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Sage Intacct 2022 Release 1: What’s New For Restaurant Groups? | Tbsp

Written by TBSP | Mar 12, 2022 2:41:00 AM

Sage Intacct’s R1 2022, released on February 18, 2022. There were many exciting features that elevated the modules and tools Sage Intacct users currently use. Sage Intacct issues four quarterly releases per year – each release offers enhancements, updates, and features providing best-in-class financial management automation.

On Wednesday, March 9th Tablespoon hosted a webinar reviewing what restaurant groups need to know about the latest release. Andrew Lester, Tablespoon’s CEO, and Ryan Sudgen, Tablespoon’s Implementation Specialist, walked through a few interesting highlights.

They included:

  • AP Bill Automation
  • Electronic Vendor Payments
  • AP Enhancements
  • GL Outlier Assistant
  • Bank Reconciliation Creation Rules
  • User Interface Enhancements

Below is a brief recap of the latest release highlights and how it might impact restaurant groups.

AP Bill Automation

Sage Intacct launched AP Bill Automation in a beta/early adopter status. AP Bill Automation incorporates the ability to send/upload vendor bills. Sage Intacct then automatically codes and posts the bills.

For example: your company is set-up with a custom email address and vendors can email bills. It then digitizes, reviews, and codes the invoice. It then puts the invoice into a draft state for the user to go in and approve.

This is part of a broader initiative to focus on streamlining and automating the accounts payable workflow. It’s not just AP – it ties in through the AP posting and automating payments and reconciliation.

How it works:

  • Vendor bills are received via email or upload into Sage Intacct
  • Sage Intacct creates a draft bill, using AI to assign the vendor, date, GL account, and dimensions
  • Original bill is automatically added as an attachment
  • Final step: review and post
  • Easy visibility into duplicates and exceptions
  • Sage Intacct leverages machine learning and coding history to “learn” from corrections you make

Currently in early adopter status – more to come – but very exciting!

Electronic Vendor Payments

The new vendor payment option is called “Vendor Payments from CSI.” It is a new partnership between Sage Intacct and Corporate Spending Innovations. This solution is a native bill pay functionality that is built right into Sage Intacct.

How it works:

  • Vendors are enrolled in the CSI platform and choose their payment method
  • Utilize “CSI” payment method when selecting bills for payment
  • Once payment decision is made, Vendor Payments handles the rest
  • Full visibility inside Sage Intacct into payment status

This solution was built and supported by Sage Intacct, and it leverages CSI’s payment technology. It allows you to pay vendors by check and the CSI technology will print and mail the checks for you. You can also pay by ACH and/or a virtual card with cash rebates.

In addition to the time savings from not having to print and send checks, you also gain cost savings in the bill pay process, as well as full visibility into Sage Intacct for the status of the payments. This carries through into the bank reconciliation to automate the clearing of your bill payments as they clear through your bank account.

AP Enhancements

There is a new sort feature Payment request created added to the Print Checks page. After you enter and pay each bill, you can sort and print checks, then flip the stack of bills over and confirm each check in the same order.

This is a little update, but it can save you a lot of time if you are doing checks in Sage Intacct.

GL Outlier Assistant

This is a very exciting feature! Over the past few years, Sage Intacct has been releasing artificial intelligence to help analyze transaction data and identify potential errors or irregularities. Last year, Sage Intacct released GL Outlier Detection. GL Outlier Detection only applies to workflows that have journal entries ready to be approved. GL Outlier Detection helps with the process by analyzing the entry and looks for patterns and flag potential errors.

With this release, Sage Intacct introduced the GL Outlier Assistant, which evaluates journal entries when they are submitted. The GL Outlier Assistant looks at historical patterns to identify individual debits and credits outside of normal patterns.

Bank Reconciliation Creation Rules

New in this release is a new bank reconciliation creation rule. It analyzes bank transaction data and automatically creates a matching journal entry within Sage Intacct.

There are a lot of potential use cases for this within restaurant groups. There are so many transactions that clear through your bank that you must post manually. You might be uploading through a csv file or keying entries or posting on the fly – the bank reconciliation creation rule will help automate the process. Think about how you post your daily deposits, your royalty marketing fee debits, bank fees, utility ACHs, etc.,

Currently in early adopter status but very exciting!

Coming Soon: User Interface Enhancements

List Views (Vendor List, Bills List, etc.) are getting a refresh! The “custom view” wizard is being replaced by dynamic “on the fly” customization of list information. You will be able to personalize your list view with ease.

It will help with:

  • Reorder, Resize, Freeze Columns with Drag & Drop Interactions
  • Simple and advanced filtering
  • Batch Operations
  • Out of the Box List Views
  • Fewer Steps / Clicks
  • New Split View option

This feature is currently in beta!

Honorable Mention Updates

  • AP: Redesigned Bill detail page – find important fields, faster
  • AP: New date column on the Pay Bills page
  • Download AP templates without leaving Accounts Payable
  • AR: New import template for AR Payments
  • AR: Set default sender information for invoices and statements
  • Financial Report Writer Notations

These are only a few highlights of the many new enhancements and features that have come to Sage Intacct with the newest release.

Want to learn more about the latest release?

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