What makes Sage Intacct the ideal reporting tool?

If you're looking to invest in a new financial management and reporting solution, you've almost certainly come across Sage Intacct.

Sage Intacct is a powerful cloud-based accounting software that combines everything finance teams need in a single, scalable platform. Every day, businesses across the globe rely on Sage Intacct to streamline their processes with built-in automation and provide the real-time insights they need to drive business growth.

As an all-in-one solution, Sage Intacct also boasts impressive financial reporting capabilities. With an extensive selection of reports and dashboards available right out of the box, coupled with an intuitive custom report writer, it’s the ideal tool for any business.

Let’s take a closer look at the capabilities and benefits of Sage Intacct reporting.

Reports vs dashboards: what’s the difference?

Reports

Reports provide comprehensive, structured insights into business data – typically over a defined period. Available in various forms, including tables and charts, reports help you analyse performance and trends.

Traditionally, reports were a static medium providing a snapshot of your data at a specific point. However, modern reporting tools offer interactive features, such as filtering, sorting, and drill-down capabilities, that allow you to explore the data in greater depth.

Dashboards

Dashboards serve as real-time or near-real-time visual summaries of key performance indicators (KPIs) and essential metrics. Unlike reports, dashboards are designed for quick consumption, using visual elements like heat maps to highlight trends and anomalies at a glance.

They provide a high-level snapshot of business performance. This makes them particularly useful for executives and decision-makers who need to monitor ongoing operations without delving into detailed analysis.

5 benefits of Sage Intacct reporting

1. Ease of use

Sage Intacct makes it easy to create, edit, and share reports. The intuitive drag and drop functionality and automatic formatting let you perform detailed data analysis in a fraction of the time it takes using a standard spreadsheet. You can also drill down into individual data points for quick and easy access to granular insights.

Sage Intacct’s straightforward user interface and time-saving automation can increase employee productivity by over 65%.

– Sage

2. Instant access to real-time insights

If Excel is your primary reporting tool, you'll know that it can take days – even weeks – to compile a detailed report. And by the time you're finished, the information it contains may no longer be relevant. Sage Intacct’s reporting tools and dynamic dashboards enable you to monitor business financials in real time. With access to accurate, live insights, you can make more informed and confident decisions.

3. Customisable dashboards

Alongside its extensive reporting suite, Sage Intacct features a range of customisable dashboards. Beyond the high-level finance views every team needs – like cash flow, sales, and expenses – you can tailor your dashboards based on things like user roles and objectives. For example, accounts receivable clerks can filter their view to show aged debt reports and outstanding invoices.

4. Dimensional analysis

Sage Intacct’s multi-dimensional analysis lets you filter reports based on your preferred criteria. Whether you want to know which products are selling best or a comprehensive breakdown of costs per project, you see exactly what you need, when you need it.

Figure 1: a Sage Intacct report showing revenue by dimension

Figure 2: a Sage Intacct report showing performance by project

5. Built-in automation

Automation is a big part of Sage Intacct’s success. Deployed strategically throughout the platform, its time-saving tools streamline manual reporting processes to help finance teams work more efficiently. For example, you can schedule reports to go out on specific dates or when you close at month-end.

Sage Intacct can reduce month-end report times by up to 66%.

– Sage

What’s available out of the box?

Sage Intacct comes with over 150 ready-made reports and charts which you can duplicate and modify as required. They’re quick and easy to use, making them the ideal starting point on your journey.

Popular reports include:

• Profit and loss (annual)
• Profit and loss (multi-dimension)
• Profit and loss (actual vs budget)
• Balance sheet
• Cash flow statement
• Trial balance

Figure 3: a standard profit and loss statement (actual vs budget) in Sage Intacct

Figure 4: a cash flow statement in Sage Intacct

Custom reports

One of the main reasons businesses around the globe love Sage Intacct for financial reporting is its  custom report writer. Designed to empower finance teams with little or no coding experience, it boasts a range of features to help you create bespoke reports and dashboards, including:

• Drag-and-drop design tools
• Hierarchical field selection
• Conditional formatting
• Automatic grouping

That said, if you're new to the platform, it can be difficult to know where to start. A dedicated Sage Intacct partner can teach you how to navigate its report creation tools. At Datel, we go one step further. Our Customer Success Managers work with you to understand your business, reporting requirements, and objectives. Combined with our product expertise, we give you the knowledge and skills to develop a suite of custom reports that facilitate meaningful actions.

A custom report is the perfect choice if you need a detailed breakdown of a specific dataset that isn’t covered in the standard reports. These two examples show the level of depth you can get with Sage Intacct reporting.

Figure 5: an example report showing expenses by department and average spend per head

Figure 6: a custom report showing revenue by square foot of a specific site

Getting the most out of Sage Intacct reporting with an accredited partner

It’s easy to get started with Sage Intacct reporting, thanks to its user-friendly interface and intuitive tools. But if you have limited time and resources, you might find it easier to work with an experienced Sage Intacct partner.

Accredited Sage partners, like Datel, work with you to develop solutions that continue to deliver value and drive growth as your business evolves. This includes helping you design, test, and launch to new reports and dashboards as your requirements change.

Sage expertise

Years of experience implementing Sage Intacct solutions for businesses of all shapes and sizes in various industries gives accredited partners unrivalled product knowledge. They know the software inside and out, which makes them perfectly placed to show your finance team how to:

• Migrate and reconcile data
• Set up and modify standard reports
• Create custom reports and dashboards
• Use advanced features, like multi-dimensional analysis
• Integrate data with other business systems

Close working relationship with Sage

Accredited Sage Partners, like Datel, occupy a privileged position. Our close working relationship with Sage means we hear about product developments before anyone else. We also have access to exclusive communication channels. Experiencing issues with a particular report? Have an idea for a new feature? We can escalate your feedback directly to Sage’s product development team, giving you a say in how the software evolves.

Dedicated customer success managers

Most Sage partners provide some level of support before, during, or after launch. But what sets us apart is our dedicated customer success managers (CSMs). Like any business, your requirements and goals change over time. Our CSMs work side-by-side with your finance team to ensure your Sage Intacct solution evolves alongside your business to facilitate long-term success.

Keep your financial reporting Intacct

When you're looking for in-depth financial analysis, there’s no substitute for a dedicated reporting tool.

Sage Intacct’s user-friendly design and strategic automation capabilities turn financial reporting from a time-consuming chore into a key driver for business success. With a range of standard reports and customisable dashboards, it’s no wonder Sage Intacct is the reporting software of choice for a growing number of businesses.