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AccountsIQ replaces SAP for global construction group

1st Oct 2018
Brought to you by
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Award-winning cloud accounting software for multi-company businesses.

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Linesight has chosen AccountsIQ to replace its previous SAP system.

When the Irish construction market began to contract during the economic crash in 2008, Dublin-based construction consultancy Linesight (formerly Bruce Shaw) made a brave move by growing its operations overseas.

The strategy was very successful and the group now has operations in over 40 countries, which required major enhancements to its business infrastructure.

Before AccountsIQ

The group’s prior financial software was expensive. Additionally, it was difficult to implement it in new offices overseas and didn’t adapt well to the accounting and reporting needs of a multi-company and multi-jurisdiction enterprise.

Finance Director Paul Kehoe was commissioned to find a finance application for Linesight. The company was looking for software which could be quickly deployed in new locations and deal with the complex accounting requirements such as consolidations, inter-company, multiple currency transactions, project costing and billing.

Software to suit a fast-emerging business

For the selection exercise, Linesight appointed specialist ERP consultants. The chosen ERP didn’t fix these problems, as it was cumbersome and didn’t integrate well with existing systems.

At this point, Kehoe decided to look elsewhere and came across cloud-based software, AccountsIQ.

When we first expanded into new markets, the offices were running off spreadsheets because we couldn’t get them set up quickly enough. With AccountsIQ, this is so simple to do centrally. From our shared service centre, we can set up a new entity quickly and get it integrated with the others.” Paul Kehoe, Finance Director, Linesight.

Tony Connolly, CEO of AccountsIQ, commented “A problem for many growing businesses is that legacy desktop solutions were not designed to meet the challenges faced by companies operating in multiple countries and in multiple currencies.

“ERP systems are often too complex for individual subsidiaries or branches, while lower end systems that are easier to use cannot handle the complexities of consolidating results in multiple currencies.”

Meeting multi-company needs

Linesight’s business is organised in regional lines and divisions that offer different areas of service and expertise. Many of Linesight’s projects include the collaboration of various divisions, regions and subsidiaries resulting in complex transactions. “AccountsIQ allows us to post an invoice and re-charge it in a very streamlined way. It simplifies the whole process,” said Kehoe.

Previously, Linesight had been running consolidation reports in Excel. Now, AccountsIQ has been configured to produce consolidation reports, analysed by location and business line, right down to project level.

Performance across different geographical areas can be monitored in local currencies and yet reported in a consistent way at group level, automatically handling inter-company charges, revaluation reserves etc.

Accounting for projects

Linesight’s core business is quantity surveying. As a business that invoices at critical points over the course of a project, a system which supports Revenue Recognition is important. Under GAAP principles, generally, revenue is recognised when a specific critical event has occurred.

AccountsIQ allows income to be recognised over the lifetime of the project as the work is delivered rather than as it is invoiced. Linesight uses a timesheet recording application that has been fully integrated with AccountsIQ. This passes time records by project, which are valued at the rates in AccountsIQ and used for valuing Work in Progress.

Expenses and outlay are tracked against projects and future earnings are also tracked so that expected results can be projected.

Future plans

Linesight plan to integrate AccountsIQ with Concur for processing and approving expense claims for professional staff. Further development may also take place around integrating with Salesforce and possibly other business systems.

“It is AccountsIQ’s ability to keep pace with our rate of growth which has been the most measurable benefit to us. It not only makes the process of on-boarding a new business straightforward, the system’s flexible coding structure makes the process of adding and monitoring new income lines simple,” Kehoe said.

Learn more about how to track costs and profitability throughout the project cycle with AccountsIQ’s construction accounting software.

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