The Expert Import Wizard With Machine
Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI):
Parses data with an expert wizard interface that is specific to each
report type. We've been at this import stuff since
1998 and our ML is the best in the industry
due to that ongoing investment and years of time. Our
AI assists with setups and that mitigates
setup errors. 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
and as part f our ML structures.
- How are templates saved and retrieved (that is the old
way)?
- How is data imported without the need to format data
columns?
- Can you show me the import templates for AR, Inventory
and AP, Sales, Cash, GL, Customer and Vendor Address reports?
- What type of file names are needed for the system
recognize the next reported file after setup?
- What file naming flexibility is allowed for file
names?
- Can the system detect the updated files for the next
import (does it learn, does it recognize updates)?
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Not in the game
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#1 In ABL Downloads and Detail:
We are #1 in the ABL Industry for the reasons noted here.
We've been tested against every product
on the market by our users and they continue to select FinSoft
products every time that a comparison is made, no exceptions.
We continue to get users coming off of other products that lack
the power of AssetReader for
imports, analysis, time savings and support. We
continue to take their users and make them our users, but
they have never converted one of our users to their download
and parsing software - not even once!
It is not price, it is ease of use, features and support.
Driven by our AI and ML since 1998, our Lender and Outsource firm list of Field Examination Providers has the
top names in the industry and we make them accurate and efficient too.
Field Exam and Operations use makes AssetReader
the #1 choice for integration and efficiency while reducing
fraud risks and lender liability with both AssetReader
and AssetArchive.
AssetReader
detail and accuracy means fewer errors related to excess
collateral and lender liability.
- When did you start the import user interface and
logic (remember, we've been at this since 1998, hint
they started around 2018)?
- Who do you consider your competition to be?
- Show us how to import a detailed aging report and compare
it to a detailed AP report
- How does your data export to field examination reports?
- How could your software be used for Ineligible collateral
calculations for Receivables?
- How could your software be used for Ineligible collateral
calculations for Inventory?
- How do field examiners setup, use, share with
Operations and benefit from your software?
- Where are the ineligible settings?
- How would you handle sales journals with the data on
different rows per transaction?
- So your tool parses data into columns. Can you
show me the ABL calculations now?
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Not in the game
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TIME Is Really Slow and Expensive:
Parsing data into columns is not easy, but there are far
more issues than just text files. It takes a lot of years
to get it right for text, PDF, Excel and other formats, but
it is also a slow evolving process to make changes for so many
formats. We have seen thousands of download files and
we've made thousands of hours of changes to AssetReader
for many file formats AND ABL specific calculations.
Our ML is highly evolved and that is from
years-and-years of doing the refinements. While others
are on generation 1 of imports, we're on generation 8 at
this time and generation 9 is under development.
REPEAT - Thousands of hours of changes
over many years to develop our BI,
ML and AI.
If you got into converting data from PDF, Excel, HTML, RTF,
Word and parsing data into columns and then calculating stats,
inventory turnover, ineligibles, Etc. electronically in 2021,
you would be 23 years behind us. Years and years and years
of constant evolution here and it takes talent too.
- When did you first write the column parsing tool
(how long ago, what year)?
- How many file formats do you handle?
- What about Excel documents with text-like formatting?
- What about PDF documents that have heavy formatting
- What about PDF documents that come from mal-formed PDF
drivers?
- How many years have you been downloading data?
- How many tweaks do you have for re-aging the AR and
AP reports?
- How do you calculate AR, inventory and AP Stats activity?
- How many ways can you compute over eligible days
items such as Over 90's (hint, we have four ways)?
- How many methods do you have for aging and calculating inventory
slow movement (hint, we have five ways)?
- We want support from people that know accounting, who
is that?
- How many years have you been making adjustments to
downloaded report electronic
ineligibles?
- How much time would you say you invest in new code every
year for parsing and uploads in your product (hint, we
focus and do it all year-long)?
- How much time would you say you invest in new code
every year for ineligible calculations (hint, we focus
and do it all year-long)?
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Not in the game
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Our Customers Are Commercial Finance ABL
Specific:
They have so few ABL customers, that you might be surprised.
