{"id":7749,"date":"2021-10-07T21:00:56","date_gmt":"2021-10-08T01:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/?p=7749"},"modified":"2026-01-15T11:57:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T16:57:20","slug":"business-advisory-and-cpa-firm-improves-efficiency-90-eliminates-200000-a-year-in-overhead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/business-advisory-and-cpa-firm-improves-efficiency-90-eliminates-200000-a-year-in-overhead\/","title":{"rendered":"Business Advisory and CPA Firm Improves Efficiency 90%, Eliminates $200,000 a Year in Overhead"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"entry-header has-dark-background-color entry-header--has-illustration entry-header--has-illustration--generic\">\n\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-header__row row align-center\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col col-lg-7 col-xlg-6 entry-header__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"component component-single-header\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-header__misc text--subtitle text--uppercase text--small\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/category\/money-matters\/\" class=\"entry-header__link\">Money Matters<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-title-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"entry-title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tBusiness Advisory and CPA Firm Improves Efficiency 90%, Eliminates $200,000 a Year in Overhead\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"entry-header__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<div class=\"single-post-details container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"posted-on \"><time class=\"entry-date published\" datetime=\"2021-10-07T21:00:56-04:00\">October 7, 2021<\/time><\/span><span class=\"reading-time\"> min read<\/span>\n\t\t<button\n\t\t\ttype=\"button\"\n\t\t\tclass=\"social-share-button button button--icon button--secondary js-social-share-button\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-title=\"Business Advisory and CPA Firm Improves Efficiency 90%, Eliminates $200,000 a Year in Overhead\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-url=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/business-advisory-and-cpa-firm-improves-efficiency-90-eliminates-200000-a-year-in-overhead\/\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-text=\"Please read this interesting article\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__share-label\">Share<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__copy-label\" hidden>Copy Link<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__copy-tooltip\" aria-hidden=\"true\" hidden>Copied<\/span>\n\t\t<\/button>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/header>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-post-author has-dark-background-color alignfull\">\n\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"co-authors\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-author-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t<a class=\"entry-author\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/author\/andrewsevillia\/\">\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"40\" height=\"40\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2021\/07\/Andew-Sevillia.jpg\" class=\"entry-author__image\" alt=\"Andrew Sevillia\" \/>\t\t\t\t<span class=\"entry-author__name\">Andrew Sevillia<\/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<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Growth and diversification have turned&nbsp;HoganTaylor&nbsp;LLP into one of the largest business advisory and public accounting firms in Oklahoma and&nbsp;Arkansas, and&nbsp;won it a spot on the Accounting Today Top 100 Firms list for 2019.&nbsp;<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">From an internal financial management perspective, such expansion would have been difficult a few years ago when&nbsp;HoganTaylor&nbsp;was running an on-premises Sage MAS 90 application. The legacy system required data exports to Excel for reporting, while limited automation meant a high manual workload for the finance team.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">An upgrade to cloud-based Sage Intacct solved those challenges and provides a solid foundation as&nbsp;HoganTaylor&nbsp;continues adding clients and building out its portfolio of tax, assurance, risk, business advisory, accounting, technology, and industry-focused services.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201cSage Intacct gives us flexibility to quickly bring on more services and entities and helps enable our growth,\u201d as Wes Gilliam, chief accounting officer.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-streamlining-new-acquisitions-and-offerings\">Streamlining New Acquisitions and Offerings<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Since going live in early 2018, Sage Intacct has helped&nbsp;HoganTaylor&nbsp;streamline its acquisition of CPA firm JPMS Cox and its 75 employees, and the acquisition of an IT services firm,&nbsp;RainRock&nbsp;IT Services. That&#8217;s the basis for a new subsidiary that offers managed IT services, outsourced solutions, cybersecurity services, and&nbsp;hardware and software&nbsp;solutions.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">At the same time,&nbsp;HoganTaylor&nbsp;has been expanding its advisory offerings in addition to core tax and compliance.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201cWe&#8217;ve been shifting toward more advisory services and additional offerings, and it would have been virtually impossible to track performance in our previous environment,&#8221; Gilliam said.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Sage Intacct emerged as&nbsp;HoganTaylor\u2019s&nbsp;solution of choice after evaluations of Oracle NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Xero, and QuickBooks Online. As it turned out, Sage acquired (then-independent) Intacct shortly after&nbsp;HoganTaylor\u2019s&nbsp;selection, meaning that the firm would remain within the Sage family of products.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">&#8220;We wanted the ability to put more detail in the general ledger, do financial reporting from the solution, and share information with stakeholders through dashboards,&#8221; Gilliam said. &#8220;Sage Intacct checked all those boxes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The firm&#8217;s results with Sage Intacct have been remarkable. With implementation by One Vision Solutions, a 2020 Sage Intacct Partner of the Year,&nbsp;HoganTaylor&nbsp;and its lean six-person accounting and finance team has:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Increased overall accounting efficiency 90%<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559737&quot;:720}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Eliminated $200,000 in administrative overhead<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559737&quot;:720}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Sped the close by 50% across 4x more entities<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559737&quot;:720}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Eliminated 40 hours a month of Excel-based statistical reporting<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Delivered 24 dashboards to finance, executive, and operational leaders<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Increased reporting volume by 4x<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559737&quot;:720}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Reduced days sales outstanding by 50% at\u00a0one\u00a0subsidiary<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-closing-the-books-in-half-the-time-for-4x-more-entities\">Closing the Books in Half the Time \u2014 for 4x More Entities<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Previously, accounting for subsidiaries was handled by administrative personnel at the subsidiary level in QuickBooks, while the main accounting team managed financials for the over-arching corporate entity.