Innovative Dining Group Serves Up Impressive Results with Tablespoon and Sage Intacct

Innovative Dining Group started searching for a new accounting platform in 2019. While on Microsoft Dynamics GP, their server was nearing the end of its life, and they wanted to switch to a cloud-based platform. They narrowed down the search to NetSuite and Sage Intacct. In March 2020, Coronavirus hit the United States and paused their selection process. During the pandemic they encountered additional challenges with Microsoft Dynamics GP. During the lockdown and for quite some time afterwards, they had to work remote. Working with an on-premises accounting platform, they had to log in to their server, which caused bottlenecks and slowed systems down. In addition, Microsoft Dynamics GP imports were cumbersome and were an inefficient use of time.

“We were amid a technology upgrade and selecting cloud-based platforms was crucial to the process. Our server was running out of time, it was a critical driving force in our decision-making process,” said Irena Mozetich, Financial Reporting and Accounting Manager at Innovative Dining Group.

Tablespoon and Sage Intacct

Innovative Dining Group was introduced to Tablespoon during the Sage Intacct discovery process. They needed a partner that had restaurant industry experience. “I wanted an accounting implementation partner who understood the restaurant business. We have specific requirements around reporting structure and what kind of accounts we need. Tablespoon was a perfect match,” said Irena Mozetich.

Sage Intacct had an edge over NetSuite because of the open API landscape. NetSuite didn’t integrate with any of Innovative Dining Group’s technology stack. In an open API landscape, your software can openly communicate with other software. “We looked at a lot of different product demos and we liked Sage Intacct the best – especially since we needed a multi-entity environment. We have many dormant entities in addition to several active entities,” said Irena Mozetich.

Measuring Outcomes

On-premises solutions often don’t provide real-time fully accessible reports. This can be challenging to restaurant managers who are incentivized based on financial statements. With a cloud-based solution, managers can access information that matters to them 24/7, which leaves less questions for accounting team members at the end of the month.

Tablespoon worked with Innovative Dining Group to customize Sage Intacct with the reports that they needed to run their business. Having industry specific pre-generated reports creates valuable efficiencies. However, one of the biggest outcomes with Sage Intacct is that everyone at Innovative Dining Group has access to financials and information, so that they can drill down and independently answer questions by themselves that they would otherwise have to go to the accounting team for. “Yes, we close our books quicker on Sage Intacct vs. Microsoft Dynamics GP, however what’s really impressive is the time savings when running investor checks. It used to take us 3-hours running checks, and now it takes 10-minutes,” said Irena Mozetich. That’s an impressive decrease of 94.44%!

Additional Outcomes:

• Open API has led to time savings with their technology integrations
• Financial institution update has helped greatly with their banks
• Imports in Sage Intacct are significantly easier – just one click and it’s done
• Dashboards in Sage Intacct are easy to make and access – employee users can dig into Sage Intacct and get the information they need without relying on accounting for access

“Sage Intacct is worth the investment. No one system is going to be perfect but with quarterly updates I know that they are always improving and adding new features. Having the right partner, like Tablespoon, gives us access to knowledgeable and supportive experts that understand our industry and challenges,” said Irena Mozetich.

About Innovative Dining Group

Innovative Dining Group's mission is to craft elevated dining experiences anchored in innovative cuisine, impeccable style, seductive ambiance, and first-class service. It’s the attention to detail that attracts guests, including A-listers and tastemakers, from around the world. Their legendary restaurants are in premier destinations, including Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Newport Beach and Scottsdale. They currently have six restaurants including BOA Steakhouse, Katana, Robata Bar, Sushi Roku and Yakumi.

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