Sage Intacct

The AI Trust Problem Accounting Can’t Afford to Ignore

Earmark Team · May 15, 2026 ·

Here’s a thought experiment. You ask ChatGPT to write you a research summary. It comes back 70% accurate. You tweak a few paragraphs, fix some facts, and you’re good to go. Now imagine that same 70% accuracy rate applied to your general ledger, audit workpapers, or financial statements.

As Mark Hickman, Sage’s Managing Director for North America, puts it bluntly, “You go to jail for that.”

That line from Episode 34 of The Unofficial Sage Intacct Podcast cuts straight to a tension every CFO, controller, and accounting professional grappling with AI needs to understand. The technology promising the biggest efficiency gains in a generation operates in a profession where approximate answers are a liability.

Hosts Doug Lewis, Matt Lescault, and Emily Madere sat down with Mark for their second annual Sage Future conference preview episode. Mark oversees Sage’s largest and fastest-growing region. He’s watched the Intacct acquisition grow more than 10x over the past 11 years. He’s in front of customers and partners constantly.

When he talks about what finance leaders say about AI, it’s field intelligence from someone who’s been in tech for nearly 25 years and has seen every major shift from dial-up internet to cloud computing.

He argues that while every corner of technology races to bolt on AI capabilities, accounting demands a fundamentally different approach built on trust, traceability, and human control. And the companies best positioned to deliver that are the established platforms sitting on vast reservoirs of trusted data.

Accounting AI Can’t Be a Black Box

Strip away all the marketing noise around artificial intelligence and you land on a simple question: where did that number come from?

In most industries, that question is nice-to-have. In accounting, it’s everything. And it’s why Mark frames Sage’s entire AI strategy around three pillars: trust, control, and accountability.

“When you type into ChatGPT, write me an essay on this or write me a paper on this, it can be 70% right and you can tweak it,” Mark explains. “You can’t be 70% right in accounting.”

Trust means AI outputs can’t disappear into a black box. Sage built what Mark calls a “trust label.” It’s a mechanism that lets users click into any AI-generated output and trace exactly where the data came from and how AI reached the conclusion. Think of it as an audit trail for the AI itself.
Control means humans stay in charge. “Accounting is different,” Mark emphasizes. “We can’t just have AI running everything behind the scenes. We need humans to control that AI and deliver what they need from those outputs.” The AI changes day-to-day workflows, but it assists rather than drives.
Accountability means everything is traceable. “We don’t want some large language model that somebody’s just pumping stuff into. It’s coming back. You have no idea where it came from, how that data was trained. Is it hallucinating? Is it not hallucinating? You need to be able to trust that that AI is credible, and you’re going to be able to use it in your accounting when you produce that to the auditors.”

Emily pushed Mark on a question many Intacct users ask: what about these new solutions flooding the market that claim to be “AI first”?

Mark’s response was diplomatic but pointed. New organizations saying “we’re AI native” and driving innovation are “good things for our industry.” But “how do you train AI? You train AI with data. We have a lot of data.”

Beyond raw data, Sage just kicked off what Mark calls its “Agentic AI marketplace.” This is a framework where partners build specialized AI agents that work across the broader Sage ecosystem. “We’re building hundreds and hundreds of agents that will be available to our customers,” he notes. The company is taking a platform approach where domain expertise gets layered onto trusted financial infrastructure.

The Adoption Paradox: Faster Than Cloud, Slower Than the Hype

Mark brings perspective from his 25 years in tech. He remembers when the internet arrived on dial-up connections that took five minutes to load. He watched the cloud evolve from radical concept to default infrastructure. Now he’s seeing AI reshape everything again.

“People thought it was going to move much quicker than it actually is,” he observes. “Adoption in these things is way more complicated than actually delivering the tech for it.”

In each major tech shift, people overestimate adoption speed. “The cloud is still being adopted in some places,” Mark points out.

