If you’ve ever worked in accounting, you know the drill:
Downloading reports, pulling numbers into spreadsheets, plugging formulas, double-checking totals, and then manually keying in journal entries into Sage Intacct, QuickBooks, or another ERP. It’s “plug and chug” accounting at its finest—tedious, error-prone, and time-consuming.
For too long, finance teams have treated these workflows as inevitable. But with today’s automation tools, there’s a better way.
The Problem with Manual Journal Entries
Manual journal entries are one of the most common pain points in accounting operations. Teams spend hours on tasks like:
- Creating deferred revenue schedules
- Building interest schedules for loans
- Reconciling payroll data
- Accruing expenses
- Posting bulk adjustments at month-end
Each of these processes requires heavy “plugging and chugging”: pulling numbers from multiple sources, applying formulas in Excel, and re-entering them into accounting software. The risks are obvious:
- Wasted time: High-skilled accountants end up doing low-value clerical work.
- Inconsistency: Every accountant has their own spreadsheet version.
- Errors: A single mistyped formula or data entry can ripple through reports.
How Amalgam Solves This
Amalgam was built to eliminate exactly this kind of work. Instead of plugging and chugging data, you can:
- Connect directly to your accounting system: Amalgam integrates seamlessly with Sage Intacct, QuickBooks Online, and other platforms.
- Automate journal entry creation: Whether it’s interest accruals, payroll allocations, or reclasses, Amalgam generates journal entries dynamically from your source data.
- Stay in Excel: You don’t have to give up your spreadsheets. Amalgam turns them into living workflows that sync back to your GL.
- Batch post with confidence: Instead of keying in line by line, Amalgam pushes entire journal batches directly into your accounting system, mapped and validated.
The result? Accountants spend less time crunching numbers and more time analyzing them.
Real-World Example: Payroll Allocation
Let’s take payroll allocation. Traditionally, you’d:
- Log into payroll system
- Navigate to the reports section
- Export payroll data.
- Open the file.
- Dump it into your Excel workbook.
- Build allocation formulas.
- Login to your GL.
- Navigate to create journals
- Manually enter the entries in the template GL.
With Amalgam, the process looks more like this:
- Open your Amalgam integrated worksheet.
- Click “download” on your payroll data.
- Review automatically mapped allocations.
- Click “sync” to send entries directly into QuickBooks or Sage Intacct or Netsuite.
What used to take hours now takes minutes—and you’re not stuck babysitting formulas or re-keying rows.
From Plugging and Chugging to Strategic Finance
Plugging and chugging will always have a place in accounting history, but it doesn’t have to define your future. By automating manual journal entries, Amalgam frees your team to focus on higher-value work: analyzing results, supporting decision-makers, and driving the business forward.
If your team is still stuck in the plugging-and-chugging cycle, it’s time to move on. Amalgam gives you the tools to stop wasting time and start working smarter.
