and we went live at 4:30 the next day.

Summing up his experience

The elements that have really made a difference are AccountsIQ’s innovative implementation of analysis codes, the attaching of invoices, and the bank reconciliation module. These are things I didn’t have before, and they work beautifully. These features have made the biggest difference to the way I work, giving me the information I need. Of all of these, BI codes are the absolute killer feature that puts AccountsIQ head and shoulders above the competition.

AccountsIQ and Enclude enable the Archdiocese of Dublin to go fully digital

The Archdiocese of Dublin is the largest Diocese in Ireland, with 197 parishes and funds under management that require reporting under new charity SORP regulations. The Archdiocese required an accounting solution that would meet their complex reporting needs whilst also providing a user-friendly system that parishes could easily adopt. This allowed a step-change away from paper, spreadsheet and bookkeeping systems. It was an ambitious project primarily due to the number of parishes and users and offering a good user experience was crucial in getting all the parishes digital and consistent in their processes.

The key requirements identified from the strategic review were:

• A highly secure cloud system with inclusive disaster recovery, upgrades and support in one service [SaaS]
• A finance system that is clear for Diocesan and Parish users to set up and easily adopt across the Diocese
• Consolidation of all 197 Parishes into a single reporting charity number was key which also facilitates a simplified internal and external auditing process
• Integration with a custom pastoral management system using API integration
• Extensive budgeting and reporting by department, fund, parish and project through a Business Intelligence layer [BI Layer]
• Systems integration capability to facilitate invoice capture, expense management, banking and approval workflow.

Following the strategic review and tendering process, the Archdiocese appointed AccountsIQ, partnered with Enclude, a non-profit technology consultancy firm, to implement a digital system to integrate pastoral management with accounting and provide consistent, consolidated reporting. 

Collaborative and personalised implementation

One of the challenges was the scale of the project. This meant the team getting to know all the people involved and creating a community-based approach to the project given the number of stakeholders involved. Ide Finnegan, Head of Finance and project director for the Archdiocese of Dublin explains:

Implementing AccountsIQ across all our parishes was a very significant project for the Archdiocese. There were challenges along the way, but we received great support from AccountsIQ throughout the process. It particularly helped that the implementation manager was also an accountant who understood what we were trying to do. This made the process much smoother.”

An integrated Salesforce solution

A seamless interface with the Archdiocese’s pastoral management system built in Salesforce was provided along with a custom cash collection form, built and deployed to allow parishes to easily lodge collections automatically into AccountsIQ with built in coding in accordance with SORP.  This allows a central view to manage funds for the assets of the various registered charities and the trustees to whom they report.  Essentially a simple capture method for the user, allowing complex reporting to be made more efficient.

Simplified consolidation across numerous entities

The Archdiocese required a consolidated financial reporting software across its 197 parishes and trusts. With numerous entities and a high volume of transactions, the consolidation requirements were complex. AccountsIQ’s simple to use, but sophisticated consolidation engine, enabled the Archdiocese to simplify the process by automating much of the consolidation and reducing manual inputs. It also simplified reporting for auditors through consolidated debtor and creditor reports. The Archdiocese is now looking to implement AccountsIQ’s automated accounts payable using OCR technology, the expense capture app and fixed asset register modules to further consolidate their processes.

Meeting the needs of multiple users

The Archdiocese of Dublin has 197 parishes and trusts each with its own Parish Finance Committee and unique user requirements. AccountsIQ understood the requirement for a flexible system that could meet the needs of a wide and varied range of users. AccountsIQ’s user-friendly features facilitated user adoption amongst parishes, particularly amongst users with less experience of Cloud accounting software. In this way, AccountsIQ offers a clear user experience at the front end, while enabling complex accounting solutions on the back end.

We realised early on that we had to offer an accounting solution to parishes that was more than a compliance exercise. With AccountsIQ we could offer them something more, an easy to use template for accounting that cut back on paperwork and saved time on manual processes. This efficiency has positively impacted uptake within parishes,” explains Ide.

A Cloud-led paperless approach to accounting

Cloud technology was a major factor for the Archdiocese in choosing AccountsIQ and Enclude. Previously they had used an on-site system (installed on PCs) which was impractical to roll out to each parish. The finance team recognised that the Cloud would dramatically simplify implementation and provide ongoing benefits for reporting and auditing.

AccountsIQ and Salesforce integrate seamlessly in the Cloud and use secure API technology to transfer data between both systems. This naturally provides an audit trail for donations and the ability to automate direct debit calls, auto-reconcile banks and prepare tax refunds for donations above €250 per annum from generous donors. The bespoke consolidated reports are all accessible through pinned electronic documents, thus cutting back on tedious paperwork.  This automated and paperless process also makes life much more efficient for the charity’s auditors.

The Future

AccountsIQ’s ongoing development and commitment to R&D means that the system is constantly evolving making it an accounting solution for the future. The Archdiocese anticipates that it will explore more opportunities to benefit from AccountIQ’s evolving suite of tools, particularly the expense module, accounts payable capture and approval, fixed asset register and open banking.

Ide explains:

One of the good aspects of AccountsIQ is that it’s constantly improving. The system we started with on day one has evolved significantly. AccountsIQ has delivered the best possible solution to the Diocese and Parishes and continues to release new features and functionality that make our systems efficient and compliant.”

Multi-company capability and time-saving features make AccountsIQ the obvious choice for PRP Architects.

Neil Griffiths, Finance Partner, PRP Architects

PRP is a leading architectural firm with an impressive track record and decades of experience in the design and delivery of homes and other buildings. Its success has resulted in significant growth, with 280 employees and four different entities under the parent company.

This multi-company structure is what first prompted Neil Griffiths, PRP’s Finance Partner, to reconsider their existing accounting software, Access Dimensions. PRP had been using Access on a local server for over 20 years and was somewhat clunky, especially when it came to multi-company accounting.

In late 2019, Neil started to explore other accounting systems and quickly realised how far accounting software had come. It only took a short demonstration of AccountsIQ for Neil to know that it was the clear choice for PRP.

The obvious choice compared to other accounting systems

For PRP it was critical that its accounting software be intuitive to use and scalable as the business grows. Neil looked at an upgraded version of Access Dimensions as well as Sage and Xero before deciding on AccountsIQ. Sage and Access lacked the clarity that Neil was looking for and Xero lacked scalability. In comparison, AccountsIQ had the intuitiveness, the scalability, and the support that made the decision an easy one. Neil Griffiths explains:

When I started looking at AccountsIQ I immediately felt this would do everything we needed. The AccountsIQ team were very straightforward to deal with unlike some of their competitors, whose sales process felt very much like we were being sold to. AccountsIQ came across like they could be part of the team, and that their focus was not the sale, but providing a service that would be good for PRP. Furthermore, the software itself was very clear and intuitive to use without masses of training.”

