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Trintech Cadency Review & Alternatives for 2024

Susan Honea

Susan Honea – 8 years experience helping businesses with bookkeeping, tax preparation and auditing

Last updated: March 7, 2022

Trintech Cadency manages period closing. This software system helps you schedule close management better and get your financial statement produced quickly and accurately. 

Trintech Cadency Review & Alternatives for 2024

Cadency is a package produced by Trintech that will help you sort out period close. Close management is a notoriously difficult process because it finalizes all of your accounts and so makes everyone nervous. It is a deadline and it slams the door shut on any more adjustments. So, you have to sort out all of those issues that everyone has been putting off.

Closing requires everything to match and balance with no loose ends. So, this is where the buck stops. Keeping all activities traceable and managing tasks and responsibilities is a big help when trying to get everything finished. Automating many of the tasks is another key to success because it rules out last-minute cover-ups and blame dodging.

Cadency includes modules that perform much of the closing work for you. This isn’t a system that you turn on at the last minute. It is intended for constant use, sorting out issues such as reconciliation on an ongoing basis so that you don’t have any last-minute issues to panic about. As such, Cadency offers ongoing verification for your accounts, not just assistance during closing.

About Trintech

Trintech, Inc is headquartered in Plano, a suburb of Dallas, Texas. Being US-based, the company is particularly adept at supporting customers in the United States. However, the Cadency product isn’t just limited to implementing US accounting principles. Cadency isn’t an accounting package – it is an add-on and it can apply to implementations in many jurisdictions. Trintech has offices in Europe, Australia, and Singapore.

About Cadency

Think of Cadency as task management software with data orchestration added in. There are seven units in the Cadency platform:

  • Automated journal entries
  • Transaction matching
  • Balance sheet reconciliations
  • Variance analysis
  • Close management
  • Intercompany accounting
  • Compliance

These categories show that Cadency is not intended for use just at closing. It can help you keep your accounts up to date every day of the year. Not every company will need every module in the platform. For example, businesses that don’t have divisions won’t need the intercompany accounting functions of the Cadency system.

Cadency doesn’t create your accounts. It is an API, which is like a plug-in, and it is intended for use alongside an ERP system or accounting package that you use to operate your business from day to day and compile your accounts.

This configuration as an added extra to your regular accounting system begs the question, why bother? If you can’t complete closing satisfactorily with your ERP or accounting package, then maybe the answer is to just look for a better ERP. However, close management is a rapidly growing market. Cadency isn’t the only close management package available and so there seems to be a shortfall in the operations of the major ERP systems that this newly expanding market aims to address.

The wider market into which Cadency fits is called “Record to Report,” or R2R. The main product of R2R is close management, but the field of operation can also provide opportunities for cost analysis and profitability assessments at any time of the year – just as long as the system gets access to the open books.

Cadency processes

Cadency is built on a series of technologies that interlace with ERPs and accounting packages and bump data forward so that it can be effectively managed into clean journal entries and on to reconciliation. These components are:

  • Systems of integration – These pull data out of one system and feed it into another. The technology is implemented as ERP connectors, APIs, and Smart Bots.
  • System of controls – The Cadency package processes data before it inserts it back into your existing accounting packages. This takes place for the matching, the creation of journal entries, reconciliation, closing, and intercompany consolidation.
  • System of automation – This section of the system inserts records back into the ERP or accounting package. The method of writing is adapted to specific target software packages.
  • Financial controls AI – This is a unit that operates entirely within the Cadency environment and provides risk analysis based on the data processed through the system.

If you run an ERP, such as SAP or Oracle, then you would expect to get automated journal entry creation and facilities such as three-way matching and account reconciliation built into those services. However, for many reasons, the ongoing operation of those platforms still results in hanging transactions that no one seems to be able to explain.

Probably, the greatest value that a business can get out of the Cadency system lies in the risk analysis and greater scrutiny of transactions as they pass into journal entries. The key to speeding up closing lies in enforcing accountability right back at the point that transactions get entered into the system.