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Now Gilliam\u2019s team has taken over multi-entity accounting for the four subsidiaries, without adding headcount. That eliminates roughly $200,000 a year in administrative overhead, while subsidiary personnel can now focus on more valuable client-facing initiatives instead of bookkeeping in QuickBooks.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Despite the increased workload, Gilliam\u2019s team has dramatically cut monthly close time \u2014 from five to seven business days down to just two or three.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201cConsolidation across multiple entities would have been a nightmare in our previous environment,&#8221; Gilliam said. \u201cAs the firm has grown with acquisitions and new entities, Sage Intacct has enabled the finance team to handle exponential growth in volume and deliver more timely reporting while maintaining our headcount to a minimum.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">With Sage Intacct,&nbsp;HoganTaylor&nbsp;has eliminated 40 hours of statistical reporting on metrics such as hours and headcount previously done manually in Excel. The firm is also saving time in accounts payable with integration between Sage Intacct and Bill.com, and it\u2019s streamlined intercompany accounting for about 250 transactions a month.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201cIntercompany is much easier with Sage Intacct because often our due to\/due from records wouldn\u2019t match, so we\u2019d have to hunt through systems to figure it out,\u201d said Controller Mandy Brown. \u201cWe don\u2019t have to worry about that anymore because Sage Intacct handles it automatically.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-a-4x-increase-in-reports-and-a-50-decrease-in-dso\">A 4x Increase in Reports and a 50% Decrease in DSO<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">HoganTaylor\u2019s big efficiency gains have opened time to invest in more analytics and other value-added work.&nbsp;<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">For example, the finance team has increased its number of monthly reports more than 4x, from about 10 to 45, all with additional detail that delivers insights not possible with Excel. Plus, Brown has time for a new role in aiding&nbsp;HoganTaylor\u2019s&nbsp;internal tax preparation.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">She and Gilliam have also created Sage Intacct dashboards for 24 users, 15 of whom are non-finance executives, department heads, and subsidiary leaders. Dashboards with real-time data have proven highly valuable for insightful decision making compared to limited monthly reports of the past.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201cOur dashboard users can now drill down into details and get context and perspective, whereas before they\u2019d get a report once a month,\u201d Gilliam said.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">For one&nbsp;subsidiary, dashboards helped leadership easily spot delinquent bill payments and ramp up collection efforts, Brown noted. That\u2019s reduced&nbsp;the subsidiary\u2019s&nbsp;days sales outstanding (DSO) metric by 50%, accelerating cash flow for greater operational flexibility.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-building-on-success-with-sage-intacct-budgeting-and-planning\">Building on Success with Sage Intacct Budgeting and Planning<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Management is also better able to track travel and expense&nbsp;costs and&nbsp;adjust headcount by location as needed. \u201cManagement can look at headcount, hours, and revenue by location and determine we might be overstaffed at one office but understaffed at another,\u201d Brown noted.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Going forward,&nbsp;HoganTaylor&nbsp;can&nbsp;set up newly acquired entities far more easily than it could in the old system. Plus, regular updates to the platform via the cloud give the finance team an ever-expanding toolkit.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201cSage Intacct is always making improvements and enhancements, so the solution keeps getting better and our lives keep getting easier,\u201d Brown said. \u201cWe\u2019re always finding new ways to benefit from Sage Intacct.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">One way was to replace Excel budgeting with Sage Intacct Budgeting and Planning in late 2019, improving budget creation efficiency by 50% and saving roughly 100 hours of work for the finance team and more than a dozen department and subsidiary budget owners.&nbsp;In an upcoming blog, Brown and Gilliam&nbsp;share&nbsp;how the native integration between Sage Intacct budgeting and accounting components is proving especially useful.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Discover how <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/sage-business-cloud\/intacct\/\">Sage Intacct<\/a> can empower your business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"single-cta\">\n\t<div class=\"single-cta__positioner\">\n\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__wrapper has-dark-background-color\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"single-cta__title h3\">Discover Sage Intacct for Financial Services<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/sage-business-cloud\/intacct\/industries\/financial-services\/\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"single-cta__button button button--primary\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tid=\"cta-id-7428\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-button-location=\"cta_box\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t>Learn 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<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"425\" height=\"384\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2021\/02\/intacctctafs.jpg\" class=\"single-cta__image\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" 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[&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1272,"featured_media":8033,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sage_video":false,"post_featured_image_hide":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[168],"business_type":[99],"lilypad":[],"context":[],"industry":[],"persona":[],"imagine_tag":[],"coauthors":[366],"class_list":["post-7749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-money-matters","tag-business-management","business_type-medium-business"],"sage_meta":{"region":"en-ca","author_name":"Andrew Sevillia","featured_image":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1129490299.jpg","imagine_tags":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Sage Advice Canada 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