The hosts brought up a perfect example of the hype-reality disconnect. Allbirds, a shoe company, rebranded itself as an AI organization and watched its stock rocket 600% in a single trading session before promptly crashing. “It’s reminiscent a little bit of the dot-com boom,” Mark says, “where people had a website and therefore their business was worth billions. And then everybody figured out they didn’t actually have a business case.”

But he distinguishes this moment from that bubble. “If you look at AI, it’s being driven predominantly by very large companies that are established with lots of customers and lots of money.” The recent tech stock dip “is just a reset on the adoption.”

So what are finance leaders actually saying when Mark sits across from them?

“We’re hearing this is game changing,” he reports. But it’s game changing in specific, practical ways:

Efficiency that enables strategy. “They look at AI to help them be more efficient so they can be more strategic,” Mark explains. The role of the CFO is becoming “significantly more strategic.”
Faster closes. “We’ve been talking for years about reducing time to close and eliminating the month-end close. AI is really going to speed that up.”
Immediate productivity gains. “When we let customers use our agents, they’re like, ‘I’m three times more productive. I cannot believe how much faster we’re getting things done.'”

But adoption takes time. “You can’t just inject things like that into your business overnight,” Mark cautions. “It’s got to be done in a way that makes sense to your workflows and your teams and how your processes roll.”

The conservative pace of AI adoption in finance is an essential feature in a profession where errors carry legal consequences.

Beyond the AI Headlines: What Else Is Changing

Matt asked for more insight into some other things happening at Sage that might not get as much attention because of how much focus is on AI.

Mark shared several initiatives that may have immediate impact:

Speed to market and faster implementations. “How are we going to implement faster? How are we going to get customers’ time to value reduced?” Mark asks. Matt reinforced why this matters. “If we have implementations that take three, six, eight months, we’re going to lose on that side of things.”
Vertical and micro-vertical specialization. “Our solution addresses the needs of those businesses within those verticals, which is something we’ve always done, but we’re doubling down on that,” Mark explains.
Strategic acquisitions filling gaps.
- Expense management. “We’re about 12 months into it and it’s done incredibly well. Overachieved all targets. Customers love it.”
- Sage HCM (payroll and HR). “It’s a great technology that’s really going to help us grow our business and deliver for our customers in a complete solution.”

Emily confirmed these acquisitions address real needs. “That was a big gap. In the past, a lot of clients asked for an expense management solution and wanted it all in one.”

What to Expect at Sage Future 2026

The Sage Future conference runs April 28-30 in San Francisco. Based on last year’s feedback, Sage restructured the entire event.

The new three-tier structure includes:

Keynotes now feature primarily external voices. Mark will interview Scott Krug, CFO of the New York Yankees. “He closes the books and does audits just like everybody else,” Mark says. Kara Swisher will discuss AI trends.
Super Sessions are new, product-specific deep dives.
Breakout sessions provide the next level of detail for features that caught your attention.

Matt made an important observation: “I’ve seen a lot of clients implement Intacct and then don’t go back to reconfigure over their lifetime. They’re not getting the full feature set out of the product.” The Super Sessions directly address this education gap.

Other highlights include:

Three embargoed announcements that Mark calls “very exciting and game changing for customers and partners”
CPA.com as titanium sponsor, validating Sage’s positioning as “accountants who serve accountants”
Monday night at Oracle Park (Giants stadium) and Thursday’s Sage Fest at an undisclosed “top” San Francisco venue
Post-event content distribution through webinars for those who can’t attend

“We want people to leave understanding where we’re going as a business and how we’re supporting them,” Mark says.

The Question Every Finance Leader Should Ask

The thread running through Mark’s conversation reframes how accounting professionals should evaluate every AI pitch landing on their desk.

A 70% accuracy threshold works for drafting marketing copy, but it’s a non-starter when the output feeds financial statements and regulatory filings. That constraint reshapes everything about how we build and deploy AI in accounting.

