Accredo is a great business management system. But when it comes to financial reporting, budgeting and forecasting, growing businesses may need more. Solver provides a way to extend Accredo’s capabilities without replacing the system at the heart of the business.
For Accredo resellers, this is an opportunity to offer clients additional capabilities and, importantly, help retain customers who might otherwise consider moving to another system because their reporting and budgeting needs are no longer being met.
For Accredo users, Solver offers a way to get more from the system they already know and trust. By adding sophisticated financial reporting, budgeting and forecasting, businesses can strengthen their existing investment and support their growth without necessarily taking on the significant cost and disruption of implementing a larger ERP system. As businesses move up to more comprehensive platforms, licensing, implementation and ongoing support costs can increase substantially.
Rather than replacing Accredo because it no longer meets every requirement, businesses can extend what they already have — adding the financial insight and planning capabilities they need as they grow.
Accredo is very good at what it does
Accredo has earned its place in the New Zealand market. It provides robust operational processing, customisation and a straightforward user experience, backed by support that understands local businesses.
I know this from experience. I used Accredo in a company I recently worked for and loved it. Once we got the system working the way it was designed to be used, it had a very intuitive structure and we were regularly discovering new features. I pushed the system hard, learning how to get the most out of it and using it to transform the way we operated.
However, I also discovered that getting the reporting I needed was not always straightforward. Sure there were external tools such as Power BI, that linked in and provided amazing dashboards, but I needed more. I needed planning tools, I needed budget tools and I wanted better financial reporting.
I ended up building reports in Excel using Accredo’s OLEDB connectivity. Those reports gave me the visibility I needed to make better decisions, but developing and maintaining them took time and technical expertise.
It was when I discovered Solver Global, that I recognised how well these two systems would work together. Accredo handles well the day to day transaction level work, Solver adds the power to the reporting and budgeting.
Today, I have rebuilt and extended many of the reporting capabilities I developed within Excel into Solver. It was a far simpler process than using Excel and OLE DB links, and allowed me to add additional functionality.
That experience showed how well the two systems can work together. Together the two products shine.
The objective isn’t to replace Accredo. It’s to give Accredo users better tools for understanding their business and planning its future.
Financial reporting that goes beyond the basics
Solver is built around flexible financial reporting. It has a Quickstart reporting framework that provides a library of ready-to-use financial reports that can be used once the general ledger data has been mapped to the Quickstart format, however there is significant capability to modify the reports and present them in a variety of formats, so that each group of stakeholders has their own preferred style.
Rather than being limited to a fixed set of financial statements, businesses can use Solver to develop reporting that reflects how management wants to understand and analyse performance.
Stargate QuickStart reports
The Stargate QuickStart report library includes templates that provide a foundation for financial reporting, including profit and loss reporting, variance analysis and consolidated reporting.
For Accredo users, this provides a practical starting point for sophisticated financial reporting without having to design every report from scratch.
Analysis comments can also help summarise trends, making reports easier to interpret without requiring management to work through every figure independently.
Solver’s reporting capabilities can support:
- Actual versus budget reporting: Understand how performance compares with expectations and identify significant variances.
- Flexible report layouts: Present financial information in formats that suit managers, directors and other stakeholders.
- Summary and detailed analysis: Move from an overall view of performance to more detailed information when investigating a result.
- Consolidated reporting: Bring together financial information from multiple entities and, where configured and supported, different accounting systems.
- Rolling performance reporting: Keep actual results and budgets together to support ongoing monitoring.
- Flexible reporting structures: Organise financial information for management analysis without relying exclusively on the structure of the source chart of accounts.
The important distinction is that these reports are not simply static outputs. They provide a foundation that can be configured and extended to suit the needs of each business.
For Accredo users, this means access to a more sophisticated financial reporting environment. For resellers, it offers a way to address reporting requirements that might otherwise lead a customer to consider a larger ERP system.
Budgeting and forecasting built for business planning
Financial reporting explains what has happened. Effective budgeting and forecasting help businesses decide what to do next.
Solver provides a structured budgeting environment that goes beyond collecting figures in spreadsheets and manually combining them into a consolidated budget. In addition budgets can be input in multiple ways to ensure that data is stored and collected in a clean and tidy manner. For example you may have a payroll budget linked to your payroll system, or a property budget, or sales budget. You may have fine tuned budgets for estimating the impact on utility price changes or raw material price changes.
Solver’s budget input templates provide a controlled way for users to enter and review budget information, while Solver’s reporting capabilities allow budgets to be analysed alongside actual results.
Flexible budget input templates
Solver provides templates for different budgeting approaches. Out of the box templates include a Standard Budget Template and a Top Down Forecast template, while the budget designer allows you to format your budget inputs in a variety of ways. Solver is integrated with Excel giving users either Cloud based or Excel style data entry.
Needing daily budgets or comparative budgets, not a problem either. Budgeting and Planning is where Solver shines.
Depending on the configuration, budgeting can incorporate detailed inputs, assumptions and calculations, with the resulting figures available for reporting and variance analysis.
This helps connect the budgeting process with the reports management uses to monitor business performance.
From budgets to meaningful forecasts
Budgeting is not just an annual exercise. Businesses need to understand how their plans may change as circumstances evolve.
Solver supports forecasting and scenario planning, allowing organisations to examine different assumptions and assess their potential financial implications.
Combined with reporting against actual results, this gives management a more useful view of both current performance and future expectations.
For growing businesses, the benefit is a more structured approach to financial planning without necessarily moving to a substantially larger and more expensive ERP platform.
Reporting and budgeting that extend beyond finance
Solver’s flexibility also allows reporting and input templates to incorporate operational information where the necessary data is available.
For example, manufacturing businesses can use reporting and planning tools to investigate product costing, resource requirements and inventory needs.
When I was working with Accredo, I developed inventory reporting to help identify when stock would run out and what needed to be ordered. The work helped reduce over-ordering and improve stock visibility. Inventory was reduced by 20% within a month during a financially challenging period, freeing up cash for the business.
The original Excel solution required extensive SQL development. Recreating and extending the functionality in Solver was considerably faster and offered more options.
Input templates can allow operational staff to enter information relevant to their roles without necessarily exposing underlying financial costs or even needing access to Accredo. For example, production managers can enter resource requirements, with those inputs flowing through to costing reports. Conditional formatting can highlight products falling below required margins.
This illustrates how Solver can do more than improve the presentation of financial statements. It can help connect financial information with the operational decisions that affect profitability, inventory and cash flow.
A solution I wish I’d had when I was using Accredo
Having used Accredo myself, I understand why businesses choose it and why they want to continue using it. I know as a client that this functionality was something I was looking for, so even if you aren’t aware of it, the need is likely there.
I also understand the frustration of needing information that isn’t easy to produce from the standard reporting tools. I’ve experienced the work involved in building Excel reports to fill those gaps, and I know the difference that better information can make to a business.
Solver gives Accredo users another way forward.
For businesses, it offers a path to more sophisticated financial reporting, budgeting and forecasting without replacing their existing accounting system.
For Accredo resellers, it creates an opportunity to expand what Accredo offers, deliver more value to your client and deepen your relationship with them.
Accredo runs the business. Solver helps you understand its performance and plan what comes next.
Let’s explore the opportunity
If you’re an Accredo reseller with clients asking for better financial reporting or budgeting, Turtle Bay would welcome a conversation about how Solver could complement your existing offering.
And if you’re an Accredo user looking to move to more sophisticated reporting and budgeting, we can help you explore what a solution built around Accredo and Solver could look like.
Contact us at Turtle Bay to discuss Solver for Accredo.
