Accounting software for media and publishing companies

AccountsIQ gives New Statesman Media Group greater control over its finance function

The New Statesman Media Group (NS Media) has grown substantially since its launch in 1913 and as with all businesses in the publishing industry, they have had to adapt to survive in the digital era. NS Media has been on a mission to migrate all of its business systems to digital, including their accounting system, where Mark Moore, the group’s Finance Director, led the way to replace the outdated SunSystems accounting platform. Having compared several mid-market Cloud-based accounting software vendors, including Xero and iPlicit, Mark chose AccountsIQ for its full in-built feature set without the need for bespoking, as well as his confidence that the product would continually evolve and support this dynamic and constantly changing group.

Mark Moore, Finance Director, New Statesman Media Group:

We needed to move to a cloud-based accounting solution that could meet the needs of our group of publishing and media businesses. We were looking for a high level of core functionality instead of bespoke patching and a system readily capable of scaling-up. AccountsIQ is an established product and it became obvious to us the product would continue to evolve. Lastly, the pricing was very competitive, and the accreditation by the ICAEW was important to us.” – Mark Moore, Finance Director, NS Media Group." 

Better reporting for a complex business structure

NS Media’s complexity comes from the wide range of income streams and diverse businesses across the group’s 17 entities. With consolidation and multi-dimensional analysis built into AccountsIQ, it’s easy for Mark to extract the reports with as much complexity as he needs, including reporting by sector, product, distribution channel, brand and department. AccountsIQ supports up to six customisable dimensions linked to a unique BI code, plus an unlimited number of codes that can be assigned to each dimension. Mark is able to report across all dimensions and codes, and can also create bespoke reports with AccountsIQ’s Excel Add-in.

We’ve always had a complex structure and the great thing with AccountsIQ is that it can accommodate as much complexity as you want. We use BI codes and all of the dimensions because we need that level of complexity to cut across the information,” said Mark.

Group VAT reporting in line with Making Tax Digital has also been a boon to Mark’s finance function, bringing greater assurance when it comes to compliance.

Sun was terrible for VAT and we needed bridging software to do our VAT returns. With AccountsIQ we have one system that does everything,” said Mark. “It’s already integrated with HMRC which made it easy to adapt to Making Tax Digital. For compliance, it’s much better and gives us confidence in protecting the business for the long term.”

Efficiency benefits from integrations with Salesforce and Chaser

Mark is benefiting from two AccountsIQ integrations that are helping him streamline his accounts receivable process:

• Salesforce CRM for sales invoices and receipts
• Chaser for debt management and automated invoice chasing

AccountsIQ’s existing partnership with these Cloud-based apps made integration easy, despite NS Media having a complex Salesforce setup with numerous customisations. Integration support from AccountsIQ and good project management from Marks’ team combined for a relatively smooth integration. The finance team now has greater control over the accounts receivable process from start to finish.

When we invoice from Salesforce, ten minutes later it’s in AccountsIQ and we can start the collection process,” said Mark. “All of the data in our accounts receivable link up to Chaser which has automatic routines sending proactive emails to our clients to help us collect the invoice. We’re getting our invoices paid more quickly and saving a lot of time on accounts receivable tasks.”

Streamlining and automation benefits

AccountsIQ’s cloud accounting features and integrated accounting software are designed to automate as much of the accounting process as possible. Built-in automations include accounts payable, bank feeds, invoicing, expense capture, consolidation, workflow approval, and BI. By using these automations, Mark is gaining greater efficiencies in the long term that make his finance team more cost effective.

Everything is much simpler now with an accounting process that is more process-led rather than ad hoc,” said Mark. “For example, expenses and fixed assets are all automated whereas before, it took me about a week to balance everything in a spreadsheet. Things are much more efficient and we have more time to do things that provide more added value to the business. A lot of tasks like VAT used to be laborious, manual processes. Now they can be done in 5-10 minutes. That’s helping us get the best use of our existing resources and allowing us to be a leaner finance team.”