Whether you’re a CFO weighing technology investments, a controller separating AI substance from hype, or a partner building around the Sage ecosystem, listen to the full discussion. And if you’re heading to Sage Future 2026 in San Francisco, you now know exactly what to look for.

Why This SWAT Team CFO Says Your Legacy Systems Are Costing You Millions

Earmark Team · January 28, 2026 ·

When Ximena Velazquez Maynard stepped into her role as CFO of Legacy Management Group in early 2023, she found exactly what she expected: a disaster. The company was juggling 30 separate QuickBooks files while their 11 nursing homes operated in a financial system where facilities couldn’t even talk to each other. Basic financial tasks that should take hours were consuming months.

But for Velazquez Maynard, this was familiar territory. Throughout her career, she’s been the “SWAT team” CFO who gets called in when companies need their accounting rescued, she explains in episode 32 of The Unofficial Sage Intacct Podcast. And she’s turned several of those disasters into companies that sold for huge profits within just a few years.

A Healthcare Empire Built on Shaky Financial Foundations

Legacy Management Group’s story begins in the 1980s with two nursing homes run like a mom-and-pop operation. Everything changed in 2018 when the current leadership took over with a vision to do something greater.

Since then, Legacy has expanded to 11 nursing facilities (nine in Louisiana, two in Texas), plus a pharmacy and mobile X-ray company. They have five holding companies, property companies, and a management company, all with slightly different ownership structures that need to stay separate for legal and financial reasons.

When Velazquez Maynard arrived, she inherited a patchwork of systems trying to manage this complexity. The 11 nursing homes were using PointClickCare’s financial module—a system so limited that facilities in the same software couldn’t communicate with each other. “It was not created by a very good accountant,” Velazquez Maynard says bluntly.

The remaining entities were scattered across QuickBooks files. At one point, they had 30 separate files to manage.

When Manual Processes Strangle Growth

The impact of these disconnected systems went far beyond inconvenience. Consider what happened when Legacy needed to split a bill among their 11 facilities. The accounting team had to make 11 different entries into 11 different files, plus create corresponding due-to and due-from entries. “They would never, ever reconcile in the end,” Velazquez Maynard recalls.

The lack of visibility created expensive blind spots. Floor spending requirements—a critical metric where nursing homes must spend a specific dollar amount per resident annually—went untracked. Without proper monitoring, Legacy once found themselves owing $300,000 to the government because they couldn’t see their spending trends across facilities.

“We could not see easily on a month-to-month basis where we were trending on our floor spending requirement per facility, which varies greatly,” Velazquez Maynard explains. This meant they couldn’t make informed decisions about staffing levels or resource allocation until it was too late.

During her interview for the CFO position, Velazquez Maynard didn’t sugarcoat the situation. “I hear your issues, I hear what you’re doing. It’s not working because you don’t have the software you need.” Within three months of starting, she confirmed the current setup couldn’t support Legacy’s growth plans.

The Complexity of Healthcare Finance

Healthcare organizations face unique challenges that make financial management particularly complex. Legacy deals with monthly audits, manages resident trust funds under strict regulations, and navigates billing across Medicare, Medicaid, hospice companies, and workers’ compensation.

“It’s a very complicated system,” Velazquez Maynard notes. The company often guides families through Medicaid applications that can take one to six months while providing care regardless of payment status. They serve some of society’s most vulnerable populations, including residents without family who cannot make their own decisions.

The St. Christina facility acquisition shows how operational and financial challenges intertwine. When Legacy bought this facility with “the absolute worst reputation,” Velazquez Maynard discovered a wheelchair ramp that, instead of being repaired, had padding on the adjacent wall to catch wheelchairs that might slide into it. “I was amazed. I was like, this is terrifying,” she recalls.

Legacy invested millions transforming the facility, adding private bathrooms and making it safer for residents. But such strategic investments require a level of financial visibility that’s impossible with 30 separate QuickBooks files.

