Sage Intacct Re-Implementation Expedites Close and Reporting for Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee 

Challenge 

Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee was experiencing growing pains while operating with an outdated financial management platform. The system wasn’t set up to accommodate the purchasing process and was inflexible for current reporting requirements.   

By selecting Sage Intacct for its strong internal controls, enhanced reporting capabilities, purchasing functionality, and system stability, Goodwill of MT leaders were keen to replace the old system with the support of an implementation partner. During the implementation process, though, it became necessary to switch implementation partners to achieve the organization’s Sage Intacct goals.   

With the clock ticking, the search began for an experienced Sage Intacct VAR Partner to complete the implementation and help realize the full value of the investment.   

How We Helped 

CrossCountry Consulting’s Sage Intacct experts were selected by Goodwill of MT due to their reputation and experience as a preferred implementation partner. A team of technology, finance, accounting, and project management specialists reviewed the work previously performed and determined that several portions of the implementation needed to be started from scratch. 

This effort included:  

• Partnering with key stakeholders to understand and re-organize the project initiative.  
• Cleaning up and refreshing the Sage environment. 
• Strategizing and implementing solutions for a complex purchasing process. 
• Fixing issues with purchasing data importing and reconciliation. 

“This has been one of the smoothest implementations we’ve ever gone through. We knew exactly what issues were open and where we stood against milestone dates. From a project management perspective, it was a very organized project effort.”

Christine Skold, Chief Financial Officer

This phase of the “remediation implementation” was completed in approximately 45 days and began immediately producing positive process improvements and greater visibility into financial and operational data. 

Results 

With an entirely revised and refreshed Sage Intacct process and technology architecture, the company’s implementation now allowed finance and accounting staff to begin transacting and recording in the new system with one consolidated view. 

This success enabled:  

• Greater managerial insight into what’s happening within the organization at any given moment. 
• More accurate and robust information within one system that can be drilled down into further by department managers. 
• Ability to use dynamic allocations to create and allocate intercompany charges and budget amounts. 
• Custom workflows that accelerated the close process. 
• Going paperless for purchase orders and increasing controls through smart events and smart rules. 

The reporting and dimensions created by the CrossCountry team ultimately generated meaningful time savings, as the company can now create very complex reports per location or mission program with ease. 

“The enhancements created by CrossCountry during the implementation greatly improved reporting and our ability to provide reporting to Goodwill Industries International in their preferred format. With our previous general ledger, it took a while for staff to learn all the system’s quirks, but with Sage Intacct, everything works like it should. We’re now able to hit a 5-day close with goals to improve further.”

Wendy White, VP Finance and Accounting

The successful partnership has led to additional opportunities to refine purchasing and accounting processes further in the future, with Goodwill of MT aiming to continuously advance close reduction and implement departmental dashboards for greater Sage impact.