Sage has announced and revealed the first major update of Sage Intacct for 2023. Sage Intacct 2023R1 launches a new AP automation solution, strengthens existing features and makes several modules available beyond the US. It has added new features to Sage Intacct Construction, Sage Intacct Mateo (cloud-based Roman Catholic diocesan savings and loans solution) and Reporting.
Dan Miller, EVP of Sage Intacct, commented, “With this release, Sage continues to expand the reach of the Sage Intacct solution – with new innovative capabilities we deliver for our customers and relative to what global regions it is available. Midsize business requires speed and agility in the finance and accounting workflow that underpin every facet of their operations.
“We’re helping these businesses modernise their financial management systems to streamline processes and gain insights helping them improve productivity, reduce costs, and prepare their business for rapid growth.”
Globalisation
Sage is playing catchup with NetSuite in terms of globalising its solutions. With 2023R1, it has made several modules available in countries outside the US
- Accounts Payable Bill Automation is generally available in the US and is available in an early adopter program in Canada, the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Australia.
- Sage Intacct Planning is now available in South Africa and Australia; availability in the UK will follow during H1 2023. It is already available in the US and Canada.
- Sage Intelligent Time is now available in South Africa and Australia; availability in the UK will follow during H1 2023. It is already available in the US and Canada.
Sage Intacct is now open for early adopters in France. This is a major step forward for the internationalisation program. It is the first foreign language version available. It will also mean that Sage Intacct Manufacturing customers in France can now leverage Sage Intacct and FRP1000.
Sage has added bank feeds to several major French banks, including:
- Banque Populaire Tives de Paris
- BNP Paribas
- BNP Paribas Enterprise
- BRED banque Populaire
- CIC Banque Privée
- Crédit Mutuel
- La Banque Postale
- LCL
- Qonto
- Société Générale
Sage Intacct claims that the solution is now fully localised for France but didn’t provide details of what that means.
For South African organisations, 2023R1 has enabled the submission of VAT taxes manually or electronically for South African multi-tax entities.
Product Enhancements
As usual, Sage has strengthened the Financial aspect of Intacct. AP automation is an add-on to Accounts Payable. It automatically creates a draft AP invoice from purchase invoice documents uploaded or emailed to Sage Intacct. Details are automatically populated from the attachment and are available to review by AP teams. The add-on pricing is based on usage rather than licenses.
The feature increases the team’s efficiency, both in terms of speed and accuracy. IDC estimates that 34% of time spent by AP teams is spent on invoice entry. Combined with the other automation features in Intacct, including paperless approval routing, automated payment processing, automated reconciliation, and reporting, that figure should be reduced. AP is also enhanced with a new option to filter credits within a date range to streamline their application.
There are also improvements to accounts receivable, cash management, contract, general ledger, inventory, lease accounting, order entry, purchasing, and time and expenses.
Reporting has several new reports added, including:
- ICRW offers new Construction payroll reporting areas to enhance managing and tracking direct and indirect labour costs for your projects. They include:
- Payroll Report Check Summary
- Payroll Report Timecard Summary
- Centralise and detailed AR payment transaction reports are now available using a new AR Payments object
- A permissions report for all users
- Permission changes audit trail report
Intacct has also added features for several different industry types, including:
- Subscription-based businesses: Support for evergreen billing scenarios, including usage billing
- Project-based businesses: Expanded permissions for project manager users
- Construction: Enhancements to project contracts include support for retainage when generating project contract invoices
- Mateo Savings and Loan: Improved flexibility for financial statement generation, streamlined workflows, and expanded import capabilities.
Enterprise Times: What does this mean?
The launch of Sage Intacct into France is probably the biggest part of this release. Otherwise, most other updates seem more iterative in adding value for customers. Finance teams will welcome the addition of the new AP automation features. However, with a cost associated with this firm will want to consider other available products offering wider benefits such as Tipalti.
Does the Intacct AP Automation threaten its existing AP Automation partners such as Tipalti, Mineral Tree, Stampli, Yooz, AvidXchange and Bill to name a few.
