| AssetReader |
Other Products |
Your Findings |
|---|---|---|
| The Expert Import
Wizard: Parses data with an expert wizard that is specific to each report type. This means that users don't need to format date fields as dates, number fields as numbers, etc. The report imports with knowledge of what is needed for that report type. There are no templates to save, retrieve or manage because all settings are saved to the database as you work.  How are templates saved and retrieved?
How is data imported without the need to format data columns?
|
Not in the game | |
| The Unspoken
Truth About Downloads: Downloading data is NOT for every employee. There are real skills gaps in the field examination and back-office operations areas and employee skills to do downloads will vary by person. Surprisingly, education levels seem to not have as much impact as you might think, but prior experience with downloading and parsing data is helpful in most cases. Because of the diverse group of examiners and back-office professionals that use our products, we can safely say that we have automated the most complex parts of the process and removed the programming chores that lead to deployment and acceptance failures, as well as actual mathematical setup errors with other systems. Our users range from high school graduates to Masters Degree employees and we have a very high acceptance rate due to an outstanding product, the best ease of use in the industry and focused ABL specific training.
Besides CPA firms or Internal Auditors, who is your biggest user group?
Show me the formulas that you use to do cross aging and make three
customers cross-age at a different percentage (hint, we have options for
that built in and NO formulas to adjust)
Show me how to list Wal-Mart and Sam's Club as one grouped customer?
(we have that covered too)
Show me how to List Customer A as a 20% concentration limit and Customer
B as a 25% concentration limit (we have that covered too.
Show me how to re-age the receivables, but leave the unapplied cash in
the one column (we have that covered too)
Show me how you compare the AR to the AP for contra analysis (we have
the most intelligent and thorough routines in the business built in and
without any need for formulas from the users).
So based on the above answers, why do you think your software is easy to
use?
|
Not in the game | |
| Real ROI, But
Even Better, Real Results on Investment: Real Return On Investment (ROI) is quite fast with AssetReader. The calculations provide predefined reports that are only available from AssetReader. The setup and reports are retained by the system for ongoing time savings every time those reports are processed. Some of the AssetReader back-office users are processing 80-100 customers per month per employee. That includes the reports too. That is AR and AP and in some cases inventory. Multiply that times 80 - 100 customers per month and you can see the savings. You simply cannot do this with any other tool.
Real
time savings and real ROI. We have reduced back office staffing at some
lenders by 50% and allowed some portfolios to grow by over 200% with no additional
Field Examiners and no additional back-office staffing. This is due to automation that is built-in.
Other tools require lenders to spend hours on each setup and subsequent
re-exam to tweak each calculation for each report. This causes a
high need for above average computer skills, programming skills to write IF statements or perform math
and write custom database reports. FinSoft has automated the ABL
specific reports that you expect and they make sense too. THIS IS POWER because your
entire team can use AssetReader instead of having a small group of
"HAVES" and a larger group of "HAVE-NOTS'" with computer and math
function skills. We have done the hard part and NO OTHER PRODUCT
HAS AUTOMATED ABL CALCULATIONS FOR YOU. Ease of use requires pre-defined logic
and they don't have it. How can they claim that they are easy to use?
We get the job done in a fraction of the time that they
require to get
less than our results. |
Not in the game | |
|
Real Ease of Use (not advertising words, but real ease of use): Ease of use is a combination of things and worth thinking about. FinSoft backs up our claim of ease of use: We have specific data type import wizards, they don't We have specific ABL reports and analysis already defined, they don't We have specific ABL ineligibles, they don't We have pre-programmed options for ABL, they don't We have the pre-defined joins for things like inventory and usage reports, they don't We have automatic pivot tables, they don't We have the best support in ABL, they don't We get solutions programmed quickly when needed, they don't offer that at all So while they are making users set up imports and then set up each calculation and report query, we have thought of those things already for the ABL profession. Yes, it is FAR HARDER than you thought with their tools and their advertising is cute, but their program is not easy for ABL and when you see AssetReader, there is NO comparison to be made: If you have to setup joins, why is the data not
grouped by warehouse automatically? Can you see the reports for ineligibles or do you need to set them up
for each import and in pieces? Show me how you analyze AR Statistics from a 12 month GL that has one
column of
numbers?
For inventory analysis, what does the excess quantity report look
like?
Why the need to setup each query?
How do you group sales by month for the whole year from one column
of numbers from the G/L?
