What is cloud accounting?

Cloud Accounting provides the same functionality as on-premises accounting software — with a crucial difference: cloud accounting software connects through the Internet to run on remote, vendor-managed servers. The user works from a web-based interface and data is sent into the cloud (i.e. the Internet), where it is processed and stored on a remote infrastructure. The results are then sent back to the user. All accounting functions take place off-site, not on the user’s computer. Cloud accounting eliminates the need for the customer to install, manage, and maintain software and hardware devoted to accounting or perform data backups. All of those functions are managed by MAT. That frees IT personnel to devote their resources to other initiatives. What’s more, cloud accounting facilitates easier, secure information sharing by employees in other departments, branch offices, subsidiaries, auditors, and regulators as needed. Users can access the software from any location and from most any connected device, including smartphones and tablets.

What is outsourced accounting?

Outsourced Accounting is simply shifting the functions and tasks of basic and critical business processes, traditionally managed inside your company, to an external provider, like MAT. Outsourced accounting takes advantage of the power of secure cloud-based technologies, bringing a comprehensive range of business services, from A/P and A/R to controllership and virtual CFO services. Many people believe outsourcing implies sending business functions overseas to reduce labor costs. Outsourced accounting does not imply sending business functions overseas. All resources whether human or systems can always be in the USA. And at MAT we are committed to keeping all of our operations in America.

The American Institute of CPAs is the world’s largest association representing the accounting profession, with more than 400,000 members in 145 countries, and a history of serving the public interest since 1887. AICPA members represent many areas of practice, including business and industry, public practice, government, education, and consulting. The AICPA sets ethical standards for the profession and U.S. auditing standards for private companies, nonprofit organizations, federal, state, and local governments. It develops and grades the Uniform CPA Examination, and offers specialty credentials for CPAs who concentrate on personal financial planning, forensic accounting, business valuation, and information management and technology assurance.

Why outsource my accounting department?

By outsourcing your accounting position(s), your company doesn’t have to endure the hiring process and lose valuable time and money training bookkeepers, accountants or financial controllers. If you have been doing the bookkeeping yourself, you finally free up your time to focus on other aspects of growing your business. You’ll be able to make informed decisions based on more than just your cash balance at the bank.

I already have an external bookkeeper, why would I want to outsource?

A bookkeeper posts transactions to the accounting records. MAT works to improve cashflow and takes a proactive role in operating an entire process like accounts payable or accounts receivable. As one part of that process we provide bookkeeping.

How does outsourcing help grow my business?

Growth is necessary for business success, but along with growth comes complexity. Oftentimes companies cannot scale fast enough and end up coping with growth rather than driving it. MAT provides your company accurate financial data so you can determine what customers and/or products are the most profitable. You can concentrate more time on the most successful aspects of your company. This capability allows a business owner to become truly savvy in investing energy and resources in the right places. The door is left open for you to do the tasks that are most important to your company’s financial success As a growing business, efficiency and performance are keys to success and it takes a well organized system to achieve them. Partner with MAT and make your business run better every day, every week and every month.

Will I “lose control”?

Absolutely Not. Our customers vastly improve their control. Examples include: Setting up different levels of approval — say you want to approve transactions over a certain amount and allow an employee to approve lower amounts or setting up payments to vendors so they only happen when you release them. It is your business and you make the decisions. MAT provides the information you need in order to make informed decisions and keep “you” in control.

What about the risk of fraud or embezzlement?

We can’t ensure your employees won’t try and steal, but we make it much, much more difficult. Ask any expert and they’ll tell you that the single most important security measure for any company, from a small store to a major bank, is segregation of duties. If one person can access the accounting software and has access to incoming checks, or approves outgoing funds, there’s a hole in security big enough to drive a Mack truck through. MAT reconciles the bank accounts but we have no approval rights — segregation of duties. We can even ramp your game up a notch by establishing a lockbox so incoming checks go directly to the bank. Having check stock is another major risk — most of embezzlement is still old school — and fraudulent checks are still a big exposure. Checks you issued via MAT are not on your check stock although the funds come from your company. In short, if someone forges a check it’s not against your bank account.

What about all the bills and checks in the mail?

