About Indigov
Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Washington, DC, Indigov is a GovTech company that provides constituent relationship management platforms to help elected officials modernize communications and improve engagement with their constituents.
Backed by investors like Tusk Venture Partners and Valor Equity Partners, the platform enables officials to handle communications automatically, reducing average response times and allowing officials to address the growing volume of constituent inquiries through technology.
Indigov's pricing complexity
Indigov's pricing model was sales-driven and designed to meet the diverse needs of government entity customers. Customization and negotiation were integral to the process, particularly for larger enterprise customers.
At the core was user-based pricing, where the cost was scaled based on the number of users. Beyond that, Indigov offered different service tiers with varying features, volume-based discounts, and custom add-ons (such as custom integrations, data analysis, and dedicated support), incentivizing larger commitments.
While this enabled indigov to provide more tailored solutions for customers, it also introduced complexity, particularly for billing and revenue recognition, requiring close attention from the finance team.
Indigov's challenges before Zenskar
Manual invoicing
Indigov relied on a manual invoicing process, carefully reviewing contracts stored on Google Drive to ensure each invoice was accurate. However, as their customer base grew, the volume and diversity of contracts and billing schedules made automation a natural next step to maintain their high standards.
Manual payment reconciliation
Their payment reconciliation was completely hands-on. John Zurbach, Indigov's CFO, described the process, stating, "I'll get a blast of about a hundred emails that I'll have to copy and paste."
In addition, the similarity in payment amounts added a layer of complexity, requiring careful review to link funds to the correct customer accounts. This also made tracking overdue invoices and identifying follow-ups a time-intensive process.
Revenue recognition complexity
"Revenue recognition is probably the biggest issue that we have," John said, “It was very manual.” The finance team relied on an unwieldy Excel sheet to map the revenue recognition schedule, which was prone to potential errors.
Handling diverse contract terms, such as varying fiscal years and service periods, required the team to manage distinct revenue recognition schedules for each customer manually.
In addition, they experienced significant gaps between contract signing and the service start date. These delays and contract amendments further complicated the revenue recognition process, requiring complex proration calculations and adjustments.
In search of a solution
Recognizing a need to future-proof operations, Indigov sought a solution to automate their billing and revenue recognition processes.
After evaluating multiple options, Zenskar emerged as the clear choice due to its flexibility in handling diverse billing scenarios, revenue recognition requirements, and seamless integration with QuickBooks.
"Yours is the best we've seen in terms of actually adapting to what we're trying to do, and we've looked around quite a bit," noted John.
Solution: How Zenskar helped
Indigov streamlined its financial operations and enhanced efficiency by leveraging Zenskar’s flexibility and automation.
Streamlined billing for custom contracts
Indigov completely automated their invoicing workflows with Zenskar.
They configured standardized plan templates in Zenskar for their largest customer segment. This enabled the finance team to set up new contracts quickly and initiate billing schedules automatically.
With this, Indigov was able to handle different billing schedules across its customer base. From annual prepayments to monthly installments and milestone-based billing, Zenskar adapted to each customer's needs.
Invoice generation, previously a time-intensive process, also became automated through Zenskar. The system generated invoices directly from contract terms while maintaining the flexibility to edit line items and billing periods as needed.
During the contract renewal period, when many contracts required pricing adjustments or term changes, Zenskar automatically generated invoices reflecting the updated terms, significantly reducing Indigov’s team's workload.
Automated payment reconciliation
Indigov’s finance team streamlined from manual payment reconciliation through Zenskar's bulk reconciliation capabilities. The finance team now uploads payment data through CSV files instead of manual matching, and Zenskar automatically distributes these payments across invoices—even handling cases with identical amounts or single payments covering multiple invoices.
As payments are uploaded and matched, Zenskar creates corresponding journal entries to maintain accurate financial records without requiring manual intervention from Indigov's finance team.
Automated revenue recognition
Indigov automated its most intricate financial process—revenue recognition, through Zenskar's flexible revenue recognition engine.
It gave Indigov the flexibility to decouple revenue recognition from the invoicing cadence. This was particularly important for scenarios with gaps between contract signing and the actual service start date.
For example, Indigov could configure contracts with estimated go-live dates and then adjust the revenue recognition schedule retrospectively after implementation was done.
For one-time implementation fees, revenue was amortized over the contract period rather than recognized upfront. If any revenue had been recognized prematurely, it was either reversed with a negative entry or reallocated as an expense, ensuring compliance and accuracy.
When implementation timelines shifted, or contract amendments occurred, Zenskar automatically recalculated the revenue and back-loaded recognition for service period disputes — eliminating the need for manual adjustments.
Indigov also configured revenue recognition to start from actual live dates, regardless of when the contract was signed. This automation eliminated the risk of manual errors that had previously kept their CFO "up at night."
The Zenskar Impact
80% reduction in month-end close time
Indigov dramatically streamlined its month-end close process with Zenskar's automated revenue recognition.
The platform automatically generated appropriate journal entries with clear audit trails. Indigov's finance team could then download these journal entries in CSV format and review them before they are posted to QuickBooks. This gave them more control over reviewing and ensuring an error-free book closing.
Furthermore, Indigov can now recognize revenue for all active contracts in a single batch job rather than processing each contract individually, reducing the revenue recognition processing time from days to hours.
40+ hours saved monthly on finance operations
Indigo’s finance operations also gained significant efficiency improvements with Zenskar's automation. The team saved 30-40 hours monthly by eliminating the manual maintenance of revenue recognition spreadsheets that were previously required.
Indigov also leveraged Zenskar's contract builder to quickly set up contracts on the platform and automated invoicing for all customers. This eliminated the need to review each contract and populate the invoice line items manually.
Furthermore, Zenskar's ability to process payments in bulk eliminated hours of manual work Indigov's team previously spent matching the 100+ payments received on high-volume days.
100% revenue recognition errors eliminated
Indigov eliminated the potential for errors in manual revenue calculations by transitioning to Zenskar. Zenskar's revenue recognition engine ensured Indigov's processes adhered to ASC 606 compliance, even for complex scenarios like delayed implementations, contract renewals, setup fee amortization, and multi-milestone contracts.
Beyond just automating calculations, Zenskar provided Indigov's finance team with enhanced control and visibility. The platform allowed them to thoroughly review journal entries before they were automatically posted to QuickBooks, ensuring error-free and audit-ready financial reporting.
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