How upgrading to Sage Intacct saw one Orthopedic practice grow by 25%

One of the oldest musculoskeletal practices in California, Ventura Orthopedics has physicians, physician assistants, therapists, and staff that treat the full care continuum at six locations. Recently, we had the pleasure of chatting with the company’s CFO, John Hughes, and controller, Shelby Kurhanewicz, about their journey from Sage BusinessWorks to Sage 300 to Sage Intacct.

In a new customer story, the healthcare business shares how Sage partner, North49, supported its finance team every step of the way as they achieved the following results with Sage Intacct:

• Streamlined finance workflows, freeing 50 hours each month
• Supported 25% business growth without adding finance headcount
• Gained visibility to quickly adjust and reach profitability
• Brought operational data into reporting to inform better decision-making

Hughes summed up these impressive benefits, noting, “Sage Intacct allowed us to respond to the needs we already had and position ourselves for the growth to come. The system’s deep insights help us know if we’re on track or not and make changes very nimbly. I get the reporting I need to efficiently redirect the ship.”

A journey towards modern, multi-dimensional financials

Five years ago, Hughes was doing a lot of manual bookkeeping before he connected with North49 and worked with them on Ventura Orthopedics’ first step towards modernization: migrating to Sage 300. Last year, as the pandemic made its mark, his team recognized the time had come to take their next step. North49 approached the team with a plan to implement a more flexible, dynamic platform that meets their evolving needs.

“With North49, there’s a real collaborative spirit and a true partnership,” shared Hughes. “They understand our business and have constant conversations with us about what we are trying to accomplish. Because of this, they were instrumental in helping us see how we could use Sage Intacct to overcome our challenges.”

Based on his prior experience with the system at a nonprofit organization, Hughes knew it was the right solution for their needs, and when he explained its capabilities to his team, they quickly agreed. After making the shift midway through COVID-19 lockdowns, Sage Intacct fully unlocked the flexibility of remote work.

“The pandemic has been a catalyst to start using technology to its fullest,” Hughes said. “Not only does Sage Intacct free us from our desks since we can work from anywhere with ease, it really sets us up for the next season of our company’s growth.”

Ventura Orthopedics already ran its multi-entity organization with a focus on three key dimensions: services, departments, and providers. However, with Sage 300’s more linear general ledger, this meant a massive chart of accounts and a lot of work adding account codes each time a new provider or clinic came on board.

Sage Intacct brought the company all the benefits of a true dimensional structure. By automating a lot of tedious work, the finance team saves around 50 hours per month, and each member has been able to grow and expand their role. Kurhanewicz noted that she appreciates the ease of switching between entities, sharing vendors, accounts payable approval workflows, and other intuitive tasks in Sage Intacct.

Meanwhile, Hughes especially likes the impact that having mobile, cloud-based access has had on the efficiency of his lifestyle outside of work. He said, “The beauty with a system like Sage Intacct is that I can literally approve disbursements from my phone while I’m at the store. Since I can click through and find all the details I need, I no longer have to call my team to ask questions or be a bottleneck to cutting checks.”

Sage Intacct also streamlined the quarterly task of calculating physician compensation. Now, the team can easily allocate revenue and expenses across physicians or business units to distribute income accurately.

“My dream with our new system is to automate this even more, so we can push a button every month and send out 20 reports for each individual provider,” explained Hughes. “We can give them compensation details and helpful clinic metrics alongside powerful physician-specific income statements.”

Visibility across the business helps shift finance from cost center to profit driver

The finance team values Sage Intacct’s custom report writer, which not only enables them to look at their business from any angle, but it also utilizes statistical accounts to report on operational metrics such as revenue per FTE, operating margin per unit, or true cost per square foot of real estate. The system makes it simple to compare clinic performance and analyze granular metrics or account groupings in just minutes. As a result, the business can make more informed decisions about spending, rent pricing, and other strategies to optimize tax savings.

For example, the team can quickly see performance indicators like the yield and margins for specific value-based programs, and clearly demonstrate which programs are most profitable (even if they require some extra work for the physicians). Ventura Orthopedics also plans to start capturing relative value unit (RVU) data, a key healthcare metric that will help the organization monitor each therapist or doctor’s level of effort per dollar.

“Our management team isn’t used to having such easy access to data, so Sage Intacct is a huge part of increasing their financial acumen. Now, our leaders have a stake in the numbers, and want to better understand what’s happening in their offices,” pointed out Hughes.

In addition, Kurhanewicz shared that Sage Intacct’s robust built-in reporting can do everything they previously relied on an outside reporting tool for. By canceling that contract, the company expects to save tens of thousands of dollars each year.

“As a cost center, I’m always thinking about how many resources the finance function absorbs, but we didn’t have to change our cost structure to switch to Sage Intacct,” commented Hughes. “And with the modern tools we have now, we can become a profit center that helps generate income for the company, not just count the beans. Sage Intacct’s value comes from allowing us to identify risk quickly, and efficiently see what’s coming around the corner.”

He concluded, “Sage Intacct helps us stay nimble since we have the tools needed to be confident saying ‘yes’ to whatever opportunities come down the road, rather than feeling constrained by requirements our accounting system couldn’t handle. I don’t ever want finance to be the prohibiting factor in helping us grow or provide more services to our patients. We want to be ready today so that we don’t have to be frantic tomorrow.”

To read more details about how Ventura Orthopedics transformed its finance operations with Sage Intacct, check out our new customer story.