Many of their existing commercial finance and ABL customers
do not use the product at all because it is too hard to use,
while we have 100% in use customers. WE have the market share
for many reasons noted here and they know it! But we never
stop tweaking our products and they get better and better every
month.
- Can we talk to ten ABL users please (we have dozens
of their customers that use AssetReader
because it is that much better)?
- Show me the ABL Specific calculations that you have.
- We'll let you talk to all of our fanatical customers,
just ask.
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Not in the game
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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 with our AI
and ML and removed the programming
chores that lead to deployment and acceptance failures,
as well as actual mathematical setup errors with other systems.
Our import wizard is above and beyond and unlike any other
due to design and refinement.
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?
- Show me how you would group together say All DRAM or
all Hard Drives in an inventory report.
- Show me how to List Customer A as a 20%
concentration limit and Customer B as a 25%
concentration limit
- Show me how to re-age the receivables, but leave the
unapplied cash and finance charges in the original column
- Show me how you compare the AR to the AP for contra
analysis
(we have the most intelligent and thorough routines
in the business, without user programming).
- So based on the above answers, why do you think your
software is easy to use?
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Not in the game
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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.
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 BI
and AI logic and they
don't have it. Time and staff savings requires pre-defined
logic and they don't have it.
How can they claim that they are easy to use?
How can they claim to save you time, certainly
not as much as AssetReader?
How can they claim to have ML and AI (is it
just buzz-word puffing)?
We get the job done in a fraction of the time that they require
to get less than our results.
- Do I need to define all of the heading labels and formats
for each report?
- How many agings can be processed per month?
- Can you review the reports of the processed agings,
sales, cash, GL and Inventory?
- Can you see how long it takes to process the import,
ineligible calculation and reports?
- How much time can be saved and please demonstrate that
to me?
- How can that much time be saved if ABL specific items
are not really automated?
- What skill levels are needed to write the formulas to
get ineligibles and please show me?
- How do you group all of the Wal-Mart's and Sam's Club
accounts?
- How do you calculate contras?
- Please demonstrate the settings for credits over the
eligible days?
- Please demonstrate the settings for cross-aging
- Please demonstrate the settings for concentration limits
- We sometimes get Excel reports with terrible formatting,
how do you handle that?
- What do you do when reports are a mess and they can't
be imported with your product?
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Not in the game
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Keep Your Existing Loan Monitoring System
in Place!
There are a lot of users of well-known Operations Management
software out there. Do you need to scrap your current
system? Not necessarily. You've invested in training,
a trained workforce, customizations and Borrower reporting workflows.
Our system enhances what you have as an add-on that excels at
data imports, interrogation, mathematical analytics and more.
With AssetArchive you can add fraud
prevention analytics and confirmations too.
We also offer API options to integrate
in several different ways for existing or home-grown
systems.
Note: If you need to key-in 5-10 ineligible
numbers calculated with AssetReader, you are having a GREAT
day compared to doing it the hard way.
Note: If
AssetArchive
spots a fraudulent customer or invoice when you get the new
reports, you just reduced your loss exposure and without scrapping
your current monitoring system. You've enhanced it and
your fraud detection is better too.
- What is the cost to convert to your system for employees,
training, actual software costs, Etc.?
- What is the cost to train my workforce?
- What is the annual cost to run your system for 25, 50,
100, 150, 200, 250, 500 loans? Ouch, that's expensive!
- What is the cost to modify your system for customizations?
- You've been doing ABL Specific calculations since when?
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Not in the game
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REAL File Problems:
We are hearing stories about one approach or another to get
data into your system. Fortunately, we've been downloading
data since 1984 and we've seen some terrible reports.
WHY? There are so many systems out there and it is not
all Quick Books, MAS90 or Great Plains, Etc. There are
thousands of vertical industry systems out there. In addition,
the items that feed the agings could be in dozens of ledger
accounts. We invested heavily in the data parsing side
and that allows us to pull-apart existing reports from text,
delimited, Excel, PDF, HTML, RTF, DOC and other formats.
Our years and years of "tweaks" are based on your
ABL specific needs and nobody has the options that we do because
we specialize in ABL needs and have for many-many years.
- My Borrowers have some crazy agings, can you explain
how you would approach these?
- How long have you been tweaking your software to deal
with aging report problems and specific ABL ineligibles
(THIS
IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS TO ASK because it
takes many years of refinements to have high success
rates)?
