CaliberCo Wealth Management Firm Makes Strategic Investment in Sage Intacct and BT Partners
Industry
Wealth Management
Solution
Sage Intacct
In Business
Since 2009
Customer
Since 2018
CaliberCo
CaliberCo – the Wealth Development Company – is a leading U.S. asset management sponsor with approximately $500 million in assets under management comprised of alternative investments in private funds and syndications. As a leading sponsor, Caliber delivers a full suite of alternative investments to a $4 trillion market that includes high net worth, accredited and qualified investors, as well as family offices and smaller institutions. The company strives to build wealth for its investors by offering investment solutions that fit an optimal balance of risk-adjusted returns and attractive investment performance.
Caliber chose to partner with Sage Intacct and BT Partners to meet its complex and evolving financial management system requiring a system that can scale and accumulate data across an investment life cycle that includes acquisition, construction, property management, and disposition in addition to managing complex accounting structures.
"Caliber aspires to reach one billion in the next few years. To scale that far that fast, we need our accounting software to scale with us and a business partner to help guide us. I appreciate how BT Partners put a personalized touch to the project. They were forging a relationship with Caliber, not just making a transaction. They are always asking how they can help us achieve our next business goal."
Growth Outpaces QuickBooks
Caliber implemented Sage Intacct in late 2019, upgrading from QuickBooks. “QuickBooks works well for small companies,” says Jade Leung, CFO at Caliber. “However, once we had 10-15 separate entities, it was no longer a feasible accounting and finance platform for our rapid growth. With Sage Intacct, we were able integrate a more sophisticated solution that could streamline our finance and accounting processes while supporting our future growth.”
With an impending initial public offering in the works, Leung understood that Caliber needed to build an internal control infrastructure that would meet public reporting standards. “QuickBooks simply lacks that level of internal control,” he says. “Sage Intacct provides the visibility and audit trail that Caliber needs to ensure their investors feel confident.”
A Scalable Solution
Leung says Caliber evaluated several applications before selecting Sage Intacct, including Oracle NetSuite and Yardi. “We chose Sage Intacct for two main reasons,” Leung says. “While we are growth-minded, we needed software that was also appropriate to our current size and complexity. We didn’t want to overpay for features and functions we didn’t need yet. Also, we looked for sophisticated consolidation capabilities. Sage Intacct makes consolidations easier than other applications and provides more flexibility.”
Just a few years ago, the firm had about $150 million in assets under management. “Now, with more than $400 million Caliber aspires to reach one billion in the next few years,” says Leung. “To scale that far that fast, we need our accounting software to scale with us and a business partner to help guide us.”
Experienced Wealth Management Partner
While there were other Sage Intacct partners to choose from, Caliber selected BT Partners. “They were quick to understand us,” Leung says. “They work with other wealth management firms, so they were able to give us useful recommendations to utilize Sage Intacct to its fullest extent. This was extremely valuable to get it right from the start.”
BT Partners spearheaded the effort to convert Caliber’s QuickBooks data into Sage Intacct and then designed executive dashboards that provide real-time insight into Caliber’s dynamic operations. “BT Partners met with our executive team and figured out what Caliber needed to run its business,” says Leung. “They effectively took that information and transformed it into useful dashboards that deliver real time information at a glance.”
He adds, “I appreciate how BT Partners put a personalized touch to the project. They were forging a relationship with Caliber, not just making a transaction. They are always asking how they can help us achieve our next business goal. We value providers that look at things that way. It certainly helps separate BT Partners from their peers.”
Increased Speed of Decision Making
One of the single most significant advantages Caliber realizes since its move to Sage Intacct is the ability to analyze its business data in multiple ways. “It enhances our decision-making time,” says Leung. “We can quickly and easily include or exclude specific data to allow us to look at the health of our investments, returns to investors, and the overall position of the sponsor – Caliber. All those vantage points are generated from the same data set, but BT Partners showed us how we can slice the data and look at it in strategic ways.”
Generating a consolidated set of financial statements used to take Leung nearly two weeks. Today, he completes the tasks in just an hour or two. “It’s a huge time savings, and we are much more confident in the accuracy of the statements,” he says.
Strategic Planning
With a scalable financial management solution and experienced partner, Leung says that Caliber is starting to think more strategically about the application and its business data. “BT Partners is helping us select and incorporate Business Intelligence, plus add CRM, and real-time integration with our bank,” says Leung. “This level of forward-thinking and innovation wasn’t possible before Sage Intacct.”
He concludes, “We appreciate the value Sage Intacct is providing now and know that value will continue to grow over time. In many ways, we’re still learning all that it can do as BT Partners helps us uncover new value propositions for the application.”
