ERP replacement. Sage Intacct
Leaving Sage Intacct for a system your business owns
In short
- Black Badger Software Solutions is a custom software company in Clearwater, Florida that replaces Sage Intacct, ledger included when the accounting is ordinary, with a system your business owns outright and runs in the cloud on accounts in its name.
- We were never a Sage Intacct partner and we have no Sage Intacct engagement on record, so nothing rides for us on which way you go, and we do not configure, patch or administer Sage Intacct for anyone.
- Leaving means entities, the chart of accounts, dimensions and transactions come out through the Web Services API and report exports with every dimension still attached, custom fields and Smart Rules are read for the rules they hold, and Intacct stays live until a closed period reconciles on both sides.
- The two replacements we publish outcomes for went live in six weeks and in sixteen weeks, and the runway for yours goes in the written scope once we have seen your data.
- After launch the system costs roughly $100 to $200 a month to run for a smaller company, and $2,000 to $3,000 a month at enterprise scale. Those are hosting and service bills you pay the providers directly, with no license and no per-user fee.
Sage Intacct is a real financial system, and a good one. General ledger, payables, receivables, cash management, dimensions on every transaction, and multi-entity consolidation, sold as core financials with modules and users priced on top, mostly through accounting and implementation firms. It's often the system a company's outside CPA recommends, and for the books that recommendation usually holds up.
The catch is that it's finance-first by design. Projects, jobs, inventory, quoting and field work either arrive as add-on modules that stop short of how your operation runs, or they live in other tools beside it. So most companies on Intacct are really running two systems, a ledger the controller trusts and a pile of spreadsheets and point tools where the work happens. Which of those you replace is the sharpest question on this page.
Where we stand
Do you implement or support Sage Intacct?
No. We were never a Sage Intacct partner, we have no Sage Intacct engagement on record, and we will not pretend otherwise. What we bring is the build side, the system your operations and often your books would move into, and sourced numbers on what ERP implementations cost.
We were partners of other platforms, monday.com, Smartsheet, Wrike and Zoho among them, and we ended those partnerships to build replacements. So the Sage Intacct work we take is replacing it, the whole system where the accounting is ordinary, or the operational layer around the ledger where it isn't. What we build always runs in the cloud, on hosting and database accounts in your name. We don't configure Intacct, write Smart Events or take an admin retainer.
Where it fits
Where does Sage Intacct fit?
We sell no Sage Intacct licenses and take no referral fees, so this is not a hit piece. These are the cases where keeping it is the honest advice, and if yours is one of them, we will say so on the call.
Multi-entity companies consolidating several sets of books, with intercompany activity and more than one currency, closing on a statutory calendar. Intacct does that well, and it's genuinely hard software to write.
Finance teams that live in dimensions. Slicing every transaction by location, department, project, class or a dimension you defined yourself is what Intacct is built around, and the reporting on top of it is strong.
Businesses whose auditors, lenders, board or outside CPA expect a recognized financial system as the book of record. The name on the platform is part of the answer there.
Nonprofits tracking restricted funds and grants, and subscription businesses with contract revenue to recognize. Both get modules or dimension patterns that fit them closely.
A company whose controller is happy with the close. If the ledger is doing its job, keep it and fix what sits around it. That's usually the honest advice, and a smaller project.
Where it breaks
Where does Sage Intacct break down?
The failure modes below are the ones that show up again and again as a company grows.
Operations aren't its center. Intacct has order entry, purchasing, inventory and project accounting, but they're built to get the accounting right, and the working day (scheduling, crews, job status, quoting with real pricing rules) happens somewhere else. The ERP knows what was billed. It doesn't know what's late.
Capability comes as modules. Project accounting, inventory, revenue management, contracts, fixed assets and time and expense each get licensed on top of core financials, and user counts sit on top of that. The next thing you need arrives with a quote attached.
