Genesis Systems and ISU Credit Union Discuss Virtual Work and the Future of Finance

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In  a recent webinar hosted by Adra, customers Genesis Systems and Idaho State University (ISU) Federal Credit Union discussed the benefits of technology with a virtual workforce and the future of finance and automation to organizations.

What tools are you using from Adra and why did you choose them?

Genesis Systems: We use Adra Task Manager and Balancer. One of the primary reasons we chose Adra is because we were needing to have tax compliance now that we’re publicly traded, and we were stepping on ourselves trying to do it manually. Task Manager and Balancer allow us to easily track our journal entries and reconciliations, as well as who’s responsible for what and then who reviews and approves it, along with comments.

ISU Federal Credit Union: When we looked at Adra, we saw that we could get more bang for our buck, and it would fall within our budget criteria, so we weren’t going to spend a whole lot of money on it. We did it so our bank recs would get completed in a faster, more timely manner, with [Matcher]. We’re also using Task Manager. That’s something that we just started using and we’re still kind of feeling our way around now and can already see some great benefits in that program too.

Following the impact of the 2020 pandemic, are there any new strategies or things you’re going to do to build a more resilient financial operation, as you are eventually transitioned back into the office?

Genesis Systems: [The pandemic’s effects] provide more flexibility to work from home going forward. And the one thing we see with both Task Manager and Balancer is that we’ve got the bare-bones descriptions of how to do each task or reconciliation. Our goal is now to expand on those and become more robust. And, because that will be a really good training tool for when we do have [new hires], this will be a nice resource to help them determine, “Okay. Here’s what I’ve got to do.” Additionally, it also provides the list of how to do it, so our focus is on getting those more rounded out.

ISU Federal Credit Union: When [we] thought about this [virtual environment] reality, we really didn’t miss anything. It was smooth all the way through. And I know that hasn’t always been true for all companies. What I look forward to is having this tool and expanding the usage of it. Right now, where we’re using it to reconcile a couple of accounts, but [we see] the potential of expanding to where we’re reconciling a lot of different accounts, not just accounting. Because some companies or departments will be doing their own reconciliations, and we will be doing the review of those, we see Task Manager stepping in and becoming an advanced tool to do that. That’s the strategy: how can we better use the programs that we have? We see greater benefit for our company as we expand and grow.

Why do you think financial technology is important for finance and accounting professionals to invest in?

Genesis Systems: It provides an easy platform to organize your checklist and what’s expected for each position—what they need to do and when it’s due. Adra checks all the boxes on that. It provides good clarity to the employees. It documents what needs to be done by a counter task. Then there are the comments that I can have as I’m reviewing or approving the journal entries or the reconciliations. All of my comments are tracked, and it provides a nice audit tool. And then, if you have all of those things in place when you do have turnover, it provides a nice training tool by having everything documented. It also provides the department visibility to see the employees’ output.

ISU Federal Credit Union:  Financial technology is crucial because like we mentioned before, we already had all of this set up with the pandemic that was going on. [Our investment in financial technology] allowed us to not skip a beat. We were able to continue working, even though we were working from home. We were able to do that with the tasks that we needed to do. We were able to figure out who needed to do what task. And, for us, the big thing was the time. It allowed us to save so much time. [Employees] were aware of what they needed to do, and they knew that they needed to get it done with Task Manager depending on what we set up and the date that it was due. It was really nice to have all those tools in place, so when this pandemic occurred, all we needed to do was just get a laptop.

Genesis Systems Group is a global robot and laser integrator of capital equipment for different industries, and was acquired in 2018 by a global, publicly traded company. Genesis Systems has three locations in Iowa, Mexico and Japan— with approximately 300 employees combined— and has been using Adra for six months.

Idaho State University (ISU) Federal Credit Union is about a $245 million asset credit union in Southeastern Idaho. ISU has experienced several mergers and is still growing at a steady pace and has been using Adra for the last five years.

The on-demand webinar with Genesis Systems and ISU Federal Credit Union is available to watch with more topics centered around remote work and how Adra by Trintech has assisted their F&A teams.

Written by: Ashton Mathai