Choosing a New Finance System? Issues Arising from SORP Iain Pritchard - Adapta consulting

About Adapta Consulting Adapta is: A specialist information systems consultancy We only work with membership organisations, charities, associations, trusts and others in the NfP sector We are completely supplier-independent Our consultants have held senior positions in a broad range of different organisations Our advice and guidance is based on practical experience gained over many years.

The agenda for this session Welcome Accounting systems for charities Choosing the right package SORP and other configuration challenges Discussion Close

The state of the charity market

What’s Different About Charities? Analysis and Reporting eg. SORP, funder reports, possibly unusual VAT position Specialist income areas eg. Rent-accounting, Gift-Aid, fundraising Other third-party links eg. To/from web site Resources Accounting package requirements disproportionate to size/resources of organisation

What Do Charities Need (disproportionately)? Analysis and Reporting Flexible nominal analysis coding ( at least 3-way analysis) Ability to design/change reports easily Reports with “ drill-down ” for managers Integration To fundraising, CRM, specialist software, website Automation “Self service” web expenses/approval Online purchase ordering Image storage/linking (e.g. photo of rail ticket/scanned invoice) Journals - automatic

Drivers for change Poor management information/reporting Lack of automation/integration Finance staff bogged down with inefficient processes Duplication of effort Reliance spreadsheets to manipulate data

Possible business benefits of better accounting system Resource/cost reduction – time saved through new system, reducing the need to recruit additional staff to cope with business expansion, or reallocating to other tasks Better business information More flexible workforce Happier staff?

The main players (traditional systems)

“Cloud systems Sometimes known as “Software as a Service” (SaaS) Accessible using only a browser (plus possibly a mobile app) Data and application hosted by third party on their own systems Typically paid for on a “per user per month” basis

Potential benefits of cloud software Don’t need onsite servers Smaller organisations with no IT staff Lower initial costs Quicker deployment Easy to scale up/down Increased resilience Business continuity/disaster recovery Upgrades are easier Work from anywhere Greater security

Cloud software - possible pitfalls Wholly dependent on good Internet connection Service level guarantees? Security/firewall issues Integration with devices and between vendors Data Protection legislation (is the data held in EU?) Transactions volumes/speed/latency Fewer systems to choose from Usually priced on a “named user” basis Data transfer

Cloud software – other issues Contracts: – Don’t forget implementation costs – Contract length – Service level guarantee/compensation – Backup and restore schedule/responsibilities – Ongoing support – Ongoing costs

Some cloud offerings

Choosing the right package

A linear approach… Bus. CaseReq’ts ITTSelect Impl. Spec’Contract Sign offSpec’

Processes, people and technology Roles and people IT systems and software How things get done processes and workflows

Adaptive approach Business case and key processes Prototyping Specification and contract Expressions of interest and initial presentations Requirements document Short listLong listSelection

Configuration challenges

Some discussion…

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