Hospice in the Weald

The challenge

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End frustrating, error-prone manual processes and get better reporting

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A talented finance team that could deliver great value for Hospice in the Weald found itself trapped in frustrating manual work. Just getting data into the finance system was a prolonged and painful process – and getting management information out of it was even harder.

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With its old Sage 50 software, the team had no option but to import a lot of information from spreadsheets, enter a good deal of data by hand and perform constant manual corrections and updates. “All the processes we were performing just to get the information into the system were very long-winded, very manual and very time consuming,” says Kaushala Karunanayake, Head of Finance.

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The fact that purchase orders and purchase invoices were handled in another system, Dynamics, meant the data had to be laboriously rekeyed into the finance software, while complex tasks like depreciation and prepayments were done manually. “There was a lot of human error because there was so much manual intervention – and that was a major issue with so much data to transfer,” says Ashleigh Martlew, Finance Retail Business Partner.

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All this meant month-end took weeks of labour, after which the next batch of month-end work started almost immediately. “The reporting was very clunky,” Kaushala says. “Our management accounts would be finished around the fourth week after the end of the month in question – and even that was an improvement on the situation before I joined.”

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The solution

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Big time savings and greater accuracy

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The team knew the situation couldn’t continue – so it set up a project group to investigate alternative finance systems. iplicit struck the group from the outset as a system that could simplify the transactional work, deliver better reporting and integrate with other software. Staff on the project noticed iplicit was being constantly developed, with a host of improvements added between their first and second demos.

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Implementation, and the transfer of data from Sage 50, went without a hitch. “There was a plan in place, with regular catch-ups and a structure to follow, so we knew what we were doing between sessions,” says Ashleigh. The team keeps up to date on how to get maximum value from the software, with the help of regular check-ins with its customer success manager. “The initial implementation was great but I think the follow-ups have impressed me the most,” says Ashleigh.

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The team quickly saw significant benefits.

• In the past, complex accounting adjustments like fixed asset depreciation and prepayments were done the hard way, sucking up time and presenting plenty of scope for error. Now, the fixed asset register lives in iplicit and the software applies depreciation automatically. The prepayments covering rent, rates and insurance for 29 charity shops are also automated. “If you get the initial input right, the recurring stuff all just follows through so you’re minimising the risk of error,” says Claire Crockett, Assistant Financial Accountant.
• The team used to spend a lot of time on bank reconciliation. Now, the software reviews the bank feed automatically and matches it with supplier records, ready for human review – a process that has minimised processing time.
• The finance team used to be the department everyone had to ask for information. “A lot of my time used to be spent running reports for individual nominal codes because people wanted to see what was recorded under that particular code,” says Ashleigh. With iplicit, people throughout the charity are given the right level of access to self-service reporting. “Now, if people want to look at their month-end information and drill down to see what a figure consists of, they can see it in the system,” says Ashleigh.
• Payment runs used to involve so much work that they could only be done fortnightly. “Now, we can easily do a payment batch weekly or whenever needed,” says Ashleigh. “We can pay people in line with the terms they might be requesting, which improves relationships with our suppliers greatly.”
• By speeding up invoice processing and introducing straightforward, online approval workflows, the team has made it easier for budget holders to properly scrutinise spending. “Rather than it being a case of ‘We’ve got to pay it yesterday because we’ve only just got it into the system’, they can spend some time reviewing it,” says Ashleigh. “That’s improved their understanding of the finance side of things.”

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With all these efficiency gains, the month-end processes that used to go on all month have been drastically reduced. “We’re now down to 10-12 working days. That’s how significantly our reporting process has improved,” says Kaushala.

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“I’m doing a completely different job from the one I did before iplicit thanks to the ability to get reports and information out of the system."

Kaushala Karunanayake, Head of Finance

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The outcome

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Finance jobs have changed from data processing to analysis

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With iplicit widely adopted across the organisation – from senior leadership to volunteers – there has been a step change in the work of the finance team. Its role has become less process-driven and more strategic, a shift which led to the creation of Ashleigh’s role as Finance Retail Business Partner. Freed to really review and analyse the data, the team can help ensure every possible penny makes an impact at the frontline.

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“I’m doing a completely different job from the one I did before iplicit thanks to the ability to get reports and information out of the system,” Kaushala says.

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“We now have capacity to look at the financial information and to interpret, enquire and follow up on anything that we see as an issue. So we’re really starting to do our jobs better, rather than just being data processors, which is pretty much what we were previously. In team morale – and how we see our role as a finance team – that’s where the biggest change has been.”

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