A Rapid Transformation

Having implemented Sage Intacct eight years earlier at NTT Testing, Velazquez Maynard knew what was possible. This time, the implementation was even faster. “We implemented everything within two to three months,” she confirms.

The team kept it simple, using core Intacct functionality rather than trying to do too much at once. “We wanted to get everything in there. We got all the basics in flowing well first, and then we looked at adding purchasing and other things that may be available to us,” Velazquez Maynard explains.

The transformation wasn’t without challenges. Legacy invested in EMRConnect to pull financial and statistical data from PointClickCare into Intacct, hoping for complete visibility through dashboards and reports. Unfortunately, that integration hasn’t delivered as promised. “The most we’re getting out is basically journal entries coming over,” Velazquez Maynard admits. “That’s probably been our only challenging point throughout the integration.”

Despite this setback, the core implementation delivered immediate wins. Within months, Velazquez Maynard created custom floor spending reports that transformed how Legacy manages compliance. “It’s an easy report that we can look at every single month. And we do. We analyze it,” she says. “Each quarter, we’re able to make informed decisions on staffing.”

Life-Changing Automation

The most dramatic improvement came from Sage Intacct’s handling of inter-entity transactions. What once required hours of manual entries and reconciliation now happens automatically in the background.

“One thing that was life changing for us was the way that Sage Intacct handles due-to/due-froms in the background,” Velazquez Maynard shares. She still reminds her accountants they don’t need to create these entries manually. “Sage does it for you. It handles it all for you. Just put it in and pay it and call it a day.”

Legacy created targeted dashboards for facility administrators, the people Velazquez Maynard describes as “on the front line every single day trying to run those buildings and running in circles.” These administrators now see their facility’s financial performance in real-time, allowing them to fix issues before month-end close.

The dashboards help administrators review accounts payable, correct miscategorized expenses, and monitor budgets as things happen, not after the fact.

The finance team itself is lean—just two main accountants (a senior and staff accountant), an AP team, and the executive leadership. This small team now manages complex financial operations that previously consumed far more resources.

Building an Integrated Tech Stack

Sage Intacct’s integration capabilities allowed Legacy to build a comprehensive financial ecosystem. They use SmartLynX for scheduling (critical when labor is their biggest expense), iSolved for payroll and HR, and Divvy for credit card management.

“What Sage Intacct does really well. is integrating with other software, and there is always some kind of solution that they can find you,” Velazquez Maynard notes. If Intacct doesn’t have what you need, “there’s someone out there that can team up with Sage and it can become part of the platform that will make you a winner.”

The Real Cost of Standing Still

When asked about advice for other healthcare finance professionals considering modernization, Velazquez Maynard is direct: “They can’t be afraid of the cost, because in all reality, the cost of not doing it is probably greater.”

She points to the hidden expenses of staying on legacy systems. “The hours that are going to be spent by your CFO, controller, and accountants trying to do manual things or in Excel that could be automatic—it’s going to end up paying for itself.”

For organizations worried about implementation complexity, Velazquez Maynard offers reassurance. The implementation partners “point you in the right direction. They tell you step by step what you need to do.”

Looking ahead, Legacy faces the same challenge Velazquez Maynard identifies as healthcare’s biggest issue: the labor force. “Finding good labor is hard,” she admits. The company regularly evaluates wage scales, trying to determine if higher pay will attract better talent or if they’re “just throwing money at something.”

With facilities sometimes forced to use agency staff at $55-65 per hour, having clear financial visibility through SmartLynX metrics helps them better control these costs. “You have to be staffed. So sometimes there’s just nothing you can do.”

Lessons for Healthcare Finance Leaders

Legacy’s transformation from 30 disconnected systems to a unified platform offers clear lessons for healthcare organizations. The speedy implementation proves that transformation doesn’t require years of disruption. The immediate benefits, from automated inter-entity transactions to real-time floor spending reports, demonstrate tangible returns on investment.