- Why do I need to convert files to your format before
uploading?
- What if I can't get files into that format every time
I get an aging or other report?
- How many tweaks do you have for PDF Files (ask... "Show
me")?
- How many tweaks do you have for Excel files (ask...
"Show me")?
- Can you handle HTML, DOC and RTF Files (ask... "Show
me")?
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Not in the game
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Do We Need FinSoft to Do and Continue
with Setups and Specific file support for PDFs:
FinSoft does provide file setup as a service and that
makes sense for some that seek to minimize back-office
staffing and training. Some of the providers charge
very-high fees for that type of service and most require
users to send them PDF files for conversion (at an ongoing
high cost). Most of the FinSoft users setup and
maintain their own files and PDF conversion is built into
the software. Most say that it is better than Monarch
and other products that they have tried.
- Can FinSoft provide setup services?
- Does support include assistance with setups for
trained users? (once trained, most users don't need
FinSoft help)
- Do we need to send PDF files to you for conversion
and how much does that cost?
- Besides PDF, what about HTML, DOCX and even highly
formatted XLSX files for conversion?
- Can the setups be used by the Web product too?
- Does the system learn and retain the changes made as
we work?
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Not in the game
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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
because of the years-and-years (since 1998) to refine our
AI, ML and BI:
We have specific data type import wizards,
they don't
We have multiple levels of: Traps AND Offsets
and Floating Traps too, 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 the ability to find
contras electronically, they don't
We have four (4) ways to calculate over eligible days
such as Over 90's , they don't
We have the ability to
group like-named accounts together (including an automated
method), 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 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, the comparison
shows our evolution and polish, but also how smart our
ML really is:
- 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 handle a report that came from Crystal
Reports
- Show me how to handle reports that came from Share Point
Accounting
- 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 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?
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Marketing Advertising and Websites?:
FinSoft does some advertising, but not much. DO NOT
BE IMPRESSED WITH ADVERTISING OR WEBSITES! 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), Marketing staff, Business Development staff, Sales
staff 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 OR "DITCH THE SPREADSHEETS"
COMMENTS. Add-up how much they are spending on those
marketing salaries, office space and related benefits. FinSoft is focused on ABL specific needs and
constant enhancements not our advertising budget and it shows
in the products.
MAJOR lenders have tested every product on the market and selected
FinSoft every time... We are not surprised at all how our
investments since 1996 have built fantastic products.
- Vendor -- What is your annual budget for ABL
specific software development, excluding tech support,
marketing, advertising and other management or
marketing?
- Vendor - How many people work in sales, marketing
and business development? (add that cost up in your
head)
- Nice advertisements, but can you show me the ABL specific
features of your software?
- Can you explain why you spend more on advertising
and marketing salaries than
on ABL specific product development?
- Why is your website so thin on materials?
- Are you buying a product and solution or sales staff
and marketing
here?
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the game
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Speed of Calculations / Time Savings:
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.
Don't be fooled when people write "fast" and "speed"
and "Cut Audit Time" in their literature or demos. If
you need to setup everything and make formulas, maintain formulas,
run several reports to get some (not all) of the pieces calculated
in their software, then is it really "fast" or "speedy?"
We import very-very fast, but that is only a small part of the
total time. We've got real ABL Analytics down, they have
none of that (NONE!).
- 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?
- Show me how to generate AR Stats across 18 months from
a GL Download?
- Show me how to analyze slow moving inventory?
- Show me how to setup Inventory Ineligibles that are
repeatable, detailed and reusable?
- Show me how to have different ineligible days such
as 120 days for some customers?
- After the import, how long does it take to setup the
ineligibles for concentrations, contras, affiliates, international,
cross-aging, aged credits, Etc.?
- After the initial setup, what is the process for the
next import and calculation set?
- How fast and simple the next import will be?
- How automated are the imports after the initial
setup?
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Not in the game
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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. We can do this for inventory items
too. This "alias" is also shared
with payables and contra analysis automatically.
AssetReader can help to automatically find
Customers/Debtors and Inventory that should be grouped together with the
new Alias Finder option, further saving on initial setup and
monthly maintenance time. They
have no options because they don't do this kind of stuff.
