The Unofficial Sage Intacct Podcast

Karen Penhallegon joins the show to break down the latest release notes and share insights from her 8+ year journey with the platform, both pre and post Sage acquisition. The discussion covers major updates including enhanced AR statements, new list view capabilities, and significant improvements to construction features and employee expense management. Karen, Matt, Emily, and Doug explore how community feedback shapes Sage's development while providing practical insights into how these updates impact different industries and users.


  • (00:00) - Welcome to the Unofficial Sage Intacct podcast
  • (00:53) - Matt's UK Adventures
  • (01:29) - Introducing Karen Penhallegon
  • (02:19) - Karen's Journey in Accounting and ERP
  • (04:06) - Sage Intacct: Pre and Post Acquisition
  • (07:51) - Sage Copilot and AI Innovations
  • (14:08) - Release Notes and Key Updates
  • (18:21) - Enhanced AR Statements and Community Driven Updates
  • (26:44) - Control and Compliance: 1099 Filing
  • (30:38) - Platform Efficiency Updates
  • (36:43) - Retainage Feature Expansion
  • (47:52) - Continental Utility Integration
  • (50:49) - Employee Expenses Overhaul
  • (55:16) - Closing Remarks and Dad Jokes

Connect with Karen:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-penhallegon-a14a034b
https://www.eisneramper.com/about-us/professional-directory/karen-penhallegon

Connect with the Hosts:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilybmadere
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattlescault
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dlewis715

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Creators & Guests

Host
Doug Lewis
Host
Emily Madere
Host
Matt Lescault
Guest
Karen Penhallegon

What is The Unofficial Sage Intacct Podcast ?

The Unofficial Sage Intacct Podcast is your inside track to the world of Sage Intacct and the broader accounting industry. Hosts Emily Madere, Doug Lewis, and Matt Lescault bring their unique perspectives and expertise to explore the latest trends, challenges, and opportunities in this rapidly evolving space.
In each episode, the trio explores topics like the power of the Sage ecosystem, best practices for CAS, new Sage product features, and the impact of artificial intelligence. They'll be joined by industry experts and Sage insiders who share unfiltered insights you won't find anywhere else.
Whether you're an accountant looking to harness technology, a business exploring Sage solutions, or anyone fascinated by the future of finance, this is your show. Tune in for an unvarnished, unofficial look at the Sage heartbeat powering accounting today.

There may be errors in spelling, grammar, and accuracy in this machine-generated transcript.

Doug Lewis: Well, this is an interesting one. Um, so we're we're an international podcast today. Uh, Matt, tell tell the listeners where you currently are sitting.

Matt Lescault: I am in Newcastle, UK. It's that simple. But does everybody know that Sage headquarter offices is here in Newcastle?

Emily Madere: Um, spending [00:00:30] some time at Sage headquarters office shaking the right hands?

Matt Lescault: Uh, yes. No. Very generous. Um, got to meet with people both yesterday and today. Uh, sort of chatting through some of the things that we're working on from a global perspective. Uh, it's been a really fun trip. I have to say. I really like Newcastle. It's a fun little town. Uh, I'm going to London tomorrow. Uh, to the Sage offices there. Um, I, I'm going to name drop. [00:01:00] I have the opportunity to meet Steve Hair, so I'm pretty excited about that. And it's not just me. There's the whole slew of partners that get to. So it's not like a special invite or anything, but I'm pretty excited I get to go to the England rugby, uh, South Africa rugby match. It's going to be a fun time.

Doug Lewis: Yeah, it will be. Um, I'm a little bit jealous, but that's okay. Um, by the way, when you name drop, uh, in the future, don't tell people you're name dropping. Just do it. Uh, no.

Matt Lescault: No no no no, because that's that's not who I am.

Doug Lewis: And [00:01:30] speaking of name dropping. So we have, uh, we have a guest who actually knows what she's talking about today. Uh, the release notes for just came out, which is, uh, as everybody knows, it's just the most exciting thing in the world. So, Karen, our guest here today, I would love to introduce, read your bio, do all that stuff, but I think it would be doing you a disservice. Karen, do you want to introduce yourself? Tell the people who you are. The modern living legend in the accounting space.

Karen Penhallegon: Love it. Um, sure. I'm Karen Penhallegon. [00:02:00] I know the real reason is you didn't want to try to say my last name, so it's okay. Um, but.

Doug Lewis: I have gotten really good at avoiding names that I can't pronounce.

Karen Penhallegon: Yeah. Yeah. Um, so I'm a director at Eisneramper. So I work with Emily, um, in our advisory service line, and I actually lead our Sage Intacct practice. I focus on the sales and implementation side of the practice. Um, and it's funny that you say I'm the expert because I call myself an accountant by accident. Because I started out in the technical technology area. I have a computer science [00:02:30] undergrad degree, but decided I didn't want to sit behind a computer, um, 12 hours a day and bang out code. So I got an MBA and kind of happened into a job working with ERPs about, I'd say about 15 years ago. I'm not going to get more specific than that. Um, so you won't know exactly how old I am, but just started working on ERPs and accounting ever since then. So 15 years, all different clients, all different industries, and, um, started with Sage Intacct about eight years ago. And I'll say, [00:03:00] um, I love Sage Intacct, so definitely obsessed. I'm the nerd who reads the release notes as soon as they come out every time.

Matt Lescault: Well, something interesting you said there, um, something I didn't know, but I just learned when I was in Canada is you have the reverse path of Aaron Harris, who went to school to be an accountant and turned into what is now the CTO for Sage. So, you know, there's a similarity there.