Smooth implementation with hands-on support

Implementation began in mid-February 2020. Patrycja Breisa, Management Accountant at PRP, worked alongside AccountsIQ’s support team to set up the system and transfer the data from Access. The support received from AccountsIQ ensured a smooth process and enabled PRP to meet its goal of going live by 1st April 2020.

Just having one person at AccountsIQ dedicated to the onboarding process was absolutely amazing. She helped with all my questions, spent hours with me discussing and resolving issues. She’s still there to answer any questions today.” – Patrycja Breisa

Easy to use for multiple companies

The key benefit for Neil is how AccountsIQ manages multiple companies.

My favourite thing about the system is how easy it is to manage multiple companies and switch between them. I’m always moving from one company to another and it’s just so easy with AccountsIQ. I can very easily drill down into the detail and get from the big picture to the small picture very quickly which is very useful for me.” – Neil Griffiths

Time-saving benefits

In addition to multi-company accounting, Neil and Patrycja have benefited from other efficiencies from AccountsIQ’s features and integrations. Tasks that were once labour-intensive with Access have now become straightforward and in many cases automated.

I’m really happy with the Fixed Asset Register – we didn’t have this option with Access. With one click you can account for depreciation for the month. VAT management is connected with HMRC for Making Tax Digital, so I don’t need bridging software like I had with Access.

“Purchase invoice processing is a huge timesaver – by using AccountsIQ’s iCompleat integration we don’t have to do any manual entries. This is a major benefit because we’re working with two or three hundred invoices at a time.” – Patrycja Breisa

Benefits from the Cloud: easier remote access and less paper

Neil’s timing was fortuitous as AccountsIQ was implemented just before the Covid-19 pandemic which saw employees move to remote working. Having moved to AccountsIQ’s cloud-based accounting software, the finance team was easily able to adapt to the new working environment. With employees now spread out between the UK and Poland, the business remains able to seamlessly carry out its accounting functions. This has also had the unexpected benefit of reducing the team’s reliance on paper-based accounting.

One of the great things is that we’ve gone from a very paper-based system to virtually no paper. That has been a fantastic outcome that we weren’t expecting.”  – Neil Griffiths

Scope for growth

Neil knew from the beginning that he needed an accounting system that could grow with the business, and he already sees ways in which AccountsIQ’s extended feature set and open API can provide further benefits for his team. Neil will soon be taking advantage of AccountsIQ’s consolidated reporting capabilities. He’s also looking to integrate the software with a project management system to make it even easier to manage the accounts across multiple projects.

We were looking for accounting software that was very clear and easy to use but still powerful enough to provide great business analytics and manage consolidations effectively. AccountsIQ has ticked all the right boxes and we are very happy that we have made the move.” – Neil Griffiths

PortSwigger uses AccountsIQ’s open API to integrate business systems and support their growth potential

PortSwigger is a global leader in cyber security, creating cutting edge software and research to help individuals and organisations “secure the web”. The company launched in 2003 with its flagship security testing tool Burp Suite. Now in early 2021, with 52,000 customers and 13,000 enterprises using its products, PortSwigger has firmly established itself as a thought leader in web security and has ambitious growth plans.

These plans are what led the finance department to reconsider its existing accounting software, QuickBooks, which was already struggling to cope with the business’s growing volume of transactions as well as payroll for its 80 employees. And with plans to significantly expand its staff in the coming years, PortSwigger clearly needed an accounting system that could scale.

AccountsIQ not only offered the cloud accounting features that they needed at an affordable price, it also offered a compatible ethos and agile approach to software development that PortSwigger’s team could happily work with as they pursue their growth strategy.

Integrating in-house systems with AccountsIQ’s API

PortSwigger has its own in-house tool “Swig Portal” for tracking sales data and software licence sales, built by their own team of engineers. A big challenge with QuickBooks was bringing together the data from these two disconnected systems to produce accurate reports. AccountsIQ has an open accounting API strategy which allows PortSwigger to integrate its own CRM with AccountsIQ, linking the two data sources and bringing their business intelligence onto one cohesive platform. Helen MacDonald, Finance Manager at PortSwigger, explains:

Helen Macdonald, Finance Manager, PortSwigger

The integration and the API are what we’ve really been happy with. We have developers in house who roll their eyes when you talk about the other larger accounting software vendors because they are so cumbersome. Our team found it really easy working with AccountsIQ to get it all up and running. That’s what really sold us.”

Integrated OCR technology for significant time and resource savings

In addition to their own in-house CRM, the finance team is also benefiting from AccountsIQ’s ability to integrate with AutoEntry — an intelligent, automated add-on OCR solution which removes the need for manual data entry of invoices.

We’re the sort of company that looks to streamline and make internal processes more efficient. Previously, we were manually inputting invoices and uploading PDFs – which was slow and prone to inaccuracies,” said Helen.

AutoEntry was really easy to set up. AutoEntry captures and analyses all our invoices and it automatically posts this data to AccountsIQ. It took us about two days to get up and running and now we’re saving about half a day per month alone just on invoice processing. It makes auditing easier because we simply give the auditors a login and they can find everything they need.”

Better reporting tools with scope for expansion

With income from a combination of individuals and enterprises, received via various payment methods and in a range of currencies (including Bitcoin), integration with the CRM is vital for streamlining income, and the three levels of BI codes PortSwigger is using in AccountsIQ allows the team to draw analysis in a combination of ways.

QuickBooks didn’t allow us to segment our reports across the business. So the BI codes within AccountsIQ are great. We now have three BI codes so we can report on each of the different levels,” said Helen.

She adds:

We’re growing quickly and wanted to make sure we had all the functionality in place so that once we’re larger, we could easily change our accounting system to adapt. There are plenty of features in AccountsIQ that we’re not using, but we know they’re there because the implementation team have explained how they will work for us in the future. We didn’t expect this level of engagement from a supplier.”

Proactive support from AccountsIQ

AccountsIQ prides itself in the level of support and attention that the accounting software implementation team provides to new users. Here PortSwigger’s team, meticulous and detail-oriented, found a supplier that took on board their specific challenges and came back with solutions to their nuanced accounting needs.

