Intacct vs. FinancialForce

Ready to integrate your front and back offices to reduce keystrokes, centralize data needed by multiple parties, and increase data accuracy across your business? Then it is time for you to start thinking about connecting your CRM to your accounting system, and two great products to consider if your CRM platform is the “best of breed” Salesforce.com (SFDC) product, are Intacct and FinancialForce.com (FF).

Both are highly reviewed, averaging 4.5 out of 5 in user feedback, but if you are the accountant in the company, you will want to consider some of the finer points of comparison between the two. This paper will help you do that with less footwork on your part, as well as pointing you towards some customizations our clients frequently find useful to get either product to work exactly the way their business process demands.

For example, perhaps you would like to allow customers to view and download their invoices at will and/or track customer purchase/renewal requests submitted through a portal, generate serial numbers associated with each transaction, or capture online purchases and parse them to Account, License and/or other custom objects then port directly into the accounting system, so that all purchase data automatically creates Sales Orders, Sales Invoices and Credit Memos within the accounting system.

If you are in a hurry, the following basic comparison may suffice. Just review the following and make your decision on basic criteria like price, nativity, or reporting.

FinancialForce	Intacct
Native SFDC solution (largely owned by SFDC)	Non-native, but very well-regarded. Intacct uses a different database and connects to SFDC using the Max plug-in, which costs $6000/yr.
Both are dual entry	Both are dual entry
Uses standard SFDC pages and fields, so highly customizable. Uses SFDC reporting engine as well.	More flexible reporting engine, eliminating some exporting to Excel that is common with SFDC reports.
Both do the implementation for you, including data migration, for a charge that varies according to the requirements of the data migration. Range given for set up was $10-12k	Both do the implementation for you, including data migration, for a charge that varies according to the requirements of the data migration. Cost ranges, but estimate given for set up was $15k
Both charge monthly per user fees based on type of user license plus flat per org yearly fee. FF charges $9000 yearly per org plus $175/month for core users (access to all features), $10/month for sales users (view data only), and $125/m for executive users (report on data, but not edit it).	Intacct charges: - $4800 yearly per org - plus another $600/yr/entity - and $400/month for the first full user (access to all features) - and $200/m for all full users after the first, - plus $10/month for sales users (view data only) - There is also a charge of $6000 yearly for the connector to SFDC.

If your accounting needs are sophisticated, such as working with multiple currencies, foreign subcontractors, or multiple entities, the following detailed comparison is for you.

GENERAL LEDGER

Both Products Equally:

Reporting

a) Trial Balance

b) Balance Sheet

c) Income Statement

d) Cash Flow

e) Variance reports

f) Account reconciliation

g) Revaluation reports/ Adjusting Journal Entry Reports

h) Ability to create customized ad-hoc reports

Journal Entries - Import Journal entries from Excel

Budgets - Importing Budgets from Excel

Regions - Ability to allocate revenue per sales region

Differences:

Month end closing - with Intacct, must run adjustments per entity per module. The system generates an adjustment report but it does not auto create journal entries. Closing/adjusting entries have to be booked manually.

Financial statements consolidation entries - Intacct uniquely supports both the current and temporal/historical methods for translating foreign currency subcontactors’ financial statements.

Period Closing by accounting module (AR/AP, etc) – with FinancialForce (FF) period closing by module can be custom configured.

Rule based allocations - Ability to allocate entries to different accounts/departments based on defined rules - Not available in FF

Journal Entries

a) When entering non-functional currency, the system should show functional -currency and operational currency views during data entry along with currency exchange rate being visible – In FF only transaction currency view is available when entering journals; historical entries/rates adjustment not possible; transaction, functional, operational currency views available only when journal is posted. In Intacct operational amount view not available; only the base/ functional amount can be adjusted if FX is non-current. Currency translation adjustment is accomplished via consolidation.

b) Multi natural/document currencies during one journal entry – in FF, only one transaction currency per journal entry

c) Recurring journal entries – in FF this feature is not available, but can use Excel add-in to import recurring journals from Excel

d) reversing journal entries – in FF can cancel posted journal entries, but if JE is in non-home currency, reversal will be based on FX in effect when the reversing journal is posted

e) If GJ can be cancelled what kind of controls are linked to this? (i.e.: user restrictions, period, segregation of duties) – in Intacct within all modules, when a transaction is entered and the "Save" button is hit, the transaction gets auto-posted. Transactivions saved/posted can still be edited/deleted as long as the corresponding GL period is open. Segregation of duties can be done by enabling user restrictions (e.g., employee doing journal entries would only have list/view/add options and only the manager would have edit/delete options)

Budgets

a) Multiple sets of budget numbers per entity – in FF only one set can be entered per company; have to create multiple companies to accommodate multiple sets of budget numbers.

