Sage Intacct was one of the first accounting ERP applications for the cloud, and today a leading software provider for start-ups and corporations. Finance professionals are well equipped in achieving streamlined financial services for their business through a suite of services they offer. But for those looking to move beyond core ERP tasks, there are platforms out there to aid in deeper financial analysis.
With Sage Intacct, businesses are able to streamline a number of back-end transactions in one digital platform. From accounts payable and receivable to billing to purchasing and order management, to the general ledger, users are provided with easy-to-use tools to efficiently run their financial operations.
Once the back-end tasks are streamlined, many companies want to go beyond, to financial analysis. Full Financial Planning and Analysis, also known as FP&A, can help businesses soar with in-depth forecasting, budgeting, performance management, and analysis that can inform decisions.
It would be extremely challenging to remain profitable on a consistent basis without financial insights available from accurate and timely FP&A processes. It would be next to impossible to grow without it.
Luckily, Sage Intacct users looking to integrate FP&A into their operations have several options to choose from.
Here are the top 3 cloud FP&A platforms available in 2021.
1. Sage Intacct Budgeting Planning (SIBP)
The first and obvious choice is to stay in-house and turn to Sage Intacct's own FP&A tool, known as Sage Intacct Budgeting and Planning Software (SIBP). One of the main benefits is that it integrates directly with Sage Intacct right out-of-the-box. There is no worry about third-party integration or whether any features will line up correctly. As any business owner knows, having a seamless integration of data is essential for successful financial analysis.
SIBP is an easy-to-use cloud budgeting and planning software built with small to midsize business needs in mind. It provides the best of both worlds - a cloud planning and budgeting solution that’s easy to deploy and familiar to use.
Collaborating on a budget becomes easy and less cumbersome thanks to the removal of manual spreadsheet formatting and file sharing. Teams can also create multiple versions from a single budget to work out various hypothetical scenarios. This allows your company to discover and discuss all angles when you're forecasting.
By automatically adding plan information to Sage Intacct, you can use built-in dashboards and reports to compare current performance vs. plans to manage your success.
With SIBP, you can completely rid yourself of manual processes that result in major errors.
2. Limelight Software
If you're a rapidly growing or mid-sized organization looking for a quick and easy set up, then Limelight Software is for you. Limelight has native integration with Sage Intacct, making setup quick and providing access to real-time insights. This removes risks of working with inaccurate information and outdated reports, budgets or forecasts which critical decisions depend on.
No longer do you have to be concerned about formula and data errors that can stem from simple human input. Limelight automatically syncs with Sage Intacct so that you always have the latest version of your chart of accounts and financial data. Having real-time access to this source data means you can analyze and collaborate on planning and budgeting in record time.
Limelight allows you to automate forecasts as well, using actual numbers and driving metrics, so you can accurately track future outcomes. And by integrating automation into your FP&A workflow, you'll be reducing manual workload even further and gaining time for analysis.
Employees are often so used to Excel spreadsheets that it's hard to transition them to something new. Limelight gives employees the experience of Excel, using a web-based platform that is fast and intuitive. Being a cloud-secured platform also allows employees to log in from any device, at any time.
Enabling remote access, role-based security, and smart workflows leads to much more productive teams. Limelight allows you to stay connected, collaborate, and see how and where budgets progress as they're being updated.
Executive and management dashboards are clear and modern, with interactive charts and graphs, fully personalized to track team or organizational performance. Reports and forecasts are quick to create, have detailed drill-down, and can be automatically distributed to contributing team members and approvers.
Limelight takes what Sage Intacct does with its core accounting features, and provides a comprehensive suite of FP&A capabilities that address your business challenges and fuels your growth.
3. Workday Adaptive Planning
Formerly known as Adaptive Insights, Workday provides cloud Finance, HR, and Planning solutions for divisions, mid-size companies and enterprise companies.
Workday Adaptive Planning connects with its software partners, including Sage Intacct and other accounting systems, to provide FP&A functionality.
In addition to cash flow and revenue forecasting, Workday offers features such as workforce management tools, profitability analysis, capital planning and budget, financial close management, and analytics.
Workday Adaptive Planning provides clean dashboards that help you visualize complicated financial data in charts and graphs. This enables financial teams who are familiar and comfortable with numbers and data to break it all down for those who are not.
Their tools make it easy to compare results over various periods and to measure the recorded data with pre-set KPIs. In the long run, this enables companies to make informed financial decisions based on a number of factors they have at their fingertips.
Next Steps
Sage Intacct users who are ready to ditch their spreadsheets and enhance their planning and reporting out of Sage Intacct can begin by exploring these 3 Cloud FP&A platforms.
While there are a number of platforms to choose from, these top 3 differentiate themselves from the others with their impressive feature set, ease-of-use, and direct integration with Sage Intacct.