The implementation process was faultless, we migrated from QuickBooks and had regular meetings and encouragement to keep us on track. The API was the feature that sold AccountsIQ to us and it has been great. The support is superb so any issues we have ever had have been resolved quickly.” – Helen MacDonald

“We haven’t bought software that will never change”

AccountsIQ and PortSwigger have a few crucial things in common. Both are software companies aiming to differentiate through next level agility, pushing the boundaries, a great company culture, and an attitude of going beyond just the software to really solve their customers’ problems. These mutually-shared values have enabled PortSwigger’s finance operation to get up and running quickly with confidence that this solution will carry them into the future.

A challenge with taking on a new supplier, especially in software, is: are they going to be around in five years’ time? It feels like a gamble. But with AccountsIQ we have a well-established accounting package with a track record of excellence. What we appreciate with AccountsIQ is that, like us, they’re developing the software constantly. We’re really happy with the improvements we’ve seen so far – they’ve improved our business processes as a result. We haven’t bought software that will never change and we really appreciate that. We feel like we’re with the right partner.” – Helen MacDonald

The benefits of partnering with AccountsIQ - ION Industries

ION Industries Ltd, who deliver business and financial transformation through the application of market-leading technologies such as AccountsIQ, have been a business partner for two years. As an implementation partner, ION is licensed to resell AccountsIQ, and implement and customise the software to suit individual customer needs.

As the AccountsIQ Lead Implementation Consultant at ION, David Tinnion has been responsible for implementing AccountsIQ for clients such as Ramarketing, BayWa r.e. and Oxford Royale Academy:

We wanted to find a market leading mid-market Cloud accounting product and were delighted to discover AccountsIQ could offer our clients everything they needed in one system,” explains David.

Getting new partners on board

Prior to carrying out any projects, new partners are given in-depth training carried out by one of AccountsIQ’s product specialists. Additional support and guidance are provided within the product itself, for example, Help Juice articles and FAQs. Partners are continually supported by a dedicated Partner Manager and are kept up-to-date with new product features.

At the outset of the relationship, one of AccountsIQ’s product specialists (Ellen) came to us on site to provide in depth product training which was great. We also have a weekly call with Ellen to go over any issues – her product knowledge is exceptional,” explains David.

AccountsIQ’s e-Learning platform ‘AIQ Academy’, containing hundreds of video product tutorials, enables partners to access on-demand training on specific features and makes it easy for partners to support their customers.

From an implementation perspective, AccountsIQ is incredibly easy to work with. The system gives you a lot of information that you need on-screen, and it guides you through the process.”

Easy customer onboarding

A recent implementation that David has worked on is Lepra, the international charity working to beat leprosy. The Lepra project was really straightforward and the implementation aspect of the project, prior to UAT, was performed within a week.

The Lepra project is a great example of how well and completely seamlessly an implementation can go. The in-product guidance within AccountsIQ is easy to understand and bringing the data into AccountsIQ is incredibly straightforward.”

What features does David like best?

• The fact AccountsIQ is fully cloud-based, and it has an incredibly easy to use interface.
• Powerful reporting and dashboard functionality, incredible consolidation and multi-currency functionality.
• Easy to maintain and manage access with the user permissions settings.
• Easy allocation to different companies.
• Bank Reconciliation feature to either match manually or configure rules to do this automatically.
• Incredibly easy to adopt the product with on-screen help and in-product support.
• Approvals, from a supplier and dimensional level for multiple transaction types, with the benefit of being able to submit to an approver who isn’t setup as an AccountsIQ user.
• Powerful integration with CRM and other 3rd party platforms including Salesforce.

There is so much versatility within the product in comparison with similar desktop-based or hybrid cloud products. After over 20 years in Accounting Software implementation, I would say that the intuitiveness of the AccountsIQ system is second to none. We know that for many, getting people onboarded with new software can be challenging, but with AccountsIQ, our customers have found their teams were able to make use of the system straightaway.”

A key benefit David has discovered when implementing AccountsIQ is the huge timesaving gained by clients.

For Lepra in particular, the levels of automation within AccountsIQ have proven to be hugely beneficial. Having previously needed a third-party product to handle bank reconciliation, involving multiple data downloads and uploads, Lepra have been able to significantly reduce this 11-step process to just a 3-step process with the introduction of AccountsIQ into their business.

“Lepra are very happy with the product, AccountsIQ has been a massive time-saver for them.” 

AccountsIQ was the only solution we found that combined the ease of use of cloud based accounting systems and the multi-dimensional analysis that is needed for charity accounting at a cost that we liked!” Nick Avery, Director of Resources, Lepra. Read Lepra Case Study.

Ramarketing, an award-winning pharmaceutical PR and digital agency, multi-entity consolidation and the ability to handle multiple currencies were key objectives when looking for a new accounting system. The powerful consolidation and multi-currency accounting functionality of AccountsIQ were just two of the many features of the system that met the business requirements for Ramarketing, hence ION recommended and implemented AccountsIQ to replace Sage Financials.

Ramarketing were looking for an SME solution that provided a variety of insights into project profit-bility, whilst managing group consolidation and multi-currency. ION helped us select, implement and support the introduction of AccountsIQ to achieve this, without compromising the statutory requirements of an accounting system.” Barry Goddard, Finance Director, Ramarketing. Read Ramarketing Case Study.

Interested in becoming a partner?

Learn more about the AccountsIQ partner programme and find out how you can leverage AccountsIQ to deliver high value projects to growing businesses.

If you’d like to request a call back from our Partnerships Team, get in touch.

Learn more

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AccountsIQ’s ease of adoption and time-saving benefits enable Whale and Dolphin Conservation to weather a perfect storm

Wildlife charity Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) inspires global actions to achieve its vision of a world where every whale and dolphin is safe and free. A combination of campaigns, research, education, and other conservation activities underpin WDC’s strategy to achieve its goal. With Headquarters in the UK and offices around the globe, WDC is funded through voluntary donations and grants by individuals, trusts, corporate partners and other stakeholders who share WDC’s commitment to the protection of whales and dolphins.

In early 2020 WDC’s Finance Director Jane Bryan ran into ‘a perfect storm’ of challenges for her department:

• Their accounting platform, Sage Business Cloud Financials, was no longer supported.
• A vacancy occurred in the Finance team at a senior level.
• Yvonne Hanks joined as WDC’s new Finance Manager with a strong background as a chartered accountant but new to the charity sector.
• The Coronavirus pandemic meant they had to quickly adapt to remote working.
• Year end was fast-approaching.

We had a tortuous experience with Sage. My first task was to find a new accounting system. We had a ticking clock. The need was very clear: we need it in, we need it working, and we need it quick.”  – Yvonne Hanks

After narrowing down a long list of potential accounting platforms to a shortlist of five, AccountsIQ became the obvious choice for its charity-compliant feature set and great customer support at a price they could afford.

