Cloud accounting software for financial services companies

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.”

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.

Learn More

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.