How can Sage Intacct help Canada’s SMEs?

Sage Intacct offers Canada’s SMEs a financial software solution that they can rely on to add value. This matters more than ever as organizations of all sizes respond to the challenges – and opportunities – that can be seen across the country’s enterprising sectors.

As a Sage expert providing small business accounting software in Toronto, Ontario, Thinc is well placed to see where Intacct can be most helpful to Canadian organizations. In this short guide, we’ll be looking at some of the ways in which Sage Intacct can support you, whether you’re looking for smarter ways of working or are planning for growth.

Canada’s SMEs: resilience and brilliance

Across Canada, 2024 has presented a varied picture for SMEs. For some, it’s been a time to show their resilience and agility; for others, it’s been about taking advantage of opportunity and investing in their growth trajectory.

A recent survey by Equifax’s data analysts highlighted the financial strain facing businesses, created by a “perfect storm” of high input costs, labour costs, slowing consumer spending, high interest rates and the end of the grace period on Canada Emergency Business Account loans. At non-profits, meanwhile, the pressure to deliver more impact against a backdrop of reduced giving is a familiar story.

But if we know anything about Canadian organizations, it’s that they’re tough. SMEs faced with staffing and supply-chain challenges seek solutions.

“Despite the significant financial challenges they face, small and medium-sized businesses are the backbone of our economy,” Equifax Canada’s Jeff Brown commented. “They have shown remarkable resilience, even in the toughest economic climates.”

For others, the picture has been more positive, as they focus on long-term growth. An example of this can be seen in the Global Hypergrowth Project, a scale-up program from the government designed to create global enterprises from businesses rooted in Canada.

Indeed, at Thinc, we’ve spoken to lots of small businesses in Canada that are embarking on a journey of high growth. Many of the people we met at the the Collision 2024 tech conference in Toronto this year spoke about the investments they were making in scaling up, and how they were starting to outgrow the financial software that had served them well for so long.

Three ways that Sage Intacct helps Canada’s organizations

Whether you’re right-sizing or upscaling, having the right tools in place to help you operate efficiently is key – and that’s especially true when it comes to financial management.

Sage Intacct is the perfect solution for Canadian organizations whose requirements are more complex than can be handled by solutions such as QuickBooks, Sage 50, Sage 300 or Xero, but whose budgets don’t stretch to enterprise-level tools. It’s also a great alternative if you’re using Dynamics GP and wondering what to do when Microsoft wraps that up next year, especially if it’s financial management capabilities that you’re most interested in.

With an array of modules available, your setup of Sage Intacct may look very different to that at another organization. But there are some benefits you can expect regardless of the sector you’re in. Here are three to get you started.

1. Smarter financial management

At a time when many organizations are working with tighter budgets and fewer staff or volunteers – but are expected to deliver the same (or greater) results – it’s never been more important to keep the cash flowing.

Sage Intacct users report closing their monthly accounts up to 79% more quickly. You’ll also have a clearer, real-time picture of your finances thanks to Intacct’s detailed, customizable dashboards. If your organization comprises multiple entities, you can even consolidate reports across these to have a single point of truth.

As your team manages more and more of your financial processes within Intacct, they’ll spend less and less time in other systems or exporting to Excel. With a clearer picture of where your finances are at, your leaders can more easily prioritize and plan.

2. Flexibility and scalability

Many accounting software solutions on the market are great for basic processes such as ledgers; plenty will allow you to go further (at a price) with sales, purchase orders, projects and more. Where they start to fall short is when your organization grows, new entities come on board, or you need to handle more data.

As Sage Intacct is based in the cloud, you’ll have more flexibility to cope with these changes. Globally, Intacct handles 100 million applications a day. It can balance 100 entities in seconds.

And as it’s a modular solution, you can shape your solution to your specific needs. ‘Standard’ and ‘Professional’ packages are available, giving you the core financials and dashboards, but you can also purchase additional functionality from the huge range of options in Sage’s marketplace. What’s more, it’s highly integrable with many solutions, not least the Microsoft 365 workplace tools many offices rely on.

3. Innovation with AI

At a federal government level, Canada means business when it comes to AI. It has announced $2.4 billion investment as a signal of its intent. But at a business and enterprise level, there is still uncertainty around AI. An Accenture survey found that while 84% of Canadian business executives see AI as important to growth, 76% are struggling with how to implement it.

The good news with Sage Intacct is that AI is already embedded in many of its features, shaving hours of the time taken to identify errors, tag transactions and produce insights.

Its Intelligent General Ledger (GL) software helps you free up your team from the drudgery of manual tasks, giving them more bandwidth for strategic and high-value activities.

Sage Intacct’s proven return on investment

Choosing Sage Intacct is an investment in better financial management that will set you up for long-term success – but it’s an investment, all the same. You and stakeholders will be expecting value.

Sage claims its customers, on average, receive a 250% return on investment, and payback in less than six months. In many cases, buying Intacct will be cheaper than the cost of recruiting and retaining a member of the finance team.

The clear answer, which we have seen with our own clients, is that those organizations who invest in smarter, more efficient ways of working give themselves the best possible chance of being able to respond to changeable conditions. If the opportunity to win new work comes, it’s so much easier to absorb it if you’ve got ways of working that are readily scalable.

For a real-life example of how it helps, read how Ruth at Cydar Medical moved her team away from time-consuming, error-prone accounting in Xero and spreadsheets to a seamless multi-entity solution with Sage Intacct.

A Sage Intacct partner in Toronto

If you’re wrestling with what your next steps for managing your finances should be, a good starting point is to talk to somebody who knows how organisations like yours have succeeded.

As a provider of small business accounting software in Toronto, with more than 30 years of experience in business technologies, Thinc can help you.

We won’t try to tell you what solution you need – we’ll listen, then work with you on the options. Our collaborative approach has been recognised by Sage’s Customer Service Excellence award – for us, it’s always about how we can help your people achieve their potential.

Looking for Sage Intacct in Ontario? Talk to us

If you’re looking for Sage Intacct in Ontario, we’re here to help. To speak to a Sage Business Partner about your financial technology needs, contact us.