A company that designs and distributes cloud-based software for nonprofits had grown beyond its financial system’s capabilities and required a new ERP solution. The company’s product helps organizations track their members and manage donors during fundraisers.
This cloud-based software company was unable to quickly obtain visibility of its own financial performance. By working with The TM Group, the business implemented Microsoft Dynamics GP to speed up daily procedures and keep better track of a growing client list.
Outgrowing legacy system
When the company started, it used QuickBooks Online to manage its financial performance. While this worked at first, it didn’t provide the functionality needed for its expanding operations.
The employees soon found themselves spending vast amounts of time manually rekeying numerous lines of data from the company’s homegrown billing system into its QuickBooks ledgers. The business also felt the current information collection and reporting procedures didn’t capture the detail necessary to gain proper oversight of clients and activities.
The organization also decided that since it had a strong in-house IT infrastructure and plenty of experience with software, it preferred to implement an on-premise option. Microsoft Dynamics GP had the unique capability of being available as either an on-premise or a cloud-hosted ERP solution.
After bringing its issues to The TM Group, the software business purchased Microsoft Dynamics GP. The TM Group worked side-by-side with the company during implementation to create the control, data visibility and speed the operation demanded.
Timely and efficient financial solutions
The nonprofit software business with The TM Group’s consulting group’s guidance implemented Microsoft Dynamics GP account payable and general ledger functions. The TM Group also configured Microsoft Dynamics GP to integrate with its other existing billing systems. The company ended up creating five company databases in Microsoft Dynamics GP. The first entity was for its main software product business, the second was an outside venture and the other three were individual investments. The organization did not wish to do intercompany transactions and most of the activity was in the primary software business entity. However, the company can now use Management Reporter to create financial statements for each company as well as a consolidated financial statement. Implementation of Microsoft Dynamics GP features into the first entity began by moving existing data from QuickBooks into the new solution using templates provided by The TM Group.
The company’s homegrown billing system tracks all the finances for membership fees and dues. This produces many lines of intricate data. Before working with The TM Group, an employee would have to manually rekey data from the billing system journal into QuickBooks and not at the level of detail desired. The TM Group helped the business implement a better solution through Microsoft Dynamics GP. Now, employees can copy the exact data from the customized billing system and paste the information into Excel. Users are able to perform data entry tasks in moments that used to take half a day. The copy/paste functionality also now captures deeper revenue tracking into the ERP solution, so users can see individual client information like unique payment schedules.
The TM Group also showed the company how to utilize the Microsoft Dynamics GP electronic banking features within the general ledger. The organization can now automatically reconcile its bank accounts. The business improved the efficiency of its payables by managing credit cards in voucher entries. The new Microsoft Dynamics solution saves employee numerous steps in banking procedures and provides managers with better visibility of finances.
Implementation achieves goals
The company can see direct results from the ERP integration and implementation. By simplifying accounting procedures, obtaining sophisticated internal control of client records and streamlining financial communications, employees can keep tasks moving forward at a consistent pace.
The organization implemented Microsoft Dynamics GP with several goals for success, one of which was decreasing the length of time in its month-end close cycle. Before obtaining The TM Group’s ERP services, it would take the company somewhere between 14 to 16 days to close a sale. The nonprofit software company wanted to shorten that process to nine days or less. According to the most recent check-in, the new ERP solution accomplished that goal and the business considers the implementation a success.
