INDUSTRY: SECURITY

Simplifying Financial Reporting for Security Companies

Automate reporting, budgeting, and forecasting without leaving Excel®.

Security companies manage recurring revenue, service contracts, and multi-location operations while maintaining tight margins. Vivid connects directly to your ERP and automates financial reporting in Excel®, delivering accurate, refreshable insight across locations and revenue streams.

  • 60+ ERP Integrations
  • 20+ Years Supporting Finance Teams
  • 6.9/7 Rated Support
Book a Demo

See More Before A Demo ➜

Trusted By Leading Security Companies

acadiana security plus
sonitrol
sei
frase protection
bates security
wilsons security

Designed for Security Finance Teams

Security companies manage recurring monitoring revenue, installation projects, and service operations across multiple branches and customers. Vivid automates financial reporting in Excel so finance teams spend less time rebuilding spreadsheets and more time analyzing performance.

Monitoring & Recurring Revenue Businesses

Track monitoring contracts, recurring revenue, and service performance while maintaining clear visibility into customer and operational profitability.

Installation & Project-Based Security Companies

Report on installation projects, equipment costs, and labor while analyzing profitability across customers, projects, and service lines.

Multi-Branch Security Providers

Consolidate financial reporting across regional offices and service teams while maintaining visibility into branch-level performance.

Integrated Security & Service Operations

Unify reporting across monitoring, installation, and service operations while delivering consistent financial insight from a single source of ERP data.

Security Industry Reporting Is Operationally Complex

Finance teams face constant pressure:

  • Managing recurring monitoring revenue and service contracts

  • Tracking installation projects and service operations

  • Consolidating financials across branches or regions

  • Reporting across multiple revenue streams and cost centers

  • Managing tight margins in competitive markets

  • Budgeting for labor, equipment, and service demand

The challenge isn’t just complexity — it’s managing it manually.

Easily Track Recurring Revenue & Service Performance

Monitoring contracts, service calls, and installation projects create multiple revenue streams — static spreadsheets can’t keep up.

With Vivid, you can:

  • Analyze recurring monitoring revenue and service activity

  • Drill into performance by branch, customer, or service line

  • Refresh reports instantly using live ERP data

Security companies often operate across multiple branches, regions, or business units.

With Vivid, you can:

  • Consolidate financial data across locations automatically

  • Standardize reporting across branches and divisions

  • Deliver consistent reports without manual consolidation

Understanding the profitability of service contracts, installations, and monitoring operations is critical.

With Vivid, you can:

  • Drill into revenue and costs by service line or location

  • Analyze profitability across contracts and operations

  • Track performance trends across periods

Planning for labor, equipment, and service demand requires flexible budgeting.

With Vivid, you can:

  • Build budgets and forecasts using live ERP data

  • Compare actual performance to plan instantly

  • Adjust forecasts as demand and service activity changes

How Security Finance Teams Gain Clearer Visibility

Security organizations need reliable reporting without heavy IT lift. Many Vivid customers are fully operational within weeks.

Step 1
Connect to Your ERP

Integrate directly with one or multiple accounting systems. Eliminate manual exports while maintaining traceability to source transactions.

Step 2
Automate Excel Reports

Enhance the templates your team already uses. Pull live ERP data into Excel automatically with one-click refresh.

Step 3
Drill Into Revenue & Division Detail

Click any number to explore recurring revenue, service activity, project performance, and branch results.

Step 4
Standardize Reporting Across Locations

Create consistent financial views across branches, service divisions, and acquired entities — while maintaining flexibility.

Get A Closer Look: See How Vivid Works In Under 10 Minutes

Watch Now

Why Security Companies Choose Vivid

Clear Visibility Into Recurring Revenue

Monitoring contracts and service agreements create complex recurring revenue streams. Vivid helps finance teams track performance across customers, contracts, and service lines with accurate, refreshable reporting. Through Vivid Flex and Vivid CPM, Vivid connects seamlessly to your SedonaOffice database, bringing live financial and operational data directly into Excel.

Reporting Across Branches & Service Operations

Security companies often operate across multiple branches, service teams, and regions. Vivid automates consolidation and standardizes reporting so finance teams can analyze performance across locations with confidence.

Automated, Excel-Based Financial Reporting

Security finance teams rely on Excel for flexibility and control. Vivid enhances Excel with live ERP data and centralized reporting logic while preserving the workflows teams already trust.

Faster Reporting & Better Planning

When reporting takes days to prepare, decisions slow down. Vivid automates recurring reports and simplifies budgeting so finance teams can focus on analyzing performance and planning ahead.

