Innovative Systems scales with great reporting and execution

When Robert Merii joined Innovative Systems in 2021, a top priority was upgrading from an outdated QuickBooks system to a robust cloud financial- management platform geared for in-depth reporting and efficiency. 

Innovative Systems offers enterprise software for broadband and utility providers to simplify operations, drive revenue growth, and provide a surprisingly great customer experience. Merii, director of finance at Innovative Systems used Sage Intacct previously. He had experienced firsthand how its automation and process improvements could transform finance and knew it would be ideal for Innovative Systems. 

“Sage Intacct is very flexible, with an intuitive interface that allows you to do many different things and accommodate different needs across the business,” says Merii, who ranks Sage Intacct over other systems he has used. 

The results have been remarkable. In its first year on Sage Intacct, the South Dakota-based Innovative Systems has: 

• Eliminated 20 hours a month of manual account reconciliations 

• Cut monthly report preparation from four days to hours 
• Reduced monthly close time 33%, or five business days 
• Gained breakthrough visibility for revenue and expense forecasting 
• Data and time to focus on margin and customer retention 

Reporting brings better visibility 

Incisive dimensional reporting with Sage Intacct and its Contracts module is yielding insights not readily available with Excel spreadsheets and QuickBooks, delivering visibility for decision- making.  

“The standard reporting package we provide on a monthly basis is much more robust with Sage Intacct,” Merii says. “I’m able to provide detail-level P&L statements sliced and diced by revenue types, what we’re selling, and the location we’re selling it from.” 

Plus, Merii has new flexibility in customizing reports to unique stakeholder needs. 

“I can format those reports with just summary information for our executives, or detailed information for our sales reps to track how they’re doing against budget,” Merii says. 

New visibility into sales dynamics 

Innovative Systems is capitalizing on its new visibility to drill into sales drivers and opportunities that are helping the business scale. 

The Sage Intacct Contracts module contributes to efficiency and scale by automating contract renewal processes that previously were manually managed.  

“Sage Intacct has given us visibility into when contracts end, so our customer success team can be sure they’re on top of renewal dates and reach out proactively,” Merii says.  

Improved variance analysis and headcount planning 

With better forecasting across its revenue stream, Innovative Systems can make informed, data-driven decisions on expenditures.  

“It all starts with your ability to forecast revenue,” Merii says. “Sage Intacct has allowed us to plan much more diligently around headcount, which is a major cost driver.” 

Plus, Innovative Systems also has new capacity to track budget versus. actuals at a line-item level to identify and manage cost and revenue fluctuations more quickly. 

“We’re able to track budget information right down to the vendor and customer level,” Merii says. “I can understand, by GL account and department, where our variances are so we can hone in. Before Sage Intacct, we couldn’t recognize variances until after the fact.” 

Automation frees time for reporting and innovation 

Innovative Systems has newfound time to focus on analytics thanks to huge gains in accounting efficiency it’s achieved with Sage Intacct. 

The monthly reporting package used to take 4 days to compile: Now it’s ready in a matter of hours. The monthly close is down from 20 to 13 days, a 35% improvement. Account reconciliations that required about 20 hours a month of manual spreadsheet work are now handled automatically in seconds, and bank recs and prepaid expenses are automated as well. 

“We no longer have to do those reconciliations manually if the data is tagged correctly, and we put a big emphasis on that with the operational team,” Merii says. “It’s a huge time saver.” 

Innovative Systems is also improving efficiency by integrating Sage Intacct with a Q Commission tool that automates sales commissions, Avalara, to automate sales tax compliance, and a Fyle expense management application. Next up, Merii plans to evaluate the Sage Intacct AP module to automate accounts payables. 

Learn more 

Innovative Systems is one of a growing number of software providers to adopt Sage Intacct, making us the #1 solution of choice for software companies outgrowing QuickBooks or migrating from a legacy system, according to studies by The SaaS CFO. 

Find out what Sage Intacct can offer your company at bit.ly/sageahead, packed with resources on topics such as reporting, revenue recognition, subscription billing, SaaS metrics, and more.