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Project Accounting: The ideal solution for the Professional Services industry

1st Jul 2016
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Award-winning cloud accounting software for multi-company businesses.

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At last a Project System that actually integrates fully with Finance….accountsIQ removes the pain and dangers of misreporting revenue overstated by Work In Progress (WIP).

accountsIQ has launched its fully integrated Project Ledger.  Designed by a panel of Accountants and Professional Services Consultants, with decades of experience designing, implementing and using time capture systems, the system, as well as capturing all of the underlying activity and cost at source, comprehensively drives Fee Revenue and WIP (Work In Progress) recognition.  Already in use by several practices, the application delivers a single seamless solution for all roles and responsibilities in a Project - from employee’s simply recording time and expenses, to managers reviewing and approving project status, and finance staff further approving project financial transactions, payments, billing and reporting.

At the heart of the system is an SQL database that captures all project standing data by project, company, resource and activity.  In addition there is a complete workflow process such that designated project managers can approve time and expenses submitted against each project.  The on-going project transactions range from Time, Expenses, 3rd Party Costs, Accrued Time, Revenue Recognised, WIP Provisions, and Deferred Revenue (advanced payments).  There is also a configuration menu for resources, time, activity and expenses/outlay that makes set up and customising simple and relevant to your professional service business.

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A planning module allows the Project programme of work to be scheduled, by resource type, and by activity type across the scheduled time-frame for the project.  You can look the allocation and availability of Resources in total, examine the Resources allocated against a Project, and examine a particular team’s allocations.  Equally you can look at Activity Types by Resource and/or individual Project or all Projects and, of course, you can set up the plan for new Projects or re-allocate resources and activities for all projects including projects which span multiple years.

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There is also a comprehensive Time-Sheet workflow system which facilitates Project Managers, not only approving received time-sheets, but also reporting on overdue time-sheets on a week by week basis.  It also includes the ability to send reminder email to the offending employees and otherwise chase down missing returns for time and expenses. 

What makes the system truly unique is how it integrates with accountsIQ (AIQ)’s complete accounting system.  You can configure the system to start with no automated integration and use reports to book accounting journals.  Or you can switch to recognising revenue and costs based on the % completion of a project and the system will automatically create the required entries regarding Revenue and WIP in AIQ.  The 3rd option is the complete time method of Revenue Recognition with a provisioning tool on a project by project basis.  There is an accompanying billing module that allows for time and materials, milestone or recurring invoices to be raised which allocates the bills to time and expenses. The software cleverly adjusts project accrued revenue and WIP by reversing the amount being billed.

 

AIQ’s Integrated Project Ledger is a complete workflow solution that facilitates each role and responsibility having only the access to the system necessary to carry out their task(s) in the chain.  Based on the approval and review status the relevant financial facts can then be passed to the finance ledger for further staging if further finance function review is required prior to ledger posting. 

In Summary the key features that make this system special are:

  • Projects are set up by company, currency and linked to a customer ledger account;
  • The project code can then be linked to up to 5 further business dimensions (type, location, sector, etc);
  • Activities and resources are then assigned to projects;
  • Resources are configured by company or group of companies along with expense and activity types;
  • Time, expenses and 3rd party outlay are captured and approved by managers and recorded against the project ledger and also routed to finance for invoicing, payment and reporting;
  • Project future forecasting can also be calculated and reported for long term projects;
  • Standard reporting capabilities are extensive and, depending on the extent of your requirements, any other report can be created and delivered natively from the system.

AIQ is a scalable solution built using Microsoft technology serving businesses between £10 and £300m in turnover.  The solution is very scalable and is typically suited to groups of business that are growing and need a scalable yet simple solution that allows for configuration and collaboration through workflow.  It also has very powerful native reporting with consolidation.  The system is built on .net technology and is fully cloud based with over 15,000 users.  Fees are SaaS based covering all hosting, security, back up, licencing and upgrades with full SSAE 16 compliance.  Our Service is not complete until our clients are thrilled with our product and how it improve the working lives of the professionals that use it.

For more information please contact [email protected].

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