- How do you group concentrations together?
- How automated is grouping of concentrations?
- How would you group U. S. Senate, U.S. Border
Patrol, US Congress and skip Unisys and US Modular?
- 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?
- Can I do this for Accounts Receivable?
- Can I do this for Inventory?
- Can I do this for Sales and Cash?
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Not in the game
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Transaction Code Analysis Built-In:
Ineligible receivables such as contras, cross aging, international
accounts, affiliates, transaction codes such as DM, FC, COD
and others. Inventory ineligible codes like Pkg, Sup,
Scrap, Chem, Inks, Solv and others. Complex codes like
all parts from 1000 through 1600 as packaging, Amounts under
$10.01 as small parts, Sums under $100.01 as small
quantities, blank part descriptions, Etc. are all handled
with ease. All ineligible summary and then all
ineligible detail 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?
- Can I grab all parts under $10.00?
- Can I grab all invoice amounts under $25.00?
- Can I get all blank P.O. numbers?
- Can I get parts in a range from 70000 through 99999
and mark them as obsolete?
- Can I get all dates prior to 2010 and mark them as
obsolete?
- Can I tag all scrap items and mark them as
Ineligible?
- Can I grab all FC and F codes and mark them as
Finance Charges?
- Can I do this for Accounts Receivable?
- Can I do this for Inventory?
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Not in the game
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Combining Different Accounting Systems:
This one is so much fun that some people told us "it's
not possible." Imagine having a borrower with several
accounting systems because of mergers and acquisitions.
For example, a four division borrower with: two divisions in
MAS90, One in Sage and one in Quick books.
AssetReader can integrate those into a
single set of AR, AP, Inventory Stock-Status, Inventory
Usage, Sales, Cash, GL, Address Lists, etc. That also
means consolidated AR and Inventory availability /
ineligibles. We made it super-easy to setup and the
updates are automated as the new reports come-in.
- How do you combine different accounting systems?
- How do you combine different accounting systems for
ineligibles?
- Each accounting report has different columns, how
does that get combined?
- What manual steps are needed to combine files and do
we do that every time?
- How complex is the setup and workflow to do the
combining from different accounting systems?
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Not in the game
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Saving Reports as a Group:
Batch output to PDF and Excel puts all reports in one workbook
or PDF for easy
distribution and one-stop report prep. Users can also create different workbooks for each
report type (e.g., AR, Inventory, AP).
- How do you save reports?
- Can you create a reports workbook for Excel?
- Can you save selected reports to PDF?
- Does the system remember the selected reports for
next time?
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Not in the game
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Custom Math Functions and Columns:
Sometimes reports have unusual complexities such as no
negative numbers for payments (all numbers are debits),
Invoice Dates are in two columns because some transactions
are not normal, Invoice Numbers and Transaction types are in
the same column, etc. Custom calculations can be
applied to existing imported columns to correct the data or
Custom Columns can be added. The math can be simple or
complex, including AND / OR operations, plus string
manipulation functions to pull-out parts of a field. The Custom
math Functions include IF-Then-Else support with a format
this less complex than Excel.
- Does the system have an Expression Builder to do
math?
- Can the expression builder use logical operations
such as IF-Then-Else?
- Can you change the value of imported columns using
math and logical operations?
- Can simple math be applied to existing or new
columns?
- Can complex math be applied to existing or new
columns?
- What about IF-Then-Else logical operations to
analyze conditions and produce custom results?
- Can custom calculations be used for Ineligible items
for AR and Inventory?
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Not in the game
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Pricing:
Far less expensive than Monarch software for Field Exam use
(but Monarch does nothing ABL specific at all and
AssetReader's
PDF, Excel and floating traps are superior to theirs).
Even if another software product 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 for ABL,
nor the switches and options found in AssetReader, nor our fanatical
support. The time savings alone pays for the software
compared to having extra employees.
AssetReader for audit when combined
with AssetWriter field examination
software would cost less than
Monarch alone and contain both our ABL specific
calculations and our fanatical support for your field examination
software needs. More imports, better field examinations,
say goodbye to math errors and get thousands of hours of programming
all well supported for ABL. That is an investment that
can only improve your budget and reduce fraud risks and no other
solution has this integration, depth or support.
