RSMUS.comIf you deal with the distinctive issues of family offices, then you know the only constant is change. One day, you might be overseeing a portfolio of global investments, and the next, you may be reviewing the fundraising efforts of a philanthropic program. Your responsibilities likely also include producing reports on every aspect of the family office and maybe even handling payroll.
Of course, variations of the family office are countless. No matter what accounting services you deliver to your family office clients, Sage Intacct, the cloud-based financial management software, can help you minimize challenges, streamline operations and save time and money.
Exceptional multi-entity management
A key component of family offices is effective multi-entity management. Consider the case of a family office client that was relying on QuickBooks for inter-entity management, which was the opposite of efficient. Though some of the same data was shared between entities, the information had to be entered into each one individually. Working in QuickBooks required users to log into each file separately. All these unnecessary processes took up a lot of time.
When the client switched to Sage Intacct, the intercompany transactions were linked automatically. All the information for each entity could then be accessed from the same account, which took significantly less effort than having to go through individual QuickBooks files. Using Sage Intacct helped this family office make much better use of its resources.
Sage Intacct’s integrated accounting system allows you to consolidate multiple entities with ease. Though information can easily be shared between entities, a custom set of rules regarding inter-entity transactions and access can be configured for each one. Limiting which employees can view the entities can help them see what’s necessary to do their work, and, at the same time, safeguard data for your clients.
If your clients have interests outside the United States, Sage Intacct can automate currency conversion and other financial consolidations to keep inter-entity transactions running smoothly. Sage Intacct will also help you keep up with existing and future regulatory requirements of global financial management.
Replacing outdated methods
Many family offices still count on tried-and-true methods to manage accounts and produce reports. Take, for example, the members of another family office, who own a number of investments. Each person owns a different percentage of the various investments, which were being tracked without accounting software. Instead, a complex Excel report was created and manually updated to keep up with each person’s shares, a time-consuming process that left plenty of room for error.
After the family office began using Sage Intacct, the members’ percentages were stored in the system and easily edited if necessary. Once the percentages were set, ownership was automatically calculated, eliminating all that time once spent in Excel. Sage Intacct also improves accuracy and increases transparency, both of which can decrease compliance risk exposure.
Dashboard analytics and real-time reports
You can use Sage Intacct to effortlessly produce reports to show your clients how their investments are performing or any other data from their varied interests. All information in Sage Intacct is updated in real-time, via the cloud, with dashboards analytics that can be configured to show key performance metrics. Dashboards can also be shared within and across entities to provide increased performance visibility. The easy availability of data in Sage Intacct can provide insights to help family offices make informed decisions more quickly.
Want to find out more about how Sage Intacct can help you offer smarter wealth management for family offices? Schedule a call with one of the experts at RSM today.
