The Advantages of Financial Reporting in Intacct
Posted on: October 16, 2014 | By: Jim Bertler | Intacct
I had the pleasure of participating in the Intacct Product Tour yesterday. We had several prospects attend the event and they enjoyed learning about the capabilities of Intacct. One of the hallmarks of Intacct is the financial reporting capabilities of the system. Financial Reporting used to encompass the standard balance sheet and income statement and an occasional departmental report. As businesses have grown and times have become ever more competitive the standard reports are rarely enough for the typical company. Today we find companies with two critical reporting needs. The first is income or profit and loss statements broken down by specific elements and the second need is for ad-hoc reporting.
For income statements I mentioned that they needed to be broken down by a specific element. I used the word element because the slicing and dicing of profit and loss information varies by company. Some companies want to review be product line, others by department. Still others need to review by location, project or even by specific employee. I am always amazed at the ease of producing each of these with just a few clicks within Intacct. During the Product Tour yesterday they were able to show how the financial dimensions of Intacct allowed a user to enter a transaction and then tag each transaction with whatever financial dimension was necessary, department, product line, employee, etc. After the transactions were entered the native Intacct reporting tool could take over and allow users to slice and dice the data however they needed. This reporting makes for a powerful solution and empowers user to actually take action on the information.
The other need we see is for ad-hoc reporting. You can think of this reporting as the “whatever is needed at that time reporting”. We find that many companies have a need to analyze information and respond to the latest trends in their business. If you have a reporting solution and accounting system that is effectively “electronic concrete” responding to the latest trend is nearly impossible. Intacct provides great reporting, but more importantly a user can update reports quickly and easily. The tool used to create the reports uses standard accounting and reporting terms not special syntax or formulas. Even someone who hasn’t used the tool can quickly and easily understand how to generate a report.
So if the accounting software and financial reporting solution you use today seems cumbersome and if you can’t respond to the latest trend consider Intacct.