Cadency deployment

Cadency runs on the Trintech servers, so you don’t have to install any software to use the system. You do have to thread it into your existing systems and that process has varying degrees of complexity depending on whether Trintech Cadency has a partnership with the producers of your accounting system. Trintech calls these ERP connectors.

In the case where an ERP connector exists, you just activate an integration within the screens of your ERP or accounting package. Where there is no integration available, you will need to use an API or the Smart Bot system. Smart Bots are like batch script schedulers. This is a little like recording a macro in a spreadsheet and then running it automatically with an external call to that spreadsheet package.

There are specific ERP connectors available for SAP, SAP HANA, Oracle, and Oracle NetSuite. Trintech also produces the Universal Application Connector, which will communicate with any ERP or accounting package. However, this requires more setup steps than the Oracle and SAP connectors.

Trintech Cadency prices

Like many R2R providers, Trintech doesn’t publish a price list. You need to contact Trintech to start a conversation about a Cadency purchase.

The best way to start an investigation into Cadency is to request a demo of the system.

Trintech Cadency alternatives

Cadency has a lot of strengths. Probably what marks it as outstanding in the R2R market is its compliance and risk analysis module. However, Trintech is not the only provider in the R2R or close management markets, so it is worth trialing a few packages before you decide to buy.

Our shortlist of alternatives to Trintech Cadency is:

  1. Oracle Hyperion Financial Close Management: Best alternative to Trintech Cadency for large organizations. This financial management package is integrated into the Oracle ERP and coordinates reporting data from business process data that is managed within the cloud-based system.
  2. BlackLine Close Process Management: Best alternative to Trintech Cadency for compliance management. A cloud-based package that provides risk analysis and compliance enforcement as well as close management with reconciliation automation.
  3. Redwood Finance Automation Record to Report: Best alternative to Trintech Cadency overall. This SaaS package acts as an orchestration suite to run third-party packages and move data between them. This particular package is geared toward close management.
  4. FloQast: Best alternative to Trintech Cadency for medium-sized businesses. A powerful close management system that is delivered from the cloud and is suitable for all but the largest organizations.
  5. Intuit QuickBooks: Best alternative to Trintech Cadency for small businesses. Owner-operators prefer to deal with business terminology and this cloud-based package manages financial reporting behind the scenes.

What do we look for in the best alternative to Trintech Cadency?

Trintech Cadency automates many of the tasks needed to close an accounting period and also examines the records that it processes to enforce compliance and financial probity. So, this system has a lot of useful functions that need to be matched by alternative packages:

  • Market sector – Our list is intentionally diversified to provide recommendations for all types and sizes of business.
  • Platform – Trintech Cadency operates on the cloud and plugs into ERP systems and accounting packages. A vital requirement for this type of architecture is the ease of integration. We prioritized packages that can interact easily with other software without requiring extensive technical expertise.
  • Integrations – Pre-written extensions to the ERP and accounting system that are widely used and are a top priority when selecting alternatives to Trintech Cadency. We wanted to find systems that offered longer lists of integrations than the Trintech system.
  • Security – Financial data needs to be protected, so security for data stores at rest and data exchanges in motion is important. Security measures should also extend to the allocation of user accounts and activity logging for access to the system.

Our list gives the “best of” for each type of business.

You can read more about each of our recommendations in the following sections.

1. Oracle Hyperion Financial Close Management

Website Oracle Fusion
Free Trial Demo

The best alternative to Trintech Cadency for large organizations

Oracle produces a world-leading ERP that is very comprehensive. However, it requires a lot of management. It takes data sharing down to the finest details and so can provide your management team with a large amount of operations reports if you just know what to look for. The same is true for financial reporting. There is a lot of data that you can get out of the system in meaningful formats and the Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) module is designed to facilitate management functions. The Hyperion Financial Close Management system is part of the EPM package.

This system will assist your reconciliations and it is particularly good at intercompany accounting for multinationals because it adapts to the accounting standards of each country and translates between them.

