.svg)
Make complex accounting easier with real-time visibility of KPIs, flexible structuring for multiple entities, automated consolidation, multi-jurisdiction compliance and transparent reporting.
Respond to business milestones and events quickly with advanced reporting in real time. Replace error-prone spreadsheets with pre-configured and editable dashboards and a library of over 250 template reports.
Easily create new business entities in the cloud and streamline inter-company accounting to save time and resources. Enjoy an error-free period end with automated consolidation including FX valuation, advanced treasury management and compliance with international regulations.
Create smooth digital workflows by connecting AccountsIQ with other cloud apps including CRMs, expenses apps, practice management and investment systems, payment gateways and more. You can also create bespoke integrations via our open API.
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.
”
AccountsIQ meets the complex global accounting needs of leading global brokerage, Freight Investor Services (FIS). As an innovator in the commodity derivatives markets, FIS has built an international network of offices and has 10 entities. AccountsIQ provides them with detailed analysis across multi locations, departments, brokers and customers.
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”.
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 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.”
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.”
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.”
Find out more about AccountsIQ’s multi company accounting software, and our Business Intelligence capability: accounting, consolidation and management reporting all in one platform.
Merchant banking business Salamanca Group comprises approximately 80 businesses. Switching from Sage 50 to AccountsIQ means consolidated management reports can now be produced in just a few minutes.
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
Fevore group simplifies consolidation and reporting saving them a huge amount of time and giving them confidence in their group financial information.
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.”
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.
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.”
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.”
