Percipient Sales Director Laurie Stanwick looks at how Sage Intacct can help you stay ahead of the recruitment industry’s growth curve.
Modern Systems for Market Share
When it comes to financial management in recruitment, you’d be forgiven for assuming the back office has kept pace with the front. But in our experience, this is rarely the case. It’s not uncommon for our team to witness legacy finance systems creaking under the weight of evolved business models. For many, despite an innovative vision and robust supporting strategy, firms are still grappling with systems designed for an era gone by.
But as the relationship between digital adoption and innovation becomes increasingly difficult to ignore, forward-thinking firms are embracing modern systems such as Sage Intacct, as a means to addressing this gap, and gaining market share.
Intelligence Beyond the Numbers
The right financial intelligence, delivered in a timely manner, can bring a huge competitive edge. Recruitment tends to represent a bit of a barometer as to where investment in skills and labour is being channelled, and through leveraging modern capabilities to highlight trends and subsequent opportunities, team leads or departments heads can be one step ahead in targeting the right markets in their pursuit of growth. For example, where demand for certain roles is high, consultants can be re-deployed to capitalise on the opportunity. Similarly, through being able to understand in real-time whether, say permanent placements are commanding more profit than temps, efforts can be adjusted appropriately.
Reinventing the Role of Finance
Against this backdrop, finance departments need to reinvent themselves to be value creators, and drive both performance and the strategic direction of the business. In line with this shift, those systems they’ve grown up with no longer fit the brief.
We support so many customers on precisely these kinds of journeys. Key to the transition is embracing an open, proactive mindset. Rather than holding on to the way things have traditionally been done, whereby workarounds and re-keying of data is commonplace, the right approach sees a faster route to a better, more intelligent way of working.
Sage Intacct complements and supports this mindset, presenting a wealth of contextualised data in a few clicks. And because it can be used by finance and non-finance users alike, sales or operational personnel can access insights to better plan and address trends which require attention.
Elevating What’s Possible
Sage Intacct elevates what is possible in the following ways:
Cash Flow Management
Live insights into debtors, creditors and the organisation’s cash status expedite cashflow. Processes can be adjusted, relationship better managed, and debts minimised to secure the optimal cash position.
Project Accounting
In any professional services business, it’s crucial to track expenses against tasks or projects in order to understand the costs and profitability of a particular job or client. Sage Intacct provides everything you need from project tracking to employee time tracking, with full-featured costing and resource management, to billing and revenue recognition solutions.
Billing
Through eliminating inefficient workflows and automating accounts payable (AP) processes, Sage Intacct can save weeks and months of time, equating to thousands of pounds, or consultancy days. The time freed up can then be channelled into innovation.
Dimensions
Dimensions allow data granularity with no limit on how many fields can be input and analysed. From energy usage to travel and expenses, the insights extend way beyond traditional financials to assist both efficiency and performance-related business goals. Given the high levels of growth in the sector, the ability to add more dimensions to support scale is paramount.
Real-Time Reporting
Faster, confident decision-making is a reality with Sage Intacct’s dashboards and reporting. Any queries can be answered in just a few clicks, and the system’s flexibility means that personnel can dive deeper into the data to create custom reports, dashboards, and visualisations.
Multi-Entity Management
Sage Intacct’s multi-entity management capabilities means that when taking on a new business, it’s as simple as adding a new tab. Sage Intacct can quickly and intuitively add the new entity to the main chart of accounts. As part of consolidation, this allows users to make comparisons which can expedite the value a new acquisition brings.
Integration
Easy integration with other systems is easy and drives true visibility from across the business. Through pulling through data from say, CRM or sales management systems, real-time reporting is more meaningful, painting a true picture of performance to boost decision-making.
A New Mindset
For recruitment firms, a move to Sage Intacct is so much more than switching out old software for new. It is a catalyst for a new mindset and better way of working.
If you’re a recruitment business looking to move to a system which can support your vision, take a look at our recent success story with Broster Buchanan. Contact us or call the team 01606 871332 today.
