Sage Intacct Release: Executive Briefing

Earlier this Fall, Sage announced updates to Sage Intacct covering accounts payable controls, Excel reporting, billing, Avalara use-tax, customer payments, and industry-specific workflows for lending, construction and hospitality. Availability varies by feature and geography; Smart Reporting for Excel, the Customer Payments Portal, Avalara use-tax, and Construction Billing are offered through Early Adopter programs.

Key feature updates

The release adds AI-based detection of invoices from unrecognized vendor email addresses, refreshable Sage Intacct reporting in Excel with existing permissions maintained, and additional invoice generation and review workflows. Industry updates include loan lifecycle management, automated construction retainage calculations and synchronization of hospitality purchasing, sales and inventory data.

Context and commentary

Sage’s research found that 52% of small and mid-sized businesses rank cyber security and data protection among their leading priorities for the next 12 months, while 81% are unprepared or in the early stages of readiness for AI-related threats. This provides context for the release’s financial-control updates; the announcement does not quantify their impact on those risks.

The release follows Sage’s earlier investment in AI-powered financial management. Jon Fasoli, SVP, Sage Intacct, Sage, described the focus as earlier issue detection and decision support within existing finance workflows. Chris Price, Director, Digital Advisory, Baker Tilly, highlighted continued investment in Sage Intacct SaaS Intelligence as supporting visibility into financial and operational data.

Feature details and availability

• Anomaly Detection for AP Automation – Uses AI to flag invoices received from unrecognized vendor email addresses. Administrators can review and block suspicious senders before payment, focusing manual investigation on flagged activity. This AP Automation Anomaly Detection can identify the following types of anomalies.
  • Unusual transaction amounts: Transactions with amounts that differ significantly from historical patterns for similar transactions.
  • Unrecognized vendor email addresses: Transactions received from vendor email addresses that do not match previously recognized sender addresses for the vendor.
  • Multiple anomalies: Transactions that meet the criteria for more than one anomaly type.

Anomalies reported are informational and do not prevent transactional postings.

Generally available globally for Sage Intacct AP Automation customers

• Sage Intacct Lending Management – Supports the loan lifecycle from origination through payoff within Sage Intacct, including automated interest calculations and borrower statements, rather than managing these activities in separate systems. Loan Lifecycle management:
  • Create a loan (including creation of a bill in Accounts Payable to pay the loan origination amount to the borrower).
  • Generate amortization schedules.
  • Calculate and post interest.
  • Invoice customers on a recurring basis.
  • Lending Management comes with standard reports that you can run immediately. Create and print a variety of easily customizable reports and graphs relative to loan lifecycles.

Generally available in the US

• Smart Reporting for Excel – Makes Sage Intacct reporting structures available directly in Excel without rebuilding reports or using manual exports. Connected financial data can be refreshed as needed, with Sage Intacct permissions and access controls maintained. Key benefits of this feature:
  • Easily build Excel reports using Sage Intacct data.
  • Refresh Excel Reports as needed for the latest information.

Available through an Early Adopter program in the US and UK

• Enhanced Billing Groups in Order Entry – Adds on-demand invoice generation, expanded billing workflows and draft invoice reviews to support complex billing processes while retaining auditability. Key benefits include:
  • Review invoices: Preview invoice details to verify billing information and improve accuracy.
  • Gain visibility into invoice charges: See the total charges included in an invoice, including group and individual charges.
  • Streamline invoice generation: Use a dedicated page to preview and start invoice runs for billing groups.
  • Support revenue management workflows: Generate draft invoices so you can assign revenue recognition details before posting.

Generally available globally

• Customer Payments Portal – Provides a self-service payment experience within Sage Intacct that supports multiple payment providers and methods. Features include payment links, scheduled payments and saved payment details. Key benefits delivered by this integration:
  • Faster payments: Customers can pay multiple invoices directly from invoice emails, helping you collect payments faster.
  • Improved accuracy: Automated payment tracking and reconciliation reduce manual errors and administrative overhead.
  • Enhanced visibility: Real-time payment status updates and audit trails provide better control and transparency.
  • Customer and self-service convenience: A secure payment experience improves customer satisfaction and reduces friction.
  • Easier setup: Default email templates are provided, but you can create different templates based on the defaults if you wish.
  • More payment providers added: Customers can now use Bridge for companies in France and Germany to make electronic payments.

Available through an Early Adopter program globally

• Construction Billing and Retainage Enhancements – Automates retainage calculations and adds flexibility across contract billing workflows for construction project billing. Key benefits include:
  • Streamlines retainage tracking: Track retainage holds in Sage Intacct to reduce manual tracking activities and improve accuracy.
  • Supports complex regional requirements: Handle advanced retainage scenarios (including Australia and New Zealand) beyond simple per-line percentages.
  • Provides flexible calculation methods: Use simple (single-rate) and advanced (multi-tiered or stepped) retainage calculation methods on the same primary document.
  • Refine rules before posting: Update retainage rules and preview calculations for accuracy before posting an invoice.

Construction Retainage Enhancements are generally available, and Construction Billing is available through an Early Adopter program in the US, UK, Australia and Canada

• Avalara use tax in Purchasing – Subscribers to Avalara AvaTax can now apply use taxes in Purchasing transactions. Users can apply use tax as a standalone tax, or to offset sales tax when partial taxes have been paid on out-of-state purchases. Key benefits include:
  • Streamlined Purchasing workflows: Automatically determine use tax for out-of-state or untaxed purchases in your Avalara-enabled Purchasing transactions.
  • Enhance visibility into tax calculations: Access clear breakdowns of vendor tax and use tax in transaction details.
  • Improve tax accuracy and compliance: Ensure correct accounting treatment by posting use tax to the appropriate expense account.

Available through an Early Adopter program in the US and Canada.

• Connected to Craftable – Automatically synchronizes purchasing, sales and inventory data with Sage Intacct for restaurants, bars, hotels and hospitality groups, reducing manual data entry in support of month-end close. Key benefits include:
  • Daily sales from every location and entity automatically post to General Ledger each night, so Finance starts each day with current numbers and keeps the close on schedule.
  • Different locations can run different point of sale systems and still report through one consistent feed into Intacct.
  • As your business grows, Sage Intacct's robust general ledger will continue to meet your needs, so you won't have to migrate your GL.
  • Data about back-of-house flows to financials so you can always find complete and current information about your financials.
  • Automated data flow and a more connected back-office experience reduces manual work and gives your teams faster access to the insights they need.
  • Syncing of sales data from Craftable into Sage Intacct streamlines daily financial processes and improves visibility across locations.

Generally available in the US

Disclosures:

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Bangert is a construction technology and consulting company that helps contractors modernize finance and operations through Sage Intacct Construction and its proprietary AskRichard® platform. Serving more than 1,000 customers, Bangert combines industry expertise, AI-enablement and ongoing support to help construction businesses streamline processes, improve visibility and achieve long-term growth.

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