How do you group all of the Wal-Mart and Sam's Club receivables
and then compare them to AP?
Show me how to get the credits over 90, but not double count negative
totals?
Why will it take so long to get a custom date function that is not in
the program?
Why do I need to add formulas
and run individual reports to get specific results?
Show me a Borrowing Base Detail, Ineligible Summary and Ineligible by
Customer report (they don't have any)?
Show me the ineligible settings screens?
Show me how to import an AR and AP Aging without defining the header
labels and formats?
Show me how many turnover method options that you have you have for
inventory?
Have you seen ease of use?
Can you get 10 ABL references and call them to ask all of the questions
in this Challenge? |
Not in the game | |
|
Advertising?: FinSoft does some advertising, but not much. DO NOT BE IMPRESSED WITH ADVERTISING! Every year, FinSoft invests many times their annual advertising budgets into R&D and enhancements that are ABL specific. We always have. On the other hand, those with BIG advertisements (perhaps several of them) have invested ZERO DOLLARS IN ABL SPECIFIC NEEDS. DON'T BE IMPRESSED WITH THEIR LACK OF PRODUCT INVESTMENT OR SONG AND DANCE ABOUT EASE OF USE. FinSoft is focused on ABL specific needs and constant enhancements not our advertising budget and it shows. MAJOR lenders have tested every product on the market and selected FinSoft every time... We are not surprised at all.
Vendor -- What is your annual
budget for ABL specific software development, excluding tech support,
marketing, advertising and other management or marketing?
Nice advertisements, but can you show me the ABL specific features of
your software?
Can you explain why you spend more on advertising than on ABL specific
product development? |
Not in the game | |
|
Speed of Calculations: Consider importing a new monthly aging of 40,000 invoices and 2,500 customers. How long would that take to import and then compare to the AP Aging import? Recalculated? Each re-import takes 1 - 2 minutes per report. Recalculation takes about 30 seconds for a report that big. All reports are instantly available.
Demonstrate an AR
and AP import with all recalculations done and reports ready to print?
How long does it take to recalculate the ineligibles?
Can you see a summary and detailed ineligible report, please? |
Not in the game | |
|
Concentration Grouping: AssetReader groups all of the similar concentrations together for you, including different names like Wal-Mart and Sam's Club into one account. This "alias" is also shared with payables and contra analysis automatically. They have no options because they don't do this kind of stuff.
How do you group
concentrations together?
How do you group Wal-Mart and Sam's Club together?
How are the concentrations grouped on the ineligible report?
Do grouped names get shared with AP?
Do grouped names get shared with contras? |
Not in the game | |
|
Transaction Code Analysis Built-In: Ineligible receivables such as contras, cross aging, international accounts, affiliates, transaction codes such as DM, FC, COD and others. All on one report and all summarized in detail by ineligible type or with reports showing ineligibles by customer. How are transaction code ineligible items
handled? How do transaction codes work if the item is also tagged as an
affiliates or government ineligibles? How many Borrowing Base Reports are available in the system?
|
Not in the game | |
| Pricing: Even if their software was 1/2 of our price it would still not save you all of the time that we do. It would not be ABL specific nor would not have the outstanding ABL reports found in AssetReader, nor the years of development, nor the switches and options found in AssetReader, nor our fanatical support. Software purchases are about ease of use, ABL specific features and ABL support, but they have none of what we offer at any price. We hope that they lower the price to the floor because we don't compete on price and thus don't insult your intelligence. Is the price based on a lack of everything on
this web page and more? Is it price or features or a lack of features and support that make
you buy? What is true ease of use and focused functionality worth? |
Not in the game | |
| ABL Spoken Here: We're all about ABL and others just can't say that. Check out their web site for ABL information and there is none. Because they have nothing and thus nothing to say. Why is their web site so thin or silent on ABL?
Since their website lacks ABL specifics, is this a side-line business? Who
is their ABL Expert? Their ABL background? Are they employed
there or a consultant? FinSoft wrote and distributes ABL-Help, the industry guide to
ineligibles. Their ABL expertise? FinSoft's owner teaches ABL Data analysis on a regular basis and they
teach what about ABL? FinSoft's owner teaches ABL
Advanced Audit topics on a regular basis and they
teach what about ABL?
Our understanding of ABL plus our product support are invaluable.