Partnering With Industry Experts

Comprehensive Reporting Solutions Tailored for Security Companies

Vivid partners with Astute Financial Consulting to bring specialized financial reporting and analysis solutions to security companies. By combining Vivid’s automated financial reporting and budgeting platform with Astute’s deep expertise in the security industry, organizations can streamline financial operations, reduce manual consolidation, and gain clearer insight into business performance.

All companies should be using business intelligence tools to make informed decisions.  Vivid’s Business Intelligence tools, implemented by an experienced VAR like Astute Financial, are outstanding and very much worth the investment.
Ken Wiesenfeld
Principal, Wise Financial Consulting

Real World Examples

Astute Financial Consulting, a trusted partner of Vivid Reports, brings unmatched expertise in accounting and reporting for security companies. They optimize your reporting for accuracy, compliance, and efficiency. Read the case studies below to see how others have transformed their data.

VividCPM Provides A-COM Security with Robust Reporting

As the company has grown throughout the years, financial reporting has posed an increasingly difficult challenge for A-COM, mainly because reports and performance numbers were difficult to produce and lacked a high level of reliability. Additionally, it was impossible to break out income statements or view performance based on the company’s three profit centers: traditional alarm sales, residential sales and monitoring. 

Read the full Case Study ➜

Acadiana Security Growd its Bottom Line with VividFlex

One thing Acadiana was missing was the ability to easily extract reports from its accounting and business management software, which hampered the company’s ability to reach its full potential. Paul Courts, Acadiana’s President, wanted the ability to not only run key performance indicator (KPI) reports but also to look at those reports at a high level while also being able to drill down.

Read the full Case Study ➜

White Paper

Looking for more information on financial best practices for the security industry?

We’ve created a white paper to help with that! Whether you need guidance on optimizing commissions, enhancing your budget process, or managing recurring revenue, this resource is designed to provide actionable tips and best practices tailored specifically for the security industry.

What Others Are Saying

"I wanted to compliment the team for always going above and beyond.  They have all always made themselves available and have always helped me with whatever is needed here at Security Alarm. I sincerely appreciate everyone at Astute!"
Derick GastonOffice Manager, Security Alarm
"Astute Financial has been a valuable business partner as we have grown our business. We have worked hard to capture the operating metrics in our business. Getting timely, accurate numbers motivates our team and helps drive our business forward. Jim and the team at Astute have been an integral part of this process."
David WilsonPresident, Wilsons Security
"Without CPM/Flex, I would find it extremely laborious to prepare month-end financials & operational reporting just using Sedona Office reporting. In fact, if it wasn’t for Astute’s products, we probably would have not gone with Sedona Office. I have found Astute’s staff to be very professional and a team that pays great attention to detail."
Michael MuttiCFO, Sonitrol
"In my first year with Security Equipment Inc., the detailed training from the Astute team has accelerated my learning curve. The Astute team has always been responsive. Their knowledge and ability to customize reports on our behalf promptly are beneficial to the analysis and success of our business."
Brad PealChief Financial Officer, Security Equipment Inc.
"We’ve worked with Jim, Brian, and the good folks at Astute Financial since 2013. Switching to SedonaOffice in 2013 and partnering with Astute Financial helped us gain more control over our business, especially with job costing, inventory management, and financial reporting."
Jonathan FrasePresident, Frase Protection
Vivid Products

Whether you're building reports, managing budgets, or analyzing results, Vivid makes it simple.

excel-based budgeting software

Financial Data

Transform Excel into a powerful, secure workspace for financial reporting, budgeting, and analysis with Vivid Reports.

Learn More About VividCPM ➜

Operational Data

Get direct access to your data from within Excel, so you can build operational reports without the manual export.

Learn More About VividFlex ➜

Frequently Asked Questions

How is VividCPM different from traditional reporting tools?

Unlike traditional BI or static reporting tools, VividCPM works natively in Excel, combining the flexibility finance teams love with automated data integrity from your ERP, and scalability to handle exceedingly complex situations. It’s fast to deploy, easy to learn, and built specifically for finance professionals.

Vivid’s Corporate Performance Management software is also distinctive in the depth of Excel integration. Where other tools generate pages in Excel, export to Excel, or use complex cell formula to get data into Excel, Vivid is true native Excel where a user can build any format they wish.

Yes. Vivid integrates with leading systems such as Microsoft Dynamics (GP, NAV, BC, F&O, D365), Epicor, Sage (Intacct, 300,500, X3, PFW), Acumatica, NetSuite, SAP, SYSPRO – Vivid has well over 60 integrations in our VividSync Library.  Configuring and testing Vivid for a new customer typically takes about 2 hours – with Vivid located on-prem, in a private cloud or as a Vivid hosted cloud solution.

