Manage your entire organization with one solution and enable access from anywhere, anytime. Contact Quisitive to learn about your options or to book a Business Central Migration Assessment.
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Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation
Learn how Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation has been able to improve productivity, ensure the accuracy and accessibility of financial insights, and increase the understanding of cost drivers for better decision-making with Business Central and custom apps developed by Quisitive.
Streamlining Non profit ERP: Small charity migrates to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central in less than four weeks with the help of Quisitive.
Client: Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation
Industry: Non profit
Products and Services: Dynamics 365 Business Central
Country: Canada
“We knew it was time to look for a new ERP solution that could meet our financial management needs and support a remote work environment brought on by the pandemic.”
Vice President, Finance & Administration, ORCF
Overview
The Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation (ORCF), an Ottawa-based non-profit, struggled to manage finances effectively due to an outdated ERP system. The lack of multi-segment coding made it challenging for ORCF to allocate costs accurately and report activities to tax authorities. Additionally, the solution’s on-premises server was approaching end-of-life, causing further complications for the organization.OCRF realized the need for a modern cloud ERP solution to address these issues and improve financial management and reporting.
After careful consideration, the organization partnered with Quisitive and migrated to Dynamics 365 Business Central. With Business Central and custom apps developed by Quisitive, ORCF has been able to improve productivity, ensure the accuracy and accessibility of financial insights, and increase the understanding of cost drivers for better decision-making.
About ORCF: The Voice for Cancer Survivorship in Eastern Ontario
Founded in 1995, ORCF supports cancer patients and survivors in Eastern Ontario. The foundation operates two main business lines: fundraising and patient support delivery, providing person-centered care to cancer patients. ORCF achieves its mission by offering innovative cancer research, a world-class clinical trials program, and increasing access to care in the region. ORCF’s patient-focused approach and commitment to providing high-quality cancer care and support has earned ORCF a reputation as the voice for cancer survivorship in Eastern Ontario.
The Challenge: Relying on a Legacy On-Premises ERP System & Server Approaching End-of-Life
Before launching Business Central, ORCF’s on-premises ERP system was causing significant challenges for the organization. The systems’ shortcomings increased manual work, errors, and confusion regarding the organization’s financial landscape. To overcome these challenges, ORCF recognized the need for a modern cloud-based ERP solution that could provide advanced features such as multi-segment cost coding, automated workflows, and robust controls that could operate seamlessly in a remote work setting.
ORCF’s decision to migrate to Business Central with Microsoft Partner, Quisitive, was based on several factors:
- Quisitive’s excellent reputation in the local non-profit market
- The non-profit pricing offered by Microsoft
- The multi-segment coding feature of Business Central
- Automated workflows for approvals
- Business Central’s off-the-shelf functionality
- Quisitive’s ability to develop custom applications for employee expense approvals and credit card reconciliation, which would round out the scope of the project needs
Getting Started with Business Central in Less Than Four Months
ORCF’s finance team worked closely with Quisitive to plan and launch Business Central in just four months.
“We knew it was time to look for a new ERP solution that could meet our financial management needs and support a remote work environment brought on by the pandemic," says Jason Kempt, Vice President, Finance & Administration at ORCF.
The implementation process also involved Quisitive creating custom Business Central apps to streamline processes and improve efficiency. One of the custom applications created was an employee expenses app that allowed users to scan receipts and enter expenses, which would then be routed for approval. The credit card reconciliation app automated data entry and eliminated the need for paper. Statements were sent to cardholders and imported into the app, which would then translate the expenses and route them to the unit for approval.
Implementing Business Central and Quisitive’s custom apps resulted in significant time savings and improved organizational efficiencies. The ORCF was also able to generate more accurate and accessible reports. The workflows for purchase requisitions and employee expenses were much more user-friendly and efficient than the previous processes, which staff members were very pleased with.
