Cloud accounting software for technology companies

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’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

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