Cloud accounting software for technology companies

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.”

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.

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.

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