Banyan Infrastructure vs. Accounting Software: Powering Project Finance, Not Just Bookkeeping

In the world of infrastructure project finance, there's often confusion between specialized platforms like Banyan Infrastructure and traditional accounting software like Sage Intaact or Netsuite. While both are essential tools, their functions and focus areas are distinct. 

Let's clarify the differences and explore how they work together to ensure project success.

What is Banyan Infrastructure?

Banyan Infrastructure is a purpose-built platform to streamline the entire project finance lifecycle. Banyan Infrastructure brings together disparate data into one solution, offering:

• Underwriting and Diligence: The platform streamlines the due diligence process, centralizing data, documents, and counterparty collaboration to ensure a thorough evaluation of project risks and opportunities. With templates and best practices, as well as standardized risk analysis, this allows for optimized decision making. 
• Portfolio and Fund Management: Banyan Infrastructure provides robust tools for monitoring and managing portfolios of projects, offering insights into asset performance and risk. Banyan Infrastructure rolls up data at the fund level, so you can understand upcoming capital requirements, deployments, and fund performance.
• Reporting and Compliance Management: The platform offers customizable reporting that is always available and easy to generate. Banyan Infrastructure centralizes and automates obligation tracking, allowing for clarity and accountability on key tasks and milestones, so you never miss a deadline.,
• Full Ecosystem Collaboration: Banyan Infrastructure enables seamless communication and collaboration with all counterparties, including borrowers, contractors, investors, and limited partners, providing transparency into all ongoing activities and performance, and fostering trust.

Banyan Infrastructure is a sophisticated platform specifically engineered to manage the entire lifecycle of complex infrastructure projects. It goes beyond the basic bookkeeping functions of accounting software by offering advanced features for workflow automation, risk analysis, compliance management, portfolio and fund management, and more.

Where Accounting Software Fits In

Accounting software excels at recording and tracking financial transactions, generating financial statements, and ensuring compliance with accounting standards. It is vital for day-to-day operations, tax reporting, and basic financial management. However, it falls short regarding the specialized needs of complex project finance reporting and management.

Accounting software, on the other hand, is designed to record and track day-to-day financial transactions, generate accurate financial statements, and ensure compliance with accounting regulations. It is indispensable for managing accounts payable and receivable, payroll, and other essential financial operations. However, it lacks the specialized functionality required for the intricate financial and risk analysis, and portfolio management demands of renewable infrastructure projects.

Bringing it all together: How Banyan Infrastructure and Accounting Software Work Together

This is where the synergy between Banyan Infrastructure and accounting software becomes evident. By seamlessly integrating with accounting systems, Banyan Infrastructure accesses real-time financial data, ensuring accuracy and enabling powerful analyses. The combination of specialized project finance workflows and automation from Banyan Infrastructure with accounting data empowers financial teams with a holistic view of the project's financial health, risks, and potential areas for optimization. Banyan Infrastructure’s platform also pairs accounting data with other key data sources, like SCADA Data for Asset Level Performance, CRM data for relationship management, Loan Servicing for payment data, and other key data points. The holistic view of data is then used to generate comprehensive reports for both internal and external stakeholders, fulfilling reporting requirements, and helps companies make better decisions and improve outcomes by enhancing transparency and providing unique, actionable insights.

Banyan Infrastructure and accounting software form a powerful duo

• Single Source of Truth: Banyan Infrastructure seamlessly integrates with accounting software, ensuring that financial data is accurate, up-to-date, and readily available for analysis.
• Enhanced Insights: By combining the specialized data from Banyan Infrastructure with the accounting data, project teams gain deeper insights into financial performance, risk, and potential areas for optimization.
• Streamlined Reporting: Banyan Infrastructure leverages accounting data to generate comprehensive financial reports that meet both internal and external stakeholder requirements.

To learn more about Banyan Infrastructure schedule a demo today.