“Implementing Business Central was smooth and efficient thanks to Quisitive’s expertise and support,”
Vice President, Finance & Administration, ORCF
Getting Started with Business Central in Less Than Four Months
Since launching Business Central, ORCF has experienced substantial enhancements in its financial management processes. Multi-segment coding has enabled them to understand cost structure more effectively, while automated workflows for approvals have streamlined operations, saved time, and enhanced productivity. With real-time reports based on accurate data, ORCF now has the information they need to make informed decisions quickly. Overall, Business Central has been a game-changer for ORCF, providing them with the necessary tools to efficiently manage their finances and support their mission.
Improved Productivity and Efficiency
Automating requisition and expense workflows and enabling cloud-based document storage and retention in Business Central has resulted in faster delivery of month-end reports and easier day-to-day financial management. ORFC’s finance team can now complete tasks more efficiently and accurately, allowing them to focus on more strategic and value-adding activities.
“Business Central has made our entire organization more productive and informed,” said Jason. “The multi-segment reporting helps non-financial users understand the cost behaviour of our business and we can produce timely financial data and reports without Excel," says Kempt.
Enhanced Accuracy of Cost Allocation with Multi-Segmented Reporting
Business Central’s multi-segment reporting (or dimensions) has improved the accuracy and allocation of costs. By eliminating the need for manual work to allocate central costs to business activities, dimensions have provided a deeper understanding of cost behavior within the organization.
Increased Accountability and Better Decision-Making
With Business Central, ORCF can easily toggle between budget accountability and the full cost of business activities, including support functions with different budget holders. This visibility has increased accountability on the expense side and facilitated informed decision-making. By providing a clear picture of cost drivers for business activities, Business Central has empowered ORCF to allocate resources more effectively.
Streamlined Expense and Credit Card Reconciliation
Quisitive’s custom-built employee expense and credit card reconciliation apps for Business Central have significantly simplified ORCF’s reconciliation process. With the employee expense app, employees can easily upload photos of receipts or attach PDF invoices to an online form, freeing up their time and streamlining the process. The credit card reconciliation app automates data entry, reducing the chances of errors and saving time for both employees and managers.
“The employee expense app is great,” said Jason. “Employees can take pictures of receipts or attach PDF invoices and upload to an online form—which automatically routes for approval. This app has saved a lot of clerical time and puts the onus to code things properly on the business user. Lastly, the approved document makes a properly coded A/P entry in Business Central for the accounting staff to post.”
“With the new credit card reconciliation app in Business Central, manual data entry has become completely unnecessary,” continued Jason. “Because the corporate credit card user pre-populates the form with transactions from the bank via CSV upload, everything is done quickly and without errors. This has saved us days of work and ensure our costs are accurately reported.”
“With the new credit card reconciliation app in Business Central, manual data entry has become completely unnecessary.”
Vice President, Finance & Administration, ORCF
Greater Accessibility & Flexibility
As a cloud-based solution, Business Central offers ORCF complete accessibility and security. Staff can now access the system and data from various devices, allowing them to work remotely or in different locations. Additionally, automatic updates and upgrades eliminate the need for IT staff to manually install updates on a server or individual devices, ensuring that all users are using the latest version.
ORCF continues to enhance its financial management processes in Business Central while exploring more advanced features to identify opportunities for improvement. With their focus on becoming more proficient in the core product, including the fixed assets module, ORCF aims to stay ahead of the curve. Their dedication to leveraging technology and innovation to support their mission highlights their commitment to driving success for the organization and the community they serve.
Strengthen Team Connections and Better Manage Projects & Funds with The Cloud
Times have certainly changed! Not everyone has a desk at a physical office, and many of your nonprofit employees and volunteers may spend most of their time in the field – networking, meeting with members and donors, or working from home. Nonprofits are seizing the opportunity to strengthen connections with their team, stay apprised of important situations, and connect the many working parts of the organization by offering remote access with cloud-based solutions.
When your board members, employees, and volunteers are working from different locations and at different times, staying current with projects, budgets or grant expenses, and member demands can be challenging. Email, phone calls, and spreadsheets are time-consuming, disjointed, and often inaccurate.
A robust cloud-based accounting solution, like Dynamics 365 or Sage Intacct, can improve communication and collaboration with your team using secure remote access features.
- Manage both qualified and non-qualified grant spending
- Monitor grant activities
- