What Did We Include in our Integrated Metals ERP Solution?

The recent announcement of our collaboration with Jonas Metals Software (JMS) to bring together their iMetal software and the best-in-class cloud accounting of Sage Intacct and create a well-rounded metals ERP is exciting. When JMS consciously chose to no longer include accounting functionality in their software and instead work with the best-in-class accounting solutions on the market, our teams worked together to jointly create the seamless API integration. 

The SaaS combination of iMetal industry specific functionality plus Sage Intacct’s financial management creates an easy-to-use solution for metal fabricators & distributors that boosts efficiency, data insight, and productivity while reducing errors and the need for oversight. 

How does it do this though? We thought you’d never ask.

Compliance and Tax Expertise

With both our team and Jonas Metal Software’s team having extensive experience with compliance and tax laws in Canada, the UK, and the US, we were able to optimize iMetal and Sage Intacct's abilities to meet these requirements. This software combo makes sure businesses are covered and don't have to spend too much time double checking labour laws or industry standards. When millions of dollars are potentially on the line due to non-compliance, you want to trust you are acting responsibly, are protected, and can maintain a competitive edge.

Effortless Adoption

Clean, modern UI and dashboards that are easy to navigate make this combination a dream to use, so your team can jump in and do what they need to do as efficiently as possible. There are several metals ERP solutions the industry can turn to for addressing their accounting needs or managing logistics. Compared with on premise or less modern solutions, our clients typically drop to ⅓ of their previous support and training requests. Not only because they can now create their own reports and do their own customizations, but also because the software’s Help option is actually helpful (imagine that!) and informative, making your team very self-sufficient and efficient.

Centralized Accounting and Automation

Managing the checks and balances of finance alongside scrap management, pricing management, distribution, inventory, and every other system, streamlines workflows and reduces the margin for error. Some studies have found that 52% of the operational incidents within financial organizations stem from human error, so mitigating that risk is key. We built a seamless integration between two SaaS solutions with automation workflows to help teams in finance and operations.

Whether working from a single manufacturing location or around the globe, offices can upload invoices, work orders, and everything else to the centralized database where headquarters can quickly process the info and manage approvals automatically. For multi-entity organizations, that makes a massive impact on the approvals workflow. Even single-entity offices can work smarter, not harder, with improved document upload and management with iMetal and Sage Intacct operating as their one-stop accounting and database shop.

Enhanced Financial Reporting and Data Analysis

Simply put, centralizing data and improving automation results in more accurate data and better financial reporting. Then we add in customizable metals ERP dashboards that improve access to provide straightforward, fast, invaluable data visualization for analysis. 

Teams can create their own flexible dashboards that allow any user to drill down into insights and adjust parameters as they like to see correlations and comparisons quickly and in real-time. With no need for outside consultation to develop those custom reports, not only do you save money, but it’s so much faster for the team to get the information they need and dive even deeper to answer their questions.

Multi-Entity Management

Sage Intacct was designed to work seamlessly in multi-entity management. With the capability to set one configuration per entity, onboarding new entities is literally a mouse click away. You can easily manage security, your configurations, fiscal calendars (locking periods), and create standardized charts of accounts at the corporate level for all entities. There’s also greater visibility across organizations, with a single source of truth so you can effortlessly share corporate changes faster between locations. You don't need to log into multiple platforms to make adjustments and updates, like in QuickBooks or Great Plains.

Purchasing and Payables Capabilities

Another gap JMS wanted to fill in iMetal is tracking the various aspects of non-manufacturing and inventory items. While the software excels at managing purchases for metal-related processes, everyday goods like office supplies suffer. Thankfully, Sage Intacct is the perfect partner. It mends the gap, streamlining approval and payment workflows for the non-industry-specific elements in your business.

Fixed Asset Management (FAM)

Having FAM for everything from manufacturing machinery to office equipment, our integration with iMetal and Sage Intacct can reduce the risk of theft, control costs, track depreciation, and everything in between. Again, there's no need to look to another program. Instead, you can keep all these details in one place for seamless asset management.

Consolidated Financials

Having the ability to consolidate multi-entity financials within your centralized accounting platform carries a load of benefits. You're less prone to human error between individual entity reports and the master report. Being able to consolidate each entity to specific currencies reduces discrepancies in tracking and reporting amongst each entity, too. Overall, there's more transparency between locations, resulting in more fluid business decisions and insights with everyone on the same page almost instantly.

Cloud Capabilities and Security

As a best-in-class cloud solution, Sage Intacct continues all the benefits of cloud capabilities with iMetal. Your IT team will no longer have to focus on server maintenance and upgrades, and instead can manage other crucial tech issues. Through multi-factor authentication (MFA), controlled access, robust firewalls, and more, the cloud can enhance your security positioning while boosting workflows with greater remote work access - win win! You can work anywhere, faster, with unlimited room for growth, trusting your data is protected and only accessible through the one software entry point.

For the metals industry, iMetal and Sage Intacct are the perfect union. JMS distilled its expertise with the industry and combined it with our knowledge of financial management & ERP technology. Our experience with metals businesses plus other manufacturing & distribution industries, we could see what elements were needed to make a complete metals ERP platform. 

With this integration, the metals industry has a modern, user-friendly solution that handles everything in one place. It's using automation to enhance accuracy and efficiency, with easy access to all your secure data, updates, insights, tracking, and more across multiple locations that you can trust is completely compliant. 

Let us know what you think! Do you have any questions about the integration or anything you’re secretly hoping to connected as well? This isn’t a complete list of the benefits, but more of a highlight reel, so please reach out to our team if you would like more information.