Customization is specialist work. Custom fields, custom dimensions, Smart Rules, Smart Events and Platform Services objects can bend Intacct a long way, but the knowledge sits with a few people, often at the firm that set it up, and the platform releases on the vendor's calendar.
People outside finance pay to look. Every project manager, field lead or approver who needs to see a number either takes a license or gets a report emailed to them, so the people closest to the work see it last.
The integrations are the real system. A CRM, a project tool, a time tracker, an inventory app and a quoting spreadsheet each sync into Intacct on their own schedule. When a sync fails, finance finds out at month end, and the fix is a person re-keying entries.
The replacement
What does replacing Sage Intacct look like?
The default is full replacement. Most companies on Intacct have ordinary accounting, one entity or a few, one currency, a standard close, and for them the ledger, payables, receivables and dimensions move into the new system along with the operational work that was living in other tools. One system, one set of records, no syncs to babysit.
The exception is real and we say so. If you run several entities with intercompany eliminations, a statutory close, or an auditor who expects a recognized book of record, Intacct stays as the ledger. Quoting, jobs, projects, inventory movement, scheduling, approvals and the customer portal move into the new system and post summarized or detailed entries back into Intacct through its API, with the dimensions finance already reports on.
Either way, the system takes the shape of your operation. The records are your jobs, sites, assets, orders and crews, with real relationships between them, and the pricing and approval rules live in tested, versioned code. Reporting reads live data, so a manager's daily question is a screen, not an export.
You own the result. Code in a repository in your name, database and hosting on cloud accounts in your name, unlimited users including people outside your company, and no module list to negotiate at renewal. We're added as administrators so we can build and support it, and you can remove us whenever you want.
The stakes
What does it cost to get this wrong?
More than the software. A replacement that goes badly costs you the one thing the old system was still doing, a single place your team agrees on. The failures below each turn a rebuild into a year of parallel systems, so they are the ones we plan around.
Dimensions are the reporting. An extract that brings over account balances without the location, department, project and custom dimensions on each line produces figures that tie in total and fall apart the moment finance asks the question they bought Intacct to answer.
Consolidation is calculated, not stored as a simple total. Pull entity-level data without the intercompany relationships, elimination rules and currency settings, and the consolidated statements won't match what Intacct reported for a closed period, so nobody signs off.
Replace the books and leave operations in spreadsheets, and nothing changed for the people doing the work. The shadow system survives, now feeding a ledger you own instead of one you rent.
The order of work
What happens, in what order, when you leave Sage Intacct?
Each step exists because skipping it is how the previous attempt failed. The sequence is fixed. The runway is not, and it goes in your written scope once we know the shape of your data rather than on this page as a calendar promise.
- 01
Module, dimension and integration audit
We check which modules carry real activity, which dimensions finance actually reports on, and which custom fields, Smart Rules and Smart Events still fire. Every integration feeding Intacct gets listed with what it sends and how often. That map is usually the first time anyone has seen the whole system at once.
- 02
Extraction with dimensions intact
Intacct comes out through its Web Services API and custom report exports. Entities, the chart of accounts, customers, vendors, items, projects and transaction lines get pulled with their record ids and every dimension value on each line, so the relationships and the reporting survive. Saved reports aren't copied, they're configuration, so what gets recorded is the question each one answers.
- 03
Full replacement or keep the ledger
This one decision shapes everything after it. With ordinary accounting the whole system moves, ledger included. With multi-entity consolidation, a statutory close or an auditor who expects Intacct, the ledger stays and the operational layer moves around it, posting back through the API. We take a position on which applies before we scope anything.
- 04
Build alongside a live Intacct
The new system gets built while Intacct keeps running, importing on a schedule and posting into it wherever the ledger is staying. The operational work comes first, jobs, scheduling, quoting and the customer view, because that's where the spreadsheets and the failing syncs are.
- 05
Reconcile a closed period
Nothing gets switched off until finance has a closed period that matches line for line on both sides, by entity and by dimension, including consolidation and any currency translation. Operational counts get checked at the same time. Then the cutover happens, and the modules and integrations that are no longer needed come off at renewal.