Karen Penhallegon: Uh, I've never thought of that because I don't I don't consider myself in the same arena as Aaron Harris, [00:03:30] um, who is a technology genius. But yeah, I would say it's the opposite. I'm far removed from the technical side of things. Um, and really just mainly to accounting and accounting software.

Doug Lewis: And you mentioned you didn't want to say specifically how long you've been in the game. Let's just leave it at you've been in the game long enough to be an expert. How about that? Just long enough. Like just by like a couple days. Just like just barely. Yeah.

Karen Penhallegon: I recently celebrated my 21st birthday again. That's what I'll.

Matt Lescault: So every year.

Emily Madere: Happy birthday.

Doug Lewis: Yeah. [00:04:00] Which? Which version?

Karen Penhallegon: Been a while.

Karen Penhallegon: It's been a few of those, you know. But it's okay.

Matt Lescault: So let me get this right. You've been working with intact for eight years now, which puts you pre-acquisition. So you started with intact before Sage purchased intact?

Karen Penhallegon: Yes.

Karen Penhallegon: So actually, when I started my career, it was with Sage 100. The amount I used has used that fund software. It's still around. Um, but yes, we we took on intact about two years before Sage acquired them. So I've kind of had the pre Sage and the [00:04:30] post Sage experience.

Doug Lewis: Have you, have you found. Yeah. Like a big difference. You know what I mean. Like pre versus post acquisition because not not a ton of people have like a lot of really long term experience. And being able to see kind of both sides of that.

Karen Penhallegon: Um, I definitely have seen differences. I'll say on the good side. Sage has brought a lot of investment into the product, and so the speed of enhancements has certainly Greatly been enhanced by them. On the other side of that, intact has a very friendly [00:05:00] community, and I think that's something that Sage on the partner side was missing. And so intact is sort of bringing that also into the Sage environment. So we're very cooperative with other partners versus competitive. I think that's something that's really important, not just for us and our relationships, but for our customers and clients, because it means we're not internally fighting over things. Instead, we're focusing on what is the best solution for that customer. Yeah.

Matt Lescault: And but even from a user experience, I mean, I came [00:05:30] in, I think it was 2018, 2019 when we became a partner. I've seen a big change in kind of the user experience, the, the UI of intact how how different, what are the different iterations that you've seen there.

Karen Penhallegon: So I've gone through about, I would say, four major UI changes, at least three, um, major UI changes. Um, I think a lot of that will will back office. Um, Sage knowledge that I've found is that they [00:06:00] actually hired a number of designers from Intuit. So those were QuickBooks users out there. And so I've seen a definite shift from, you know, when we first came on with Intacct, it was very much an accountants program, if that makes sense. So similar to what I saw with Sage 100, you kind of had to have some knowledge to know where you're going now. It's a much more user friendly experience, and I think that's due to that change in focus from not only being a great accounting program, but putting it into something that people other than accountants can [00:06:30] use. And so it's been a big, big change in that user friendliness for sure.

Matt Lescault: Another did you know, and I guess maybe we should call it the Did you Know podcast. You know, Dan Miller uh, was originally into it and was a developer for Intuit before he came over to intact and was one of the first, uh, one of the first founders, I believe. I don't have the exact, uh, the exact facts around that. But he was he came from Intuit and there's still a pull. So one of the reasons I was in Canada [00:07:00] and, and here in uh, in Newcastle is we're launching Sage Intacct accountants. So it's the CEP global version. And I've been working kind of behind the scenes for the last, uh, for the last year. And it's, it's that same kind of that same kind of mentality. And one of the people that are leading that charge out of Canada just came over from Intuit. And so you do see a lot of, uh, migration. And what I would say is expertise grab from the [00:07:30] different competitors, which I think is is smart and, you know, speaks to that continued investment.

Doug Lewis: Leading the charge. Hold on. I want to steal that segue real quick, because it was actually pretty good and completely unplanned, which I love. Uh, you know, part part of the release notes. Um, we're going to go through some of the technical stuff, if you guys don't mind, because we have to hit it. It is what it is, unfortunately. Um. But. Sage copilot. What? What are we thinking about that Karen? What are your thoughts on Sage? Obviously, it's not rolled out yet [00:08:00] to the masses, but, you know, have you heard any any kind of rumblings on the street? Good. Bad. Ugly.

Karen Penhallegon: So I've seen a few demos of it as we've gone to different conferences and things. I am very excited. So some of the things that especially in this, this kind of first, very small beta release that I'm really excited about is that it's going to integrate with the help system. So I joke with people that, you know, in tax help is actually helpful. So if you've been around the software world for a while, a lot of help systems are not that helpful. And tax [00:08:30] is actually really great. And so I love that copilot is now going to be using that, because that means any user can simply go type in their question and get access to all that great information that maybe they didn't realize was available to them. Um, it's actually come up in a couple of conversations I've had recently with some prospects where they say, well, I wish I could do this, and I can now say, guess what? That's going to be possible with copilot.

Matt Lescault: Here's I keep saying, did you know I thought that Sage copilot was based on Microsoft Copilot? Because, [00:09:00] you know, Microsoft was one of the first, uh, organizations to come out with their copilot, and then you had Salesforce that had their Salesforce Einstein, but look very much like copilot. And then you then you saw I don't know if you're familiar with Zapier, but Zapier had their copilot. So I kind of assumed it was all Microsoft based. And it's not. It is. It is now kind of the name that's being used generally in the marketplace. But each one of these organizations are building their own AI solutions within their products. And it's [00:09:30] not. And they're using multiple, uh, large learning applications to, uh, to train and produce this, this capability. It's really cool stuff.