Most importantly, Velazquez Maynard’s experience shows that the right technology enables growth rather than just supporting operations. Legacy continues expanding, confident their financial infrastructure can scale alongside their ambitions. When Velazquez Maynard took the job, she told her boss, “If you’re planning on selling in the next 20 years, I am not taking this job.” With the foundation they’ve built, she might just keep that promise.

For healthcare finance professionals wondering if transformation is worth the effort, Velazquez Maynard’s journey provides a clear answer. The question isn’t whether you can afford to modernize; it’s whether you can afford not to.

Listen to the complete conversation with Velazquez Maynard on The Unofficial Sage Intacct Podcast to hear additional insights about managing multi-entity healthcare organizations, building effective financial teams, and navigating the unique challenges of the nursing home industry.

Construction’s Tech Revolution: How Generational Change is Driving Digital Transformation

Earmark Team · July 14, 2025 ·

For decades, construction businesses have balanced hammers in one hand and paper ledgers in the other. However, a significant shift is underway, according to Angela Nelson, a 15-year Sage veteran and three-time Platinum Club member.

In a recent episode of The Unofficial Sage Intacct Podcast, Nelson shared insights into how the construction industry is embracing technology after years of resistance.

From Support to Sales: Angela’s Construction Journey

Nelson brings a unique perspective to construction technology. Beyond her professional experience, she has personal ties to the industry—her father worked in construction, and her brother-in-law owned a concrete company.

“I’ve been with Sage for 15 years, always in construction and real estate,” explains Nelson. “I started my career at Sage in support, so I got to know the customer base very well. Then I moved to sales and have held almost every position in sales.”

For the past four years, Nelson has been a Partner Account Manager (PAM), supporting Sage’s network of partners selling to construction businesses. While most PAMs in her division manage 4-5 partners, Nelson handles 14—a testament to her expertise with legacy products and newer cloud solutions.

“I am more of a facilitator than a manager,” she says of her role. “What can I do to help you sell? What can I do to facilitate between what Sage’s goals are and what your goals are?”

Why Construction Has Resisted Technology

Construction companies have traditionally been slow to adopt new technology. This resistance has deep roots in the industry’s practical, hands-on culture.

“A lot of these guys start these businesses and they just go and they do it,” Nelson explains. “They’re not worried about reporting and all this other kind of thing until they get to a certain point.”

Many construction business owners begin with trade skills rather than technological expertise. Their focus centers on completing projects and managing crews, not implementing sophisticated financial systems. Paper-based processes and basic spreadsheets have dominated simply because they are functional enough for immediate needs.

The Generational Shift Changing Everything

A profound change is happening as aging business owners pass their companies to the next generation.

“All the people that are my age that are now like, ‘You know what, I’m getting tired of swinging a hammer. I’m getting tired of getting shocked when I’m installing an electrical outlet.’ These guys are now like, ‘I’m going to give this to my kids. I want my kids to take over the business,'” Nelson says.

This succession planning has become a catalyst for digital transformation. “These kids have grown up with technology,” she continues. “So now what we’re seeing is all of a sudden, it feels like a rush to get these companies that were using pencil and paper and Excel to do everything. Now they’re all like, ‘Nope, that’s not what we want to do. We need all these guys to be using iPads in the field and iPhones. And we want a cloud-based system.'”

The impact can be transformative. Podcast co-host Matt Lescault shared his experience working with a steel fabricator in 2005 that was still handwriting every invoice. By implementing proper systems over two years, the company grew from roughly $600,000 in revenue to $3.6 million—a six-fold increase enabled mainly through technology.

Sage’s Journey in Construction Technology

Sage’s position in construction technology has evolved significantly over time. The company entered the market in 2003 by acquiring Timberline, a construction software company that has served the industry since the early 1970s. This product, now known as Sage 300 CRE, remains popular today.

“Timberline is an amazing product,” Nelson reflects. “It may not be pretty, but it’s an amazing product. It works very well and people are very loyal to that.”

