Automating finance processes means more resources for service delivery

How Sage Intacct transformed World Learning’s financial processes and accelerated their digital transformation journey?

‘We became 100% electronic. All the approvals are happening electronically, all the timesheets get collected electronically, all the employee onboarding and offboarding gets done electronically and all our facility requests are managed within our ERP.’

As an organisation dealing with global issues, World Learning must move quickly to respond to new challenges - challenges such as COVID-19. The increased automation of the charity’s financial processes allowed them to work in a more agile way, and to respond dynamically to changing circumstances.

The switch also gave an increased amount of visibility to internal stakeholders. One of the core precepts of charity finance management is the importance of accountability. With an increased number of charities applying for a smaller pool of funds, those charities that can prove the efficacy of their spending will be in a better position to secure further funding. This means that accountability is more important than ever.

The team at World Learning found Sage Intacct’s dashboards easy to use, ensuring that senior management could access key topline information quickly and easily.

‘The dashboards had the capability to get the right information to the right people at the right time.

 

There was no need to run reports, manipulate them in Excel and manually forward them to decision-makers.’

This further helped to increase the efficiency of World Learning’s operations, freeing up staff to focus more directly on the organisation’s mission of education, sustainable development and exchange programs.

‘We saved at least five full-time equivalent jobs just within finance. Probably more across the organisation.’

Increased visibility means data-driven decision can be made more quickly

‘Budgeting was several months of process that involved Excel spreadsheets and a lot of wasted time across the organisation. Now it’s seamless.’

Alongside increased efficiency and greater transparency, one of the key benefits World Learning experienced was the ability to make more data-driven decisions. By breaking down data silos, and streamlining accounting processes, World Learning was able to more accurately calculate the number of students they were working with, enabling them to implement more detailed scenario planning. This makes it easier for organisations like World Learning to navigate unforeseen events like COVID-19.

These savings of time and capacity enabled World Learning to focus their energy and resources towards achieving their mission.

‘As time frees up and resources become available we can invest it in our mission.’

Although World Learning is a major organisation, their experience mirrors that of a lot of smaller charities who automate their financial processes. By utilising fit for purpose finance management software, charities can free up capacity to focus on other roles and increase the resources dedicated to achieving their mission.

Sage Intacct helps nonprofits pursue their mission more efficiently with a sophisticated financial management solution designed to automate and streamline manual processes so organisations can focus on achieving their mission successfully. Learn more about Sage Intacct for nonprofits here.