Karen Penhallegon: Yeah. And I'll add, if we're going to, if we're going to go ahead and get on the technical side of things, if this is something that fascinates you, you know, go look up Aaron Harris's, um, talks that he gives on I. But the the really great thing about the way that Sage is approaching the AI field is that, number one, they want to build trust, and so they want to make sure that [00:10:00] the data they're getting is accurate. So they're not going out and using other people's models and language libraries and all of that. Instead, they're actually creating their own so that they know they can depend on it. They know what the data is, they can control hallucinations and all of those things. So I'll stay away from the technical side. Too much on that, but definitely go out if you're interested in that and that and listen to Aaron Harris give some of his talks on AI. Um, he's really a visionary in that space, and I think it's a great approach. From Sage 100%.

Matt Lescault: Agree, 100% agree. [00:10:30]

Doug Lewis: And by the way, that was that was almost non technical at all, which I love. I believe me, I'm a I'm a non-technical person. I'm all about application which is why, you know the release notes are they are what they are very technical of course. But I want to get into some of the application components of it. And if we went through every single line item of these release notes, this could be a four hour journey, which I don't think we need to take anybody on. So if it's all right with with the crew here, I think we just kind of hit to some of the more core component pieces of it and really more focused on the application [00:11:00] of it. Um, so, you know, we broke it up into kind of a couple different areas that we really want to hit first one, which, you know, it is it sounds exciting, right? Let's talk about the customer and vendor reconciliation reports, which everybody I know, everyone is just like, Will you please hit that? Because I've been waiting my entire life for somebody to talk about this. Karen. Thoughts? Thoughts in that, uh, in that, in that zone there. Unload on us. Tell us let's.

Karen Penhallegon: Let's let my nerdiness come out.

Emily Madere: Um, and [00:11:30] just high level, I think good for our audiences to know Sage releases their, um, releases in categories. So there's strength in financials, there's control and compliance, there's platform efficiency and there's industry insights. So this feature specifically is going to be under the strength and financials.

Karen Penhallegon: Exactly. So this is something again it may not it may not, um, burn down the house with excitement. But I think it's a really important feature. So, um, what it actually does, let's talk about what that feature [00:12:00] actually is. They have created a new identifier. It's called the match sequence. And this is going to be similar to how a little bit how um, cash management reconciliations work. But this match sequence in both AR and AP is going to link the invoice or bill to any credits and payments that are applied to it. And the reason that's important is because now they can build a report, and they have with this release that you can actually trace and reconcile every piece of the transaction. So before it was not always the easiest [00:12:30] to go figure out, especially if you're a company that has a lot of credits and there are some industries that have tons of credits, you know, flying around, it's not always easy to trace exactly where credits got applied and how an invoice actually got paid. And so that's where this is really going to be helpful for those users who have all those credits and maybe complicated payment structures. They can trace that back to the source.

Matt Lescault: And I would assume this is pretty big, especially for your guys firm with construction real estate. I mean, when I, when I was in that industry, not as an accounting firm, but actually in it, [00:13:00] the amount of credits that you'd get and the way that your vendors would apply those versus the way you would apply. I remember countless like every week I'm on the phone with them going like, okay, can we get our records straight? Can we figure out what's going on here? And so I think that's that's a big portion of this I'd assume.

Karen Penhallegon: Yeah, absolutely. Construction is one of the and we'll see actually when we get to Industry Insights a lot of construction features coming out in this release. It's one of Sage really big focuses. They've been in the construction industry for a long time. But bringing that industry [00:13:30] into the modern times, if you will, with Sage Intacct, the other industry that I've seen a lot of traction with this sort of thing is in healthcare. That's another area where things can be quite complex. And so healthcare definitely a space where they're going to see a lot of benefit from this.

Matt Lescault: It's interesting how those different industries are impacted by things like this. So I mean, as accountants, that's so important to just the speed of our job and being more efficient at what we do. And so I think that that speaks to that, even [00:14:00] though it's not fun or exciting, it is very impactful.

Doug Lewis: And with the with the reconciliation component, do you think that it matters one way or the other? Is it more industry focused or are we talking volume? Because you know, what I mean is, is it going to impact it one way or the other, or is it just straight industry focus is going to have naturally more volume or it's going to make, you know, life a little bit easier for everybody?

Karen Penhallegon: Yeah, I think it's just depending on the industry. The industry sort of drives the volume of these. So is everyone going to see a benefit from this? Yes. [00:14:30] Well some people see more of a benefit. Absolutely. It just depends on how much you're having. Like like like Matt was saying how much you're having to trace back and try to figure out how did things get applied.

Doug Lewis: Yeah. No, that makes sense. And another one that people are just they're just so excited for. I mean, let's just hit the the, uh.

Karen Penhallegon: I'm excited for this one.

Doug Lewis: Enhanced are enhanced are statements. What? We know what's going on there. Does it look like what does it mean for people more importantly.

Karen Penhallegon: So this is again, it's going to seem like a small change, [00:15:00] but it's sort of a nice ease of use change. So two big things that they've added to are statements and options they've added here. The first is running balances. So for those of you who maybe have not ever, you know, dipped into the the printed document templates and actually customized statements, this was something that you could do before, but you had to work at it. You had to kind of use some calculations and things with your merge fields. So it's probably something the average user wouldn't get into. Um, however, on the configuration side, [00:15:30] as a partner, we would see that now they've added a standard field that just does it. So it's literally more of a drag and drop experience. In the printed doc template, you simply add the field to your template and it's going to work. Um, the second big thing, and this is not going to apply to everyone, it's back to that sort of industry thing. But this is currencies. And so they've added, um, all of the default currency symbols. So for those users who are in a multi currency environment previously maybe it wasn't always obvious what currency you were actually [00:16:00] issuing the statement in what the invoices had been in. Now it's going to show up by default. So you'll be able to tell the currency of all the transactions.