Different customers require different solutions. Some like to scan/fax bills to us. Other customers prefer the convenience of having all bills sent to a dedicated PO box that we manage. The PO box is unique for each customer. Our solution allows our customers to drill down when approving a bill and see the image of the scanned document. So, you have no loss of transparency or visibility. Just the reverse. You always have access to the bill exactly where you want it to be — right next to the entry that shows the bill being paid. Some customers want to continue depositing their own checks. We typically have read only access to reconcile the bank accounts. Other customers prefer the additional security of a lockbox, which just means that checks are sent directly to the bank, and the bank deposits them for you.

MAT’s services are very affordable. In general, our costs have proven to be less than our clients were paying for their accounting staff. Typical cost savings range from 25-50% and you’ll find the value you’re receiving to be much greater than you would get with an in-house bookkeeper. You save hiring and training costs, and will no longer have to pay for office space, phone lines, PTO or other employee benefits associated with in-house bookkeeping staff. Our fees are based on the volume and complexity of each client. We determine the scope of services and establish a fixed monthly amount so you can manage you budget.

Let’s chat. Right now if you are like most of us, your accounting records are in an unlocked file cabinet or worse, sitting on someone’s desk. Your data is most likely accessible via an unsecure computer that may or may not be backed-up and only has one person who has access and controls everything. This is what we at MAT call “bad” security. When you partner with MAT, you entrust us with your company’s highly confidential business information. We take that seriously. We have security covered from all angles: physical, network, application and data. Our systems guarantee 99.8 % uptime, airtight data security, and comprehensive disaster recovery. SSAE 16 SOC1 Type II audits and certifications by Trustwave, Digicert, and more, ensure that your financial information will be protected. MAT understands that you’re entrusting us with the most private, most critical data in your business. Quite simply, we value your trust in us — and will do everything to protect it

Does MAT replace my CPA?

MAT does not provide Tax or Audit services. We value your relationship with your CPA and look to enhance the day-to-day record keeping so your CPA can make informed decisions. MAT helps eliminate the frustration and costs that can arise between the CPA and the clients due to inadequate bookkeeping. Your current accountant will be grateful for accurate data that he or she can use to help you build more wealth and grow your business. This in turn will save your company money. As tax law is constantly changing, we recommend utilizing experts in the industry for income tax advisory services. We are happy to serve as a liaison between you and your income tax preparer. We gather the documents needed to file your tax returns and send them to your tax accountant so that you won’t have to deal with the stress of getting critical paperwork in on time.

Why not just use our existing CPA?

You probably already outsource processes like financial statement preparation and preparation of tax returns to your CPA. However, if a CPA firm provides bookkeeping services to a client, it can’t review or audit the financial statements of that client. Many CPA firms decline to provide services that might later put them in a conflict-of-interest situation. At MAT we work closely with CPA firms. If we provide the bookkeeping services that are the starting point for the CPA’s work, the CPA’s charges will likely be lower than if they have to do “write-up” work to get the records in order.

Why not just use our existing CPA?

You probably already outsource processes like financial statement preparation and preparation of tax returns to your CPA. However, if a CPA firm provides bookkeeping services to a client, it can’t review or audit the financial statements of that client. Many CPA firms decline to provide services that might later put them in a conflict-of-interest situation. At MAT we work closely with CPA firms. If we provide the bookkeeping services that are the starting point for the CPA’s work, the CPA’s charges will likely be lower than if they have to do “write-up” work to get the records in order.

Complex Problems, Simpler Solutions for Non-Profit Accounting

Accounting Software Solves Problems for Non-Profits

How tech solutions simplify the problem and processes in nonprofit accounting.

Introduction

Imagine your organization gets a multi-year grant from the national science foundation. The lead time on the grant is 6-9 months and you have 2 years to draw down on the grant. Also, the money must be allocated toward the commitments you made in the proposal.

It’s a pretty simple scenario right? For one grant yes, but what is the situation for most non-profits? It’s more like an octopus. You may have an overlap of grants coming in at different times, going out at certain times. Lots of cash coming in is a good problem to have, but you also need to keep track of which money is used for which commitments. How do you manage what you’ve applied for and which are set to expire?