Sage expanded its construction offerings around 2008 by acquiring Master Builder (now Sage 100 Contractor), which catered to smaller construction companies. The fundamental transformation began after acquiring Intacct in 2017, followed by the launch of Sage Intacct Construction in 2020.

Recent years have seen Sage double down on construction through strategic acquisitions:

“In 2021, we acquired Corecon, now Sage Construction Management. And then last year, we acquired BidMatrix,” Nelson explains. “The thought process behind this is we want to have a product for every stage of a job, from bidding to winning that bid to handling that project to overseeing the project to doing all of the financial statements.”

This focus marks a significant shift in Sage’s corporate strategy. “This is the vertical that Sage as a whole is focusing on right now because we are the fastest growing vertical there is,” says Nelson.

What makes this evolution particularly remarkable is how the construction division earned this attention. “Up until about 4 or 5 years ago, we were kind of ignored,” Nelson remembers. “Other than the fact that we performed to our goals every year with very, very little support from anything.”

Connecting the Field to the Back Office

Sage’s construction technology is powerful because it integrates field operations with financial management, creating a seamless flow of information.

“The construction module ties in with the financial portion of it very closely,” Nelson explains. Meanwhile, “Sage Construction Management enables project managers and field techs to be able to do their jobs with information. They can record their job costs, the equipment they’re using, and do field reports.”

This integration creates significant time and labor savings compared to traditional methods. Nelson contrasts the old way—”handwriting invoices, doing an Excel spreadsheet and then transferring to another Excel spreadsheet”—with the streamlined approach where “somebody can just enter the information and it flows through easily, and then you push a button and it creates the invoice.”

Cloud-based systems also enhance disaster preparedness. Nelson has seen clients lose everything when storing data on-premise: “When everything is stored in your office, and you experience a disaster… they lost everything.” This vulnerability becomes particularly acute in construction, where project data represents historical knowledge and future revenue potential.

When Is It Time to Upgrade?

Companies typically outgrow basic systems at specific growth milestones. Nelson identifies these triggers: “Once they’re hitting about that 5 million a year mark… Sage Intacct customers average at least 5 million in revenue and about 20 employees.”

Beyond size, she points to three key factors that signal it’s time to move to a cloud solution:

Annual revenue approaching $5 million
Growing to around 20 employees
Increasing job complexity
Understanding the vulnerabilities of on-premise systems

The construction industry’s embrace of technology is evident in Sage Intacct Construction’s rapidly growing user base. “We have over 1,600 companies on Sage Intacct Construction,” Nelson reveals.

Building for Tomorrow

The construction industry has reached a pivotal moment in its technological evolution. The convergence of generational change with Sage’s strategic focus on construction has created perfect conditions for digital transformation in an industry that has historically approached technology with caution.

As founding contractors step away from daily operations, they’re handing leadership to digital natives who understand how integrated, cloud-based systems drive efficiency and growth. This generational handover is accelerating what would otherwise be a much slower technology adoption curve.

The industry’s future belongs to those who can seamlessly connect field operations with financial management through integrated, cloud-based systems. As younger leaders continue to take the reins of established construction businesses, this digital transformation will accelerate, widening the gap between technology adopters and those clinging to traditional methods.

Listen to the full conversation with Angela Nelson on The Unoff i cial Sage Intacct Podcast to hear more insights about construction’s technological revolution and how Sage’s solutions are transforming the industry.

Multi-Project Reporting to Nonprofit Integration: Sage Intacct’s Bold New Features

Earmark Team · September 25, 2024 ·

In an era where client needs span from multi-entity corporations to nonprofit organizations, how can CPAs leverage technology to offer comprehensive financial management across diverse industries? The latest episode of the Unofficial Sage podcast, hosted by Doug Lewis, Emily Madere, and Matt Lescault, dives into this pressing question by exploring Sage Intacct’s latest product release.

