Case Study
AGC’s Move to Sage Intacct Cut Entries 80%, Reporting Time in Half
When its legacy system no longer met AGC’s business software needs, it turned to CLA to implement Sage Intacct’s cloud accounting solution.
Organization
AGC, a trade association serving the construction industry in California.
Need
A modern, versatile financial management system.
Outcome
Journal entries reduced by 80%; reporting time cut from 30 to 15 days.
Understanding the situation
Associated General Contractors of California (AGC) is a trade association serving construction firms and contractors in California, with headquarters in Sacramento and more than 900 members across seven districts. They hold dozens of events, conferences, and award ceremonies throughout the year, providing advocacy, services, education, and resources to support the state’s construction industry.
AGC was facing significant challenges with its outdated Microsoft Dynamics GP system, formerly Great Plains, which is no longer being supported by Microsoft. The system struggled with handling multiple entities, complex intercompany transactions, and slow reporting. These issues led AGC to seek a more versatile and modern financial management software as a long-term solution for its growing needs.
Dean Pritchett, AGC’s chief financial officer, had positive experiences with CLA’s audit and tax teams at previous organizations. After reviewing and contemplating several demos from various software providers, the association’s finance team ultimately chose Sage Intacct — largely due to CLA’s compelling implementation approach.
The CLA implementation team is what really sold us. It was much easier to start by talking about our business software issues and then get the ball rolling on financial management solutions. CLA’s responsiveness and ongoing support were invaluable.
Exploring the challenge
As a trusted reseller of Sage Intacct’s cloud-based financial management system, CLA had the resources and experience to guide AGC through a seamless transition from Great Plains. The process began with a thorough define phase, where CLA digital worked closely with AGC to understand its needs.
Key steps in the Sage Intacct implementation included:
- Define phase — Extensive meetings to understand AGC’s requirements and set up the correct structure for the chart of accounts and inter-entity mapping.
- Test environment — Provisioning a test environment for AGC to replicate transactions and establish whether the system was being built correctly. AGC’s team tested every type of transaction they book monthly and annually.
- Automating payment requests — Implementing a system-based payment request process for the events team, which saved significant time for the bookkeeper.
- Involving non-finance personnel — Integrating non-finance personnel, such as the executive leadership team and events team, into the accounting system for better control and reporting.
- Hypercare management — CLA’s approach to avoid additional costs through careful planning and hypercare management, so the project stayed on budget and on time.
Achieving results
CLA’s implementation of Sage Intacct resulted in significant improvements for AGC:
- Streamlined intercompany transactions — Reducing monthly journal entries by 80% by incorporating transactions into the AGC site.
- Enhanced reporting capabilities — Allowing simultaneous monthly reporting for multiple entities by Day 15, compared to the previous manual process that took close to 30 days.
- Automated payment request processes — Saving time for the finance team by organizing payment requests and approvals within the system.
- Improved access for non-finance personnel — Providing real-time event profit and loss reports, enabling the events director to track performance without manual intervention.
- Positive impact on morale — AGC’s chief executive officer appreciated the ability to approve transactions remotely, enhancing efficiency and convenience.
- Audit efficiency — Simplifying the audit process by granting auditors access to the system, reducing questions and manual work.
- Ongoing support and maintenance — Continuous support through a client success representative, facilitating smooth post-implementation operations.
AGC plans to work with CLA’s digital team to further refine and leverage the capabilities of Sage Intacct by building out dashboards, implementing ACH payments, and extending the automated payment request process to the rest of the organization for broader benefits.