Matt Lescault: Well what I find so important about that is Sage is continued push as a as delivering intact as that global flagship product. And these small changes really provide a lot more clarity when we're working on it. So if you have a team in the UK and a team in the US and they're operating within the same instance of intact, but these type of this kind of nuance isn't handled. [00:16:30] There can be confusion that happens within those teams. And so I think that's a big step. And what I always want to bring this back to is like these, these are all really community driven updates that we're getting that Sage really listens to their partners, really listens to their customers about what challenges that they have, and even those these small tweaks go a long way in our ability to to be successful using the product.

Emily Madere: And to to elaborate on [00:17:00] what Matt said. He mentioned the community as Sage Intacct users, as Sage Intacct partners. We all get access in the community where folks can go out and put ideas, put questions, and even some of these ideas get voted on and they get implemented into the product. So I'm actually not sure if any of the features that we talk about today were voted on products. I need to go back and look.

Doug Lewis: Is there any kind of just off the top of your heads, you know, voted on versus not just historically from the releases? Is there kind of is [00:17:30] it 50 over 50? Is it? You know what I mean. Is it 90 over ten? Um, I'm just now I'm just curious because I, I honestly never even thought about that before.

Karen Penhallegon: I've never tracked it. They usually put, if you look in the release notes, which Doug apparently doesn't like to read, so.

Doug Lewis: I can't read, there's a difference.

Karen Penhallegon: At the top of the in the note, it'll say this idea came from you or something like that. And so you'll actually see when you open up the release note for a specific topic, whether it was an idea from the community. Um, I've never tracked [00:18:00] to see what the percentage is, but I know every release there's at least a few that came from the community.

Matt Lescault: Yeah, I haven't either. But I do know that the roadmap of how Intacct works, and generally in any kind of software is you have certain goals around capability statements, but you're also listening in, in that community, in your users and figuring out which things are going to be that are going to be relative to those kind of feature, uh, focuses that, that they have that they want to they want to [00:18:30] drive. So even some of the changes that happen, they may not say that it came from a vote or something of that nature, but it is very much driven by the overall community because what's what's their job from a software company. It's delivering us a product that we believe in and we evangelize.

Emily Madere: And to to bring it back. So enhancements to are statements. That was an idea that came from the community.

Matt Lescault: There you go.

Doug Lewis: And now, now I really want to go back like a couple of years through all the releases [00:19:00] and be like, all right, how many actually came from the community directly versus we're just influenced.

Emily Madere: Hey, wait, is there anyone is there anyone from Sage listening? I mean, you can just send it to us. I bet you have all that data already available.

Matt Lescault: I, I prefer Doug to actually do this homework. Come back with a spreadsheet. I don't think I've ever seen a spreadsheet emailed from Doug anyway. And see if he can actually like, you know, make sense of this.

Doug Lewis: You couldn't handle my spreadsheets, man. I don't I honestly don't believe you could. I really don't, which is okay. [00:19:30] And also, I love the the amount of free time that you think I have in my life with, with a newborn. So this is a this is a this is exciting stuff. Moving on. So straight to financials. Obviously again we can go deeper and deeper into this. But to in the sake of everyone's sanity, let's move on a little bit to the control and compliance portion of this. So Matt do you want to give us a quick overview there. Or do you want to kick it directly to the actual expert on the call? Karen. I mean.

Matt Lescault: There's a reason we bring an expert.

Matt Lescault: I [00:20:00] mean, come on.

Doug Lewis: There we go.

Doug Lewis: The good news is this is a pretty quick one. There wasn't a ton in this section. So, Karen, basically, do you want to hit the only notable component here? 1099 filing.

Karen Penhallegon: Yeah.

Karen Penhallegon: So so not a lot of big updates here. You're right. But a timely one that I want to point out to. Everyone is definitely 1099. Right. So the IRS recently if you're not aware of this, you probably should be if you're in the accounting space. But they have changed their rules. So if you have ten or more to 99 [00:20:30] you have to e-file. Um, back back when I started again, we won't say when it was like 250. So it's a massive change for requirements to file. So what Intacct has done in sort of in response to that is they've got a partnership with a company called Tax Bandits. And so there's a seamless integration between intact and tax bandits, essentially an intact. You just go click a button when you're ready to push your 1099 information over to tax bandits, and they are able to handle the filing and the printing and all of that for you. So I think [00:21:00] it's a really critical thing, especially right here at the end of the year. We're almost at 1099 time, um, important to go out there and go ahead and get your Tax Bandits account set up. Make sure you have everything that you need in intact ready for that so that when the time comes, it's really a seamless experience.

Emily Madere: And so it's as easy as pressing a button.

Matt Lescault: Have you ever used tax bandits outside of this new integration?

Karen Penhallegon: No, I had never used them before this integration existed, I hadn't. We've got quite a few clients now using them, and I've heard nothing but good things.

Matt Lescault: Yeah, I mean, there's so many different products [00:21:30] out there. I'm not. There's no negativity about not using it. I just, um, there was a time when we used a product called Greatland. There was a, you know, 1099 tax or something like that product. There was a handful of these products that do this kind of thing, and I just didn't know if you had any prior experience before this, this new rollout.

Karen Penhallegon: Yeah. I mean, tax payments is the most convenient one now since it's sort of built in. But if you go out to the intact marketplace, there's a number of other ones out there like tax to 99 is definitely one that's been around for a while. Um, it may not be quite as easy [00:22:00] an integration, but there's still other ones out there. So for whatever reason, you don't like tax bandits, there are other options.

