Pinnacle to help not-for-profit work smarter with Sage Intacct Software

A charitable not-for-profit Trust is investing in Sage Intacct cloud finance software to simplify its IT infrastructure cost and complexity, digitise workflows and enhance financial reporting. East Sussex-based Wave Leisure is working with award winning Sage Partner Pinnacle to support its implementation.

Providing accessible health and fitness facilities to communities throughout East Sussex, Wave Leisure manages 15 different sites. It has a turnover of around £6 million and approximately 200 members of staff.

Finance is managed centrally with transactions including sales invoices raised when customers hire bookable areas and till takings in the form of cash, cheque and credit cards.

Always-current upgrades

Kevin Calmiano, the organisation’s Finance Manager, explains the reason for the not-for-profit’s accounts software switch, “We already used Sage 200, with support from Pinnacle, but a change in technological compatibility triggered the search for a new accounting system that better met our needs.

Although a critical factor driving the software change was initially technology, we also had a strong desire to travel in a more forward-thinking direction. Specifically, we wanted to implement browser-based software and the fact that we could transition from Sage 200 to Sage Intacct was appealing, especially as Sage Intacct updates automatically four times a year without interruption to processing, so we will always be on the latest version.”

Tailored for use by charities

The charity first started its financial software review in 2021 and Pinnacle supported the Wave Leisure team in finding the right solution, Stuart Collins, Financial Controller, comments,

“Sage Intacct is designed for use by charities and copes well managing different funds, which is important for our charity. Reports can also be set up enabling real-time visibility. So, as well as the general monthly accounts showing Income and Expenditure, we can split by site and also then by department, such as say Health & Fitness activities, or by IT activities for example.”

For now, only the Accounts team is set up to use Sage Intacct. But the software is already making a difference. Everyone is finding it easier and faster to input data, email invoices and remittances, and download data. Going forward, there are also plans to integrate the purchasing system to save time on what, historically, has been a manually managed process using Excel.

The organisation’s Area Managers will also be able to see their own accounts and access greater insight to enhance their decision-making process and ensure greater cost control. Opting to subscribe to the Spend Management module, each site will be able to access a budgeting facility so overspends can be identified quickly with any orders already in the system accounted for.

Another benefit Stuart envisages is on the reporting side of things: “The team will be able to access the reports directly from Sage Intacct, rather than drawing down the individual data into Excel and then having to play around with it. It will be so much quicker and easier.”

Pinnacle has supported the transition as Wave Leisure Finance Manager, Kevin Calmiano explains: “It’s the first time we’ve implemented software under remote conditions. Interaction with John and Steve at Pinnacle has been good; we’ve worked well together. We scoped out our requirements, and because it’s browser-based Sage Intacct is accessible straight away.”

Speeding up the software implementation and reducing consultancy days, training on the new software has been delivered using interactive learning. Sage Intacct has a comprehensive learning management system so trainees can either, watch a portion of a task-specific video, respond to multiple-choice questions or move on to do a worked example in the training database to reinforce the learning.

Following on from this foundation training process, Pinnacle’s John Chinery and Steve Edgar supported with snagging for organisation-specific scenarios; helping the team to customise the system to meet internal workflow requirements.

Digitising workflows for accuracy and efficiency

Steve Edgar, Sage Intacct Support Team Leader, expands on this: “It’s been great to see Stuart tailoring Sage Intacct to work for the organisation. So far, multiple Smart Rules and Events have been set up, which can help to avoid errors. For example, if an invoice needs to be allocated to a specific department, a rule has been set so that it can’t be posted as a ‘central’ cost. In my experience, most accounts clerks have little Post-it notes on the side of their screen reminding them of things like this. With Sage Intacct, you simply build the rules into the system.”

Pinnacle Sage Intacct Commercial Lead John Chinery adds: “Sage Intacct has been in the cloud since 1999 and has been used by the US NFPs for many years. We are delighted to bring Sage Intacct to our UK customers, as it meets unique NFP requirements like partial VAT, stakeholder reporting and delivers genuine efficiencies - which means more time to focus on their mission."

Wave Leisure’s Kevin Calmiano concludes,

“The team has picked up Sage Intacct easily and are singing its praises already. We’re looking forward to working with Pinnacle to develop the system further.”