{"id":7646,"date":"2021-07-14T12:20:46","date_gmt":"2021-07-14T16:20:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/?p=7646"},"modified":"2026-01-15T12:06:33","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T17:06:33","slug":"how-sage-intacct-empowers-the-finance-teams-of-indigenous-organizations-to-overcome-unique-business-and-social-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/how-sage-intacct-empowers-the-finance-teams-of-indigenous-organizations-to-overcome-unique-business-and-social-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"How Sage Intacct Empowers the Finance Teams of Indigenous Organizations to Overcome Unique Business and Social Challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tHow Sage Intacct Empowers the Finance Teams of Indigenous Organizations to Overcome Unique Business and Social Challenges\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\tOwen Sweeney<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Following the new Sage Intacct Webinar \u2018Path to Modernization: How Finance Leaders in Administration Organizations are Trailblazing\u2019, Melanie Touchie of MNP and former CFO of Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation on Vancouver Island, tells Sage Advice how indigenous administration organizations are leveraging core financials software to overcome their unique challenges.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Challenge: The Finance Teams of Indigenous Organizations Can Face Understaffing and High Staff Turnover<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One of the key issues that face many Indigenous organizations is keeping the finance team fully staffed while also having a plan to retain and pass on this knowledge internally. This is something that Melanie Touchie of MNP has experienced firsthand. Melanie worked with her own Nation for ten years, where she was mentored by a financial controller who believed that it was important to look within the Nation to fill out the vacancies. This however is not always possible, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to recruit and grow the skills internally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnfortunately, that\u2019s something very typical in the industry,\u201d explains Melanie. \u201cThere is a high turnover of, employees and there is little to no succession planning with some of the Nations. It’s a very big gap and the challenges are that most of these nations are in remote places where recruitment is difficult, and then you add a pandemic on top of it. It\u2019s almost impossible. So, it’s definitely something that’s an issue we have observed in the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solution: Consult with a Technology Partner to Leverage Sage Intacct to Apply the Technology Where You Need It the Most<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Since the advent of cloud-based core financial software, we have heard how finance teams across a range of sectors have leveraged the likes of Sage Intacct to take time back from monotonous data entry tasks and overwhelming excel processes, freeing up resources to help drive their organization forward. However, in the case of the indigenous organizations, the reduction in manual processes can in some part make up for the fact that finance team might only have one or two members. In a sense, it\u2019s as if the technology is the unofficial support staff on the team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Challenge: Existing Software Package Can\u2019t Satisfy Reporting Needs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As the former CFO of Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, Melanie has firsthand experience of the difficulties faced by indigenous organizations that are attempting to create accurate quarterly financial reports for the business throughout the year. Continuous growth and the addition of new entities to the organization, saw the finance team lose so much time trying to make their legacy systems fit their current business needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had three unique businesses run separately off our nation’s books. And those three businesses probably took 75% of our time because some of their expenses, their projects, their government reporting, all of these other things were so complex. 75% percent of our time was unraveling their reporting, which was so difficult,\u201d says Melanie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even when leaning on external accounting and advisory through MNP, the effort to make sure both parties\u2019 sets of numbers match was enormous. All this data needed to be reconciled before the Nation\u2019s leadership could be presented with a consolidated view of the Nation\u2019s financial standing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Robust financial management for rapid scale<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Sage Intacct is the #1 cloud accounting and financial management solution for seamless financials and subscription billing<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLearn more<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Couple\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Solution: Leverage Sage Intacct\u2019s Dimensional Reporting Capabilities<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Sage Intacct’s general ledger includes multiple dimensions to capture the context of an organization\u2019s transactions, operational measures, and budgets. This means that the finance team can create reports that give a real time snapshot of the financial vitals without having to run an overly complex chart of accounts. The free time the finance team gets back can be utilized to analyze data and make strategic decisions to benefit the organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith Sage Intacct, when I started drilling into all the different projects and seeing all of the different ways that you can treat those dimensions, I knew it was going to serve a Nation well for a long time. It’s going to be able to grow with them and it can handle as much as they need it to. Where clients are really going to see the value is when they no longer have to get separate solutions for the different entities that the finance team manages,\u201d says Melanie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Challenge: Indigenous Organizations\u2019 Finance Teams Manage Both Sensitive Social Data As well as Commercial Data<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The diverse portfolio of programs that an Indigenous organization has to manage is unrivaled in other sectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, the list of programs that might exist in a First Nation\u2019s administration organization could look like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n