At the heart of Sage Intacct’s evolution is a carefully crafted balance between enhancing core financial capabilities and expanding into specialized vertical markets. This approach enables accounting professionals to offer comprehensive financial management services across various industries while maintaining a unified technological platform.

Strengthening Core Financial Capabilities: Multi-Project Reporting

The new multi-project reporting feature significantly enhances Sage Intacct’s core financial reporting capabilities. This feature represents a major leap forward in financial management efficiency, especially for organizations dealing with multiple projects or grants.

Matt explains, “What Intacct has invested in is to bring some of those capabilities out of the interactive custom report writer… directly into the financial reports section of the reporting.” This enhancement streamlines the reporting process, enabling more timely, accurate, and insightful financial analysis across multiple projects.

Vertical Specialization: Construction Industry Enhancements

Sage Intacct is making significant strides in the construction industry, where unique financial management needs demand tailored solutions. Key enhancements include:

1. Addition of retainage to invoices

2. Integration of Sage Construction Management (formerly Core Con)

3. Introduction of Sage Field Operations

Emily notes, “Sage Intacct has added retainage to invoices. So now it includes project contract billing information. And this is really giving people visibility that they need.”

These construction-specific features put Sage Intacct in direct competition with established players like Procore while offering the advantage of seamless integration with its robust financial management platform.

Strategic Partnerships: Donor Perfect Integration for Nonprofits

Sage Intacct’s strategy for vertical specialization extends to strategic partnerships, particularly in the nonprofit sector. Integrating Donor Perfect, a popular CRM for nonprofits, into the Sage Intacct platform exemplifies this approach.

Matt explains the “gray labeling” concept: “Intacct is going out into the marketplace, finding the best in class solutions, and partnering with them to bring a fully-fledged software solution to the micro verticals.”

This integration offers significant benefits for CPAs serving nonprofit clients. It enables them to link financial data directly to donor information and generate comprehensive reports demonstrating the impact of donations on specific programs.

Enhancing Platform Power: User Interface and Integration Improvements

Sage Intacct is also focusing on improving its overall platform usability. Two key enhancements in this area are the introduction of a new REST API (currently in beta) and significant upgrades to the user interface, particularly in list views.

The new list view capabilities have been met with enthusiasm from both prospects and clients. Emily explains, “Our people, whether they’re prospects or clients, are so excited about this feature because… you can now expand columns, you can move columns, you can filter columns. There’s also a subset that comes out of the column.”

These improvements significantly streamline the review process, allowing CPAs to work more efficiently and gain insights more quickly.

Conclusion: A New Era of Comprehensive Financial Management

Sage Intacct’s latest product release marks a significant step in the evolution of financial management software. By balancing core functionality enhancements with industry specialization and strategic partnerships, Sage Intacct is positioning itself as a versatile solution for CPAs serving diverse client bases.

These developments offer exciting opportunities for CPAs to streamline current services, expand offerings, and take on more diverse clients. As the line between general financial management and industry-specific solutions continues to blur, CPAs who can leverage comprehensive platforms like Sage Intacct will be well-positioned to lead in the new era of financial management. For more information, listen to the full episode of the Unofficial Sage podcast.

Embracing the Cloud: Sage’s Transformation and What It Means for CPAs

Earmark Team · September 23, 2024 ·

“Everything is going to the cloud,” says Emily Madere in the latest episode of the Unofficial Sage podcast. For Certified Public Accountants (CPAs), this shift isn’t just a trend—it’s a fundamental change reshaping the future of financial management and analysis.

As Sage, a leading accounting software provider, transitions to a cloud-centric, partner-rich ecosystem, CPAs find themselves at a pivotal crossroads. Real-time financial analysis and automated compliance tools promise to revolutionize client services. However, leveraging these advancements requires carefully reevaluating firm technology strategies and service models.

In this podcast episode, industry experts Doug Lewis, Emily Madere, and Matt Lescault delve into the intricacies of Sage’s cloud transformation. They explore how this shift is reshaping Sage’s core products, expanding the role of Marketplace Partners, and reflecting broader trends in cloud migration across the accounting software landscape.

