Nottingham Venues Modernises Financials with Percipient and Sage Intacct
Hospitality scale-up drives ambitious growth plans and achieves
25% efficiency savings with Sage Intacct Partner of the Year.
About Nottingham Venues
A wholly owned subsidiary of the University of Nottingham, Nottingham Venues is a collection of independent venues specialising in meetings and events, set in the beautiful grounds of the University of Nottingham. By bringing together all of the University’s conferencing, hotel and event spaces under one iconic brand, Nottingham Venues is uniquely positioned to host a range of events, from student accommodation to a four-star hotel experience.
Nottingham Venues owns The Orchard Hotel & Restaurant, The Jubilee Hotel & Conferences, East Midlands Conference Centre, and Campus Venues.
In June 2022, the venue specialist exited from parent company De Vere Hotels and acquired a new property, Hugh Stewart Manor House, before consolidating and rebranding as Nottingham Venues.
Scaling Up with Sage Intacct
Having exited De Vere Hotels in 2022, Nottingham Venues needed a new financial system to replace the one it had inherited from Sage X3. Following a review of the market, the team selected Sage Intacct from Percipient based on its fit for the organisation’s scale-up phase.
“Having evaluated both Sage X3 and other solutions on the market, Sage Intacct stood out by a mile,” comments Libby Wain, Financial Controller, Nottingham Venues. “We have a relatively small finance team and needed a finance system which was not only easy to use but could bring in intelligence to free up resources and scale as we grow.
“Sage Intacct’s ease of use, intuitive interface and the way it allowed us to drill down into detail in a click, as needed, went above and beyond our requirements, and made our decision very easy.
“Our initial demo was fantastic, and we instantly had confidence in the system. In comparison to Sage X3 and Sage 200, which we also reviewed, it was in a different league. Built for a modern, intelligence-driven way of working, it was far and above the best system.”
Since deploying Sage Intacct, we are operating so much more efficiently and have saved around 25% in time across different processes. To free up more than a day each week is huge and has enabled us to expand the value of the department, driving greater value and bringing intelligence from which to plan and pursue growth.
Game-Changing Capabilities
Since going live, Sage Intacct has been a game changer for the finance team at Nottingham Venues, as Libby explains:
“Going live with Sage Intacct was so smooth, and because the system is so easy to use, the team just got on with using it straight away. We currently use it for the Purchase Ledger predominantly, with plans to extend this to our Sales Ledger soon. For us, the magic of Sage Intacct is that it allows us to click on a line and access all related posts or invoices. We’ve just gone through an audit, and this capability has made the process so much easier. The speed at which we have been able to extract information really can’t be underestimated.”
Efficiency Savings of 25%
Sage Intacct has eliminated the use of Excel and manual processes for Nottingham Venues, which not only streamlines finance processes, freeing up substantial amounts of time, but also eliminates errors and inaccuracies that come with re-keying. One area where this is delivering immense value is in more accurate P&L reviews at the end of each month, as Libby identifies:
“In our most recent P&L review, we spotted an anomaly for March, which without Sage Intacct could have gone undetected or uninvestigated. Because the system is so intelligent, we were able to investigate quickly, learn that it was an item that had been coded incorrectly, and rectify it without losing any time.
“The venue company is also using a new purchase order (PO) system to expedite processing and elevate accuracy. Because everything is now in a digital record, resources are freed up, response times are more efficient, and accuracy is improved.
“Since deploying Sage Intacct, we are operating so much more efficiently and have saved around 25% in time across different processes. To free up more than a day each week is huge and has enabled us to expand the value of the department, driving greater value and bringing intelligence from which to plan and pursue growth.”
The team is so professional, responsive and lovely to deal with, which is a rare thing in this industry. We love their ethos, and it is testament to our trust in Percipient and Sage Intacct that we extended the solution with the purchase of SIP.
Enhancing Forecasting with Sage Intacct Planning (SIP)
To further support this capability, Nottingham Venues is about to go live with Sage Intacct Planning (SIP) to refine planning and forecasting.
“Sage Intacct Planning will allow us to refine our budgeting, making it more dynamic to enhance our forecasts. Because the system enables scenario planning, we can examine the impact of adjusting different variables, such as increasing or decreasing resources or bookings across front of house, food and beverage, sales and events, marketing, housekeeping, the kitchen, or maintenance.”
Fully integrated with Sage Intacct, SIP will complement and amplify the core capabilities within Sage Intacct, providing a single, meaningful, and intelligent version of the truth that enables confidence, control, and collaboration.
Because SIP is based on the same principles as Sage Intacct, it simply pulls data from Sage Intacct and includes GL accounts, as well as the previous year’s budget. It can extract and process data at an accounting, departmental and dimension level to create an informed and intelligent forecast based on all the relevant facts and figures, from budget drivers to revenue calculations, driving cost bases, staffing and resources. It can map data from either Sage Intacct or external sources to budget lines, considering revenue, wages and salaries, overheads, energy usage and sustainability metrics, as well as actuals.
This comprehensive, live view will help foster collaboration across Nottingham Venues’ forecasting, allowing departments to contribute to the budget process and create a forecast that closely aligns with performance, market dynamics, variables, and intelligence, rather than simply looking at the previous year and adding or subtracting a percentage.
A Trusted Partnership
“Percipient instilled immense trust in us from day one. It’s not uncommon for someone to sell or demo a system never to be seen again, however Percipient set a whole new standard,” Libby concludes. “Laurie was our first point of contact and remains at the end of the phone should we ever need to contact him – no tickets or convoluted processes – just a reassuring presence we know is there to support us.
“The team is so professional, responsive and lovely to deal with, which is a rare thing in this industry. We love their ethos, and it is testament to our trust in Percipient and Sage Intacct that we extended the solution with the purchase of SIP. We’re looking forward to seeing more and more value both via forecasting and through expanding our use of the functionality in Sage Intacct itself as we continue our growth journey.”
The Sage Intacct Experts
If you’d like to learn more about Sage Intacct, SIP, or our Sage Intacct support service, contact us today or call us at 01606 871332.