With other vendors I was handed over to sales people who didn’t really understand our needs. With AccountsIQ it was reassuring to speak to people who understood things from an accountant’s perspective. 99% of what we needed we felt AccountsIQ could offer.” – Yvonne Hanks

Features that comply with the unique accounting requirements of charities

WDC implemented AccountsIQ for its two UK entities: the UK charity as parent and its UK trading company as subsidiary. Jane and Yvonne worked alongside AccountsIQ’s support team to set up the software so that it was charity compliant from the start:

• Multi-dimensional analysis with three BI codes to accommodate WDC’s operational structure (department, activity, and project).
• Differentiation between charitable activities and trading activities with support for partial VAT.
• Adaptation of the traditional ledger format into one that was SORP-compliant.

When we set up AccountsIQ, I felt like we set it up properly. What we’ve done, it works. We’ve done the VAT returns. We’ve done internal reporting. And I’m confident we’ll be able to do external reporting for the SORP.” – Jane Bryan

Automation to increase productivity and save time

Jane and Yvonne have both experienced time-saving benefits from the numerous automations and paper-saving processes in AccountsIQ:

• The ability to create default settings makes data entry almost foolproof and enables new users to quickly get up to speed.
• Workflow approval automatically allocates team members to specific approval tasks.
• Electronic attachments remove the need for paper and makes it easy to quickly find essential documents and speeds up preparation for the audit.
• The GL Explorer provides instantaneous access to key information, supporting donor relations by being able to provide information on funds by project, on request.
• Sales invoices can be drawn up and sent in a matter of minutes.
• Exchange rates can be automatically updated with the click of a button for multicurrency accounting.

I love the GL explorer – it’s a huge time saver. With the VAT return we used to download huge amounts of information and manipulate the data to find out our partial recovery rate. With the GL explorer, the information is already there for business and non-business income. We can tell our percentage at any point in time rather than at the end of every quarter which means the information is so much more accurate than it otherwise would have been.” – Jane Bryan

Easy to learn for both new hires and experienced staff

Jane and Yvonne credit AccountsIQ’s user-friendly features and substantial help resources with helping them get up to speed quickly with the platform. This includes:

• Comprehensive help documentation built into the app.
• AccountsIQ Academy e-learning platform for training new hires and learning new features.
• “Sandboxes” allow users to test actions before they go live.

These features make it easy to train new users, even when staff are working entirely from home.

We’ve always had people working from home, but where I’m really confident is with our new hires. Training can be very time-consuming but, with AccountsIQ, I’m confident that with a little bit of help they’ll be able to learn the tool largely on their own. The help documents and AIQ Academy e-learning platform mean our new hires can answer most of their questions themselves. This is better for them and better for us.” – Jane Bryan

People previously had to have a comprehensive knowledge of the organisation before putting invoices in the system. The way AccountsIQ is structured, because you can set up defaults for any supplier, and default BI codes by general ledger codes, you can have a fairly inexperienced user come in and quickly learn the system.” – Yvonne Hanks

Easy implementation, competitive price

We chose AccountsIQ for its easy implementation, excellent help notes, competitive price, and honest support. They seemed very experienced in migration from Sage Financials, very responsive, and I was able to have an ongoing relationship with the same people. Compared to other suppliers, it didn’t feel like people were selling the moon and not delivering. AccountsIQ has set us up to do internal and external reporting and VAT returns more quickly and more accurately than ever before.” – Jane Bryan

AccountsIQ’s personalised service delivery and commitment to innovation seal the deal with fast-growing tech provider, Zarion

Zarion Software is a leading provider of Intelligent work management for the financial services sector. Based in Dublin, Zarion has customers all over the world and partners in the USA, Australia and the UK. As a fast-growing technology company that is centered around providing intelligent data about work and the workforce to Operational managers, Zarion helps its customers increase efficiency by eliminating manual processes and increase visibility and flexibility to enable a hybrid or distributed workforce Digital innovation is not only core to their customer offering, but also to how they approach their own internal processes. When Ken O’Flaherty joined Zarion as CFO and found that their existing accounting system was bogged down with inefficiencies, he knew something had to change.

Ken had to decide whether to resurrect a partially completed implementation or start from scratch with something new. Ken decided to take a fresh perspective and consider other alternatives. Impressed with a flexible accounting framework, an “out-of-the-box” reporting structure, and a commitment to implementing the system in a way which would serve Zarion’s evolving needs, Ken decided to look no further when he came across AccountsIQ.

As a CFO it’s my responsibility to produce the necessary information for decision making. Every business has its nuances and requirements that don’t come with an out-of-the-box solution. Once I started the discussion with AccountsIQ, I immediately felt comfortable with their offering and that they were the right partner for us. I really just wanted to get going with it, which we did, and it’s not a decision I regret.” – Ken O’Flaherty, CFO, Zarion

Fast implementation with pro-active customer support

Once Ken made the decision to go with AccountsIQ, the system went live within six weeks. Built-in templates plus hands-on customer support made the process swift and straightforward.

AccountsIQ offers great support and good processes throughout implementation. It went through ahead of schedule and it was really easy. The upload templates around trial balance, historic data, and banking details were very intuitive. In terms of what we planned and what we budgeted for, we actually came out ahead.” – Ken O’Flaherty

Flexible accounting with built-in customisation as standard

As an SME, Zarion’s accounting needs were fairly straightforward with only a few intricacies requiring special attention. AccountsIQ benefits from an extremely flexible Business Intelligence (BI) coding structure and three tier General Ledger to accommodate these requirements. Larger vendors only seemed willing to provide Zarion with this extra level of customisation at a considerable cost.

Larger vendors don’t offer the same flexibility and level of customisation as AccountsIQ. Their message was: ‘this is not standard, this is going to be a complete workaround, this is going to cost you’… I didn’t get that with AccountsIQ. I wanted an accounting solution that could grow with us in terms of feature functionality and product roadmap. AccountsIQ gave me assurance that this would be the case and it’s proven to be the case.” – Ken O’Flaherty

Cloud-based as standard with key automation features that save time

A key requirement for Ken was that his accounting solution be truly “Cloud-first”, not Cloud as a bolt-on. Built in the Cloud, AccountsIQ enables access at all times from anywhere in the world. This includes workflow features and paperless document management that save time and make it easy to adapt to a remote working environment. Ken found particular benefits with AccountsIQ’s workflow approval processes and auditing.