Sage’s Shift to a Cloud-Centric Ecosystem

The Rise of Sage Intacct

At the heart of Sage’s cloud strategy is Sage Intacct, a product synonymous with modern, cloud-based financial management. Acquired by Sage in 2017, Intacct was built from the ground up as a cloud solution, offering real-time data access and automated updates without needing on-premises infrastructure.

Initially strong in the nonprofit sector, Sage Intacct has rapidly expanded its reach. Matt notes, “It quickly turned into a valuable product in SaaS, financial services, family offices, professional services, and healthcare. It expanded quickly into other industries.”

Competing in the Mid-Market Space

In the mid-market arena, Sage Intacct now competes with products like NetSuite and Microsoft Dynamics. Matt says, “Sage continues to win from a functionality, capability, and user experience perspective.” This competitive edge is crucial for CPAs evaluating which platform to recommend to clients or adopt in their practices.

The Role of Marketplace Partners

A key component of Sage’s evolving ecosystem is the Marketplace Partners (MMPs)—third-party solutions that integrate with Sage products to extend functionality and create customized solutions.

“The Sage marketplace has tripled or quadrupled in size over the past six years,” says Matt. This rapid expansion reflects the growing demand for specialized, integrated solutions in accounting.

Benefits for CPAs

This partner-rich ecosystem offers several advantages for CPAs:

Flexibility: Firms can choose the exact combination of tools that best fit their or their clients’ needs.
Specialization: MMPs provide deep functionality in specific areas beyond the core Sage products.
Innovation: The marketplace model encourages continuous innovation as partners compete to offer the best solutions.

The Cloud Migration Paradigm Shift

Sage’s ecosystem evolution is part of a larger paradigm shift in the accounting industry: the widespread migration to cloud-based solutions. This shift profoundly impacts product development strategies, and many competitors are following suit.

Opportunities and Challenges for CPAs

For CPAs, cloud migration presents significant opportunities and challenges:

Real-time Financial Analysis: Cloud-based solutions enable instant access to up-to-date financial data, allowing for timely and accurate advice.
Automated Compliance Tools: Many cloud platforms offer built-in compliance features, streamlining regulatory adherence.
Remote Work Capabilities: Cloud solutions facilitate seamless remote work, expanding a firm’s talent pool and client base beyond geographical constraints.
Continuous Learning: The rapidly evolving technology landscape requires ongoing education and adaptation.

Looking Ahead: Global Expansion and Future Developments

As Sage continues to invest in its cloud-based ecosystem, the company is expanding its global footprint. Sage Intacct has been launched in several countries beyond the U.S., with more on the horizon. This global expansion drives further investment in the product’s capabilities, benefiting users across all markets.

While Sage Intacct remains the flagship product for mid-market businesses, Sage X3 is the company’s offering for larger enterprises, particularly in manufacturing and distribution. Though less prominent in the US market, X3 competes with major ERP systems from SAP and Oracle in other regions.

Sage’s transition to a cloud-centric, partner-rich ecosystem represents a paradigm shift for CPAs. It offers powerful tools for real-time financial analysis and automated compliance while demanding a reevaluation of firm technology strategies and client service models.

To maximize return on investment and position their practices for future success, CPAs should:

Embrace Cloud-Based Tools: Enhance efficiency and client service through cloud solutions.
Integrate Marketplace Partners: Carefully evaluate and incorporate MMPs to create tailored solutions.
Invest in Continuous Learning: Stay ahead of technological advancements through ongoing education.
Reimagine Service Offerings: Leverage real-time data and analytics capabilities to transform client services.

The cloud-centric future of accounting is not just about adopting new technology—it’s about transforming how CPAs deliver value to their clients. As the Sage ecosystem continues to evolve, staying informed and adaptable will be key to success in this new era of cloud-based accounting.

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