Case Study: Leicester City Football Club configures complex workflows with integrated financial software

The issues behind needing a new finance system

The club identified that it needed to invest in financial software that would produce significant time savings in administrative roles, and a higher level of automation within the club’s organisation.

There were many ‘sub systems’ where different members of staff monitored their operations independently. This made bringing all the information together a labour intensive game, that often went into extra time. Another key issue was the need to deliver reports to directors and section managers easily and accurately.

Seeing the finance software in action

Although Leicester City was happy with the Access Group’s presentation and software suggestions, being able to talk with another club that already use the software was very reassuring.

Kevin Davies, Financial Controller at Leicester City FC, felt that, "As the Access solution was already in place at other top flight football and rugby clubs, they were able to demonstrate that they understood how our type of business operates and what demands we face. Better still, we were able to visit one of these clubs, see the system in operation and discuss with our counterparts. This re-assurance afforded us the confidence to know we were choosing the right solution for LCFC.”

The solution

Access delivered a solution that included Access Financials for finance and Access Financials Operations. Leicester City FC now have key management information readily available whenever they need it.

The club enjoys the ability to impose controls and they have vastly improved visibility around spending.

What’s more, there’s a document management system in place that provides great benefits for a business like Leicester City, involving everything from bars to ticket sales and souvenir shops.

The implementation

Access delivered the system on time – without anyone pointedly looking at their watch.

Kevin commented, “The functionality of Financials Operations as a web-based solution allowed us to roll out a great deal to non-finance personnel in a controlled way that is efficient from a licensing point of view.”

There were no disruptions for the business and everything went smoothly. Kevin Davies said, “Access has an established and well-regarded solution with a pedigree in top flight football and rugby clubs which particularly appealed to us.”

He continued, “As a UK software author we were able to speak to directors and other key people in their business directly, individuals that actually impact the direction of software development. We feel we have selected a business we can have a long-term partnership with.”

Results round-up

Other great results produced by the new solution include the ability to:

• Quickly gain electronic approval of purchase requests/invoices
• Analyse by parameter such as fixture or event profitability
• Analyse purchasing spend by product types and suppliers
• View transactions – excellent drill-down functionality

Kevin Davies commented, “The integration of Access Financials and Access Financials Operations software allows us to configure many different workflows of varying complexity. This allows us to configure the system to work in the way that we need it to, enabling us to achieve our key objectives from the implementation.”

Leicester City FC now have Financial software that delivers everything they need to stay ahead of the game.