AccountsIQ helped us accelerate our journey to a paperless system. Invoice and PO approvals are now paperless as standard. Where we’ve really seen a massive benefit is with remote auditing. The extraction of information is so much easier. This year we were able to close our audit in a week. AccountsIQ was fundamental in being able to do that. It’s a testament to the system.” – Ken O’Flaherty

Robust suite of reports

AccountsIQ comes with over 250 pre-built reports to make it easier for financial departments to get going with the software, minimising the need for external data handling. These reports added further efficiencies to Ken’s workflow with the added benefit of mitigating errors.

AccountsIQ’s reporting is really good. With other systems you have to export data and manipulate it in Excel the way you want. Here I found the out-of-the-box reports in the Management Accounts pack reflects the typical needs of CFOs or FDs. Even data around analysis of cash and customers and FX, it does a lot of things very, very well and that saves a lot of headache and potential mistakes.” – Ken O’Flaherty

Ongoing Product Innovation

Cloud-based reporting features, paperless accounting, and time-saving benefits were all key in Ken’s decision to choose AccountsIQ. However, it was AccountsIQ’s focus on development, commitment to innovation, and personal attention that confirmed his decision.

When we went through the detailed needs assessment with AccountsIQ we got a lot of comfort that the system could do what we needed it to do. I also found that, where I had concerns, AccountsIQ was very clear and proactive in pursuing a solution. I wanted an accounting platform that could grow with us in terms of feature functionality and product roadmap. AccountsIQ gave me assurance that this would be the case and it’s proven to be the case.” – Ken O’Flaherty

BayWa r.e. is a leading global renewable energy developer, service supplier, distributor and energy solutions provider. With an annual turnover of over €1.9 billion and offices across the UK and Ireland. Baywa r.e. has employees based at multiple sites and locations. Part of the leading BayWa r.e. Group driving innovation across the sustainable energy field, the Group has a global revenue of over €17 billion and more than 2,400 employees worldwide.

BayWa r.e. approached ION, a software consultancy, for advice on upgrading their accounting system, with their current system Sage 50 being too limiting for a company experiencing rapid growth. Like many businesses operating with an on-premise solution, the processes were too manual and hindering the productivity of the team. With employees and entities based across the UK and Ireland, they needed a solution which could handle multiple sites, locations and currencies, as well as inter-company transactions and Group VAT reporting. With ambitious plans for growth and a dispersed workforce, having a system which could be accessed by anyone, anywhere was seen as a major benefit for BayWa r.e.

Join our webinar on the 8th September: How Finance technology can help renewable energy companies power their growth

Solution

ION worked in collaboration with the BayWa r.e. team and identified AccountsIQ as an ideal solution for the business – because of its easy to use, flexible, powerful reporting and the functionality they required.

After comparing a few systems on the market, our decision to go with AccountsIQ was based on the fact it met most of our requirements and offered us the opportunity to automate some of our manual processes. Justin Ampofo, Finance Manager, BayWa r.e.

With multiple offices and locations, AccountsIQ was an ideal solution to allow for simple consolidation of multiple-entities and currencies. ION set up the system as one-click processes to give the business full visibility of their overall operations without the need for complex reporting or manual consolidation. The aim for BayWa r.e. was to centralise operations as much as possible to allow for potential group reporting in the future, with that in mind the ION team consolidated all VAT reporting and created an intercompany sales and purchase ledger.

A true cloud accounting system, AccountsIQ allows the team to access real-time data from anywhere. Removing the need for expensive and high-maintenance servers in each location, with AccountsIQ team members could work from other sites or home offices whilst still getting complete access to the system.

Taken straight away by the simplicity and ease of use of the system, ION worked with BayWa r.e. to streamline their processes and make management as efficient as possible. To meet their complex invoicing and approvals requirements, iCompleat was selected as a solution which could be integrated with AccountsIQ and minimise any duplication through the invoicing and payment process.

ION continues to support BayWa r.e. with training, technical support, and system development through our Managed Services offering.

Outcomes

The overall impact on the business has been phenomenal, helping them to work smarter and faster, whilst giving them the perfect springboard for growth. Here are some of the areas we have seen improvements:

Automation increasing employee availability >20%: Widespread efficiency improvements with automation reducing manual inputs and allowing the team to focus on core activities. Automation of key processes also ensures compliance procedures are correctly followed and safeguards the overall validity of data by reducing chances for human input errors.

Scalable platform for growth: The business has been growing rapidly and expects this to accelerate further over the coming years. They now have a system which can grow as they do, with the ability to add new sites, currencies and users with ease.

Alignment of systems: Integrating AccountsIQ and iCompleat means that the invoicing system is fully connected to the accounting data, meaning that the team do not have to duplicate inputs. Using the combined solution of Accounts IQ and iCompleat, BayWa r.e. has been able to improve automation and reduce manual input using iCompleat’s approval process.

Going paperless and improving traceability: The new expenses process allows expenses to be submitted directly for approval, removing the paper chain, having full traceability of the submissions and allowing all stakeholders to view the current status.

Consolidated VAT reporting and compliance assurance: With the new Group VAT functionality, the team can create VAT returns, consolidate them into one Group VAT Return and run all the necessary reports. This speeds up the entire process and ensures that they are conforming to HMRC’s MTD guidelines fully.

Intercompany sales and purchase ledger: With a number of processes moved into the system, the team can track the progress of processes including approvals. This removes the need for paper and email exchanges, with everyone being given access to the information.

Real-time accessibility across all locations: The new system means Baywa r.e. can easily add and change users when demand changes. This was previously a major headache for the team and did not allow them to alter their processes based on demand. With AccountsIQ, they have the flexibility to adapt their business as the market changes.

Learn More

Read how AccountsIQ and ION have helped companies like Ramarketing and Lepra solve their finance-related challenges.

Find out how we help group companies with our group accounts software. View our customer testimonials.

Get a Free Trial and Demo, see our Pricing Plans or call us on +44 (0)203 598 7350.

Fast-growing engineering group, Thermatic, opens new world of multi-dimensional management reporting with AccountsIQ.

Thermatic Technical provides Mechanical, Electrical, Heating, Drainage, Ventilation, Air-Conditioning, and Refrigeration (HVACR) services to large multi-site commercial customers across the UK. They’ve been enjoying rapid growth but found their Sage 50 accounting system couldn’t cope with the increased transaction volumes.

"We’ve been growing so much, we now have thousands of transactions every month,” explains Finance Director, Natalie Hopkins. “We were using Sage 50, but it was too slow for such high volumes and took an age to run reports. When I looked at Xero, I knew we’d have a similar issue within a year.”

