Dec. 17 2019 – Created through acquisition in early 2017, Avenu Insights & Analytics had just six months to implement new business applications to run the company, which supplies revenue enhancement and administration software and services to more than 3,000 state and local governments. Leveraging Sage Intacct, Avenu has cut its aged receivables accounts in half, trimmed the monthly close by 20%, and accelerated $2 million in cash flow thanks to reducing days sales outstanding (DSO).
“After evaluating the top solutions on the market, Sage Intacct was far and away my preferred choice,” Avenu CFO, Mike Melka, said. “It really came down to speed of deployment, scalability to expand, and ease of use for our base users to quickly and easily understand the product.” Melka handled much of the implementation himself, including data conversions and report configurations, working directly with Sage Intacct partner SSi Consultants. “Sage Intacct allowed us to be a standalone company in a very short period of time with a very lean team,” he added.
Over the past two years, Avenu Insights has built what Melka calls “a well-oiled machine” as the Virginia-based organization has expanded from about 250 employees to 900-plus employees – with a commensurate increase in annual revenue, through organic growth and several acquisitions. Despite growing more than three-fold, Avenu maintains a lean six-person accounting and finance team, up from three individuals at the start.
Avenu has also deployed the Sage Intacct Contracts module to automate billing across as many as 2,000 software and services contracts, strengthening Avenu’s ASC 606 compliance. “The Contracts module will allow us a better picture across our contracts and all-around scalability, and ultimately allow us to automate the billing,” Melka said. “We will rely on it to do most of the leg work without having to hire 10 revenue accountants.”
After implementing Sage Intacct, the finance team at Avenu Insights & Analytics realized several additional benefits, including:
- Fast-tracked acquisition process: Thanks to the ease of use and flexibility that Sage Intacct provides, Melka says he was able to, “Bring on those acquired businesses in days, not weeks.” Sage Intacct helped Melka quickly integrate their largest acquisition to date, the local government software business of Conduent, a Xerox spinoff.
- Monthly close trimmed 20%: Using Sage Intacct, Melka’s team has trimmed two days from the monthly close cycle, down to eight days from the 10 days that the former owners needed to close the books with a legacy on-premises accounting application after the initial acquisition.
- Accelerated $2M in cash flow: Avenu has cut its volume of aged receivables accounts in half, and it’s dramatically improved its days sales outstanding (DSO). Once averaging 50-some days, DSO is now in the low 40 days. That’s accelerated $2 million in cash flow that helped Avenu pay down debt from its original acquisition ahead of schedule.
- Improved gross margins: Using dimensional reporting in Sage Intacct, Avenu has improved its gross margins with deep visibility into costs, revenue, and profitability across its sizable product portfolio. Those insights have enabled informed tactical and strategic decisions on where to trim costs, curtail underperforming products, adjust pricing, and speed cash flow that position Avenu for sustainable and cost-effective growth.
“Sage Intacct has helped us improve our bottom line, deliver results faster, and scale the business very efficiently. It’s really our backbone, and I couldn’t be happier. Sage Intacct provides me the flexibility to analyze data anyway I need and delivers insights that allow us to hone our business,” Melka said. “We’re able to measure our business the way we need to.”
For more information on how Avenu Insights & Analytics uses Sage Intacct, view the full case study.