Matt Lescault: Now, is this just an integration or is and you may or may not, may or may not know this, but or is this an acquisition that Sage has done? Do we know where that kind of falls out?

Karen Penhallegon: My understanding is this is just an integration. Um, because Tax Bandit has not been white labeled or anything like that that I've heard.

Matt Lescault: Okay, so.

Emily Madere: But you never know. Sage is acquiring white labeling companies [00:22:30] all the time.

Matt Lescault: Well, and and just be clear on it. White label in the acquisition is definitely lock step. They acquired and now became ah automation and uh inbox and so forth where like the donor perfect is, is that kind of white label is kind of that light white label component.

Emily Madere: And also any, any vars on the call, um, the lock step folks I'm working with, um, I think his name is Austin. He's great with ah, automation. He, he gets me things in [00:23:00] a timely manner. He's great to talk to. He's great to introduce to your your customers.

Matt Lescault: What's his last name?

Emily Madere: Austin riddle. Okay.

Matt Lescault: All right.

Emily Madere: Hope he listens. I just I just really just name dropped him. I gave him a huge compliment,

Doug Lewis: I gotta.Say. Yeah, we'll send you we'll send you that sponsorship plug. Uh, Bill, real quickly here. Um, so listen, the tenant, I'm, I'm curious to see how that plays out. Honestly, this is going to be a significantly larger portion of of individuals who have to deal with that this year, um, which I'm sure will go smoothly. It just always does because that's, [00:23:30] that's just, you know, December to, uh, to April is always a fun time for everybody to deal with this. So, um, not not a ton there. Again, the control compliance portion, but the, uh, platform efficiency. Uh, Karen, anything notable in that zone that you think we should.

Karen Penhallegon: Actually probably my favorite, um, thing that we had on the list to talk about today, um, is the lists that Intacct has the list views. So this, um, this has been around for a while, but they're making new updates to it every single release. And that is [00:24:00] the new beta list view. So if you haven't seen these, they're available in a few different places. Customers and vendors especially is where I use them the most. Um, there's still an opt in feature, but these new lists are incredible. So I think list views to me is something that's always underrated in any solution, because it's actually really important how you get in and find things in the solution. Um, it's one of the things you're going to use the very most in any solution that you're in. These new list views really just take it to the next level. [00:24:30] Um, they are drag and drop capable so you can move, resize, um, you can easily filter in all sorts of different ways. You don't have to go through a wizard to customize your view anymore. Now there's a simple drop down to add columns. And then they've also got what's really neat is a side by side view. So you can have your list. View your lists over on one side. When you click into that, you actually get the record opened on the other side of the screen. And so if you're making updates like 1099 updates, for example, with vendors you [00:25:00] can have your your list and the screen right there very easily without having to click back and forth. So I think it's again, it's something that's underrated, but a really critical and important new feature.

Matt Lescault: It goes back to the efficiency, right? I mean, it goes back to easily navigating across the platform. It's about seeing information side by side really sort of, you know, ease of use, speed of of solution in my mind.

Doug Lewis: And Karen, similar to kind of the last the last features that you went over, [00:25:30] Is there any specific industry or subset of users that this is going to benefit or impact greater than others, or is it pretty much just everybody wins across the board?

Karen Penhallegon: I think this is really going to be great for everyone. I mean, I don't know if I have a single client who doesn't have vendors. They have to pay and manage. So as it rolls out to additional list views, what I foresee with this and what they've done with major changes in the past is right now it's an opt in beta, but as they get additional views available, it's going to become the default [00:26:00] and you have to opt out. And then eventually the old ones are going to go away. So I think no matter what, it's something that people are going to have to adjust to. And I think it's actually fantastic. They let people get in at this early phase and start getting used to it. Learning the new feature and being able to actually provide feedback right there on that feature to improve it.

Doug Lewis: Is this something you think is going to impact kind of the sales process as well, or is this just something that, hey, listen, once we're implemented and off the ground, we can make these tweaks.

Emily Madere: Let me take this one. So, [00:26:30] Karen, one thing you need to know about Karen Rogers relationship. We work together on all of our deals. I'm the sales side. Karen is is the technical demo piece. And whenever we show the list views to our clients, their eyes get really wide and they really enjoy seeing how Sage is making enhancements in the software. But they enjoy it because the previous list views, because we show both they see the change and they see how it can benefit them.

Doug Lewis: And again, do you? So like when you when you're in the sales, [00:27:00] the front end process, are you finding that that resonates more with certain businesses, professionals, industries as opposed to others, or is it again kind of a catch all? Everyone's pretty, you know, pretty pumped about that.

Emily Madere: I think everyone's pretty pumped. Um, Karen and I work across many different industries, and I think we've gotten the same feedback from from everybody.

Doug Lewis: So, Karen, uh, it's very clear that the three of the the other bozos on this call know nothing about the actual release notes or Sage Intacct in general. So industry [00:27:30] insights do you want to give us the 50,000 foot overview? Because again, I'm sure we could probably spend a good hour here. There's a lot to go through, but if we're looking at just the core components, what should people be paying attention to and how is it going to impact some of the users?