It was a frustration shared by Thermatic’s Management Accountant, Heather Stockton, who discovered AccountsIQ through the Digital Accountancy Forum having researched: ‘What do you do when you’ve outgrown Xero?’ The answer that kept popping up in response was: ‘Take a look at AccountsIQ’.

User-friendly cloud technology with an open API that makes life easier for finance teams

Thermatic Technical had two ‘must-have’ criteria for their new finance software. It had to integrate with their operational software, Joblogic, and it had to be cloud-based. AccountsIQ ticked both boxes.

"AccountsIQ has an open API structure,” says Natalie. “This is a fantastic piece of technology that most other accounting software doesn’t have (unless you’re prepared to spend big money). We’re confident that the processing time-saving we’ll get from AccountsIQ will be enormous.”

Sage 50 also wasn’t cloud-based,” adds Heather. “Logging on to their remote desktop when working from home during the pandemic was slow.” Thermatic are now operating a hybrid work model and having a cloud-based finance system is making everyone’s life easier.

Our team also just love using AccountsIQ,” says Natalie. “It’s so quick and easy and the implementation was fantastic; everyone was up and running straightaway, with no issues. To align with the implementation of Joblogic, we only had two months to go-live. We really put the pressure on, but our AccountsIQ Implementation Consultant, Andrew, delivered on everything we asked for.”

Consolidated group reporting in one click

The Thermatic Group is currently made up of four limited companies, including Thermatic Technical and Thermatic Homes. Thermatic Energy is a new business that the group launched in January 2021.

"When we launched Thermatic Energy, adding it as a new entity on AccountsIQ was really quick and straightforward,” says Heather. “Next, we’ll be adding Thermatic Homes. That’s more complex due to the sub-contractors CIS tax scheme but, once that’s done, we’ll be able to consolidate reporting up to the parent-company level in just one click.”

Reporting opens up a new world of data analytics and management information

The Thermatic Group has a fairly complex group structure, with corresponding management reporting needs. For example, they have multiple account managers looking after several clients. They also operate in multiple sectors, such as retail, healthcare and education, and offer a range of engineering and maintenance services.

"The reporting capability in AccountsIQ is brilliant,” says Natalie. “Running reports in AccountsIQ is quick and we’ve got the capability to do multi-dimensional reporting, which will be really valuable to us. I’d say it takes about one tenth of the time we’re used to in Sage, and you don’t have to worry about the system crashing and corrupting your data!”

AccountsIQ has the product and culture to support growing businesses

Thermatic are already enjoying many of the AccountsIQ product features designed to streamline processes, such as bank reconciliations and search functions. “We’re not using the multi-currency functions yet,” says Natalie. “But we have begun expanding into Europe, so it’s great to have that functionality ready to go when we need it.”

They’re also looking forward to other new features coming soon. These include automated bank feeds and a new paperless invoice capture service, AP Invoice Automation. “Currently, we’re using AutoEntry to help manage overheads, expenses and credit card transactions, but this new service might cut out the need for that,” says Heather.

"More than anything, we value the open communications we have with the AccountsIQ team,” she explains. “We get an immediate response to our questions and they’re always open to feedback about how they can develop their software in ways customers feel are beneficial. I’ve even done some beta testing with them.”

All three of us – Thermatic, Joblogic and AccountsIQ – are growing together and in the same direction,” agrees Natalie. “We know AccountsIQ isn’t just a static product. We think that’s a good thing because we’re not static either. AccountsIQ is growing and evolving alongside us, and that’s fantastic.”

Find out more about our cloud accounting software 

AccountsIQ helped multi-entity property management company, E&J Estates, migrate from Sage in just two months

In Autumn 2020, E&J Estates’ Financial Controller, Joanne Brown, started looking at accounting software that would enable them to consolidate their 20 entities easily and improve their intercompany management. E&J Estates’ existing system, Sage Financials, would soon be discontinued so they needed to be sure the onboarding process would be quick and painless. Although most of E&J Estates’ accounting needs are relatively straightforward, the complexity arises from their multi-entity accounting and consolidation requirements, which were time consuming. 

Everything a mid-market, multi-entity business needs at a reasonable cost

Joanne admits that finding the right accounting software for a mid-market, multi-entity property business, like E&J Estates, wasn’t easy. She knew they didn’t need an ERP, such as Oracle or NetSuite.

“They’re too complex for our needs,” she says. “I’d have to set up functionality we’d never use, and it would be cumbersome to make necessary tweaks to the system in the future. What we like about AccountsIQ is that you only need to set up the modules you wish to use and when we need to make changes, such as setting up a new accounting code, it’s really easy.”

Joanne also reviewed simple accounting solutions, such as Sage 200, Xero and Access Financials but found they didn’t have enough functionality.

“We’d have had to do all our consolidation manually,” she says. “I liked the look of the AccountsIQ system instantly. It’s logical, practical and user-friendly and it gives us everything we need at a reasonable price.”

A proper accounting system” that’s quick, efficient and paperless 

Joanne’s team has found everything, from multiple invoices to auto journal reversals, quick and easy to process with AccountsIQ. “That’s important,” she says. “As a finance team, we don’t want to spend time processing data. Now, we can spend time reviewing, reporting and analysing our data to benefit the business.

“AccountsIQ is rules-based,” continues Joanne. “It’s what I call a ‘proper accounting system’. We have four system users, so it’s important to have robust controls in place.”

E&J Estates has also had positive feedback from their auditors. “We’ve given them read-only access,” explains Joanne.

“In previous years, we produced accounts for our auditors around four months after year-end. This year, with AccountsIQ, we did it in just six weeks and next year our target is to get it done in a month.”

Data which can be trusted

For E&J Estates, one of the main benefits of AccountsIQ is that their inter-company accounting is so much easier.

“You can look at the consolidated accounts and see that it all zeros out,” says Joanne. “You know you haven’t missed anything and everyone in the company recognises that we have data we can trust. With AccountsIQ, you can only ever enter the transactions that should be in there. That means there are no mismatches or incorrect journals. It’s a big plus to us to have that level of data integrity; we can have complete confidence in the numbers we’re pulling from the system.”

The reporting functions also give complete, real-time clarity on the company’s financial position and helps E&J Estates to make more informed decisions about managing their business. AccountsIQ was even able to customise some of the reporting functions to meet E&J Estates’ specific needs.

"AccountsIQ helped us develop a report for the percentage reporting we have to do as a property company to handle irrecoverable VAT,” explains Joanne. “They also helped with Group VAT reporting and Making Tax Digital (MTD). It all works really well and it’s definitely a relief to be able to have complete confidence in our VAT returns.”

