App Aware: PATH by Simplex

Vendor Corner

It wasn’t long after Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook in February of 2004 that the world went ‘social media’ crazy. Today there are more than 2.8 billion monthly active users of Facebook and it is only one of the social media platforms that dominate the internet. But while almost everyone relies on social media for communicating and getting some form of what might be called ‘news’, there is one sector that has pretty much stayed away from sharing data via social channels and that’s the financial sector.

Now that’s not to say that the financial sector hasn’t gone ‘cloud’. For example, I read only about a week ago that Intuit’s QuickBooks Online Ecosystem revenues grew 22% in their 2nd Quarter of FY 2021.  That’s phenomenal, and of course, it’s directly contributed to by the COVID-19 pandemic and the continuing shift from in-office work to remote-workplaces by the accounting profession. But that still doesn’t mean that we are sharing our financial data ‘socially.’ Yet a new platform, PATH by Simplex Financial purports to be the “First-ever Social Financial Platform”.

Even though QuickBooks is the number one accounting software in the United States, many times the unique business needs of a company go beyond the capabilities of QuickBooks. PATH is a technology platform where companies can connect and collaborate with financial and non-financial information which allows their team insight into the company’s objectives, goals, history, and culture. In short, it provides a way for these companies to use all their data to tell the company’s story. 

And PATH is designed for both companies and their financial advisors. PATH allows a company to connect the actions of their employees to their financials, to see financial accomplishments. It also provides a tool whereby Financial Advisors can provide key information and resources to a company to assist them with critical decision making.

PATH contains a wealth of information, let’s take a look around and see how the ‘path to our future financial success’ is laid out in this new platform.  Beginning at the top you can easily identify a section called ‘Milestones’.

Milestones tell the story of your company; they are the critical events that have not only impacted your past, but which will change your future. They serve to not only guide you since we all learn from our mistakes, but they set out objectives by which we strive to accomplish the next great success for our company, like that 22% revenue growth those other guys were bragging about.

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Another area of PATH is called ‘The Bridge’.  Not only is this a place where you can connect with your team, but it’s where you can connect with all your essential information.

It ‘bridges together’ all of your essential resources (people, emails, reports, data feeds, almost anything) in one place so you stay informed the way you want to stay informed. Of course, another critical aspect of your work that keeps things ‘in check’ is your To-Do List, and in PATH you will find it sitting right alongside The Bridge because your resources need to be at hand for the tasks you must accomplish.

If you don’t keep all of your tasks in one place it’s easy to let them run past you. You need to have your action items right where they make sense and tie out to your objectives, people, and work. The PATH relationship between the To-Do and Bridge isn’t coincidental, PATH recognizes the importance of your work and team… after all, isn’t that why they call it ‘teamwork’ in the first place?

PATH also has an easy way to help you organize the items that matter most to you with Bookmarks, another common tool found on social media platforms. You can Bookmark any calculation, file, video, post, thread, essentially anything you want to track or retain as important information.

But PATH isn’t just about keeping everyone in the loop and tracking all the work to be done, it’s also about staying aware of actionable information and critical business analytics that will provide you with sound financial indicators of where your company is headed. PATH’s Data Mash gives you the ability to gather critical information from your accounting software and create custom calculations, graphs, charts, and meaningful representations.

Then take your Data Mash and utilize it in both Business Snapshots and Analysis to give you two clear PATHs of interpretation.

PATH Analysis provides the tools to look at your profitability and cash position along with how they compare to the industry, you can compare essentially any number that’s meaningful to you and your business. The reality is there is a lot of common business analytics that ring true from one company to the next, but there are also those which are more specific and apply to different business types and trades, and those are generally the ones that will interest you most.

Business Snapshots show you how critical events impact your business allowing you to quickly analyze which strategy provides the best resolution for any given situation along with what-if scenarios. You can simulate as many different situations as needed to generate the best outcomes for a business over any given period of time.

When it comes to seeing how your Business PATH is impacting your customers and community, head on over to the Impact Center. Here you will get a view of the ‘target population’ you are affecting, and the growth opportunities.

So even though I mentioned QuickBooks at the very start, I know you've been wondering if PATH works with QBO? Of course, PATH was specifically designed to integrate with QuickBooks Online. There are a number of reasons, but one of the most important is 'connection'... the ability to bridge the social financial gap. Think of it this way, your financial accomplishments don't occur in a vacuum, they are directly related to your people. You know this already, that's why you reward team members with bonus pay and commissions. But you are likely not really tracking the major financial milestones of your company back to those same individuals.

For example, if QuickBooks reports that your 2nd Quarter showed a 22% increase (like the one Intuit reported) in revenues, with PATH you will likely be showing that your marketing team ran a series of promotional events during the quarter that contributed to that increase and that your sales team generated a significant number of new client sales over the same period. Now you can use the PATH Bridge to not only 'bridge the gap' between the financial reporting and the social milestones that took place in your company, but the teams that contributed to those milestones.

This is the power of PATH, the power of a 'Social Financial Platform' integrated with the 'Number One Accounting System'.  So, if you want to change the path you are currently on and put your business on a clear PATH to success, head on over to the PATH by Simplex Financial website for more information, or sign-up for one of their one-on-one demos or one of their free 7-day trials. Of course, you can also register for the free upcoming Insightful Accountant webinar on PATH titled, “How to Eat an Elephant in 6 Simple Calculations: Assessing Your Client’s Financial Health” at 4 PM on March 9, 2021.

By the way, Insightful Accountant will have more about PATH in an upcoming feature focusing on the founders of PATH, and their connection to our industry, as well as their focus on 'trusted advisors' and interest in the QuickBooks ProAdvisor Community. Be on the lookout for the feature in the weeks to come.

App Aware articles are editorial features, they are NOT sponsored content. While they may (or may not) contain references or 'inserts' that refer to sponsored content, or sponsored webinars, the actual feature is intended as an informational resource for our readers.