If your ERP is not already in VividSync we are constantly working with customers that have bespoke needs to get them the outcome they need. 

From customer quotes – the provable gains of Vivid are:
1. Faster Reporting and Close Cycles
Finance teams using Vivid consistently cut reporting and month-end close times by 50–80%. Automated updates and real-time ERP connections eliminate the need for manual data exports, copy-paste work, or multiple spreadsheet versions.  On average, 25% of the controller’s time is  freed as a result of Vivid.

2. Dramatic Time Savings in Budgeting
Organizations report reducing their budget cycles from six weeks to one week. Shared templates, centralized data, and built-in audit tools remove the inefficiencies of email-based spreadsheets.  With this dramatic reduction in time, Vivid enables companies to consider advanced or continuous forecasting where this would have been unapproachable before.

3. Total Confidence in Data Accuracy
Every report in Vivid is connected directly to your accounting database – and – Vivid centrally manages the account definitions so numbers are always correct and traceable. Users gain a single version of the truth that eliminates reconciliation errors and manual refreshes – and – every spreadsheet across the customer shows the right information. Unlike other solutions, Vivid is first and foremost designed for bullet-proof period reporting of complex consolidated financial data.

4. Financial Self-Service
In a survey of Vivid customers, we found that 10% of the finance team’s time is consumed by answering questions that users could answer for themselves.  User self service through Vivid increases financial acumen across the company, reduces the load on finance teams, radically improves the budgeting process and makes financials a forward-looking management tool rather than a historical reporting function.

Vivid scales well from the single-person in finance at a school board or not-for-profit up to thousands of users or a dozen currencies without performance degradation.  For small teams – it’s about getting more done with less, automating rather than being reliant on only one person knowing how to do reports, and having simple, approachable tools to respond quickly to inquiries.

Mid-sized and large Vivid customers typically have multiple entities, or multiple currencies, or acquisitions, or multiple ERP, or large reporting trees, or a lot of change, or complexity in the segment analysis – something makes the manual effort of producing reports time consuming.  For these customers, the gains are 1) “speed!” – significant time savings in preparing financials as well as the time to close ; 2) Bullet-proof financials even in the face of severe complexity; 3) Decentralization, visibility and operational alignment – Vivid enables far more participation in using financial statements and participating in budgeting; and 4)  future-proofing financial operations – Vivid makes organizations far more adaptive to change. 

Stay confident in your numbers before, during, and after your ERP transition

Migrating to a new ERP system is one of the most disruptive projects a finance team can face. Reporting, consolidation, and budgeting often stall while systems are being reconfigured — but they don’t have to. Vivid is fully transferable, your first call should be to your Vivid team solutions consultant who can help you significantly reduce risk and stress through the systems change.

Remember: VividCPM keeps financial visibility intact through every stage of the transition.

1. Bridge Old and New Systems Seamlessly

VividCPM connects directly to multiple ERP databases, so you can report and consolidate from both your legacy and new systems in a single view. That means you can continue producing management reports, board packages, and budgets — even while data is being migrated or validated.

  • Combine financials from old and new ERPs during parallel runs

  • Validate balances and trial data between systems in real time

  • Maintain consistent chart-of-account structures across both environments

2. Accelerate ERP Implementation, Data Validation and Reconciliation

Migrating to Vivid prior to an ERP change requires very little time – however – it frees significant amounts of time for the finance team juggling monthly closing while also doing the work of an ERP migration.  This increase in availability not only significantly de-risks ERP implementation, it means the finance team is not learning both the new ERP and a new reporting platform simultaneously.

Additional gains – Vivid is part of your validation plans

Data migration errors are one of the top causes of ERP project delays. With VividCPM, finance teams can verify migrated data instantly by running side-by-side comparisons of GL accounts, entities, or periods — directly in Excel.

Detect missing or duplicated accounts, confirm that balances tie out, and sign off on migration accuracy faster and with full audit transparency.

3. Preserve Reporting Continuity

Most teams lose months rebuilding reports after a system change. Vivid eliminates that downtime. Your existing Vivid reports and templates remain usable — they simply point to the new ERP once its connection is established. This doesn’t mean that you don’t have remapping to do if the underlying chart of accounts changes – but the time to be live with comparative year-over-year reports is hours or days, not months.
This means your standard Income Statements, Balance Sheets, and department reports stay consistent before and after go-live, with no rework required on the base report layouts.