Greater control with data stored in the Cloud

With all of the data stored on the Cloud, instantly accessible, and most importantly, accurate thanks to AccountsIQ’s automations and integrations, Mark has more control over his finance function than he’s ever had before. Mark highlights several areas where these controls are particularly beneficial to the business:

• Workflow approval brings greater accountability.
• User access across the business, e.g. their IT director can update the fixed asset register, giving the finance team better visibility on assets.
• Bank payments are integrated directly with the bank.
• Integration with Salesforce and Chaser bring more control to the accounts receivable process.
• Clear view of the audit trail, with the ability to drill down into the data and easily track changes.

As an enterprise it’s much better to have a finance system that integrates with the business,” said Mark. “Features like workflow approval give a lot of control back to the finance team, and effectively we’re able to evolve. Now as accountants we’re not just people who process transactions; we have the ability to do more, contribute to strategy objectives and the overall value of the business.”

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The Irish Times Group Keeps its Finger on the Pulse with AccountsIQ

When The Irish Times Group acquired The Examiner Group in 2018, the enlarged group comprised a significant number of distinct business units.  With a vision of creating a more modern workplace while reducing costs, the company wanted to move away from on-premise, multi-location systems and selected cloud financial management software AccountsIQ.  Group CFO, Mikie Sheehan describes how time and resources have been recovered by simplifying processes and reporting.

One of the benefits of bringing a group together is to drive synergies in the cost base as we re-engineer how we operate day-to-day.  Systems automation is the real prize and AccountsIQ is enabling us to realise these operational goals,” says Mikie Sheehan.

Moving onto AccountsIQ financial management platform brings “twofold” savings

Reflecting on the benefits of replacing legacy systems, Mikie says, “The savings with AccountsIQ are twofold.  Firstly, we are saving costs but we also have ongoing savings through the streamlining of our processes.” 

Describing how the simplicity of the system provides him with greater control and saves precious time, Mikie adds,

It’s intuitive enough that it’s easy for me to run a report or get a quick snapshot on performance at any stage throughout the month.  Personally, I have more visibility, I can ask more questions, I can drill down into the detail and it’s simple to do all this in AccountsIQ. It has made a real change to our reporting processes. The consolidation functionality is also a huge asset within the system and significantly reduces month-end close to allow us to get that Group view immediately”

The Accounts Payable process has changed “dramatically”

With an estimated 12,000 invoices being processed a year, automating this process first seemed an obvious way to achieve real, measurable efficiency in a short space of time.

Summarising how AccountsIQ ticked many of the system requirements, Mikie adds,

The automation within AccountsIQ when it comes to things like Bank Reconciliation is really slick, and its ability to integrate document scanning and storage gives us end-to-end automation and a paperless Accounts Payable process.  It has dramatically changed the way we work.”

Due to AccountsIQ’s existing integration with advanced document scanning software Kefron AP, the Accounts Payable element was created quickly, and means they now have paperless approval of invoices. “In the current environment, where the team has been working remotely over the past 15 months, the ability to capture, analyse, distribute for approval, review and pay suppliers with all the information gathered in the one place has been a significant capacity driver for the finance team.”

Integrating advertising sales data is vital

The business relies heavily on sales data gathered in their advertising booking system, provided by another vendor, which is intertwined with their finance and reporting mechanisms. Back-office integration with both systems was an essential part of the vision of a more efficient future.

AccountsIQ’s integration with the ad booking system includes functionality that generates all weekly invoicing and manages adjustments.  It also makes an up-to-the-minute credit status of every account visible to the sales team and automates a rules-based process for issuing dunning letters.  With different letters designed to be released at different times, it removes the admin-heavy and error-prone end of the process, vitally supporting cash flow.

Partnership approach to digitally transforming The Irish Times Group

Much of the success of the project comes from a partnership approach to designing and implementing the system and building a feasible roadmap together with the other software suppliers involved. In total there were four main systems and six others that needed to be integrated with AccountsIQ.  AccountsIQ’s open API has made this task a lot easier.

