Growing Holding Company with Complex Needs Simplifies Accounting Processes and Saves Time With Sage Intacct

CHALLENGES

A Cumbersome Premise-Based Accounting System That Wasted Valuable Time

According to Rebecca Miller, Assistant Controller, Byler Holdings’ previous small business accounting software lacked the functionality the business needed to effectively manage the financials for all of its divisions and subsidiaries.

“We had long since outgrown it,” said Miller. She explained that each of their companies (they had 24 at the time and have 30 now) operates independently from each other and is, therefore, on its own account in the software. With their former solution, there was no data synchronization between them. So, if she needed to make the same data entry in multiple accounts—such as distributing a shared expense across multiple companies—she had to enter the information into each account manually. Recording inter-entity sales (such as their concrete company’s stone purchases from their quarry) was also challenging to manage.

“I’m pretty sure I spent more time logging in and out of company files than actually doing productive work,” she shared.

Miller said that because the software allowed only two company files to be open at a time, she had to do a lot of backtracking and cross-checking to ensure entries were accurate everywhere. “It got really frustrating, and we needed to rely heavily on Excel spreadsheets.”

The premise-based solution posed other challenges besides the tedium and inefficiencies Miller described. If the server went down, crashed, or had issues with backups, it was difficult to restore, and software updates were also painful.

“You’d have to schedule everything and then make sure everybody was on the same software update. It would become really difficult when we weren’t all on the same page. There are so many things about the system that could get really messy really fast.”

Miller explained that after the company’s new CFO came on board, they began researching alternative software options to alleviate their pain points.

SOLUTIONS

Cloud-Based Accounting Software With Efficiency-Boosting Features and Capabilities

As Byler Holdings zeroed in on Sage Intacct as their chosen software, the Cargas name repeatedly came up in conversations with Sage and some payroll providers they were vetting, so they reached out to learn more.

“As we looked at Sage Intacct, we had a lot of questions because we are finance people, not software people. The Cargas team answered anything we were unsure of, making us feel at ease and confident about our decision.”

Byler Holdings signed with Cargas in May 2019, and its Sage Intacct solution went live in November of that year. Currently, nine permanent employees are using the software to manage financials for the parent company’s four divisions and 30 companies beneath it.

Their solution features:

• All Sage Intacct Core Financials modules:
  • General Ledger
  • Accounts Payable
  • Accounts Receivable
  • Cash Management
  • Order Management
  • Purchasing
  • Invoicing & Billing
  • Dimensions
  • Dashboards & Reporting
  • Customization Services
• Integration with Ramp (a software platform for automating accounts payable processing)

“The number of things I can accomplish in a day I couldn’t do without the Sage Intacct software.” 

—Rebecca Miller, Assistant Controller, Byler Holdings

BENEFITS

Streamlined Access to Multiple Entities, Simplified Data Entry, Robust Reporting

Miller said that with Sage Intacct, she can have multiple company tabs open at once, which shaves off hours when completing journal entries and making intercompany transactions. Moreover, she can respond to questions almost immediately because all the information she needs is more readily accessible.

“With everything laid open at my fingertips, I’m ready to roll,” she shared. “It saves so much time.”

In addition, the capability to make one entry and disperse it across all of Byler Holdings’ companies eliminates much of the backtracking and double-checking of entries in multiple accounts. “I can combine all the companies from one entry and it’s done,” explained Miller. “Also, the ability to connect our bank accounts and import their transaction feeds has made reconciliations much easier and less time-consuming.”

In addition, Miller enjoys having all attachments and files in one central place and access to the cloud-based system anywhere and anytime.

Matthew Engle, who joined Byler Holding’s accounting team in 2020, shared that although he wasn’t there before the Sage Intacct implementation, he can only imagine how much the inefficiencies of the former system affected productivity and data integrity.

“I don’t want to have to log in and log out of accounts whenever I need to view data for different companies. With Sage Intacct, I constantly have three or four windows open, and I can go back and forth between them with just a click, not through a whole login process. I know that saves me a ton of time.”

—Matthew Engle, Financial Analyst, Byler Holdings

In his role, he’s found a lot of value in Sage Intacct’s dimensional reporting components, which help him provide critical insights to help the leadership and management teams make better business decisions. “I love that I can run a report and then drill down into every single transaction that goes into the accounts. And I really like the flexibility you have with building your own reports.”

With dimensions, he can further streamline the reporting process.

“For instance, I can make a dimensions group for all our materials division companies and run a report by location so that we can see all the companies side by side and compare them,” explained Engle. “Instead of running three reports, I can just run one and access all the information I need.”

Miller concurs with the powerful benefits of using dimensions. “We live and die by the dimensions, basically. I think so much that we don’t really even think about them. I don’t think there’s a dimension we’ve left untouched.”

Both Miller and Engle said they are looking forward to doing more with Sage Intacct in the near future.

They mentioned that setting up multi-entity consolidations will deliver advanced efficiency and reduce manual data entry.

According to Engle, “We’re really looking forward to getting consolidation set up. It will take our financials for all our companies, apply the appropriate ownership percentages, and automatically split out the equity as it’s supposed to be. There’s even the capability to automate eliminations between companies.”

Miller said Byler Holdings is also implementing the Sage Intacct customer portal to automate invoicing, enable customers to pay their bills through the system, and automatically post payments to customer accounts.

“We’re in the early adopter stage. I’ve sent out a couple of invites to test it with a couple of customers, and it looks like it’ll be really nice when it’s fully up and running,” shared Miller.

Engle and Miller expressed that they are glad they chose Cargas as their partner for implementation and ongoing support.

“I appreciate that they have a customer-centric approach and have been focused on our specific needs,” explained Engle. “I feel that the customer service has been great, too, and that we’ve formed friendships with the people at Cargas.”

Miller added that whenever they need something, everyone at Cargas is friendly and supportive. “The people and the service set them apart. Everyone is quick to help out and take care of us. You don’t find that everywhere.”

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