Case Study: Church Mission Society saves 200+ hours monthly, equating to £50k yearly

The challenge

CMS had been using Sage 100 for 10 years, but the software was struggling to meet the charity’s needs. The system, including the data, was unreliable and it was difficult for finance users to add or search for information. What’s more, Sage didn’t integrate with Raiser’s Edge and other systems used by CMS, so staff relied on various manual processes.

“It was hard if not impossible to report on CMS’s activities adequately,” says Stafford Cruse, Head of Finance for CMS. “Fund accounting is critical for us. We need to know where our money is being allocated in a timely manner.”

CMS was also eager to reduce back-office admin and automate its manual processes “so more resources and funds could be focused on the communities we serve,” says Stafford.

The discovery

CMS worked with an external consultancy group to write the RFI and tender. Stafford then worked with CMS’s IT manager to review possible solutions,which included Advanced Business Solutions and PS Financials. “We chose Access because it offered a competitive price, and its finance software could integrate with Raiser’s Edge, which was key for us,” says Stafford.

“Access Financials & Access Financials Operations offered us web-based self service facilities staff could use to access details of their project spend and status wherever they were based.”

The results

Having implemented Access Financials & Access Financials Operations, CMS has seen benefits across its charity:

Simplifies nominal codes

Access’ project costing functionality has made the biggest difference to CMS,which has 750 active projects being funded at any one point in time. “The system helped us reduce our complex nominal fund structure,” says Stafford. “Before, we were managing 23,000 codes, but we’ve been able to cut that down to 400 codes. The Costing module is more flexible for setting up our chart of accounts.”

Easier to manage nominal codes combined with automated processes have saved CMS almost a day and a half every month.

Saves more time after eliminating paper processes

Automated processes have improved efficiency throughout the charity. Non-finance staff can now enter transactions such as purchase requests through Access Financials Operations – instead of using five different paper based forms.

“Using Access Financials Operations,we’ve streamlined our authorisation process so we’re not passing invoices around the building or losing them on people’s desks,” he says.

Reduces admin for the accounting team

CMS now has full visibility over its financial information, and team members are working from the same data. With Access’ integrated document management solution, CMS was able to set user permissions for staff to access specific documents.

“Our fundraisers can view gift aid declarations and membership forms whenever they need them,” says Stafford.“This saves them time, and it’s also had a positive effect on our finance team, who now receive 50 per cent fewer requests for information.”

The reduction in admin is creating other noticeable improvements. CMS no longer has to manually reconcile its systems, and with other benefits, this saves the finance department two days every month.

“We’ve been able to reduce headcount in our back office by nearly 20 per cent. That’s allowed us to redirect those funds into mission opportunities.”

Stronger fund accounting and reporting

By linking up every part of its organisation, CMS has full visibility and control over the use of its incoming resources, which are split into three main areas – £5m donation income, £1m legacy income and £1/2m investment income.

“We’re able to run more than 160 mission partner reports in five minutes,” says Stafford.“Previously, that would have taken a fundraiser three days a month using spreadsheets to build the reports. FocalPoint ensures reports are now available to users on demand without needing to contact the finance team.”

Being able to easily upload and extract data with Access Financials & Access Financials Operations has greatly improved CMS’ management and departmental reporting – approximately half a day each month has been saved due to process automation.

“The reports contain more detail with drill downs to the transaction level,” he says. “We can easily slice and dice the information in a variety of ways, and data is instantly refreshed with a touch of the button. For example, we can breakdown the information by grant, region or activity – it’s very useful.”

Better planning for the future

Access’ browser-based dashboard provides the CMS team, wherever they are, with instant access to real-time information in a visual format with drill-down facilities.

“This has made a big difference to our staff because they can track how we’re performing against KPIs such as the progress on appeals, increase in members, major gifts pledged and active donors,” says Stafford.

Communicating financial data in a more visual format has provided greater clarity and understanding across the CMS team.

"It’s driven discussion on many areas of our work such as how to develop fundraising and better utilisation of resources, as well as helping to drive the development of the five-year financial plan,” he said.