Can You Write Your Own Reports?
When businesses transition to a new accounting system, they often ask us: “Can I write my own reports?” The answer is always the same: Yes, but with an important caveat.
Reporting with Best-in-Class Accounting Systems
Advanced financial management software solutions like Sage Intacct do indeed allow anyone to write reports, with the caveat we’ll explain below. But first, it’s important to understand all you can do with the different modules and tools available with Sage Intacct.
Customizable dashboards and report libraries
One of the big advantages of a best-in-class solution like Sage Intacct is that it comes with built-in tools to analyze and drill down to real-time source data. Customizable dashboards provide daily visibility into key metrics for quick insights. For in-depth reporting, the Sage Intacct Reports Center houses a library of your reports, as well as tools to modify and create new reports.
General ledger reporting
Sage Intacct comes with a financial report writer for the general ledger and 150 built-in financial reports. The GL includes 9 predefined dimensions to capture the business context of your transactions, operational measures, and budgets, and all 10 are ready to go out of the box. You can then add more dimensions to reflect your unique business drivers that go beyond the basics such as department and employee, which will add more helpful data to your reports.
Custom financial reports
For everything outside the GL, Sage Intacct offers an optional Interactive Custom Report Writer to create real-time reports specific to your needs. The custom report writer is a great tool for creating ad-hoc reports to look up, sort, and filter data across related records. You can also find and analyze transactional data to make comparisons and find trends. For enhanced visualization, there’s also an Interactive Visual Report Writer module that turns reports into a graphical, interactive screen.
What’s the Caveat?
As you can see, it is possible for you to write your own reports with an advanced financial management system like Sage Intacct. The caveat is that it takes practice. You need to learn how to use the tables, where to look for data, and how to take advantage of all the functionality. You can do it! But it can be time-consuming and will involve some trial and error.
Get Professional Assistance with Reporting
The experienced professionals at ACI Consulting can help you select the best BI tools for your business and customize them based on your requirements, including setting up custom reporting that meets your needs without all the headaches. Contact us today to get started.