4. Enable Budgeting and Forecasting Mid-Migration

ERP changes don’t stop business planning. With Vivid’s centralized budgeting tools, you can continue your forecast and budget cycles without waiting for the new ERP to be live.
Budgets can even be mapped across old and new account structures, keeping your planning data consistent for year-over-year comparisons.

5. Reduce Risk and Dependence on IT

Because Vivid operates independently of the ERP’s native reporting tools, your finance team can keep working confidently while IT manages the migration.
No waiting for new cubes or reports to be built. No dependency on consultants. Vivid becomes your continuity layer for reporting and control.

Real-World Outcomes

  • Maintain uninterrupted monthly reporting throughout ERP transitions

  • Verify and reconcile migrated data in hours, not weeks

  • Eliminate report rebuild costs and delays

  • Preserve trusted KPIs and board reports from day one of go-live

Yes. Vivid CPM handles hundreds of entities, dozens of currencies, and even multiple fiscal years with ease. It automatically applies exchange rates and consolidates results.  Vivid can also:

  • easily manage complex nested reporting trees.
  • manage sophisticated segmentation and show 10 segments on a single report
  • use control panels on reports to easily flip between views of any of the the above in within the same report template.
What is Vivid Budgeting?

Vivid Budgeting is an add-on to VividCPM that lets you create, manage, and analyze budgets directly in Excel using your live financial data. It connects to your ERP data to populate budget templates with historical data, and let’s managers enter their budget data into the familiar excel templates they’ve always used.  Behind the scenes, Vivid manages version control, data validation, input consolidation, auditability, comments and assumption management, while also providing managers with powerful tools to support the budgeting process.

Yes. You can budget at any level — from summarized departmental totals to detailed account-by-account planning — or functional budgeting, or product-based, or project based, at any level of granularity you choose.  Vivid’s team will help you set up the filters and templates that align with your needs, and show you how to evolve toward increasingly sophisticated and accurate budgets.

Multiple users can work in parallel using controlled access and user-level security. Budget data is entered into Excel, Vivid collects and stores inputs into a central SQL database, and executives have consistency and auditability while eliminating spreadsheet version chaos. Version control, iteration locking and template distribution are all managed by Vivid.

Clients can have 1 person entering all budget details – or hundreds of participants in a fully distributed budgeting process… you are in control and decide the level of collaboration.

Absolutely. Actuals, budgets, and forecasts are all available side-by-side in VividCPM reports. Changes in your ERP or budget are reflected instantly when you refresh your report.

Yes. Vivid supports rolling forecasts, quarterly updates, and scenario modeling — allowing you to plan continuously throughout the year, not just at budget season.  Customers can have as many budgets, scenarios, plans or stored models as they wish.

Vivid is exceptional for dynamic forecasting – supplying the functionality Excel specifically needs to blend budget, actual, and dynamic planning data into a single spreadsheet that automatically updates. No more rebuilding spreadsheets each month – just push refresh to advance the month.

How secure is my financial data in VividCPM?

For our customers demanding the highest level of security – your data never leaves your environment.  Access is managed through SQL security, Windows authentication, and user-level role-based permissions — ensuring that users only see what they’re authorized to view.

For customers using Vivid cloud-based systems, Vivid’s hosted environment on Azure is secured using Microsoft’s enterprise-grade controls — including network isolation, encrypted data storage, and continuous security monitoring. Access is tightly governed through Vivid’s role-based access, and SOC 2–aligned operational practices.

Vivid has fine grained user access management to organize user access by any combination of: 

  • Segment / Dimension
  • Account
  • Drill-down rights

In this method a user could be restricted to only their divisional information, or not have drill-down rights on payroll accounts, or only see product related information or only their information on a function within a department within a company. 

Vivid’s secure access provides clients control over access to financial data.

Vivid can work in a number of ways:

  1. Access is controlled by your corporate file system access or Microsoft password files governance.
  2. Data access is controlled by Vivid.  A template might be generally available on a report server, but anyone looking at the file only sees the information they are allowed to see.
  3. File access is controlled by Vivid.  For board or other governance reports, Vivid has an additional layer of security to ensure core reports are centralized and secure.
  4. Multi-Divisional Management.  Larger clients look to Vivid to provide multi-dimensional management where certain account definitions and reporting remain standardized across the company or group of companies, while others are owned at the company level. MDM assures governance of standards alongside the flexibility of localization. 

Ready to Transform Your Reporting?

Combine Vivid Reports’ robust reporting tools with Astute Financial Consulting’s industry expertise to streamline financial operations and enhance decision-making.

Book a Demo

Try our 7-days free trial today

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit Ut et massa mi. Aliquam in hendrerit urna. Pellentesque sit amet sapien fringilla, mattis

Start Free Trial