The Client Situation

Although this single family office (SFO) organization is relatively new, many of its internal processes were being run on legacy software products inherited from their “parent” organization, making it difficult to seamlessly report and consolidate large quantities of real-time data. For example, the company first had to export source data from several disparate systems for their financial reporting and consolidation processes. While the process was never convenient, it was manageable  at the outset when the firm had only a handful of members, companies and investments. As the company’s scope and complexity has grown, the old way of doing things became unsustainable.

The Suggested Solution

After first attempting to solve this issue internally, the SFO firm reached out to TM Group, which offers software-driven business solutions that empower organizations and people with technology in a variety of industries, including family offices.

After getting a better understanding of the company’s goals, TM Group (TMG) recommended replacing QuickBooks – the company’s former accounting tool – with Microsoft Dynamics GP. A web-enabled, mid-market business accounting and enterprise resource planning (ERP) program, Dynamics GP was originally released in 2007 and enables mid-sized businesses to gain greater insight, productivity and visibility into their business  processes.

TMG suggested Dynamics GP for these purposes in addition to Solver Reporting, Budgeting and Data Warehouse to better address the company’s pain points related to data consolidation and analysis. This enables the SFO firm to not only better manage data , but also to produce more accurate reports including adjustments for percentage of ownership for managed entities..

TM Group also  recommended Binary Stream’s Multi-Entity Management as an add-on application to Dynamics GP. This program allowed the SFO firm to streamline data entry and reporting rather than managing more individualized, entity-specific spreadsheets and other disconnected systems as done previously. With Microsoft Dynamics GP, Binary Stream’s Multi-Entity Module and Solver, the business’s financial and operational reporting could become more automated and less subject to error. eOne SmartConnect for integrations and Nolan Advanced Bank Reconciliation were also recommended and implemented.

The Result

Today, several months after making the transition from QuickBooks to the Microsoft Dynamics GP based solution, complex consolidated financial statement reporting and ad hoc reporting has become quicker and more comprehensive. The former QuickBooks solution and multiple non-integrated systems the SFO firm was using were not only limited in terms of visibility and leveragability, they were also highly labor intensive. This prevented the company from expounding and extrapolating on data. With Dynamics GP, Binary Multi-Entity and Solver, the firm and its members can now better interpret data  and apply it to their financial goals. Furthermore, Dynamics GP and Solver offered solutions for other services the firm provides, such as loan management, flight tracking and  and other inter-entity transactions. In lieu of manual spreadsheets, Solver provided the family office with enhanced flexibility and speed by automating  comprehensive report generation.

In short, the significant time commitment formerly dedicated to manual report generation is now spent on valuable analysis, planning and decision making.  The ease and simplicity of the tools and features available through Dynamics GP and Solver makes reporting faster, more accurate and actionable.

Since 1984, The TM Group has helped hundreds of organizations in a variety of different industries including family offices to improve their financial and operational management as well as enhance their reporting capabilities by utilizing Microsoft Dynamics ERP and customer resource planning (CRM) software. From associations and suppliers, to retail and hotels, you name the industry, TM Group has provided companies of all sizes to transform weaknesses into strengths and accomplish the greatest of challenges. Contact us to learn more.