Building Clarity with Sage Intacct Reports and Dashboards

For finance leaders moving from legacy systems to Sage Intacct, one of the biggest shifts isn’t the reports themselves. It’s how reporting periods work. Unlike older systems, where you pick a simple start and end date, Intacct relies on defined periods like month-to-date, year-to-date, or prior year. At first, this can feel restrictive, and many users get frustrated when they can’t run reports the way they used to.

But as John Tillapaugh, Customer Success Manager of TydeCo™, explains, once you understand the structure and how to build reports around periods, it becomes a powerful and flexible way to standardize reporting and deliver the clarity leaders need to make smarter decisions every day.

Adapting to Reporting Periods in Sage Intacct

What’s the biggest difference you see between reports in Intacct versus legacy systems?

John Tillapaugh: The one area I see people get most frustrated in is reporting periods. In a lot of systems previously, you could run a report where you select a beginning and an end date. Intacct uses reporting periods such as current month, month to date, current year, current fiscal year, year to date, and prior year.

When you build reports, you have to set them up for those periods. Typically, when I build reports, I put that into the name so I know if it is a year-to-date report or a month report. 

I have seen a lot of people get frustrated and say, “I cannot do that.” But once you get used to it, it is pretty flexible because most of your reports are run on these reporting periods. 

The account groups, which I think we are going to discuss a little later, are a little different too. But I do not think people are that overwhelmed with encountering just report groups. The reporting periods are what I have heard from multiple people that they are frustrated with.

The one area I see people get most frustrated in is reporting periods.

Structuring Reports with Account Groups in Sage Intacct

How do account groups change the way clients can structure their reporting?

John Tillapaugh: I try to get people to understand how a report is constructed with groups. The easiest way is usually to take them to an income statement and show them the biggest group, which might be net income.

If you go to account groups within the general ledger and click on the hierarchy of net income, it will show you the whole construction of groups within groups. You start with groups of accounts, then you have groups of groups, and then you may have another group that is made up of more groups. It is really a building block structure.

It is much easier to explain when I can show them on the screen exactly how something is put together. Once they understand that concept, they can see how the construction works and how they might want to change something within a report.

Once they understand the concept of account groups, they can see how reports are constructed and how to make changes themselves.

Using Dimensions for Flexible Reporting

Can you share an example of how dimensions give finance leaders a more flexible view of their data?

John Tillapaugh: I had a large client that had a multitude of different business units. In that case, we took the class dimension and renamed it as business units. Within those business units there were groupings, so we also created groups of the business units. Then we could run a P and L and have it expand by all the business units within groups. I could total one group, then another group, and at the end get a complete total of the entire company.

They had business unit managers, so we automated reports that went to each manager for the business units they managed. We could isolate the information so they were not overwhelmed by trying to pick it out of the entire company.

In addition to using classes as business units, they used projects because they had a number of projects within each business unit. That allowed us to do project reports, profitability by project, and drill into specific projects that made up the P and L within the entire company or within a business unit. We also used employees because they had sales reps, so we did sales by employee. It gave the managers a lot of information that they were not able to get out of their old system, and it was strictly by using the dimensional relationships within Sage Intacct.

It gave the managers a lot of information they weren’t able to get out of their old system, and it was all possible because of the dimensional relationships within Sage Intacct.

Choosing Between Out-of-the-Box and Custom Reports

In your view, when should a client stick with out-of-the-box reports, and when does it make sense to build something custom?

John Tillapaugh: Out of the box is what you get pre-configured from Sage Intacct when you go live. Most times that does not meet the specific needs of a client for financial reporting, whether for management reports, regulatory reports, or reports for financial institutions.

They work in the beginning because you can run a standard P and L and a balance sheet, and the balance sheet often does not need to change as much. Usually, you want to start using the system, understand the capabilities, and then move into custom reports, unless you need something specific right away.

When I am doing a design and deciding how the dimensions and structure will go, I like to understand your reporting needs and the end product you need to show. That tells me how to structure the dimensions so that you can get to that point.

Creating a custom report does not mean you have to build the entire set from the ground up, from accounts to account groups to groups of groups. You can take a pre-configured group that already exists, like net income that comes with quick start categories, duplicate it so you do not change the original, and then identify the areas where you need to make changes. Sometimes you only need to adjust one or two groups to achieve a report that works better than the pre-configured report.

I often recommend trying that rather than constructing a whole custom report from accounts up to the total net income group, and I suggest doing it after you have gone live and have some experience with the system and understand what you can build and how to build it.

Usually, you want to start using the system, understanding the capabilities, and then move into custom reports.

Dashboards Save Time for Finance Teams

How do dashboards typically save finance teams time compared to their old reporting habits?

John Tillapaugh: First of all, dashboards often replace reports that people used to build in spreadsheets. That creates an immediate time saving because you are not doing calculations outside the accounting system.

I like to build dashboards that are specific to the needs of the people using them. You can place many items on a dashboard, primarily reports, and also performance cards, which are basically account groups. One performance card might show only the operating checking account, or accounts receivable, or accounts payable, so you can instantly see the balance or figure you need without opening a full report.

When you set up a performance card, you choose the period it is measuring, such as month to date, year to date, or a point in time, and it compares to a similar period, like the prior month or the prior year. These tools give people instant information that they would normally have had to look for in other places in their existing system.

Dashboards replace manual spreadsheet work and give managers instant visibility into the numbers they care about.

Put the Right Numbers in Front of the Right People

What’s the best way for a client to personalize a dashboard so it actually fits their role?

John Tillapaugh: First, identify who the dashboard is for and what they need to see. This is especially important for senior management who are not transacting in the system frequently or at all. They want to look at reports and see information. A dashboard eliminates having to go to the report center and figure out which report works or what information they can get from a report.

You can set up a CEO dashboard, a CFO dashboard, a controller dashboard, or an AP clerk dashboard. Each one can be tailored to what that person needs to see, which saves them from searching for information.

I like to start with one or two reports for the person and see what works. Once they get a feel for what is available, you can add or take away and modify. Over time, you will achieve something specific to each person that benefits them on a day-to-day basis.

Start with one or two reports for the person, see what works, then add or take away and modify.

Building Blocks of a Useful Dashboard

When you design dashboards, what kinds of elements or data points do you recommend including?

John Tillapaugh: In general, standard financial reports are good to include. I recommend performance cards often. Some people want to see graphical representations, not just numerical values. Some people see visually better than others, and I think that is an underutilized area for those who prefer visual over numeric.

Within a graph, you can highlight to see the numerical values. You can also use graphs to compare periods. There are also links you can add to dashboards. It comes down to what is needed or wanted by the people who are using them.

Some people want to see graphical representations rather than numerical values.

Controlling Dashboard Access for Useful and Secure Reporting

How do you advise clients on controlling access so dashboards stay useful without exposing too much information?

John Tillapaugh: I look at it in two ways. First, you can construct groups of users and set each dashboard’s sharing settings to control who can see it. You can also exclude specific people. For example, one client has several dashboards that employee managers can see, but the management financials dashboard is limited to two people in management and everyone else is denied access.

Second, set permissions for what users can see when they open a dashboard. You can limit people to the areas they are allowed to access, even if they can see the report on the screen.

You have the ability to give permission to who can see a dashboard, and you can set permissions that limit what they can access when they open it.