b) Consolidated budget in operational currency – in FF only one budget currency per company; operational currencies have to be entered in another entity. Intacct allows an exchange rate override per fiscal period. However, the exchange rate override affects both “Actual” and “Budget” amounts. There is no ability to override the exchange rate only for Budget values. Therefore, the only option is to have a separate Entity created expressly for the purpose of budgeting. In this case, Entity “A” (Actual) would use the fluctuating monthly exchange rates to revalue the regular GL Activity into CAD. There would be no budget associated with entity “A”. Additionally, Entity “B” (Budget) would be created. There would be no regular transactions in entity “B”. Instead, the entity “B” would only contain a budget. During the consolidation process, the user would override the exchange rate on entity “B” in order to provide a consistent exchange rate on the Budget. Variance reporting (actual vs. budget) would be done by consolidating entity A and entity B. Have to maintain 2 extra entities to accommodate budget; Intacct charges $600/entity

c) Budget exchange rate (FX) maintenance/rate entry - Not available in FF

Number of available dimensions/segments for Chart of GL accounts - FF has a GL account field and four dimension fields which can be used to accommodate other chart of accounts segments like dept, region, etc. Intacct offers 13 segments

Summarized posting for sub-ledger generated entries - Not available in Intacct (individual posting only)

SALES INTEGRATION

Both Products Equally:

a) Will not create multiple invoices from one opportunity

b) Auto matching of sales invoices

c) Cash batch entry

d) Sales reporting (actual vs. Metrics)

e) Ability to distinguish between direct/indirect sales

f) Supporting commodity taxes (US sales, HST, GST, VAT)

Differences:

Batch posting for invoices - in Intacct this feature is not available; an invoice gets posted once saved (save = post)

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For additional comparisons between the two options, or to get help mapping your business process to their offerings or customizing to your company’s needs, contact us and allow one of our Accounting Business Analysts to walk you through it. Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Deferred Revenue Accounting/Recognition, Exchange Rates, Intercompany functionality, Banking and Cash Management, and GAAP considerations are just a few of the additional areas where differences exist between the two products that may be relevant to your business process. We can help you with gap analysis and help you select the right product.

Even once a product is selected, you may want additional customization. Working with the API (Intacct) or with apex code within the platform (FinancialForce), we can custom code a solution for you to enhance the operation of whichever accounting system you choose. This can also be used when neither product has all the features you want, but one has more than the other. We can help you identify the gaps between each product and your needs, recommend the best fit, then customize it to be exactly the solution you want. Find out more about our System Integration services.

MaestroConference's unique solution

A service that seems to have been largely limited to the life coaching industry up to now that I see presenting unique advantages for businesses and non-profits alike is the MaestroConference service. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know I have previously recommended remote meeting services such as GoToMeeting, Adobe Connect, BrightTALK, and others. These services each have their particular advantages, but Maestro is one that I'm really taking notice of these days when screen-sharing isn't the focus of the meeting.

You can choose Maestro for the same core remote conferencing abilities most conference call services offer, the ability for large numbers of people at dispersed locations to all participate in a single conversation. But the key distinguish-er for Maestro is that it allows for the on-the-fly creation of something they call break-out groups.

Let's say you are having a meeting about an upcoming conference your company or organization is going to be hosting. Within the meeting you clarify that certain core decisions need to be made before you can continue, but the group is too large for that level of decision making to take place effectively. So instead you segment the meeting into groups of 12 (the max recommended size for decision-making conversations) and ask each group to come up with their recommendations for the solution. Then with a single click of the mouse the conference presenter can bring the entire group back together after a certain amount of discussion time and presenters from each group can share the results from each group. The conversation can then continue with far more focus and clarity than the group of hundreds could possibly have managed within a single conversation.

This is just one usage example for my favorite Maestro feature. Other desirable features are an open API for integration with other systems that can allow the tracking of "during call" activity to a related database system, the ability to download a CSV of attendees that can easily be imported into any CRM system, the ability of attendees to create their own polls during the meeting (very helpful for breakout groups), and the ability to use the system in any browser without the need for attendees to download any software.

Maestro comes with a heftier price tag per attendee than some of its competition, but the additional features make it a recommended option for your company or organization to explore. Use this Maestro Demo call link to sign up for a free demo so that you can participate in a Maestro conference call yourself, while also getting all your questions answered about the service. And don't forget to visit their Features page for a full list of Maestro advantages.

BrightTALK Gets You Heard

At AspiraTech we have long been users of the GoToMeeting family of products, which you can see reviewed in this previous blog entry here: How GoToMeeting Outshines the Competition. GoToWebinar is a great product offering, but a new entry in the sector worth your attention is the BrightTalk (BT) webinar/video platform.

One refreshing difference between BT and other online conferencing services is that attendees are unlimited. But in many respects it is like others: it is easy to convert webinars into recorded videos for distribution to those who did not attend the webinar; there are the great polling, survey and download features you would expect. What really distinguishes BT from its competitors is its social media integration.

With BrightTalk, you can turn your webinars into powerful marketing tools with great ease. From their website:

~ Share your videos and events on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn with one-click sharing features
~ Include social sharing for audience at time of registration, immediately prior to an event, and while viewing your online events live and on demand
~ Encourage your audience and presenters to invite their own network
~ Allow your audience to subscribe to your channel feed using RSS
~ Include keywords in text for search engine optimization
~ Access the BrightTALK audience and promote your content to relevant BrightTALK communities

This broadens the applicability of your webinar service. Instead of being a way to strengthen relationships with existing customers or those who already have acted on curiosity about your products or services, BT gives you a way to draw them in before they even know your company's name. Attendees can sign up for webinars from all around the internet.

Pricing starts as low as $150 monthly (for unlimited attendees). When you consider that GoToWebinar charges $399 monthly with a limit of 500 attendees and without the social media component, BrightTALK is very competitive. Check it out.