You've just spent months implementing Sage Intacct. The system is live. Your team is staring at screens they don't understand. Sound familiar? This is the reality of ERP training done wrong.
Here's the truth: the most expensive part of any ERP project isn't the software or implementation – it's the productivity lost when your people can't use what you've paid for. The right Sage Intacct user training resources can prevent this costly mistake. If your team can't navigate Sage Intacct confidently, your ROI disappears faster than your implementation budget.
Why Training Isn't Optional for Sage Intacct Users
Most businesses treat training as a nice-to-have. That's a mistake. Without proper Sage Intacct user training resources, you're setting yourself up for failure.
Your People Will Create Workarounds: When staff don't know how to use the system properly, they'll find ways around it. Excel spreadsheets. Manual processes. Shadow systems. These workarounds become institutionalised and undermine everything you've invested in.
Errors Are Expensive: Untrained users make mistakes. Wrong GL codes. Duplicate entries. Botched reconciliations. Each error costs time to fix and erodes confidence in your data. When your Board asks for numbers, you'll be explaining why they're wrong instead of what they mean.
User Adoption Fails: People resist what they don't understand. If your team struggles with basic tasks, they'll blame the system, not their lack of training. User satisfaction plummets and calls to replace it will begin to emerge.
You'll Never See the ROI: The business case for Sage Intacct assumed your team would use it effectively. If they can't build reports, configure dashboards, or automate workflows, you'll never realise the productivity gains that justified the investment.
The Real Challenge
Training requires an upfront investment when you're already over budget. Your team is busy. The system is live, and there's pressure to "get on with it." But here's what happens when you skip training:
- Your finance team takes twice as long to close the books.
- Management reports are delayed because nobody knows how to build them.
- Your best people get frustrated and leave.
- Three years later, you're still using Sage Intacct like an expensive calculator.
The cost of training is nothing compared to the cost of not training.
Core Sage Intacct User Training Resources
Onboarding & Setup Training
This isn't about clicking through screens – it's about understanding how Sage Intacct maps to your business processes. Effective cloud ERP training focuses on business outcomes, not software features.
User Account Creation: Set up profiles that reflect how your business actually works. Naming conventions matter. Access credentials need to be secure but usable.
Role Assignment: Define user roles based on what people actually do, not what their job titles suggest. Your AP Clerk, Controller, and CFO need different access levels and different training.
Permission Configuration: Protect sensitive data without creating bureaucracy. Granular permissions let people do their jobs without compromising security.
Use test environments for hands-on practice. People learn by doing, not watching.
Role-Based Dashboards & Reporting
Generic dashboards are useless. Train people to build tools that support their specific responsibilities.
Dashboard Creation: Sage Intacct's drag-and-drop tools are powerful – if you know how to use them. Train users to visualise KPIs, trends, and alerts that matter to their role.
Report Customisation: Pre-built reports are a starting point, not the destination. Your team needs to understand the report writer to create what they actually need.
Interpretation Skills: Real-time data is worthless if people can't read it. Train users to spot variances, drill down into details, and take action on what they see.
Real-time dashboards eliminate the need to wait for month-end reports – provided your team understands how to use them.
Workflow & Automation Training
This is where Sage Intacct pays for itself – if your team knows how to set it up properly.
Approval Workflows: Automate routing for purchase orders, expense claims, and journal entries. Eliminate the need to chase signatures and start managing exceptions.
Alerts & Notifications: Configure triggers for budget overruns, overdue invoices, and unusual transactions. Catch problems before they become crises.
Recurring Tasks: Automate monthly accruals, intercompany allocations, and routine entries. Free up your team to focus on analysis, not data entry.
Automation reduces errors and frees up time for strategic work – when people know how to configure it.
Integration Training
Sage Intacct doesn't work in isolation. Understanding integrations is key to building a unified finance stack.
CRM Integration: Sync with Salesforce to align sales and finance data. Stop reconciling between systems manually.
HR & Payroll: Connect with ADP for seamless payroll processing. Eliminate duplicate data entry and reduce reconciliation errors.
Expense Management: Integrate with Expensify to streamline reimbursement workflows. Stop chasing receipts and start managing spend.
Document Storage: Use OneDrive or SharePoint for storing supporting documents. Link them to transactions for proper audit trails.
These integrations eliminate manual work – but only if people understand how to use them.
Delivery Methods for Training
There's no single right way to train people. The best approach combines multiple methods to accommodate different learning styles and schedules. Effective Sage Intacct user training resources should include all of these delivery methods.
Live instructor-led sessions: Real-time interaction with experts. Immediate feedback. Hands-on exercises. Whether delivered by internal trainers or Sage-certified instructors, these sessions are ideal for onboarding and deep dives into specific modules.
On-demand video tutorials and eLearning modules: Flexible and self-paced. Perfect for new hires, refresher training, or just-in-time learning when tackling unfamiliar tasks.
Internal documentation and quick-start guides: Step-by-step instructions tailored to your organisation's setup. Include screenshots, process maps, and FAQs. Essential for recurring processes like month-end close or budget uploads.
Peer mentoring and role-specific champions: Designated champions within each department function as go-to resources. They bridge the gap between formal training and day-to-day application.
Best Practices for Implementing Training
Start early – training during implementation, not after go-live.
Training should begin during implementation, not after the system is live. Early exposure helps users understand how Sage Intacct maps to their business processes. This approach builds confidence and reduces resistance to change.
Tailor content to user roles & responsibilities.
Customise sessions for finance, operations, and executive users. Each group should learn how Sage Intacct supports their specific workflows – from budget tracking to approvals and reporting.
Reinforce learning with real-world scenarios.
Theory alone isn't enough. Use sandbox environments to simulate real tasks like invoice processing, budget uploads, and report building. This hands-on approach helps users retain knowledge and apply it confidently.
Schedule regular refreshers and updates.
Sage Intacct updates frequently, so training shouldn't be a one-off event. Schedule quarterly refreshers and feature-specific sessions to keep users current. This ensures continued adoption and maximises ROI.
Get Your Team Trained Properly
Here's the reality: investing in Sage Intacct user training resources early will save you money and time later. It's easier to learn how to use the platform properly than to fix mistakes and workarounds that become embedded in your processes.
If your team can't use Sage Intacct effectively, you haven't bought a financial management system – you've bought an expensive liability. Proper financial management training is what transforms software into results.
At TSG, all our clients get free access to TSG Academy. Our learning library is filled with hundreds of resources for all your Sage needs. Whether you want to read a blog or see a live demo, we have the experts who can pass on their knowledge to you and your team.
If you're already a TSG client, you can sign up to TSG Academy. If you're not but want to explore more of Sage Intacct, get in touch.
The choice is simple: train your people properly or watch your investment fail to deliver. We know which one we'd choose.