This is an issue that many organizations face, even after years of operating. Wanting to impact a particular problem in the world, yet having to manage your own growing financial confusion.

So if that’s the issue, what is the solution?

The power is in a two-part solution. An accountant, but one who is well-versed in cloud-based accounting software.

What is Cloud Technology?

In the simplest terms it is a multi-use tool that saves all data on a central network rather than a personal device. This makes it accessible to anyone who has permission to access it.

For cloud based accounting software it can help manage invoices, set reminders, track budgets and ultimately centralize all financial information. Essentially, organizing and automating everything in one place. So go out and buy some right? Not quite. According to the IAITAM 37% of software dollars are being wasted by companies.

To make this clearer, most companies waste the money they invest on software because they don’t have time to learn all of the functionalities. Many are subscription based so they pay the first year from day one and their processes only slightly improve. You end up worse off for buying it.

It’s a complex planning problem – if you’re a large company like Google, you have a dedicated department to handle it. As a small non-profit you can’t afford all of the people usually involved in that scenario.

If software is only part of the solution and a large planning team isn’t possible, this is where a good accountant comes in.
With an accountant, specifically one that provides software solutions you’re not just getting your books in order but you’re planning grants, automating processes and reminders, and getting someone who knows which solution is right for your organization. Not to mention has the know-how to implement all of the functionalities.

Let’s take a look at the benefits of this in a bit more detail:

Grant Management

Firstly, putting a process in place to organize all grant activities is one of the best ways that an accountant well-versed in cloud-based accounting software can add value. They can ensure that when developing complex budgets and project planning you’re accomplishing everything you want to with the money as it comes in.

Furthermore it can:

Streamline the grant application writing process
Track the status of applications
Research different grants
Generate data for meetings
Keep things on track with reminders and calendars.

These are all things that someone in your organization is spending time on. Imagine automating it and freeing them up for other projects.

501C3 Status for Non-profit accounting

Secondly, an accountant who knows their cloud-based technology solutions can help with your organization’s 501c3 status. The requirements for acquiring and maintaining that status are so complicated that you need some level of sophistication.

Imagine not having a clean audit for 5 years (nightmare scenario). Then, you bring in an accountant who cleans things up. When all is said and done you have clean audits for years to come. Everyone can rest easy when the funds are used in a way they want them to be used.

For people managing something like money which they don’t see everyday, a system allows them to drill-down and find what they need quicker. Most people are pressed for time and aren’t interested in detective work. Having a system put in place simplifies (or eliminates) sleuthing.

They can see an expense they don’t understand, double click, drill-down some more and see the invoice. They figure out what it is exactly.

We all know that in our everyday lives systems make things easier to manage. It’s no less effective for your organization’s tax status.

The Technology Itself

The final (but by no means last) benefit to this sort of solution is the technology itself.

Most systems are:

Live/Cloud-based Meaning real-time. That means any changes made are there for everyone to see at the same moment.
Location Independent With a single instance cloud based system which is 100% online, board members can get on wherever they want, whenever they want. (Side note: Some systems say they are cloud-based but really use a bunch of servers. That’s NOT what you want.)
Customizable Dashboard a dashboard provides a snapshot of anything that may be a priority. For example, if a board member can’t make a meeting, they can get on as soon as books are closed and see what the situation is.

Having a centralized and up-to-date cloud-based accounting system with someone knowledgeable enough to run it is beneficial enough if it brings clarity and convenience to the entire team.

Conclusion

You want to make the world a better place. You want to be down in the trenches lending a helping hand. The financial organization of your company can either supercharge that vision or slow it down.

Why, when there are so many accounting solutions and the people who know how to maximize them to your benefit would you take the time, money and responsibility to come up with a half working system?

Get someone in your corner to organize your books, and do it in a way that creates a well running financial system so your organization can truly make the impact it deserves to make.

Accounting Software Solves Problems for Non-Profits

How tech solutions simplify the problem and processes in nonprofit accounting.

Introduction

What is Cloud Technology?

Let’s take a look at the benefits of this in a bit more detail:

Grant Management

501C3 Status for Non-profit accounting

The Technology Itself

Conclusion

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