AssetReader reduces labor costs far in excess of
the purchase
price, a pure win for your budget.
Software purchases are about time savings, 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?
- So they can parse data into columns, now what?
- Show me the analytics that are ABL specific?
- How does your solution feed into the audit cycle?
- How does your solution provide Operations specific reports
and setups?
- 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?
- What will it cost us to integrate this solution with
Operations?
- What will it cost us to integrate this solution with
Audit?
- How does your solution integrate with AssetWriter field
examination software?
- How does your solution integrate with AssetArchive
Data Analysis and Confirmation software?
- What kind of time savings can you show us?
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Not in the game
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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. Is their ABL expertise that
they are an ABL software company?
- 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?
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Not in the game
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Inventory Analysis for ABL:
AssetReader calculates inventory
totals, verifies extended cost values, and even ages
inventory 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. Finding
small value balances or items and tagging specific items or
categories is simple and repeatable for new reports that use
the same setup. Inventory ineligibles and the ability
to track categories or items noted in appraisal reports.
- How does inventory age?
- Two Words... "Inventory Ineligibles." Show me
how many ways that can be setup?
- 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?
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Not in the game
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Real Analysis For ABL:
Just one word to focus on here -- "Analysis."
We could use the words "business intelligence" (BI).
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 using AI and once again, nobody else
does this in a programming-free way.
- How does the system analyze ineligibles for ABL?
- How does the system group AR Stats across multiple months?
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Not in the game
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No Dongles (what's a dongle?):
No restrictive hardware dongles at FinSoft. Some providers
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?
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Imports Many File Formats
(Text, Delimited Data, PDF, XLS, XLSX, RTF,
DOC, DOCX, HTML)
AssetReader is the only tool in the world that can import
Text files, Delimited files, Excel Files, RTF Files, PDF files,
HTML files with ease. 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. We
are the only provider that offers multiple ways to import Excel
files, handle SharePoint files correctly and offer the ability
to alter column spacing in PDF, XLS, XLSX, DOC, DOCX, RTF, HTML.
- What file formats are supported?
- How do you handle PDF files and what PDF conversion?
- What PDF "tweaking" options do you have?
- How do you alter column widths in PDF, DOCX, RTF and
Excel files?
- What Excel tweak options do you have?
- Do we need to send files to you for conversion?
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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, training costs and field time.
- 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?
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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?
- Can it cross-age without credits over 90?
- How would you age credits with no dates?
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Currency Conversion?
Currency conversion needs can vary from translating an entire
report to one currency or to using different rates for different
elements in one report. More complex examples could include
different rates for different reports and the elements within
those reports (e.g., Multiple agings that contain multiple currencies
each). AssetReader can handle
all of that.
- What currency conversion support do you have?
- How do you handle different currencies in one report?
- How do you handle different currencies in multiple reports
that are all imported and combined at the same time?
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Contractor Ineligibles Collateral Using
Job Numbers
Job numbers, job-based ineligibles and ABL are almost
incompatible because of name grouping vs Job Number
analysis. Where the AP contains job numbers, the
software can calculate the cross-aging and contras by job number
and then the rest by name. Even where the Job Number
is in a name field or combined with another field, these can
be split-out. This industry specific
hybrid setup is unique and built-in to meet the needs of
contractor financing needs.
- How do you handle contractor receivables by job
number?
- Can you run contras by job number instead of name?
- Can you run cross aging by job number instead of
name?
- How do you split-out the Job Number when it is in
the Customer Name, Vendor Name or is combined in another
field?
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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?
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Technological Investment:
While some have not spent once
cent on ABL, FinSoft invests heavily in technology
and that is why our BI, AI
and ML have all been evolving since 1998.
We've invested the equivalent of buying a new Porsche
every year. Even if they keep programming right now, they would still be more
20+ years behind
our development for ABL. In 2014 FinSoft released Reader-R2,
a complete rewrite of the software that takes advantage of faster
processing with multiple core computers and support for either
32 or 64 bit Windows. Since then, we've evolved to the
latest programming platform, and added new tweaks along the way
based on real-world ABL specific feedback from hundreds of ABL
customers. Support for multiple trap levels, offsets and
multiple floating traps is second to none, but we make it easy
to use too.