Limits
Where do we draw the line?
Saying this out loud is cheaper for both of us than finding out in month two. If one of these is what you actually want, we are the wrong firm and we will say so on the first call.
- We won't tell you to replace a general ledger that's carrying real multi-entity consolidation or a statutory close. That's serious software, and if that's why you have Intacct we'll build around it and say so plainly.
- We won't switch anything off before finance signs off on a period that reconciles on both sides, by entity and by dimension. A cutover taken on assurances is how an audit trail ends up with a hole in it.
- We won't install anything on a server in your office or build an on-premise system. What we build runs in the cloud, on accounts in your name.
Questions
What do people ask before leaving Sage Intacct?
Can you really replace Sage Intacct, ledger and all?
Yes, when the accounting is ordinary, and for most companies on Intacct it is. One entity or a few, one currency, a standard close. The ledger, payables, receivables and dimensions move into a system you own alongside the operational work. When you run real multi-entity consolidation or a statutory close, we keep Intacct as the ledger, replace what sits around it, and tell you so up front.
Do you work with on-premise Sage, like Sage 100 or Sage 300?
Sage Intacct itself only runs in Sage's cloud, so the question usually comes from a company on an older Sage product installed on its own servers. We'll replace one of those, but only by moving the business to the cloud as part of the replacement. We never reinstall it, upgrade it in place, host it on-site, or build anything that runs on a server in your office. What we build runs on cloud hosting and database accounts in your name.
What happens to our dimensions?
They come with you, on every line. Location, department, project, class, customer, vendor and any dimension you defined yourself get extracted with each transaction and mapped into the new structure in a document finance approves before anyone writes a row. Where Intacct stays as the ledger, the new system posts back with the same dimensions, so the reports finance already trusts keep working.
What about audit and compliance?
Access control by role, a change history nobody can quietly edit, approvals recorded with person and timestamp, period locks, and clean exports for your auditor. All of it gets designed in from the start. Auditors care about controls and evidence, and the logo on the login screen is neither of those.
Can we keep Intacct for the books and replace the rest?
Yes, and when consolidation or a statutory close is why you have it, that's what we'll recommend. The operational area that hurts most gets built first and connected to Intacct through the API, so nothing is re-keyed while the rest stays put. Every piece after that is its own decision, including whether the ledger moves later.
What does replacing Sage Intacct cost?
It depends on which modules are in real use, how many entities, dimensions and users are involved, whether the ledger moves, and what has to keep connecting, so we don't publish a figure for the build. After a strategy call you get a written scope naming every deliverable and what it costs, measured against your renewal and the tools that sync into Intacct today. What we do publish is the cost of running the result. After launch the system costs roughly $100 to $200 a month to run for a smaller company, and $2,000 to $3,000 a month at enterprise scale. Those are hosting and service bills you pay the providers directly, with no license and no per-user fee.
Who owns the system, the code and the accounts?
Your company does. The repository, the database, the cloud hosting and the sending domain all get created in your name at the start of the build, and we're invited in as administrators so we can work. You can remove us at any point. No fee, no handover charge, no license reverting to us. With a financial system that matters more than anywhere else, because what makes a renewal uncomfortable is having nowhere else to go.
What happens to our historical financial data?
It stays available and it stays reconcilable. Transactions migrate with their entity, period, currency and dimension values intact, so historical figures still tie to the periods Intacct reported. Where the ledger is staying, none of your financial history moves at all. Where it's being replaced, you keep the raw report exports as an archive your auditor can read without an Intacct login, and closed periods reconcile line for line before anything gets switched off.
Related
Coming from a different tool?
The same exit treatment for the other platforms people leave, and the pages that explain the custom model itself.
Where did Sage Intacct stop fitting?
Book a strategy call, or send a short note about the workarounds your team runs today. If keeping Sage Intacct is the right answer, you will hear that first.