I have had the opportunity to attend various tradeshows and events as a member of the Black River Technologies team over the past few years. Time after time, I never cease to be surprised by the number of organizations that are still ‘chugging along’ with either an entry level software package like QuickBooks, or outdated on-premise solutions provided by Microsoft or Sage. The biggest issue I see with these organizations that have decided to remain with their legacy software, is that they have simply accepted the fact that their standard P&L and Balance Sheet are the only reports they will ever have to analyze their financial data.
Looking at historical data found on these standard reports is important, but by the time you have completed the preparatory work to produce these statements, the data is often stale and outdated. Recent research has indicated that family office and investment management firms with multiple entities are undertaking laborious consolidation processes, usually outside their financial system, which not only takes too long to complete, but is also error prone.
Those organizations that have moved to best-in-class software are making the shift from being historians, documenting what has happened in the recent past, to owning their operations and driving what happens in the future. A prime example of a company that made this shift is Trian Partners, a multi-billion dollar asset management firm located in New York.
Their controller, Len Weedman states, “Closing the books to me is an official term that we accountants like to use to describe the month/quarter-end process. But, if you are making sure your entries are booked every day (e.g. cash is reconciled, revenue and known expenses are accrued) you could argue that your books are closed every day. This allows you to have continuous, consolidated reports that are always live.”
Trian made the switch to Intacct Cloud ERP and is utilizing powerful dashboard functionality to monitor important metrics such as Cash-on-Cash, Assets Under Management, Internal Rate of Return, Fair Market & Net Asset Values, and much more. Doing so has enabled them to analyze live data at any point during the month, compare it to historical data, and then make informed investment decisions.
Other Intacct users are ‘singing similar praises’. Linda Yates, CFO of Investa Services says “Intacct dashboards and reports allow executive management immediate access to updated cash information. Also, the consolidation features are amazing”
Check out this short video (2.5 minutes) to see how other Intacct users are:
Black River Technologies has participated various Family Office Club events in the past, and will continue to do so in the future. The next event that we will be sponsoring is The Family Office Deal Flow Summit on July 14th, 2017 in San Francisco, CA. If you are interested in learning more about how your organization can benefit from advanced financial dashboard functionality and continuous consolidations, I would invite you to call us any time, or if you are attending the above summit in July, stop by our booth to see how best-in-class software can improve your operation as a whole.
Also, be sure to check out our blog as well as follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter & Facebook to keep up with the latest insights in Cloud Accounting as it relates to your Family Office and Investment Management firm.
