If there is one thing many family offices have in common, it is an over reliance on QuickBooks and Microsoft® Excel®. QuickBooks is a great entry-level accounting solution for consumers, but it may not be the best system for providing financial accounting for a family office. As you have added more clients and consequently more complexity, you’ve probably hit some common QuickBooks pain points. The most common ones we hear about are: manual processes that you wish you could automate, a need to handle multiple entities and a lack of controls to name a few.
In fact, in a recent family office survey we asked QuickBooks users to share their biggest pain points. Their responses are below:
Survey Said - Biggest QuickBooks Pain Points
- Manual data entry (along with the possible mistakes that come with it) 65%
- You need to manage multiple entities from one system 29%
- Siloed technology completing tasks requires disparate tools (logging into bank accounts, different systems) 24%
- Inadequate controls 12%
- Reporting- struggle to answer basic questions from clients in timely manner 12%
- Holistic view of your client's account 6%
- Not scalable 6%
In the same survey, we also asked QuickBooks users to share what they wished their accounting system would offer. Their responses are below:
Survey Said – Biggest QuickBooks Wish List
- The ability to manage all of your client's entities in one platform 50%
- The ability to scan all bills, at once, into system instead of separately loading each one 50%
- Integrated document management 44%
- Mobile approvals 39%
- Electronic alerts and workflows for clients to approve bills 33%
- Consolidated Financial reporting 28%
- Better controls and approval workflow 22%
- Investment Data aggregation/integration 17%
Specialized accounting designed for family offices: Meet AgilLink
What might have worked well for the founder’s personal books may not be the best choice in software for firms that need to manage multiple clients and entities. The good news is that there are options in the marketplace that are designed to meet your specific needs.
Two of the biggest needs family offices have when it comes to their accounting software are the ability to manage multiple entities and the ability to have integrated document management capabilities. Having a multi-entity general ledger is table stakes for family offices as ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) individuals have a multitude of different entities that need to be accounted for and managed. Also having documents integrated into your approval workflow means you will always have easy access to the original invoices and source documents for disbursements.
AgilLink is a multi-entity, multi-user accounting system that incorporates document management into the workflow so that the images of invoices follow the approval process and can be easily retrieved when there are questions on certain bills. AgilLink allows you to scan one document and then parse that document to different invoices by improving the efficiency of the bill pay process.
With AgilLink, firms also benefit from:
- Ease of access with a fully web-based platform
- Customizable approval workflow
- Multi-user platform with configurable entitlements by user
- Reduced manual data entry
AgilLink integrates accounting, bill pay and banking workflow into an all in one system that helps reduce errors, ensures accurate transaction processing, and most importantly lowers risk with better business controls and fraud protection.
For more information, contact us today!
Related Blog:
What Two Things Every Family Office Wants
