The Versatile Group, Inc. — CertiflexDimension

The Versatile Group offers professional accounting and business management systems under the CertiflexDimension brand. The company’s professional Client Write-Up program and integrated business accounting series includes full GL, AR and AP, along with integrated reconciliation features, after-the-fact payroll, comprehensive financials, reporting, advanced journal management utilities and multiple data import options. The system also offers a built-in document management program.

Basic System Functions

CertiflexDimension provides guidance through installation processes, including the Pervasive database upon which the system is built. Client company setup tools for using standard industry charts of accounts are also provided, with the option to create them from scratch or copy existing ones for use with new clients. A New Client wizard helps with setup processes. The program opens into a multi-paneled System Manager screen, which acts as a user-customizable dashboard for all of the modules within the program, with quick links to the program’s MyNotes alerts function, which notifies the user of appointments, reminders and upcoming to-do tasks. MyNotes can even have sound effects to help gain the user’s attention to new messages. Additional sections give access to support resources, module reference manuals, links, calculators and ratios, and news from the program’s vendor.

An expandable navigation menu on the left offers the ability to jump directly to modules or specific tasks within the program, with categories for write-up, AP, AR, payroll, inventory, order entry, purchase orders, job cost and bank reconciliation opening to more detailed sub menus and even sub-sub menus. Pull-down and icon menus are also available at the top of the screen. CertiflexDimension offers several additional customization options, among them the ability to create menu favorites for most commonly accessed system functions, a recent menu history, the ability to add links to websites, custom report sets, and multiple views of the GL and journals.

The program’s client selection screens provide multiple sort, filter and search options, and company-level security passwords can be used to restrict access. For payroll functions, the employee selection screen offers similar functions, along with advanced options and information on the 2010 Hire Act. Vendor management and inventory lists are also intuitively designed and offer quick access to underlying data and reporting. The system can be networked and used by up to 50 concurrent staff members and can manage an unlimited number of companies, departments and inventory items. 5

Core Write-Up Features

CertiflexDimension simplifies posting of even high-volume daily transaction activity, with features for collating and entering data, importing from other programs and performing adjusting entries or reclassifying them. Recurring entries can also be set to automatically post, including departmental allocation percentages, seamless inter-company transactions and consolidated ledgers with partial ownership calculations. Users can choose between detailed or “amount only” data-entry methods, with additional tools including mix and match transaction type options, automatic offsetting entries, and informative online account hash totals. A comprehensive transaction balancing feature is also valuable, eliminating the need to manually enter final amounts for a balanced entry.

The system’s bank reconciliation functions help automate many of the tasks, with automatic balancing of accounts and built-in access to online financial institution data. The reconciliation module also provides unlimited check registers, double payment prevention, a proof of cash feature and strong internal controls, while still providing simple and intuitive interfaces such as check-offs. Full checkwriting features are available through the payroll and payables modules, with MICR support, blank stock printing and the ability to manage up to 99 bank accounts per company.

The system includes live and after-the-fact payroll management capabilities, including all state tax tables, support for multiple-state taxed employees, automatic calculation of FICA and Medicare with splitting and verification, state workers’ compensation management and reporting, accruals management, departmental/job allocation, and unlimited standard and custom deductions. Wage and information compliance reporting includes 940, 941, W-2, W-3, 1099 and 1096, with preprinted form, plain paper, or electronic filing. Dozens of financial ratios and calculators are quickly available from the services section of the System Manager dashboard. 5

Reporting & Financial Statements

CertiflexDimension includes a strong financial generation system with more than 40 predefined statements that can be customized and saved, plus the ability to create up to 99 statements per client with up to eight years of comparative data, which can be formatted as necessary to meet the standards of various industries. Reports can use variable rounding and offer currency conversion, with self-generating supporting schedules available for all financial statements and the ability to drill down from on-screen views into underlying transactional data. Additional reporting options for GL, AP, AR, payroll and vendor activities provide good customization options, and all reports can be emailed from within the program. The system’s AR module offers complete billing features with unlimited invoices, sales tax management, automated payment, user-detailed aging and cycle-based billing. The program also has a cover letter designer, client checklists, maintenance reports and 12 standard business graphs. 5

Import/Export/Integration

The CertiflexDimension Write-Up system provides direct file integration with the business accounting solution offered by the vendor, and can import from QuickBooks, Peachtree and other common client accounting solutions or from spreadsheets, CSV and other text formats. The program can export into RTF, XML, delimited, and variable and fixed length formats, and reports can be output to PDF. These multiple import and export formats allow for two-step import-export integration with most external client accounting, payroll, trial balance and tax applications. Although the program does not offer a web-based component/portal for client access, its IntelliTrans data import setup wizard streamlines data transfer. Reports can be e-mailed directly from the program or can be sent to the included document management utility. 4.5

Help & Support

Built-in assistance features include helpful wizards, right-click menus, auto-population of selection lists and automated backup. The system’s home screen, the System Manager, provides one-click access to reference manuals for all of the program’s modules, as well as program updates and links to support resources on the vendor’s website. This online support site includes a knowledge center, downloadable tax tables, forms and system updates, and access to e-mail and live technical support, which is available on a per-incident basis or via subscription plans. The program supports all modern versions of Windows. 4.75

Summary & Pricing

CertiflexDimension offers a comprehensive professional write-up and business management suite, with powerful and intuitive functions and processes that include extensive automation options that streamline tasks from journal management to reconciliations, payroll and financials generation. Pricing is modular and based on the number of users. First-year pricing for the professional Write-Up module is $995, while first-year pricing for the core System Manager costs $295 for a single workstation and $895 for five users (other pricing options available for up to 50 users). First-year pricing for each of the core business accounting modules (GL, AP, AR, Order Entry, PO, Inventory, Payroll, and Job Cost) is $895, supporting all users. Reconciliation, MICR printing, QuickBooks import and SUTA forms are $295 for the first year. Renewal pricing is $395 for each of the core modules, and $195 for the others.

2010 Overall Rating 4.75