How about their ABL support? |
Not in the game | |
|
Inventory Analysis for ABL: AssetReader calculates inventory aging automatically from available purchase dates, turns or turnover days, but it also automatically joins with usage reports such as cost of sales or units sold to calculate turnover. Calculations include an aging, zero turns, excess quantity (beyond your specified threshold), cross-aged inventory and more. How does inventory age? What methods can be used for the aging? How is excess quantity calculated? How is inventory cross-aging set? How can inventory be regrouped without programming? Show me the ABL inventory reports? |
Not in the game | |
| Real Analysis For
ABL: Just one word to focus on here -- "Analysis" While other tools parse data, they don't analyze it for ABL purposes. We specialize in ABL specific analysis and reports and this saves hours of time while producing superior analysis, fraud prevention and genuine ABL reports. We don't just do some analysis, we do a ton of it and once again, nobody else does in a programming-free way. How does the system analyze ineligibles for ABL? How does the system group AR Stats across multiple months? |
Not in the game | |
| No Dongles
(what's a dongle?): No restrictive hardware dongles at FinSoft. Some vendors want you to use a hardware dongle (hardware security key) on each machine. While that may be OK for some stationary operations, field examiners would need to keep the keys safe or express mail them to other field examiners. We license each machine with security codes, not hardware locks. This reduces hassles and it is quite a bit friendlier that hardware dongles. Does the system require dongles? Who pays to mail the dongles around the country? What if you lose a dongle? |
Not in the game | |
|
Imports Many File Formats (Text, Delimited Data, PDF, Excel, RTF, DOC,
HTML) AssetReader is the only tool in the world that can import Text files, Delimited files, Excel Files, RTF Files, PDF files, HTML files and conversions to PRN. REALLY! Everyone else leaves you scrambling for complex solutions, emailing your files to the vendor for conversions, and excuses that it cannot be done. Our PDF conversions are fast, flexible and built-in. What file formats are supported? How do you handle PDF files and what PDF conversion? What PDF "tweaking" options do you have?
Do we need to send files to you for conversion? |
Not in the game | |
| Staff Retention
and Staff Satisfaction: The FinSoft user base is made up of seasoned Asset Based Lenders that have seen and enjoyed the power of automation and our fanatical focus on ABL. Lenders that use FinSoft products have the lowest staff turnovers in the industry and they won't work for companies that lack this level of automation ("Too much work" they tell us). This is a huge savings in recruiting and training costs.
Can we have ten ABL specific references?
Can you give us a list of all of the outsource firms that use the
product for ABL?
Ask the lenders about staff retention, is it 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 90%,
per year? |
Not in the game | |
| What About Aging
of Credits? We spend 100% of out time with ABL needs and aged credits represent many issues for Lenders. Should negative totals be included or excluded? Should every credit invoice over the eligible days be taken into account? Should net credit balances in the eligible buckets be reversed? Should the credits in the aging be frozen in place and then the debits reaged by the software? We have point-and-click options for all of those options and they have (guess...) none.
How do you analyze aged invoices over the eligible days? How do you
analyze aged credits in the eligible days?
How do you deal with the possibility of double counting negative totals
from credit add-backs?
Show me how to freeze the
credits and then re-age just the debits? |
Not in the game | |
| Legendary
Support: Fast support that gets users answers and code changes for their specific report needs in hours. We've looked at thousands of ABL specific reports (we process agings for some lenders every day as a service) and we know the tricks and workarounds that you need to get the job done. But we can quickly modify the software to handle unusual problems and nobody offers that except for FinSoft. Our users know that we are fanatics about ABL and the support of our products, they'll tell you so. Our competitors have ABL as a sideline to their core business and they just don't have an ABL specific focus with the FinSoft level of support. Can a bug be repaired in hours? Do the
technical support people understand what ABL people are looking for? Have
the technical support people ALL worked on ABL specific reports and
problems? How
many years of ABL experience do you have in tech support (lowest,
average, highest)? What
are the technical support hours? Can
technical support help me convert or setup a difficult / problematic
file?
Can a custom date function be delivered to someone in the field?
Do the support people answer the phones on weekends and at night? |
Not in the game | |
| Technological
Investment: While they have not spent once cent on ABL, FinSoft invests heavily in technology. For the past ten (plus) years, we've invested the equivalent of buying a new Porsche every year. Even if they started programming something for ABL right now, they would still be more than ten years behind our development for ABL. Can
they show you the actual ABL features that hey have invested in? Who are
their on-staff experts and what is their background in ABL? Do they
outsource support for ABL?
