Sage Intacct Budgeting and Planning for small to midsized businesses now available

Sage has released Sage Intacct Budgeting and Planning for small to midsized businesses, stemming from its acquisition of Budgeta earlier this year.

The new tool is a cloud-based financial budgeting and planning solution that allows for collaboration between users on the platform, with the goal of eliminating spreadsheets and emails from the planning process.

Budgeta, a Sage Intacct partner, had previously integrated its solution with Sage Intacct, and post-acquisition, its team brings extensive market expertise, Sage says. The acquisition and Sage’s strategy via Sage Intacct’s products is to reach the U.S. midmarket.

Sage Intacct Budgeting and Planning features bidirectional data synchronization with Sage Intacct and uses the same structures, including the chart of accounts and all dimensions, to manage actuals, budgets and plans.

Key features of the software include:

• Collaboration tools between finance team members and other stakeholders. All users work from one set of numbers to ensure the business avoids cross-functional confusion, and eliminates the need to share sensitive information via email.
• Automation of the planning process is aimed at reducing the time spent on plan management by up to 50 percent, as well as streamlining monthly and quarterly reporting processes.
• Comprehensive security features provide control over use of data, as well as which users can view, edit or modify information.
• The software is quick to deploy (only taking a few days, according to Sage) and includes spreadsheet-style formulas, a drag and drop user interface, and a library of best practices and sample reports ready to go immediately at implementation.

“It’s clear that better planning leads to more effective and profitable organizations, yet companies with between 50-200 employees have been hard-pressed to find solutions that support continued growth,” stated Dan Miller, vice president of product for Sage Intacct. “We believe Sage Intacct Budgeting and Planning changes the game in some very fundamental ways. We see a significant market opportunity, starting with our current customers, to deliver a more effective, team-based budgeting and planning solution that identifies growth opportunities and the means to achieve them.”