What does our time investment mean to you? Software
is "evolutionary" and that means more of our time adds more
features and tweaks. More ML and
BI and AI to get the job
done. We thought the first version of
AssetReader was a "good start."
Now, we're 24+ years ahead of anyone in the ABL space with those
thousands of hours of tweaks
let you download, import and get reports in that nobody else
can. Our ML and AI adjust for exceptions that nobody else can
and that nobody else takes the time to deal with or they
have not yet seen. We support more import and
ineligible options than any product available in Commercial Lending. A well-evolved
product is key to your success for features and reliability;
we never stop investing in new enhancements that lets you get
the work done fast and completely.
- 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 explain the enhancements and evolution on every
screen and how those things are ABL specific in their product?
- Do they constantly enhance their products with a
keen eye on ABL needs?
- How many years of enhancements do they have for ABL?
- Can they show you the newest ABL tweaks that they have
made?
- Does their product integrate with AssetWriter field
exam software?
- Does their product integrate with AssetArchive data
analytics and confirmation software?
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In-House and Outsource Support:
The ability for you to use AssetReader
or have FinSoft setup or process your files on a regular basis
makes imports easy and further supported. This allows
you to do the work in-house and still have our support if people
leave or become ill. Use our processing services or just
our software and not be tied into a "service only"
company that won't sell you their software or won't evolve
it further.
- Does one setup file get used again on the next import?
- Does it run multiple report pieces or consolidated ineligible
reports?
- Can the provider help you setup the templates?
- Can the provider 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?
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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 that range from MDY to YMD formats, but include
unusual cases where the dates are text labels or formulas that
don't convert in any other product. The software
detects date changes in the source files to further automate
the imports. When needed, fast
turn around time gets users a programmed solution in hours.
Without this support, the reports can be useless, you're stuck
in the field and you're wasting (not saving) time.
- How long does it take to get a date workaround programmed?
- Do you think that everyone can program a custom date
function?
- How often are service packs released?
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Training:
Training sets us apart too. Rushing the training or
treating the learning process as a "chore" or "task" to
simply "get it done" is an attitude that we have never had. We have perfected the Data
Analysis Techniques for Auditors (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 and he's the architect of
www.ABLTrain.com
and
ABL-Help.
While others focus on their program only, we work on dealing
with the client, the files and getting those files to your desk.
We train for your success.
Furthermore, we bring this together with practical ABL examples
and file conversion skills that quickly teach new users how
to handle ABL reports. The software Help system has a
lot of this too for reinforcement of concepts and fast F1
help support. Our on-line library of self-paced
classes, updates, tutorials and example files continues to grow
on a regular basis. Sorry, but nobody else has this level
of trainer, ABL information and focus for Asset Based Lending.
Do you want to learn anything less than what we offer?
Do you want to learn from ABL professionals or just a software
trainer? Do you want general accounting parsing software
or ABL Specific software with ML,
BI and AI that includes education from ABL experts?
 Our
courses are NASBA compliant for CPE credits and are produced
by an affiliated training company that sets objectives and desired
outcomes using cases that build-up in difficulty.
- What specific ABL cases are used in the class?
- What expertise do you trainers have in ABL?
- How much time do they spend on how to get import files
and handle the tough ones?
- How much time is devoted to file formats?
- What percent of the example cases are ABL specific?
- Are the courses to NASBA standards for compliance
and CPEs?
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NO Programming!:
No programming by you because our ML and
AI do a lot of the lifting. WE MUST COMPLETELY DISAGREE
WITH ALL OTHER SUPPLIERS OF PARSING AND ANALYSIS SOFTWARE ON
CLAIMS ABOUT EASE OF USE, AI and ML. 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 for Accounts Receivable?
The ineligibles get calculations for Inventory?
The field formats get
set?
The Overrides for specific debtors can be set for
Concentration, Cross-Aging and extended days (e.g., 120
days) for some?
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?
The
different accounting systems get consolidated?
We
hope your answer was not "Spreadsheets" or "We don't."
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.
ASSETREADER 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)?
- If it is so easy why do we have to send some reports
to you for pre-processing?
- 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?
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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 25+ 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?
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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 AI
and ML 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 does the Contra for Walmart and Sams Club work?
- How much do you need to program or query to do it?