Migration from Sage to AccountsIQ in just 2 months

Because Joanne and her team could focus on just setting up the elements of the AccountsIQ system they really needed, they managed to get everything live in just two months. That included testing, training and uploading data, such as trial balances and current year transactions.

"We didn’t have to waste time setting up elements we didn’t need, such as stock control,” says Joanne. “We don’t have massive transaction volumes, but it was important for us to have all transactions for the accounting year in one system; that was a big win for us.”

Smooth and painless implementation process

E&J Estates found the implementation process straightforward and seamless. “Our AccountsIQ Implementation Consultant, Desi, was fantastic,” says Joanne.

"She’s knowledgeable, supportive and patient and that gave us confidence. We got to trial and test the system and we had full training. Even after we’d gone live, whenever we had questions, we got a quick response. The great thing about AccountsIQ is you can phone and speak to a real person. It’s never just an email saying ‘go and look at these documents’. They have a personal touch, and you feel they’re genuinely there for you and on your side.”

Find out how our property management accounting software can help you save time, reduce complexity and get better reporting. See pricing plans. Request a demo.

When Dan Garrigan, Finance Director with Merchant Taylors’ Company, decided it was time to upgrade from Sage 200, he knew their new finance system had to be in the Cloud.

"Sage 200 was coming to its end-of-life and the reporting was clunky. If we were going to change finance system we definitely wanted it to be Cloud-based, rather than incurring server costs."

Dan undertook a broad search of the accounting software marketplace. He looked at both large ERP systems, such as NetSuite and Sage Intacct, and smaller out-of-the-box software, such as Xero.

 AccountsIQ ticks all the boxes

"We fell between two stalls. Our finance needs are more complex than the functionality we found in the out-of-the-box systems, like Xero. But it was hard to justify the cost of something like Netsuite."

After joining a couple of AccountsIQ’s webinars and demos, Dan thought: ‘that ticks all the boxes’.

 A painless change   

Dan and his team found switching to AccountsIQ painless. Here’s his advice if you’re thinking of embarking on a similar project:

1) Allow time for pre-implementation work

Dan’s team thought ahead about the design of their Chart of Accounts. They then refined this with the AccountsIQ team who shared their experience of what had worked with other customers. As Dan says:

“The design of your Chart of Accounts is the big thing to get right. Everything else then follows. The time spent on this really paid off for us. We’ve got a design we’re happy with and meets all our needs.”

Watch our ‘How healthy is your Chart of Accounts?’ webinar.

2) Be flexible

The ideas you have at the start of your project might not carry through to implementation. That’s not a problem. As Dan explains:

With AccountsIQ, you get Sandbox test entities. This is great because you can play around with the software before you go-live and see what things look like and how it all works.

3) Invest in team training

Dan strongly recommends training your team, both in the run up to implementation and in the first two months post go-live. As he says:

"AccountsIQ are extremely good at this. We used the AIQ Academy and we had bespoke online training sessions with Daryl. They were all invaluable. We’ve kept the recordings and the team refer back when they need a refresher on features they don’t use regularly."

Find out more about how AccountsIQ can help your finance team

AccountsIQ’s charity accounting software is trusted by over 100 charity and not-for-profit finance teams. You can read their stories here.

To find out more talk to one of our accounting experts.  

Freight Investor Services uses AccountsIQ to meet its complex global accounting needs

Freight Investor Services (FIS) is a leading global brokerage specialising in freight and commodities. As an innovator in the commodity derivatives markets, FIS has built an international network of offices and has 10 entities across the US, UK, UAE, India, Singapore and China. As a rapidly growing, international financial services business, they have some complex accounting requirements.  

In 2019 the Group was using different accounting software in different locations including Sun Systems in the UK and UAE. Freight Investor’s Head of Finance, Man Li explains “we needed to standardise our accounting software to make it easier to do group level reporting.”

Man Li compared many different software packages and concluded that AccountsIQ ticked all the boxes.

“Our accounting needs are quite complex and we particularly liked AccountsIQ’s multi-dimension and extensive BI coding structure”.   

Detailed analysis across multi locations, departments, brokers and customers

As a broker, FIS is extremely customer focused and it’s essential they can monitor and track commission, costs and profits by each individual broker and customer.  They currently use a five-dimension accounting structure to get detailed analysis by: employee, broker, office, department and customer (the AccountsIQ platform offers up to six dimensions).

“We can quickly and easily compare the cost of running our back office in each of our locations or how much we spend on each customer,” explains Man Li. “This gives us valuable insight across the business.”

AccountsIQ has been integrated with FIS’ in-house sales system.

“We have lots of trading data and inter-company transactions, so this took some time,” says Man Li, “but it’s working perfectly now, and our sales information is brought straight into AccountsIQ. We’re also in the process of integrating AccountsIQ with the Zoho expenses module, so we can capture and split our customer gifting and entertainment costs very precisely to comply with regulatory requirements.”

The flexibility to ‘slice and dice’ analysis and reporting

The complex nature of their business means FIS currently has over 4,000 BI codes in AccountsIQ.

“The great thing about AccountsIQ is that we have the flexibility to re-think the way we structure the dimension and BI coding over time,” says Man Li. “We can start one way and flex as we go. Right now, we’re working with AccountsIQ’s support team to consolidate and standardise some of the BI codes; it’s a work in progress as we get more familiar with the system.”

AccountsIQ is easy to use with useful features

The FIS finance team is spread across multiple locations around the world but they’re all enjoying using AccountsIQ and finding it easy to collaborate.

“I particularly like the prepayment and accrual functions; you can simply click repeat or auto reverse for recurring journal entries, it’s a great feature.”

A continuous learning and professional development process

FIS have yet to fully use some of the functions available in AccountsIQ such as the new AP Inbox Invoice Automation feature which Man Li is looking forward to using to save lots of processing time.

“We currently have 10 entities on the system and we’re always learning,” she says. “We’re using AIQ Academy with new starters and we get excellent support from our Account Manager, Victoria.  I’ve already recommended AccountsIQ to several people.”

Learn More

Find out more about AccountsIQ’s multi company accounting software, and our Business Intelligence capability: accounting, consolidation and management reporting all in one platform.

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.”

Alongside their commitment to supporting a better life for everyone affected by epilepsy, national charity Epilepsy Action must contend with some complex financial management challenges. Multiple sources of income, stringent controls over spending and restricted fund requirements, to name a few. That’s before we throw the cost-of-living crisis and an increasingly difficult fundraising environment into the mix.

