Customer Success Story: Sequa Corporation
Challenge:
Replace outdated fixed assets management system with remotely accessible solution that would work for all 60 of Sequa's business units and eliminate manual overriding of calculations.
Solution:
BNA Fixed Assets™ Enterprise (Web-hosted)
Results:
Sequa has accurate results without manual intervention, better reporting, and up-to-the-minute tax change support available without any IT maintenance required.
Only BNA Fixed Asset Software Provided the Web-Based, Multi-Company Solution Sequa Needed
Sequa is a diversified industrial company made up of seven discrete businesses with 60 major operating units. From jet engine parts to airbag inflators, Sequa manufactures a broad spectrum of products.
Outdated Fixed Asset Software Caused Tedious Manual Calculations
With so many different companies and business units reporting assets, the outdated, problematic fixed asset software Sequa was using just couldn't keep up anymore. Manually calculating figures for items such as bonus depreciation and AMT for the consolidated federal tax return became an arduous process for Sequa's tax department.
Because the system didn't handle bonus depreciation after 2001, Sequa had to manually adjust thousands of assets each year. "It took a long time to go into each asset and enter overrides to force the correct depreciation on those assets eligible for bonus depreciation," said Joe Nittoli, Senior Tax Accountant at Sequa.
Sequa experienced numerous reliability and accuracy problems with the system the company had been using for more than a decade:
- Many tax law changes were not supported, including AMT changes, which forced Sequa to make manual corrections
- Tax forms, such as Form 4562, needed to be created manually
- Inflexible reporting and problems printing to network printers
- Transferring assets was a difficult process
BNA Fixed Assets Enterprise Has All the Answers
Sequa's tax department decided to search for a new fixed assets system and began evaluating software companies. There were several key criteria that Sequa considered in its evaluation. The new solution needed to:
- Be accessible remotely by all the companies and divisions without the need to send out software
- Contain accurate and current tax law functionality that is easily maintainable
- Provide the ability to set up depreciation policies to ensure consistency across all business units and alleviate the need for accounting personnel to make tax method decisions
- Support a large number of companies
After evaluating up to five fixed assets solutions, Sequa selected BNA Fixed Assets Enterprise for its accessibility and hosting over the Web, accurate support of tax laws, immediate availability of tax changes in the application, and the flexibility it offered. BNA Fixed Assets Web became Sequa's first Web-hosted application within the company.
"One of the big selling points for BNA Software is that BNA [Software] stays up to date with the tax laws and has them implemented correctly in the software," explained Mike Blickensderfer, Vice President, Tax, at Sequa. "And maintenance of the system is completely taken care of. Within a few days of tax law changes, the changes are in the system."
Now Sequa doesn't have to worry about manual intervention to ensure accurate tax reporting figures. With BNA Fixed Assets, the tax department gets the right answer automatically. Reporting is also much faster and easier. Transferring assets went from being extremely difficult to completely simple. And each of Sequa's 60 business units is using the software without a hitch. "Everyone loves it," remarked Nittoli.
BNA Software's Ease of Use Means Smooth Transition for Sequa
Despite converting the assets of 60 business units to BNA Fixed Assets Enterprise, the implementation process was straightforward and actually smoother than the Sequa tax department thought it might be. Once BNA Software converted the data and loaded it into the new system, Nittoli prepared himself for an onslaught of training and usage questions. However, practically all of the calls were handled within a matter of minutes.
"Right after we went live, I was able to walk users through the answers to their questions by pulling up the same asset on my screen and then going through what to do together," said Nittoli. Sequa expected requests for formal training, but didn't receive any.
"The fact that we're not hearing much from the users is further evidence of how easy BNA Fixed Assets Enterprise is to use. Contrary to our original expectations, our first yearend reconciliation after implementing BNA [Fixed Assets] was practically no problem! The system is really meeting everyone's needs," commented Blickensderfer.
Sequa Gives BNA Software High Marks for Responsiveness
Sequa has been extremely pleased with the responsiveness and commitment BNA Software has demonstrated. In particular, Sequa finds the technical support to be outstanding — Nittoli named BNA Software's customer support representative personally and commented on how quickly he's available to provide a thorough, yet understandable answer to Sequa's questions.
In fact Blickensderfer became impressed with BNA Software's responsiveness shortly after Sequa became a client. Sequa had conveyed to BNA Software that Sequa users were accustomed to entering assets on a single page. Shortly afterward, BNA Fixed Assets came out with a new software release that included the new Single Asset Add Window. "It was an improvement based on what we'd asked for. The short timeframe between the need and the enhancement to the software was very surprising — I was very impressed," said Blickensderfer.
"BNA Software makes us feel like we're a part of their team. I feel that BNA Software addresses our needs and concerns, and works with us to make the improvements we request," added Nittoli.
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About BNA Fixed Assets Software
BNA Fixed Assets provides you with the ability to document your depreciation and amortization policies through Asset Type templates and allows you to automate the enforcement and implementation of these policies when performing data entry for fixed assets. This eliminates potential errors from misclassifying assets, automates the process of entering assets, enforces the use of a company’s depreciation and amortization policies, greatly reduces the volume of data required to enter each asset in the system, and, above all, guarantees compliance with GAAP rules and IRS regulations.
BNA Fixed Assets provides an annual automatic update of its fixed asset depreciation software as well as periodic updates as tax law changes. What’s more, the fixed assets software speeds the data entry process by allowing you to copy and paste data for multiple assets from an Excel spreadsheet into BNA Fixed Assets, for greater efficiency and accuracy. With BNA Fixed Assets, you’ll benefit from having the best solution available on the market today to maximize productivity, comply with GAAP rules and IRS regulations, and meet all of your financial and tax reporting requirements.
Learn more about BNA Fixed Assets Software »
About BNA Software
Founded in 1983, BNA Software develops professional software solutions for tax, accounting, and financial planning professionals. With category-standard software including BNA Income Tax™ Planner and BNA Fixed Assets, BNA Software is the solution of choice for accounting, law, and financial planning firms, as well as corporations of every size. More than 60,000 customers including the IRS, depend upon BNA Software for the highest degree of tax, regulatory, and compliance expertise available in the market.
