Driving student success is the foundation for every charter school. Yet, many suffer from the same problem – operational inefficiencies related to financial and business support. When it comes down to it, the best schools are all about providing top-notch education, which leaves running a business at the bottom of the priority pile. Recognizing this widespread issue, the Charter School Management Corporation (CSMC), seized an opportunity to make a difference with leading nonprofit software.
CSMC is a unique non-profit education organization that provides comprehensive finance, accounting, compliance, and academic data support services for charter schools nationwide. While their previous solution, Sage 300 (supported by their long-time partner, Equation Technologies), managed the business, CSMC recognized the need for a more modern, cloud-based ERP system to keep pace with their rapidly evolving demands. After reviewing options with our team, CSMC decided to Sage Intacct’s innovative technology. would allow them to streamline their most complex financial processes and empower them to scale with confidence. This, in turn, helped more of their charter school clients to overcome back-office challenges and stay focused on their #1 goal: providing the best education to their students.
So, how exactly did Sage Intacct help CSMC do all this? 100% our team’s expertise. It was all us. Kidding! Our team is great, but there’s a reason Sage Intacct is one of the top nonprofit software options for financial management. Here’s the top 5 impacts:
- Increased Flexibility & Better Communication
Non-profits operating in the cloud enjoy a host of added benefits not found with a traditional on-premise ERP system. One of the most common of these benefits is remote collaboration and the flexibility on where and when people can access information.
The cloud offers seamless access to servers, data, networks, and applications so that essentially, wherever there is Internet, people can access their data. This is particularly important for schools because their clients are parents within the community, and, we all know, parents don’t work the typical 9 to 5 jobs. The cloud’s flexibility allows CSMC staff to engage with parents and manage school operations from anywhere, ultimately improving communication and productivity between CSMC and their clients.
Being in the cloud also allows Sage to roll out system updates automatically and effortlessly on the side of the system owner. Patricia Meckes, the Vice President of Accounting at CSMC says, “I love that Intacct sends out those quarterly improvements. They're always working to improve the product versus Sage 300. We were server-based [with Sage 300], so, if we're going to make an improvement, that means everybody shuts down so we can update the system. It’s so challenging to do that we don’t want to do it very often.”
- Open API Platform
The non-profit education sector is unique in many ways. One is that it has a lot of government reporting and requirements that are specific to schools and school districts. They often need a variety of add-on nonprofit software solutions for payroll, budgeting, and purchase orders that provide a high level of detail and accuracy and that also work flawlessly with their existing workflows and other systems.
Unfortunately, businesses that frequently deal with integration issues and struggle with a lack of seamless collaboration lose up to 20-30% of their revenue. Sage Intacct’s API integrations allow education non-profits to seamlessly connect to other best-in-class nonprofit software solutions using Sage Intacct’s web services accounting API. Meckes states, “What I like about Intacct is they have a lot of partners, and they have a lot of solutions out there. It seems to be that a lot of different companies are anxious to work with Intacct. So, I do love that because it gives us a lot of choice, not just for now, but for the future.”
- Streamlined Operations
In CSMC’s previous ERP system, Sage 300, searching and browsing for files and documentation took multiple clicks and steps. Sage Intacct provides a drag-and-drop function for invoices, bank transactions, general ledger transactions, and more. The time saved across CSMC was significant and allowed their staff to focus more on the stuff that truly matters, like providing support and empowering education leaders so they can lead high-quality schools. It sounds cheesy, but it’s actually true.
Meckes says, “I love the drag and drop feature in Intacct. We can drop and drag anything, not just invoices because we were limited to invoices using a previous add-on software. For bank transactions, we can drop and drag for any general ledger transactions. The support is right there. And I just love that because our schools and our partners use that.” Sage Intacct’s drag-and-drop feature is a real game-changer for CSMC. It’s saved them at least 30 minutes per audit. With about 50 clients, they’ve saved a minimum of 25-30 hours with this feature alone.
- Supports Transparency
Transparency matters in a non-profit organization and is critical to the credibility and integrity of the organization. It is so important that organizations with a GuideStar Seal of Transparency receive 53% more in contributions. The same research also found that non-profits that elect to be more transparent had stronger performance across a range of governance, financial, and operational dimensions. In short, transparent organizations are stronger organizations.
One way CSMC provides transparency to its clients and partners is through its custom Charter Vision portal. The Equation team helped leverage Sage Intacct so that it supports CSMC’s transparency goals by seamlessly connecting to the Charter Vision portal and pushing real-time information out to it for stakeholders to access. One main benefit of this is the ability for stakeholders to effortlessly access reports through the portal in real time. Client calls to CSMC are reduced since they can access the portal 24/7 and pull up the information they need… as soon as they need it. Additionally, the reports are quick to download because Sage Intacct is in the cloud and doesn’t need to connect through a server (another bonus for our first point).
- Custom Reporting
Sage Intacct’s custom reports provide education non-profits with unparalleled visibility into business financials. Coupled with its user-friendly interface and Equation’s help, CSMC was able to create and personalize these reports (without extra cost) so they could easily monitor and track their unique metrics and key KPIs. Additionally, with Sage Intacct’s drill-down tool, the team has the option to delve deeper into specific insights to further analyze and slice and dice the data to uncover trends or patterns that aren’t immediately clear on the surface. Of all the features, Meckes most appreciates this drill-down feature in Sage Intacct. “That’s my favorite thing about Intacct is the drill-down features, and I think most of our staff would agree.”
Sage Intacct, along with our team’s expertise we might add, helps to empower education non-profits by providing financial management software that works for them, not against them. CSMC was able to streamline operations, enhance transparency, increase flexibility, improve communication, and more by working closely with our experts to move operations to Sage Intacct. If you’re in the education non-profit industry, and you’re keen to see how Sage Intacct can help your business, reach out to our experts today. We’re happy to help!
