Sage Intacct Collaborate

We take for granted how often technology can help or hinder communication. The Sage Intacct Collaborate functionality, for example, is a standard feature that sounds simple at first but can profoundly improve the efficiency and accuracy of those organizations who use it.

Imagine the far too common scenario, exemplified by Alta Vista Tech employees Hollie and David:

Hollie notices that a GL entry made by her well-meaning colleague David was posted to the prior month. She thinks that the date is wrong, but she’s not sure. (❓)
Hollie wants to ask David if he knew what he was doing (a reasonable question to ask 🙄). She could take a screenshot or print out a card copy, but these methods require many steps. Instead, she writes down the journal entry number. She minimizes her accounting program and opens her email. She composes an email to ask David to confirm that the journal entry was posted to the correct month and hits SEND. ( ✉ )
David is working hard in the accounting software, however, the ideal place to research this question, but doesn’t notice the email until he’s late for an appointment. By this time he’s closed his accounting system in favor of email so he can’t immediately investigate. He rushes out to his appointment and the email goes unanswered until the next day. ( 🤷‍♂️ )
Hollie has been handling many emergencies all day and realizes all too late that she won’t be able to resolve this question. She has to tell her management team that she’s unable to publish financials until her questions are addressed. Tears are shed. Hollie curses David’s name under her breath. (🤦‍♀️)
Blissfully unaware of the crisis he has caused, David returns to the email the next day. He notes the journal entry number, and then takes a few moments to locate the entry in the accounting system. Having researched the issue he switches programs again to email Hollie to tell her about his fix and to apologize. He makes a few clumsy jokes about being slow that secretly enrages Hollie. ( 😡 )

A New Way of Doing Things with Intacct Collaborate

In the above example an inefficient conversation played out using different software which adversely affected the speed of business. Imagine, instead, this chain of events:

Hollie sees the entry with a questionable date. Rather printing out hard copies or jotting down a journal entry number, she clicks a box on the entry itself to ask David about the date using the Sage Intacct Collaborate functionality.
David is in Sage Intacct when Hollie poses the question and he can see a notification at the top of his screen or even on his main dashboard. He clicks the link to be taken immediately to the entry in question (no more clicking through multiple windows to research! 😊 )
David spots the error of his ways ( 🙄 ) and corrects the entry. He comments on the entry to let Hollie know everything has been resolved and even attaches a spreadsheet for additional backup.
Hollie spots the reply in Sage Intacct and is able to notify her management team. (She could even auto-publish those statements or allow her management team to log in to get them directly using an inexpensive license… but that’s another blog post!)
Hollie celebrates promotions and the adoration of her peers.
Yes, even from David. ( 😎😎😎 )

Intacct Collaborate allows users to comment on transactions like shown above, but also on master records and graphs, like shown in the image below.

Questions on Collaborate or other ways to better leverage your accounting system? Drop us a line and let us know.