Yeager Airport (CRW) is keeping its finances in order as it navigates through the pandemic thanks to financial automation technology.

The airport is utilizing Sage Intacct to track financials across various dimensions, such as individual departments, projects, funds and grants. The software offers transparency for airport leaders to determine the best way to gradually scale up operations to support an increase in travel. 

“Our previous inventory and financial management software had become cumbersome with their time-consuming, manual processes. We needed to bring inventory and accounting onto one platform, eliminate paper-based purchasing processes and provide anywhere, anytime access for the entire team,” said Josh Potter, comptroller for CRW. “Once the pandemic hit, this universal access to the system especially proved invaluable.”

Sage Intacct is a cloud-based solution to streamline finances through automation. Potter said the airport staff had to do a particular journal entry each month to move financial information from the inventory system into the accounting system for reporting under the old system.

“We wanted to avoid the trap of choosing an inflexible ERP that couldn’t adapt and provide functionality beyond what we needed on day one,” he said. “Sage Intacct let us connect our financials with other solutions and configure the system to our specific requirements so that it could grow with us as our functionality requirements changed in the future.”

The airport implemented the system just before COVID-19 hit and the resulting sharp decline in all aviation revenues. The system’s paperless workflows brought agility during this difficult time, allowing CRW staff to focus on securing critical relief funding even while remote.

Potter said the finance department worked from home for three months, which would not have been possible without the new system.

“It completely changed how we functioned, decreasing the amount of time needed to prepare grant applications from what would’ve been around seven hours on our old system down to one on Sage Intacct,” he said.

CRW worked with the company to develop a customized project plan, integrated their applications with key business systems and executed the deployment. After implementation, the team increased overall efficiency by 60 percent, gained transparency into cash flow and sped report preparation by 80 percent — all of which freed them up to focus on more strategic goals.

Bank reconciliations that had previously required a week’s worth of manual input in an Excel spreadsheet now take only one day, Potter said. The monthly report preparation has been slashed from a week to a single day as well.

“This transparency increased cash flow predictability and helped us track changing needs across different areas, something that was particularly key during the ever-changing requirements brought on by COVID-19,” he said. “We now spend 75 percent more time on analysis, such as helping to determine the best way to gradually scale up parking services in preparation for a resurgence of flights as pandemic-related restrictions are lifted.”

Potter said the internal feedback on the system has been great. Role-based manager dashboards increase visibility and accountability across the organization, which helps with proactive planning and more strategic decision-making.

“It has also changed the perception of accounting amongst non-finance employees,” he said. “We’re equipping people outside the finance team with the specific real-time data they need. Since they always have visibility into where they stand with actuals, they’re better able to stay on budget. It’s made finance more approachable and, in turn, a better partner to the whole organization.”

Potter recommended peer airports looking at financial automation technology should ask themselves what challenges they’re currently facing and what results are they’re looking to achieve. Consider if you want to keep your system on-premise or move to a cloud-based system. Make sure you have a team that can support the implementation process, the budget for the right software solution and how you will evaluate success when put into service.

“It's essential to understand the type of preparations that are needed before investing in a solution. For example, Sage Intacct supports integrations and custom development – however, this will take additional time to implement,” he said. “There could be added fees with the additions, so it's important to know upfront where the cost increases. Additionally, implementation is a team effort as it requires training and testing. It's important to understand the time commitment it will take.”