October product updates: The end of break-fix finance

Before managed services, IT ran on a break-fix model. Something failed, somebody noticed, and a technician went out to fix it. MSPs built an industry on a better model: set a baseline, watch for drift, script the routine fixes, and keep a record of what changed.

A lot of services businesses have back offices with finance tools and tech stacks that still run on break-fix models. You find out a client is overdue when cash gets tight. You find out your margin slipped after the quarter ended. Most financial software reports the problem and stops there, leaving it up to you to work out why it happened and what to do about it.

We’re helping finance teams make the same move IT and MSPs made. Reports and dashboards help businesses understand their numbers, but stop there. The next step is software that takes those numbers and insights all the way to the solution. If you’ve figured out we’re talking about Alti again, you’re right! Alti takes those insights and answers questions, recommends what to do next, and does it once you approve.

That's what we mean by financial intelligence (Ahem…Alti), and it's why October was a big month. We officially launched Alti, the financial intelligence inside Alternative Payments. Around it, we shipped tools any MSP will recognize from running client environments: a baseline for your numbers, runbooks for routine work, a change log, and a schedule you control. Two of them, Benchmarking and Routine Workflows, were on the coming-soon list in September's update. Here's what each one does, and what it changes for your business.

Alti: from Q to A to Done

Alti works across the Alternative Payments products you use. Ask it a question, and it answers from your live business data, suggests the next step, and carries out the actions you approve. If you use Analytics, you can also ask about client profitability and team utilization, or have Alti build a dashboard from those numbers.

The best people on your team bring you a problem with a recommendation attached, then wait for your go-ahead. Alti works the same way, from Q to A to Done. It does the digging and the drafting, and you make the call. Nothing changes until you approve it.

If you're a partner, Alti is already in your dashboard. For the thinking behind it, read our launch post or watch the launch event where Baxter Lanius, our Founder and CEO, demos Alti live and takes questions. It was really inspiring!

Benchmarking: a baseline for your numbers

An alert only means something against a baseline, and the same is true of a margin. Knowing your margin is one thing. Knowing whether it's strong for a business like yours is another, and finding out has usually meant a PSA export and an afternoon staring at a spreadsheet.

Benchmarking, now available as an add-on to Analytics, puts your net margin, utilization, and recurring revenue next to the median MSP, pulled from your live data. It shows you where you stand, and Alti helps you move forward. Ask which clients are behind a gap, and Alti shows you what's driving the difference. Learn more.

See how Analytics works, or reach out to us to add Benchmarking to your account.

Routine Workflows: runbooks for your back office

Some tasks repeat every week. Say you ask Alti, step by step, to find overdue invoices, charge those with a card on file, and email the rest. With Routine Workflows, you save those steps as a routine and run it again whenever you need it. Alti works through each step with new data and asks for your approval before every action. A weekly chore turns into one click and your sign-off. Learn more.

An MSP would call that a runbook: work out the fix once, write it down, and stop solving the same ticket from scratch. It also changes what a conversation with Alti leaves behind. An answer helps you today. A saved workflow becomes part of how your business runs.

Activity Log: a change log for your account

When an Auto-Pay rule changes or a payment method disappears, the first question is who did it. Until now, finding that answer meant calling support. The new Activity Log, under the Activity menu, shows who changed what and when across Auto-Pay rules, notification settings, payment methods, and customer users.

It's available to partner admins, with log history starting in early October. Every well-run client environment has a change log. Now your account has one too, and the next time a client asks why something changed, the answer is a few clicks away.

Auto-Pay that runs on your schedule

Not every business wants its charges to run at the same time of day. MSPs pick maintenance windows to suit each client, and now you can pick the window for your own billing. Choose when Auto-Pay runs, whether that's one fixed window each day or several runs throughout the day. Custom scheduling is available to all partners.

Auto-Pay is also more reliable. When a customer has only one payment method on file, that method now becomes their default automatically, so Auto-Pay can charge it without anyone having to set it first. A default someone already picked is never overridden, and each automatic update is shown in the Activity Log.

What this changes for your business

Taken together, October's updates change three things about how a back office runs.

• Your numbers come with context. A margin on its own is hard to judge. Next to the median MSP, it tells you where to look first.
• The path from answer to action gets shorter. Alti answers the question, suggests the next step, and carries it out once you approve. Save the steps as a Routine Workflow, and next week's run starts with one click.
• You stay in control as more of the work is automated. Alti acts only on your approval, Auto-Pay runs when you choose, and the Activity Log shows who changed what.

Coming soon: accounts that match how your clients are organized

Some of your clients come as a family: a parent company with several locations or subsidiaries. Parent-child customer accounts will let you link those related accounts and control what each one can access, so they're easier to manage together. We're building it now, and we'll share more as it gets closer.

Run your back office the way you run IT for clients

Managed services changed what IT work looks like. Problems get caught earlier, routine fixes run from a script, and people spend their time where judgment matters. We think finance is at the same turn. Our bet is that a few years from now, waiting for a report to tell you what already went wrong will feel as dated as waiting for a server to go down. The businesses that make the move first will have more of their week for clients, pricing, and growth.

October brought that closer. Picture your next month-end. With Benchmarking, your margin sits next to the median MSP, and a question to Alti shows you what's driving the gap. The overdue-invoice routine you saved last week runs in one click, with your approval before every charge. When someone asks why an Auto-Pay rule changed, the answer is in the log.

If you're already a partner, open your dashboard and ask Alti the question you'd normally answer with a spreadsheet. New to Alternative Payments? Schedule a demo and see Alti at work, or try it yourself in the Alti Playground.