Karen Penhallegon: Yeah. Great question. Because there's there's a lot in industry insights this time. And so it's a little hard to sort of narrow it down to what we want to look at. Um, we picked out kind of four major, major feature releases that I think are really important. Um, the first one, that is something that actually is not really [00:28:00] new to the product, but is going to be new to a large segment of users is going to be retainage. And so if you've ever worked in the construction industry, Retainage is a really big deal because it can be difficult to track. Um, in Texas had it in the construction space for, for years. Um, now. So both for AP and ah, they've got Retainage built in. What they're doing now is I think they've realized that a lot of other project based industries also need Retainage. So they're actually going to move Retainage out of the construction, [00:28:30] and it's going to be available for anyone who has the project and grants, um, skews those, those modules. So I think that's really important because we actually we work a lot in the construction industry, but I also work a lot in what I call construction adjacent fields. And so maybe they aren't actually doing the construction, but they work with construction companies all the time. And that's something I think is really important for them, because they often don't need those construction features, except for maybe retainage. So from an ability to be able to sell them the right product, get [00:29:00] them the exact fit that they need without killing their budget, I think that's going to be a really important feature.

Matt Lescault: I'm thinking like engineers offhand.

Doug Lewis: What other. Yeah. Like what other what other industries do you do you see are kind of generally I don't want to say missing that feature now but could benefit from it outside.

Karen Penhallegon: Places like engineers, architects, um surveyors, those type of fields that like I said, they're they're project based fields often, but they're not doing the construction, so they're not using things [00:29:30] like the project contracts or some of those other pieces that are very construction focused. But since they work with construction companies, Retainage is often a part of their contract.

Matt Lescault: I would think about it like this. It's like almost your professional services firms that work with construction firms or within the construction project, um, really fit into this. And I'm, um, I'll be honest, I didn't I didn't know this was part of that because I don't work within the CRA side of it. But that is a very big change in a move to kind of get that type of that [00:30:00] type of capability out into more of a what we call a general use, uh, apparatus for, for intact.

Doug Lewis: Any other high level components that really people should know about.

Karen Penhallegon: So I'm going to stick with construction for a minute since we're already on that topic. Maybe. But um, I think whip is a big topic, of course, in the construction industry, so whip has been around for a few releases now, but they are continuing to make updates and this time was actually a pretty major update to the whip [00:30:30] functionality. They've got a bunch of new fields that are available on the report. Now they've also got some new calculations. So a really big one in the construction space is the over build under build calculation of where do you stand on your billings versus what you've actually spent on the project and done on the project. They've got a new calculation for that, and they're also updating it to include both year to date and job to date numbers. And so that's very important because in large projects they often run multiple years. And so being able to have job to [00:31:00] date information versus just being stuck in those accounting periods is very important from an operational standpoint. Um, there's a bunch of other stuff that's available. You can go read the notes on this one. It's quite a long note, but a lot of the fields that are just on a project will now be able to be on the report. So maybe you want the status or the type of project, the customer manager. All those things are now available to put on the report as well, just to make it more flexible and easy for customers to use.

Doug Lewis: So can I ask you so the multi-year component then how were companies [00:31:30] working around that before?

Karen Penhallegon: So there's been a few iterations on how we've handled that in the past. Um, a few years ago, Intacct released a reporting period called inception to date. That was a game changer, actually, because now we can actually run financial reports and different reports for literally the entire time that you have data in the system. So inception to date means every single thing in the system. Um, so that's what we have always been using. But this report is [00:32:00] not a report that you can easily go in and change because it has all these calculations built into it. So we're really sort of stuck with what Sage is providing on that report. So adding that job to date was not something that we could have easily done on those reports. Um, we can also if you if you have other reporting periods you need to report on, you can also create custom periods. So we see this a lot kind of in the nonprofit grant arena, um, where you're working with maybe grants that have odd periods that don't match up. You [00:32:30] can actually kind of create periods that you need. Um, so that's another way we've handled it in the past.

Matt Lescault: One of the things that I, that I like to mention here is, like anybody that's listening, that's in the construction world is going to know this, but, um, those people that maybe not are thinking about it over under billing is such a a important component of management within the construction field, because a lot of times, what you're being asked to do in the construction field is by the 20th of the month project what you're going to bill out through the end of the month, [00:33:00] but at the end of the month, you might have done more or less than that than what you've done. And that over under is that balancing of that, of that portion as a component to it. And so when we talk about having a system that operates this, I remember doing all this kind of stuff on spreadsheets and having these workbooks that were like these huge things. And, uh, I probably shouldn't say this, but probably not very accurate, because it was so. Because it was so manual just trying to manage this. [00:33:30] And larger construction firms are managing hundreds of projects at any given time, and it's very impactful from an actual reporting perspective, understanding where you are as an organization, especially in a cruel world of knowing, hey, what did I actually. What is the progress to date of the work that I've done? What have I put in? What is remaining? Because that's how we that's how we manage change orders. That's how we make sure that we're going in here and making sure there's not scope creep and things of that [00:34:00] nature. So, um, having this type of capability and a continuous enhancement, this is what's going to really turn Intacct into a leader within the construction space. Um, if it's if it isn't already and again, I don't I don't work in that side, but I know the complexities that, that come into it. Uh, and that's a game changer for organizations when it comes to management of those projects.

Emily Madere: And Karen and I just got back from, um, Sage's sales kickoff, but they put a major, um, [00:34:30] backing behind construction. I think it was 70% of the available market belongs to construction. So I think in the future, whether you're a customer, whether you're a VAR, whether you're someone who's just looking at Sage Intacct, you're going to be seeing a lot more advertising in the construction space.

Matt Lescault: Well, construction is the fastest growing industry for new client acquisition within Sage currently. Um, from a percentage perspective, and it is one of their five pillar, uh, industries globally. [00:35:00] So that's just me saying yes, I absolutely agree with you.

