Intacct Advantage 2016: Analytics Takes Center Stage

The opening keynote at the 2016 Intacct Advantage conference revealed several new products aimed at improving reporting and analytics.

New releases for 2017 are heavily focused on analytics, because, according to chief technology officer Aaron Harris, “At its heart, the accounting profession is about enabling organizations to make better decisions.” For this reason, Harris said, when Intacct was building out its new embedded finance analytics tool, it knew it would be over-investing in reporting and insight. This tool will be available in the second half of next year.

Vice president of product management Dan Miller focused on flexibility.  The new Intacct contract and revenue management tool is made to be malleable so that “Intacct works the way you work,” according to Miller. Workflows within the tool can begin through Salesforce, in-house booking, or directly through Intacct. The tool was released in May, and more functionality was this month at the Salesforce Deamforce conference. 

Miller also highlighted Intacct spend management, which helps organizations avoid unexpected cash flow issues by governing their spending against budgets. The tool is especially useful for nonprofits, Miller said, as they can be vulnerable to cash flow issues. The tool was released this week, and additional features will be added next year.

Also speaking at the opening keynote session was Barry Melancon, CEO of the American Institute of CPAs. He focused on the advent of integrated reports, which are summary reports of how an organization's strategy, governance, performance and prospects lead to the creation of value over the short, medium and long term.

“Integrated reports are about a bigger story,” Melancon said. “How we’re thinking in an integrated fashion is the key – how that is embedded in running the company.” He went on to say that “73 percent of large corporation C-suite executives are not getting enough insight and information from the vast availability of data and connections in organizations today.”

It’s this cue that Intacct is taking to set the tone for the coming year. “Our customers are the growth engines of society and economy,” CEO Robert Reid declared. In 2017, deep insights from analytical software tools will take center stage.  

Editor's note: this article originally stated that the Intacct contract and revenue management tool was in beta and would be fully released in 2017. The tool is acually available currently. 

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