With AccountsIQ, we get a real sense of proactiveness and solving problems together.  No system that you buy off the shelf is going to be an exact fit.  AccountsIQ worked with us to find ways of marginally reconfiguring the system to meet our requirements,” says Mikie.

“AccountsIQ’s implementation support is very pro-active in its response times. We have had a consistent team supporting us throughout, they are nimble and solution-oriented in their approach and work hard to understand our business, which has a degree of complexity the team may not have come across elsewhere. It is way more than “Software-as-a-Service”, and the pace the AccountsIQ team worked at to get it up and running was superb,” adds Mikie.

I am excited to see how the Partnership will develop with a timetable for future development, which we have been involved in at every stage. The whole team are encouraged at how their feedback is taken on board in this development roadmap and the expenses app, as well as the banking integration technology. These are just two of the releases that we are working with AccountsIQ on,” explains Mikie.

AccountsIQ’s COO Darren Cran adds, “We are delighted to have helped with this digital finance transformation project at The Irish Times, and adding enhancements requested by Mikie and his team, which will benefit our whole user base.  A key factor in the success was the Finance team’s willingness to adopt the way AccountsIQ solves key finance pain points.  It’s always refreshing for our customer success team when customers have this growth mindset.”

Darren adds, “Remote working has been a key shift of the last 12 months and AccountsIQ, being cloud-based, has enabled this transition for finance teams. Work/life balance is now foremost in everyone’s minds and cloud technology has made it straightforward for organisations to offer this flexibility. Most of our customers are experiencing an increase in focus and productivity as a result.”

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ION financial transformation specialist and AccountsIQ help Ramarketing improve reporting and reduce month end close by 40%

Ramarketing are an award-winning pharmaceutical PR and digital agency dedicated to helping ambitious and fast-growing companies in the outsourcing space grow and meet their commercial ambitions. Their previous finance system was Sage Financials, which Ramarketing needed to move from due to Sage ending the life-cycle of the product.

With the increasing demands of the growing business a scalable solution, with customisable reporting into ongoing project profitability was required.  Group consolidation and analysis was key to the business, whilst maintaining adherence to statutory legislation.

Other solutions they had previously used in the business could not accurately forecast and report on projects across the new markets that they were entering.  Access from a single server was obstructive and would slow processes down across the business.  With this in mind, going back to their previous solution was not an option

With this new stage of growth, Ramarketing required a solution that could both adapt to these changes and be legislatively compliant.  Increasing the reporting abilities would be key to maintaining margins across entities.

AccountsIQ selected as the scalable solution for Ramarketing

AccountsIQ met the business requirements on several levels, with accounting, consolidation and business intelligence – all in one unique, powerful Financial Management Software solution.  A completely cloud-based solution, AccountsIQ was able to resolve the current issues and ready the business for future success.

ION, a financial transformation specialist, was selected to support Ramarketing on a continuous basis. The support ION offer enables a point of contact for the finance team should any issues arise – whether they are knowledge or training issues, or problems in simple transacting to complex reporting.

Ramarketing were looking for an SME solution that provided a variety of insights into our project profitability, whilst managing group consolidation and multi-currency. ION helped us select, implement and support the introduction of AccountsIQ to achieve this, without compromising the statutory requirements of an accounting system.” Barry Goddard, Finance Director, Ramarketing

‍Through the deployment of AccountsIQ's media accounting software, Ramarketing are able to consolidate their final data into one complete solution using financial consolidation software.  A solution that is easy to use – yet effective in its reporting capabilities.

With AccountsIQ in place financial reporting across entities is both detailed and easy to navigate.   And, with a parent chart of accounts, adding new reports and reportable dimensions enabled the business to scale without having to overhaul their accounting structure.

As AccountsIQ is fully cloud based Ramarketing are able to access business intelligence and transact anytime, anywhere – giving the leadership team the up-to-the-minute data and metrics required to unleash business success.

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