Can they show you the ABL features that they have enhanced and tweaked
over time? Can
they show you the newest ABL tweaks that they have made? Does
their product integrate with AssetWriter field exam software? |
Not in the game | |
| Supplier and
Outsource Support: The ability for you to use AssetReader or have FinSoft setup or process your files on a regular basis. This allows you to do the work in-house and still have our support if people leave or become ill. This allows you to use our processing services or just our software and not be tied into a "service only" company that won't sell you their software. Does one setup file get used again on the next
import? Does it run multiple report pieces or consolidated ineligible reports?
Can the vendor help you setup the templates? Can the vendor take over accounts if you lose employees? What qualifications does the vendor have to do Ineligibles? Will the service let you buy the software to do this in-house? What does it cost to buy the software and maintain it?
|
Not in the game | |
| More Date
Formats: Dates can be formatted in highly unusual ways and this requires programming support that includes patches to deal with specific date problems. Fast turn around time gets users a programmed solution in hours. Without this support, the reports can be useless. How long does it take to get a workaround
programmed?
Do you think that everyone can program a custom date function? How often are service packs released? |
Not in the game | |
| Training: Training sets us apart too. We have perfected the DATA class taught to the ABL industry through Clear Choice Seminars, Inc. and the training includes 100% ABL examples and much more. Note that FinSoft handles agings for some Lenders with processing services, so we see ABL related reports every day. Our Managing Director has trained the people that are teaching other "Advanced" courses in ABL. While others focus on their program only, we work on dealing with the client, the files and getting those files to your desk. Furthermore, we bring this together with practical ABL examples, advanced Excel Skills and file conversion skills. Our on line library of classes is growing and getting more detailed on a regular basis. Sorry, but nobody else has this level of ABL information and training. Do you want to learn anything less than what we offer? Do you want to learn from ABL professionals or just a software trainer? What specific ABL cases are used in the class? What expertise do you trainers have in ABL? How much time do they spend on dealing with customers? How much time is devoted to file formats? What percent of the example cases are ABL specific? |
Not in the game | |
| NO Programming!: No programming by you. WE MUST COMPLETELY DISAGREE WITH ALL OTHER SUPPLIERS OF PARSING AND ANALYSIS SOFTWARE ON CLAIMS ABOUT EASE OF USE. THEY MAKE IT HARD AND EVEN HARDER FOR ABL AND IT IS NOT EASY WITH THEIR TOOLS! SOME EVEN HAVE A SONG AND DANCE TO TRY TO GET YOUR ATTENTION. Perhaps their advertising should talk about the TRUTH of how HARD it is to get the job done with their tools (i.e., not as easy as unbuckling your boots, driving or riding a bike but more like rewiring your house). Since they lack all of the ABL specific features noted here, just how do you think that: The ineligibles get calculated? The field formats get set? The International and Affiliated get eliminated? The Sales get grouped? The Sales transaction codes get summarized? The contras get calculated? The concentrations get grouped? The Stats get grouped? The bad date formats get fixed? The over-counted ineligibles get identified? The setup remains ready for the next import? We have automated reports for ineligibles, sales journals, cash journals, GL journals, AP agings, contras, concentrations, ineligible summaries, ineligible detail reports, inventory perpetual reports, inventory use or cost of sales reports, customer name/address imports, vendor name/address imports and more so that you don't have to spend any time on these calculations or report builds. ASSET READER USERS COMPLETE TASKS IN 10 MINUTES THAT OTHER TOOLS CANNOT DO IN 2 HOURS! That includes Stats, Ineligible AR, Contra analysis and Inventory analysis too. Our ineligible calculations are the most detailed in the industry and they are automated for first time and repeat import calculations. If it is so easy, why do you need to use IF
statements to get results? If it is so easy why do you need to write custom reports? If it is ABL enabled why the need to setup each calculation (where are
the pre-defined calculations)? Why the need to build ineligibles in pieces and not one report? Why the need to fix formats for many columns?
Can you show me the ABL specific reports that are fully automated?
How do you re-age a report with a column of unapplied credits and
retainages?
How do you deal with agings that have more than one amount listed for a
single invoice?
