Zest AI becomes ASC 606 compliant and cuts costs 60% through financial automation with Sage Intacct

Machine learning pioneer successfully pivots to SaaS financial management and adopts new accounting standard while scaling finance efficiently amid 100% growth

ATLANTA, March 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sage (FTSE: SGE), the market leader in cloud business management solutions, today announced that Zest AI recently upgraded to Sage Intacct for core financial and revenue management. Moving from its original accounting software and transforming financial processes with Sage Intacct ensures timely, accurate financials across its eleven business entities. The organization has shortened its monthly close process by 33 percent, cut annual accounting contracting costs by 60 percent, adopted ASC 606 practices, and supported due diligence for its $15 million capital raise – all while keeping up with 100% year-over-year growth.

Zest AI, currently one of the fastest growing fintech software companies, was founded in 2009 with the mission of making fair and transparent credit available to everyone. Lenders using its software make better decisions and better loans—increasing revenue, reducing risk, and automating compliance. In order to support the switch to new ASC 606 accounting standards for revenue recognition required for its new subscription model and to gain more robust reporting, Zest AI migrated to Sage Intacct.

“We saw a great opportunity to put scalable processes, financial controls, and the right software in at the ground level in order to make us more productive in the future,” said Walter Luceno, director of accounting at Zest AI. “With Sage Intacct, we now have accurate, timely financials in any managerial format we want, so everyone has more confidence in the numbers.”

By modernizing its multi-entity finance processes, Zest AI scaled without the need for additional finance headcount, even as revenue doubled. Sage Intacct added significant business value along this journey, including:

• Enabling ASC 606 compliance and providing flexibility for SaaS contracts: As Zest AI’s new products and pricing evolved, Sage Intacct empowered the finance team to adopt subscription billing best practices. “Sage Intacct’s capabilities are granular enough to support increasingly complex arrangements like usage-based billing, while helping us standardize contracts and stay on top of all of our different schedules to get customer invoices out faster,” said Brandon George, director of accounting at Zest AI.