Karen Penhallegon: Yeah, yeah, there's a really large install base of people that are on the older sage products, and that's what we're sort of seeing now. Construction is, um, one of those industries that lags behind, you know, you have leading edge and bleeding edge. They're like the people that are at the very end of the chain and not wanting to change. I think there's a major push now in that industry. And so as people are ready to move off of things like the Sage Timberline, um, or, you know, way [00:35:30] back, there are things like Master Builder and all of those products that have turned into things like Sage 301 hundred C that is going to now be moving to intact. And a lot of the learnings that Sage has, they've been in construction industry for for decades. They're now using that to make Sage Intacct a really premier construction product.

Doug Lewis: Who would be the number one competitor to, you know, in the construction space? Your opinions?

Emily Madere: Um, Acumatica has some construction capabilities. [00:36:00] If we're talking like apples and apples, I would say Acumatica NetSuite. They don't they don't really play in the construction space.

Matt Lescault: I'd argue that your biggest competitor runs into being connected apps. So like, uh, like Intacct bought, Bot Pro Core, but Pro Core is a Pro Core Pro con anyway. Um, was for con pro con con um what?

Karen Penhallegon: It's now Sage construction management.

Matt Lescault: And but for the longest time that that uh, [00:36:30] that was a individual construction management software that integrated with financial softwares. And in this especially in the smaller space, but even some of the larger organizations, you're seeing a lot of companies that are buying those kind of third party applications and attaching them to non construction related financial systems.

Karen Penhallegon: Yeah, I think that's where Sage is doing a great job actually. Um, but they if you go and look at the, the marketing and the construction industry, they're actually marketing to construction, not just in financials [00:37:00] but as a whole package. And so they've got pre-construction the financial piece and operations and they've got things they've got solutions for each of those pieces that are already integrated together. And so that's one of the great things I think they're doing for construction.

Doug Lewis: So Karen, getting back to the industry insights, any other high level features that you think are newsworthy that everybody just needs to know about?

Karen Penhallegon: So one quick one that I'll give. It's maybe not for everyone, but if you're in this space, I think it's going to be a really big deal. And that's the continental utility [00:37:30] integration that's coming out. So prebuilt integration with that tool. So if you're in the space of public utilities, if you're doing water or gas or electric or any of those, this is going to be great. Um, it is kind of just another one of those areas that Sage is vertical rising. Um, so we've seen it with things like Donner, Perfect and some of the other features where they're going out and making integrations with these other products. This is really important because Continental Utility handles the billing and payments. Um, so all of the ah cycle. [00:38:00] And so having that data integrate automatically into Intacct is going to be great for reporting for those companies. Now there's one more though that I think is really. I'm sorry Matt, did you have something?

Matt Lescault: I just wonder if if you're supporting those type of companies at your firm, because I don't really play in that industry.

Karen Penhallegon: We've got a couple, um, that they're kind of local companies here that are that are in that space that we're definitely looking at this, this integration and going to be talking with those clients. So it's not a huge market out there for [00:38:30] these, but it definitely exists.

Matt Lescault: This doesn't ask like what is that addressable market even look like.

Karen Penhallegon: I think it's it's an interesting space when you get into public utilities because you've got some places. So like where I live. So we're in Louisiana. I live in a parish. My parish has privatized water. And so it's actually, you know, another company that runs the water system. Um, but a lot of cases, it may actually be a governmental entity that's running those. And so it's sort of a governmental semi-governmental space [00:39:00] that you are getting into when you look at utilities.

Matt Lescault: Interesting.

Doug Lewis: And the utility sector as a whole, like from the accounting perspective, do you find that there are just some monster firms that just eat up all that work nationwide, or is it kind of everybody patchworks it together? Mom and pop. Every firm will have, you know, a small percentage coming from that zone because, you know, obviously if you get hyper niched in certain industries or specialties, you tend to get pretty big and just focus in that one area. Are there any firms [00:39:30] out there that you're aware of doing that, or is it kind of regionalized still?

Karen Penhallegon: Not really in the utility area. I think it's probably a little more regionalized, I know for governmental, um, that probably a lot of those companies are using the big governmental accounting solutions. So there's a few of those that are out there. Um, but we've we've had some success getting in there as well, especially, you know, local smaller places. So smaller towns and that sort of thing that maybe they can't afford one of the bigger solutions. And Intacct is a great fit for that, that smaller town, [00:40:00] you know, bigger than a village, but maybe not the size of a big city.

Matt Lescault: It makes a lot of sense.

Doug Lewis: Yeah. Makes sense. Yeah. Any other any other features? Um, you know, inside the industry insights, Karen, that are just are notable. Worth hitting.

Karen Penhallegon: All right this is the one I've been waiting for. Actually, I'll say I saved the maybe the best for last, I don't know. Um, it's really exciting. New feature. Anybody who's been around the tech space for a while is probably known that employee expenses is an area that has been lacking, to put it nicely. Um, major release this time, [00:40:30] though, is they are now, um, releasing huge changes to employee expenses. Um, employees are now going to be able to actually email receipts into Intacct. So this is going to be similar to AP bill automation if you've used that. It has AI and machine learning built into it so that it's going to start coding those receipts, um, and get more accurate as time goes on. And then you're able to be able to log into intact and actually compile your receipts into an expense report. Um, they've added some things, like being able to split expenses across [00:41:00] different types. So a lot of really, really great enhancements in this release. And I think this one's going to continue to be a big focus going forward, because it's definitely an area that Intacct has been behind in for a while.

Emily Madere: So do you think it'll take away market share from Expensify?

Doug Lewis: That was my question.

Doug Lewis: Yeah.

Karen Penhallegon: I don't think we're there maybe quite yet, but I think that's the goal. So what I think is still missing, honestly on this feature is going to be a really good app. So intent has not been great at [00:41:30] getting into the app space. Um, they have a couple of them, but they tend to be for auxiliary solutions like Sage intelligent time. But I think that's the piece that you really need for a good expense solution is that ability to have that app on your phone. Take a picture of the receipt, do it right there in real time. Now it's not quite that easy. So it's better definitely than it has been in the past, but I think they are working toward that point with this release.

