Cloud accounting software for technology companies

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.”

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.