Why do you need custom date functions (math formulas) to convert complex
and unusual date formats? |
Not in the game | |
| Fast - Fast
Stats: Monthly analysis of stats has always been a huge chore for examiners. Grouping by transaction code and by month is possible with other tools, but it is expected in AssetReader since downloads can include months or years of data. Once again, we expect this and the reports automatically detect the months and best format for ABL presentation, but others require you to do monthly imports and then try to figure out the date splits and the way to summarize the numbers for ABL purposes. We've been doing ABL for 20 years and they just don't do ABL at all. How do you analyze AR Stats, by month from a G/L
report? How do you analyze AR Stats from a billing journal? |
Not in the game | |
| The Worlds
Smartest Contra Analysis: For those willing to do contras electronically, we do not look at just the first "N" letters (say first three, four or any number that you set). That primitive approach misses too many items. We use sophisticated algorithms that are used by scientists and the US Census Bureau with specific ABL modifications to extract similar names. For example, we match on "US Department of Energy" and "Dept of Energy" and "US Dept. of Energy" while excluding "US Department of Interior" and US Dept. of Labor" Once again, the other tools have no clue about what ABL people want. How are contras computed? How sophisticated is the contra logic? How much do you need to program or query to do it? |
Not in the game | |
|
Partial Ineligibles: Ineligibles can include partials such as concentrations and contras and Partially LC Backed international receivables. Then there are partial ineligibles based on specific codes such as DM, FC, Etc. Then there are total ineligibles such as Affiliates and Cross Aged items. Do to partial balances, partial ineligibles at the invoice level (i.e., DM, FC) and total ineligibles such as Affiliates, it is possible to double count totals.
The other tools have no clue at
all what the above paragraph means. This is automated in
AssetReader and we do indeed look for duplicated ineligible amounts.
They have some idea -- NONE! |
Not in the game | |
| Realistic Fraud
Prevention: There is a good chance that we helped turn down a deal that you still have. We get calls and emails about this on a regular basis. Even some of the largest ABL shops that use other products are on this list of "Whoops we missed that." Not a good list to be on, but our users are finding fraud, overstated balances, incorrect ineligible calculations, missed ineligibles and plenty of over-advanced lenders that have missed how easy this can be. When the analysis tool is allegedly easy to use, Etc. and these things are missed due to poor reports and the (real) lack of "ease of use," then is it powerful? We look for duplicate invoices, round dollar amounts and skipped invoice sequences, but we give you items to investigate that make sense from an ABL risk standpoint. Our reports are ABL specific and the analysis is ABL specific and they just don't offer that. Ask about fraud prevention? Ask yourself if you will have time to look at their potential
findings? Ask yourself how long it will take to chase-down anomalies
from these tests? Ask yourself how the potential risk applies to ABL? |
Not in the game | |
| Exports To
AssetWriter Field Exam Software: The only tool licensed to Export to AssetWriter field examination software. This allows users to quickly export ineligibles, concentrations, delinquencies, billing test selections, count selections, cost selection and other data directly to the world's most popular ABL audit software, saving hours of time. Can they export to AssetWriter? How fast can the results be converted to your summary format?
|
Not in the game | |
| Years and Years
of Experience: With 25+ years of experience in ABL, our Managing Director understands the complexities of ineligibles, Stats, Concentrations, Contras, turnover and other things ABL. We're the authors of ABL-Help, the most widely used guide for ABL ineligibles in the world. Yes FinSoft knows ineligibles and ABL because that is what we do. We've invested over 11 Years of programming in AssetReader just for ABL needs. And they have invested how much time in ABL? We'll give you a hint... Less than one minute for all other companies combined. How many hours of ABL specific coding are in their
product? (see above for the answer) Can the vendor show you the screens and reports? What is the ABL background of the support staff? What is the ABL background of the training staff? |
Not in the game | |
| Inventory
Analysis Developed by a Hard-Core Cost Accountant: We adding the best inventory movement analysis, plus inventory ineligibles. Unlike any product in the world, we know what you expect from inventory analysis for ABL because our founder is a hard-core cost accountant with 25+ years of ABL audit experience. Once again, ABL specific! Look for the different turnover methods, how
many are there? Look for excess quantity and zero turn calculations, if any?
Ask to see how they group across multiple locations or locators?
Ask to see the inventory ineligibles? |
Not in the game | |
| Missing something
in your current download / analysis software?: Get in the Game! Ask
the questions See
the FinSoft focus
See the FinSoft expertise Take the challenge, we make it easy to be in the game!
AssetReader is the easiest to use and the only ABL focused data tool.
We're #1 in ABL for the reasons above. |
Not in the game |