Using Technology to Manage Financial Operations in a Dispersed Organization

By Bill Constantopoulos

If we learned anything from the past few years of pandemic-induced disruption it is this: People can work efficiently and effectively from virtually anywhere. Even the bourgeoning return-to-the-office movement has adapted hybrid work weeks that blend in-person attendance with remote work. But the dispersal of workers poses a challenge to managers who need to remain aware of activities that may no longer be under one roof.

Nowhere is this challenge more critical than in an organization’s finance management function. A CFO or Controller needs the ability to gather vital data from widely scattered sources, all while potentially working from home themselves!

Other software platforms have been developed to foster remote collaboration. Slack, Zoom, and Teams (among others) can help maintain communications between geographically spaced colleagues. But few financial management software platforms offer comparable collaborative features. Typically, “remote” data needs to be converted, filtered, or even entered manually before it becomes part of an organization’s overall financial database. This is time consuming, expensive, and rife with the potential for error.

One solution we have researched, implemented and endorse is the Sage Intacct ERP (enterprise resource planning) system. A key feature integral to Sage Intacct is the ability to monitor, collect, and automatically synchronize financial information from multiple locations. Throughout, you gain real-time visibility and insights to track and measure key metrics like sales, expenses, inventory, profit margin, cost of goods sold, transportation costs, workforce levels, and more, all through real-time, role-based dashboards.

Sage Intacct also automates consolidation of entities (such as subsidiaries or business units) and automates inter-company transaction eliminations in the consolidation process. The software also incorporates human resources, payroll, and time tracking features to support an organization’s full spectrum of financial management needs. Plus, because Sage Intacct is built for the cloud, with an open API, it is easy to integrate other software should you wish to work with an existing CRM platform.

We have implemented Sage Intacct for organizations of all sizes, across a wide range of industry sectors including professional services, nonprofits, construction, real estate, financial services, healthcare, SaaS, manufacturing & distribution, and more. If your company or organization has multiple locations, or is confronted with the challenge of managing remote workers and operations, the Sage Intacct ERP platform may be the ideal solution.