Baker Tilly Helps Texas Nonprofit Modernize its Finances, Streamline Processes, and Save 50 Hours Per Month

Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Dallas Simplifies Scholarship Management and Increases Internal Controls with Modern Nonprofit Technology Solutions

Houston, TX - Baker Tilly, the accounting and finance experts specializing in the Nonprofit Industry, made a new case study available today featuring the successful implementation of more modern nonprofit technology solutions for the team at Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Dallas (BGCD), one of the leading youth-serving organizations in North Texas. BGCD positively enables more than 8,700 young people, especially those who need it most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens. The Accounting and Finance Team at BGCD now have an easier job of managing scholarships, less paper and Excel spreadsheets thanks to integrated systems, and enjoy a much simpler chart of accounts for their many locations.

All in all, BGCD’s Vice President of Finance, Cecilia Rivas, estimates the team saves more than 50 hours per month of time from the elimination of duplicated effort, the reduction in paper-based filing and processes, and now has better and more accurate reporting with no required Excel manipulation.

“We all see the light at the end of tunnel. We all see more reasonable working hours coming soon. [J]ust getting rid of all the paper processes and reducing the necessary filing is a huge thing for us,” said Rivas.

When Rivas arrived at BGCD in January 2020, she and Anita Goble, an accountant who’d been with the organization for about 3 years, both realized there were several potential improvements they could make by moving to a modern cloud-based system. The organization was running its finances on an older legacy system that had seen little change or improvement in more than 30 years. Rivas also saw process and internal controls improvements she could implement alongside the new accounting system, such as simplifying their complex chart of accounts.

“Dimensions are a lifesaver,” said Rivas when asked about improvements since working with Baker Tilly. BGCD’s chart of accounts had grown large and unwieldy. It was difficult to track the various dimensions of the organization – in addition to 35 locations, they have multiple departments, projects, grants, and scholarships. As with many legacy accounting systems, those dimensions had to be reflected in increasingly complex account codes for even limited reporting to be possible.

“We have 35 locations, and we use 10 different dimensions,” said Rivas.

Rivas sees reporting as a huge opportunity for improvement and mentioned attending Baker Tilly’s Faith-based Finance Collaborative, a Nonprofit and Faith-Based user conference. Based on reporting sessions she attended, she said she can already see the opportunity for automating reports, setting up dashboards, and providing real-time insights about the organization’s financial and operational health.

“One of our programs is called Collegiate Steps where we work with young kids through high school to get them college scholarships and then we track those scholarships. We wanted to track by the student and by the scholarship and we have 50 to 100 different scholarships. And every year we've got 50 to 100 different students, so you can imagine tracking that on a spreadsheet is just a nightmare. Now we have it running through Sage Intacct and that probably made our Staff Accountant the happiest I’ve ever seen her: Getting that set up within the actual accounting system and not having to have that spreadsheet anymore.”

COVID Accelerates Adoption Timeline

Updating the finance and accounting technology was part of a larger organizational push at BGCD to modernize their systems. Other aspects of that initiative include moving to a new payroll system, migrating to Microsoft Office 365, and starting the process of architecting a new donor management system on the Salesforce platform. The effects of the COVID pandemic only increased the urgency and timeline of these initiatives.

“Our Operations Director recently commented to me that because of COVID we’ve compressed five years of technology advancement into a single year’s timeframe,” said Rivas.

A Partner with Industry Experience Was Key To Success

Rivas explained that when it comes to implementing accounting technology, she finds industry expertise and an understanding of nonprofits to be extremely important. “The folks at Baker Tilly  really are nonprofit finance experts. That’s clear to me from going through this process with them as a guide,” said Rivas.

Challenges:

-30+ year old accounting system with performance issues and limited access
-Forced to manage Fixed Assets and Bank Reconciliation processes outside the accounting system in Excel
-Unwieldy Chart of Accounts to accommodate multiple locations, grants, scholarships, and other dimensions
-Lack of integrations with other systems

Benefits:

-Dimensional accounting streamlines chart of accounts and allows for better data capture and reporting
-Improved processes/Fewer processes in Excel
-Ability to implement ACH functionality
-Better anytime, anywhere access to the system
-Integration with donor system

To read the full case study, click here. 

About Baker Tilly

Baker Tilly provides the people, processes, and technology to transform finance and accounting into a strategic asset. We exist to remove the clutter of manual tasks and to provide clarity to finance and business leaders. We primarily serve high-growth organizations in North America with a focus on Nonprofits, Software-as-a-Service, Home Services, and Energy companies. Our focus is the result of years of experience serving finance and accounting leadership in these industries. Baker Tilly  is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

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