Undaunted by such challenges, Tony Spinks, Director of Corporate Services with Epilepsy Action, decided to re-assess the systems and processes that would enable the charity to thrive no matter what. His #1 priority was the need to improve management reporting. In particular, he wanted real-time data to make better, quicker decisions about how they allocate resources. 

“We need to be absolutely on top of our financial position. We need complete visibility of what income and expenditure we have coming down the line to make the best decisions for the people who rely on our services. We were using Sage50; it was functional but wasn’t giving us the next level of management reporting we needed.”

Epilepsy Action needed a mid-market accounting solution

With lots of options on the market, choosing a new finance system can be mind boggling. As Tony recognised, Sage 50 is good for start-ups. But Epilepsy Action is a medium-sized organisation with around 70 staff, and they needed the next step up. However, when Tony looked at the Microsoft products and NetSuite, he concluded, “we didn’t need anywhere near that.”

When an invite to an AccountsIQ demo webinar landed in Tony’s in-box, he took 30 minutes out of his day to watch.

“I thought ‘this could be the answer to my problem’. I got in touch and started the journey. The more I saw of the system, the more I was convinced AccountsIQ was what we needed.”

Changing finance system is not as scary as many people think

Epilepsy Action went live with AccountsIQ on 1 January 2023. In the run-up to go-live, Tony and his team structured their training around the AIQ Academy online learning platform. To make it more effective and enjoyable, they introduced a practical, team-based approach to the training.

“The Academy videos are great, but we learn best by doing. We sat down as a team for an hour every Friday to put what we’d learnt into practice. For example, we’d watch the video about how to approve purchase invoices and then go and actually do it. AccountsIQ provide a test environment so it doesn’t matter if you make a mistake, you’re not messing with live data, and you can’t break it.”

Once they’d got to grips with the extra coding functionality that AccountsIQ provides, Tony and his team found the rest of the process of changing finance system easy.

“AccountsIQ is easy to use and our implementation consultant, Helen, was great. Her catchphrase was ‘we’ll just get it done!’ I found the whole process really easy. It’s not as scary as people make out.”

Three months down the line and all the transactional processes are running smoothly. The team are already noticing some significant time saving, particularly around the purchasing processes which used to be very manual. Now, they’re looking at where they can make even more efficiency gains.

“Automating processes is already saving us a huge chunk of time but there’s lots more time saving to come. I’ve got the OData connector working and I’m building the reporting templates. It’s this combination of time saving and financial visibility that will allow us to do more data analysis and really add value to our organisation. Everything I wanted is starting to happen.”

The Diocese of Arundel and Brighton’s finances are transformed by consolidated Cloud accounting

In 2018, The Diocese of Arundel and Brighton began a digital finance transformation initiative with AccountsIQ. It was a highly ambitious project involving complex workflow automations. There were also multiple stakeholders, including around 70, mainly volunteer, users with varying levels of accounting and IT experience.

The Diocese had been using a stand-alone finance system, called Finance Co-ordinator. “It had a good Chart of Accounts,” Sarah recalls. “But no consolidation function. At the end of the year, each parish would send in their activity and finance would re-key the transactions.”

These manual processes were time consuming and error prone. More importantly, the only management information the Diocese had was a P&L and balance sheet for each parish. “There was no granularity,” says Sarah, “the old system didn’t give us the insight we needed at individual parish level.”  

In search of a more advanced cloud system, Sarah talked to AccountsIQ’s CEO, Tony Connolly, and the finance team from the Archdiocese of Dublin, who were already an AccountsIQ customer.  

“AccountsIQ is Cloud-based, so I can access the parish books and see what’s going on from the centre.” 

Sarah Kilmartin, COO, The Catholic Diocese of Arundel and Brighton.

Moving to AccountsIQ enables automated, efficient processes  

The Diocese of Arundel and Brighton chose AccountsIQ because they wanted to be able to share a single platform with their parishes. Their objective was to automate as much of their manual finance processing as possible.

Digital cash collection is an example of an effective process that AccountsIQ created specifically for the Diocese.  Income from each church is entered on an online cash collection sheet, which updates directly into AccountsIQ. This means income is recognised directly on entry and can be consolidated across all parishes. Crucially, Sarah’s team didn’t simply replicate their previous, paper-based cash collection process into AccountsIQ.

“We combined a number of processes,” explains Sarah. “Now, it’s quick, easy, and error proof with no re-keying, sending emails or putting things in the post. I also look after a small parish as a volunteer and the monthly bank rec takes less than 15 minutes.

Sarah also likes the useability of AccountsIQ, “The most useful feature for me as COO is having all my parishes laid out in a list. I can click down to the transaction level detail very easily. I also have full trust in the completeness and accuracy of the data being captured; it accounts for every penny that goes through the bank.”

Granular reporting is revolutionising the church finance role

The Diocese is using AccountsIQ extensively for analysis and reporting.  Each parish has its own database in AccountsIQ, and the BI coding structure enables the Diocese to run reports for each church, fund, site or central office department.   

“This multi-dimensional reporting is perfect for our setting. It has revolutionised our potential to do our job here in the centre. That is to stand over these charitable funds and know exactly what’s going on with the funds of each charity.

“I find the management reports useful and look at them all the time. For example, when a new priest comes to a parish I can run through the P&L very easily. Previously, we didn’t have this level of information.”

Digital transformation is an on-going collaboration

After several years on the platform, AccountsIQ continues to work well for the Diocese. Sarah reports that they hit their year-end deadlines, with all parish accounts reconciled within two months. “Initially, we needed support to roll out the project,” she recalls. “But our users are now confident using the system.”

Looking back, Sarah describes this complex digital transformation project as a creative, on-going collaboration between the Diocese and the AccountsIQ team. “There are still things we plan to do,” she says. “For example, contactless payments have become mainstream since we started with AccountsIQ, and we need to find a solution that works for us. That said, whenever we bring problems to AccountsIQ, they understand them and help us sort them.”

“AccountsIQ is a product I would happily recommend to others. It has revolutionised how we do our job.”

Sarah Kilmartin, COO, The Catholic Diocese of Arundel and Brighton

Summing-up, Sarah concludes that, now they have everyone working on one central Cloud accounting platform, they would never go back.

“We have fewer finance staff now, but they are more skilled. Our people costs may not have gone down, but the quality of what we know has gone up. We would certainly never go back to having 80+ desktop systems. Ultimately, AccountsIQ is a product I would happily recommend to others.”

Learn more

Discover how AccountsIQ's accounting software for charities solves the often complex accounting challenges of over 100 not for profits such as Humentum. 

Call us on +44 (0)203 598 7350 or email us to set up a free consultation/demo.