- How do you bring in Accrued Purchases to be combined
with AP for the contras?
- How do you do Contras by Job Number or similar and
not by name?
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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.
- Ask about partial ineligibles?
- Ask about partial ineligibles that are bulk vs. transaction
based?
- Ask how the software prevents double counting ineligible
items?
- Can I do this for Accounts Receivable?
- Can I do this for Inventory?
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FOUR Methods for Over Eligible Day Items
Like Over 90s:
It took FinSoft years to get to the point of having four
(4) ways to calculate the over 90 items. It was all
planned years ago to flow into our math engine and planning
paid off. Not just Ineligible columns over 90,
AssetReader can also override that with
global limits from invoice date or due date or both.
AssetReader also supports
overriding specific debtors to give them extended terms and
it can also map imported credit terms to translate that into
an aging criteria. All of these methods affect the
over eligible days (e.g., over 90) calculations for all
ineligible categories such as Contras, Affiliates,
Government, International , etc. We actually have a fifth
method to reverse the ineligible portion manually.
These are all in addition to the ability to cap / limit any
debtors or all debtors to specific debtor-level
concentration caps based on these allowed eligible days.
- How many methods do you have to computer the items
over allowed eligible days?
- Show us how many ways your system can calculate the
over 90s and allow for some over 120 debtors?
- Show us how you can map credit terms to create
specific limits for each?
- How do the overrides of over eligible days
items flow into the ineligible calculations such as
Affiliates, contras, etc.?
- How do the concentration limits interact with the
overrides for more days allowed for specific debtors?
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Operations and Audit Use the Same Program
(share the setups):
AssetReader setups are often shared
with Operations and Audit. Setups done in the initial
field exam can be used by Operations to get the ineligibles
right and when re-exams are needed the Operations setup can
easily be used by audit.
Auditors might get more data such as sales, cash, GL, stats,
inventory usage, Etc., but the model for ineligibles is usually
the same and thus the setups are shared.
Other tools are just a bunch of parsed data that is nicely
aligned in a table, but without the pre-defined and outstanding
calculations and reports that AssetReader
has.
- Can the ineligible setups and calculations be used by
the field examiners in the field and on their laptops?
- Can the field examiners do the ineligible setups and
pass that model to operations and visa-versa?
- Can setup files be e-mailed to and from the Examiners
in the field?
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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 because of our BI
and AI. 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, duplicate
invoice 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.
We have histograms of the data too, to help find
hot-spots such as pre-payroll invoice spikes, credit and
rebills or reversing entry activity that goes against
collateral. Standard deviation-based "bin" histogram
distributions too.
Data can be exported to
AssetArchive
for more data analytics over time and that includes trends,
new debtors, significant changes in debtor balances, debtor
invoice amounts and more. That level of analytics can
spot fraud as soon a you get new reports and items can be selected
for confirmations based on rules and exceptions with an optional
module.
They just don't offer this level of ABL Specific intelligence.
- Ask about fraud prevention?
- Ask about fraud prevention using detailed data over
time?
- 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?
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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 for Field Examination needs?
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Exports To AssetArchive Data Analysis and
Confirmation Software:
The only tool licensed to Export to AssetArchive data
analysis and confirmation
software. This allows users to quickly export
historical data directly into the AssetArchive data
analysis database for time series analysis that can identify
questionable amounts, balances or conditions. That
same questionable data can be targeted to confirmations for
further fraud reduction efforts.
- Can they export to AssetArchive?
- Can they do data analytics from time series data?
- Can they spot risk-based data on a monthly basis?
- Can they produce risk-based data for smarter
targeted confirmations?
- Can they reduce fraud risks with little additional
costs?
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Years and Years of Experience:
With 39+ 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 25 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 provider show you the screens and reports?
- What is the ABL background of the support staff?
- What is the ABL background of the training staff?
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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 33+ 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?
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Missing Something in Your Current Download
/ Analysis Software or Not Downloading Data Yet?:
Get in the Game!
- Ask the questions
- See the FinSoft focus
- See the FinSoft expertise
- See why FinSoft products are used by significant
top-tier lenders (we beat all competitors again and
again)
- Can you get 10 ABL references and call them to ask all of the
questions in this Challenge?
- 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.
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