Building the Finance Function of the Future

Should you upgrade your accounting software – or integrate more apps with what you’ve got?

Finance teams often use an array of software for their everyday work. If they’re lucky, some of those applications will actually speak to each other.

A webinar hosted by iplicit asked when bolting together different programs into a tech “stack” becomes unsustainable – and when it would be better to upgrade the finance system.

Paul Sparkes, Director at iplicit, was joined by Kenny Galloway, Head of Strategic Partnerships at the accounts payable (AP) automation business Lightyear, and Lauren McIlroy, Partner and Head of Virtual Finance Function at accountancy practice AAB. 

APIs vs iPaaS: the different kinds of integrations 

Paul Sparkes talked about two key options for integrating software: API and iPaaS.

“API stands for application programming interface. It’s a term that’s been with us for a long time and it’s basically the connectivity of different systems, or interfaces, to each other,” he said. 

“There's been some significant evolution in the last 10 years around this area with the advent of cloud native systems. Most of these systems have been built on a set of APIs from the ground up, which means integrating with other systems becomes much simpler. Not in all cases; you do need to do your homework.”

“iPaaS (integration platform as a service) is a low code, no code way of integrating different systems. So you don't even need developers in some cases to do these sorts of integration,” he explained.

“We work with two iPaaS platforms, one called Zapier and one called Besyncly. And those platforms allow us to integrate ‘out of the box’ with thousands of different systems.”

Where to begin: the review

Integration is a great solution if it means seamlessly connecting another useful program to a finance system that does what you need. 

But as we’ve seen, integration is not so sustainable if you’re stacking up multiple third-party applications in a bid to make up for the limitations of your core finance system.

Lauren McIlroy suggested asking: What are the pain points in the business? What are the things the finance system cannot do at all? Why do we need a different app in the app stack?

“I think people are tiring of ‘I need different apps to make my system work’,” she said.

She suggested properly exploring what a core finance system could do. “The less that it looks like more than one system, the better,” she added.

• iplicit's webinar, Building the Finance Function of the Future, is available to replay on demand.