Things we liked:

  • Great for multinationals
  • Part of a comprehensive ERP-based accounting system
  • Manages closing
  • Intercompany accounting
  • Separate roles for different team members

Things we didn’t like:

  • Requires specialist training to use
  • No free trial

2. BlackLine Close Process Management

Website BlackLine
Free Trial Demo

The best alternative to Trintech Cadency for compliance management

BlackLine is an orchestration system that connects with your ERP and accounting software. The package is very good at managing the creation of account journals on an ongoing basis. The system is good at task management – each team member’s system account is included in the BlackLine system through a single sign-on service. This enables BlackLine to set team member goals and schedule goals.

BlackLine has a close management module that is aided by reconciliation and intercompany modules. There is also a compliance module, which is a great choice for businesses that need to conform with SOX for financial reporting.

There are a lot of similarities between all of the tools in this list and BlackLine is similar to Redwood and a direct competitor with FloQast for use by mid-sized businesses. It has a specialist module for managing SAP implementations.

BlackLine is a cloud-based system and it can interface with on-premises or cloud-based ERPS and accounting systems.

Things we liked:

Things we liked:

  • Automated journal entry creation and reconciliation
  • Team management functions
  • System accountability through user account tracking
  • Good for intercompany accounting
  • Specialist module for SAP management

Things we didn’t like:

  • No free trial

3. Redwood Finance Automation Record to Report

Website Redwood
Free Trial Demo

The best alternative to Trintech Cadency overall

Redwood Finance Automation is a specialist application of the Redwood cloud-based accounts automation tool. The way Redwood works is it creates automation scripts from a process flow diagram. This enables it to start up any software package and use it to process data. It then implements orchestration by extracting the results from that package through to the next processing software.

The Finance Automation package creates pre-written workloads and also provides checklists for closing. This is a great tool for helping you to organize the tasks required to close the accounts and you can allocate responsibility for each task to different team members.

The package also includes automation of tasks and it can take care of 80 to 90 percent of reconciliations. The system notifies an allocated team member to pay attention to the exceptions that can’t be dealt with automatically. Consolidation for intercompany accounting follows the same pattern.

Each contributor to the closing process gets a separate account in the system with credentials. The tool logs all activities for auditing and its procedures are compliant with ISO 27001.

Things we liked:

  • Works with your existing software so no need to retrain
  • Checklists and task allocations create responsibilities
  • Automation for repetitive tasks
  • Behind the scenes automatic data transfers
  • Security controls

Things we didn’t like:

  • No free trial

GREAT ALTERNATIVE TO TRINTECH CADENCY: Redwood Finance Automation Record to Report is a solid alternative to Cadency. It doesn’t require any retraining because you carry on using your existing ERP and accounting software. The package moves data between software packages and processes them into journal entries and then reconciles them. Checklists and team management functions are great enhancements.

4. FloQast

Website FloQast
Free Trial Demo

The best alternative to Trintech Cadency for medium-sized businesses

FloQast was written specifically for close management, which is a close match to the functionality of Trintech Cadency. This is a cloud-based system that integrates into your existing ERP and accounting packages. The difference between FloQast and BlackLine is that this system is much more focused on closing and financial reporting.

The FloQast system includes team management features. It creates a timeline for a successful closing to reach a deadline and then chains back contributing steps giving each a deadline. You then allocate specific tasks to individual team members.

Each team member gets a to-do list and reminders over upcoming delivery dates. The team manager gets a progress overview. The system can unify a geographically dispersed team.

Things we liked:

  • Team management features
  • Schedules goals for each team member
  • Flows data through orchestration
  • Generates journal entries and automates reconciliation
  • Built for closing

Things we didn’t like:

  • No free trial

5. Intuit QuickBooks

Price from $25.00/mo
Free Trial 30 Days

The best alternative to Trintech Cadency for small businesses

Intuit QuickBooks is designed for small business owners that need to compile the books for their businesses and submit tax returns but know nothing about accountancy processes.

This system creates a framework for the business management that can help untrained owner-operators. While users are entering details of sales and purchases, QuickBooks translates everything in the background into an accounting format. By the period end, the user can just move to closing with the check of a box.

Things we liked:

  • Business management front-end with behind the scenes accounting
  • Guided framework for efficient business processes
  • Mobile apps
  • Options for inventory management
  • Four plan levels

Things we didn’t like:

  • For small businesses only