5 reasons why logisense’s VP of finance loves Sage Intacct

Sunny Wu, the VP of finance at the fast-growing, SaaS-based billing software vendor LogiSense, has made the most of Sage Intacct’s rich capabilities to transform accounting and finance at her company. In less than three years, Wu has reduced monthly close time by 66%, increased the volume of reports by 10x, and reduced days sales outstanding by 10 days to accelerate cash flow by roughly 33%. And that’s without adding staff to a two-person accounting team, even as the number of contracts rose 50%.

As a result, LogiSense leaders have more timely and accurate data and reports that have improved profitability and helped the company grow as a leading provider of usage rating and subscription billing for communications companies such as Garmin, Cisco, Five9, Momentum, and Vonage.

“I absolutely love Sage Intacct,” as Wu says in our new LogiSense customer success story. “The ease of use, dimensional accounting, and real-time drill down into transactions has made my life much easier. We’re delivering timely and accurate reporting that allows our leadership to make more informed business decisions.”

Wu, a CPA with nearly two decades of experience in accounting, auditing, and financial planning and analysis (FP&A), credits Sage Intacct with helping her modernize LogiSense’s financial management after an upgrade from QuickBooks and Excel. She shared with us five key reasons why she loves Sage Intacct: 

#1 — Ease of Use and the Help Function 

Wu enjoyed a pleasant surprise in his first use of Sage Intacct upon joining LogiSense in 2018. Coming from an Oracle JD Edwards system at her previous job, Wu found Sage Intacct remarkably simple to use. “From day one, I loved Sage Intacct,” Wu said. “It’s so intuitive, well designed, and easy to use. I could immediately see design concepts and details that would be so useful to a finance professional.” 

Using the straightforward Help function, Wu basically self-trained on how to use the Sage Intacct system, with some assistance from BAASS, a Sage Intacct consulting partner. “I learned everything from scratch through the Help menu and its plain-language documentation,” Wu said. “That made it simple to begin using Sage Intacct.”

Since then, Wu has capitalized on Sage Intacct automation and features like Search to improve overall accounting efficiency by an estimated 100%, eliminating dozens of hours of manual data work. 

#2 — Dimensional Accounting and Reporting 

Wu had past experience with dimension-based financial management while using an IBM Cognos TM1 solution at a previous employer. She’s been delighted to take advantage of the robust dimensional capabilities in Sage Intacct. “Dimensional accounting in Sage Intacct really allows finance professionals to produce flexible, customized reporting with the ability to slice and dice anything,” Wu said. 

Now, Wu is producing more than 10 different reports for executives, business unit leaders, and other stakeholders, each tailored to their specific needs. That’s up from just three basic reports in the past. “Sage Intacct dimensions have really helped me customize reports the way our leaders want them, which varies by business unit,” Wu said. “It’s just a single click, I run the report and send it to them — very easy.” 

#3 — The Sage Intacct Team 

Wu has been impressed with the Sage Intacct team, from account and product managers to customer service and support. She’s also found that company’s commitment to customer success is reflected in a highly intuitive product that blends simplicity and with sophisticated capabilities. 

“Sage Intacct clearly cares about its customers in every respect — from the product design to continuously updating customer knowledge, offering events and peer-to-peer support, and sharing best practices that you can learn from,” Wu said. “It feels like Sage Intacct is a big community for finance professionals.”

For example, a Sage Intacct product management expert reached out to Wu for her feedback after LogiSense licensed the collections module. He inquired about product strengths and areas for improvement, and shared upcoming enhancements planned for the module. “Sage Intacct is always willing to listen to customer opinion and feedback to help guide product evolution,” Wu said. “I think it’s pretty amazing.” 

#4 — Real-Time Drill Down 

Wu is saving a great deal of time without needing to hunt for transactional details in invoices, purchase orders, and other records. Instead, Sage Intacct makes it easy to drill down into the specifics behind a transaction. 

“Sage Intacct lets you drill down into any of the transactions on your screen as long as there’s a blue link,” Wu noted. “It’s very helpful to be able to quickly find the original source of a transaction, to understand where it came from and how it was approved and examine any backup documentation.” 

#5 — Audit Trail 

As a former auditor, Wu especially appreciates how the Sage Intacct audit trail helps streamline annual audits. “The ability to attach documentation to any transaction so that information is at your fingertips is very valuable in meeting auditor requests,” Wu said.

LogiSense is not alone among Sage Intacct customers in now being audit ready. We often hear from customers that audit efficiency and effectiveness is enhanced with a single system of record, and by granting auditors read-only access to Sage Intacct.  

Sage Intacct Results: a 66% Improvement in Closing 

For LogiSense, Wu’s favorite Sage Intacct capabilities translate into bottom-line value in efficiency and visibility. “Sage Intacct has cut my time in half and saves us at least one full-time accountant we’d need if we were still on QuickBooks,” Wu said. “With the efficiency in Sage Intacct, I can manage and report our financials properly with just an office manager handling accounts payable.” 

In one example, 16 hours of manual expense management work each month has been eliminated through integration between Sage Intacct and a third-party Expensify application. The month end cycle is 66% faster with the Sage Intacct automated journal entries, while the spending was well managed with the purchasing module. 

Wu is now closing the monthly books in just five business days, down 66% from about 15 days in the past, while delivering far more in-depth and incisive reporting than was possible with QuickBooks and Excel.

“The quicker close with more accurate reporting and information allows our leaders to make better decisions,” Wu said. “We have faster insights with Sage Intacct that let us act immediately to address issues, without delays and without depending on outdated data.”  

Building on Success with Sage Intacct Budgeting and Planning 

With incisive reporting, LogiSense has significantly enhanced profitability in specific business units and the company as a whole. The professional services unit, for example, has gone from a loss to profitability — a shift of 35 percentage points — with the ability to better track and adjust costs and pricing.

Meanwhile, use of the Sage Intacct collection modules has helped LogiSense reduce DSO by 25%, from about 40 to 30 days. Automated notifications and dunning features are prompting more timely payments, accelerating cash flow by roughly 33% with funds that can be invested in continued growth. Plus, the company has clear visibility into payment status for manual intervention as needed.

Building on success, LogiSense brought in Sage Intacct Budgeting and Planning in 2020 to replace Excel-based budgeting. The integration provides Wu and team with an automated solution that brings a new level of accuracy, consistency and efficiency to budget vs actuals reporting. “Now it’s done with a single click. Budgeting and Planning integrated with Sage Intacct is definitely making my life easier.” Wu said. Additionally, they now have drilldown into real-time transactional detail.

Check out the LogiSense customer success story to see why a fast-growing, SaaS-based billing software vendor loves the Sage Intacct experience of easy-to-use reporting, control, and efficiency.