Matt Lescault: And I'm going to make the assumption that this is going to be kind of build in the same [00:42:00] way that app automation is where it's kind of a transactional, uh, you know, per per inbox entry kind of point from a, uh, from a pricing.

Karen Penhallegon: So I haven't looked into pricing on it yet. Um, so Bill, automation is interesting because they've actually gone away from the per transaction billing. That's not an option anymore. Now you purchase packages and then you can go over with that and have overages. I suspect it is going to be similar to that though, where it's going to be some sort of package. Um, [00:42:30] you know, 200 a month or 500 a month or whatever it may be, um, that you purchase?

Doug Lewis: Yeah. Just like bucket. Bucket pricing. Kind of.

Doug Lewis: Yeah.

Karen Penhallegon: That's what they've gone to with Bill automation. Um, I think they found the transaction based billing is just too difficult for, for the amount of revenue you're getting out of it. Um, because it's very hard to track that and, and bill it every single month versus just selling it as a package.

Matt Lescault: Yep.

Matt Lescault: And it's it would be interesting to see how the expensive fees and the ramps and, you know, some of these other companies [00:43:00] kind of, uh, address this. But I have to say, I think Intacct has a pretty far, uh, way to go to really be in competition with them, not only just because of the statement you made with app, which I absolutely agree with. Um, but even on a pricing perspective, even on the ease of use and just the I mean, you're talking about you're competing with pretty sizable organizations that that's all they want to do all day is, uh, is provide it. And then you don't have you don't even have the reimbursement [00:43:30] side of it built into Intacct yet, which is another, you know, component where your expenses and your bills will allow you to go and then reimburse those, uh, those employees right away and not have to do a separate transaction. So, um, I think there's still gaps.

Doug Lewis: There'll always be gaps. That's why they'll always be marketplace partners, because they got to seize the opportunity where you can.

Karen Penhallegon: And and that's one of the things Intacct has long been great at is, you know, like they they may have a solution for it. That's right for [00:44:00] some people. But they have that open API and that ability for partners to integrate in. So it's an area, you know, if it's not quite right for you, you can go out and find a partner that is perfect for your organization and then just integrate it in.

Matt Lescault: Yep, yep.

Doug Lewis: I don't think there is a software program out there that quite literally is a silver bullet with anything. I mean, there's always there's always those those those things that you wish they would have figured out, like all these components you just went through. Karen here. I mean, why, you know, 12 months ago, this would have been very helpful for so many people. And I'm sure the next release notes will say the [00:44:30] exact same thing because, you know, but that's what I do like about intacct is the sense that it is that community feeling where they actually listen to the voice of the consumer, um, which I at least my experience has not been the same across all software platforms out there. So that is certainly something to say nonetheless. But we can go deep and feature and feature and feature and talk about this line by line. But I think that's a pretty good overview of some of the core components that came out in the last notes. Um, Karen, I know your listener. Uh, we're at that point here where we have to end this thing with just a [00:45:00] horrible, just an awful dad joke, and I mean bad. And I'll. I'll throw you the ball if you have one. If not, I'll you. I'll take it back. But I want. I want to put the offer out there to everybody. Do you have just a horrible bad joke?

Karen Penhallegon: I love dad jokes, but you put me on the spot so I don't have one. Like, just ready off the tip of my tongue. But tell you what. Next time I'll be ready with a dad joke.

Doug Lewis: I love it, Matt, Emily, I'll throw the same offer out to two of you before I know y'all.

Emily Madere: Y'all grilled me on my last dad joke, so [00:45:30] I'm not.

Matt Lescault: Doug, we said this from the beginning. It's dad jokes by Doug.

Doug Lewis: Okay, I like, I like, I like it. Everyone involved. You know, it's it's boring. It's just me, all right? Uh, horrible. Dad joke. Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba. Oh. Okay. All right. What kind of a car does an egg drive?

Karen Penhallegon: Cricket, a Volkswagen, a Volkswagen.

Doug Lewis: Karen nailed it. There you go.

Doug Lewis: See? You do like Dad jokes.

Karen Penhallegon: I love dad jokes.

Doug Lewis: There you go. Perfect. [00:46:00]Yeah.

Doug Lewis: We'll put a little image up. We'll have somebody edit in a little image of an egg

Doug Lewis: Yeah.

Matt Lescault: I want to say is like, Karen, you've been like this great guest. You have all this information and you can figure out Doug's dad jokes. I mean, you you you lived up to everything that you could have ever lived up to.

Doug Lewis: Absolutely.

Doug Lewis: You should just replace Matt. I think we should just replace Matt with you. Honestly, just. Just full time.

Emily Madere: Honestly, let's just make it Karen's podcast.

Doug Lewis: Yeah.

Doug Lewis: Yeah, you can just take it from here, right?

Karen Penhallegon: No, thanks. [00:46:30]

Doug Lewis: Yeah. You just.Take it from here on your own.

Karen Penhallegon: I have to have time.

Karen Penhallegon: To gain all this knowledge in between. So I'll leave the podcasting to you guys.

Doug Lewis: Well, Karen, we cannot thank you enough for joining us. Uh. Absolute delight. We'll have to bring you back if you're open to it for a future release notes. Because, again, we need someone who actually knows what they're talking about at some times on these things. So thank you for joining us. I look forward to having you back. And, uh, we can cap it there for everybody.

Matt Lescault: Thank you. Karen.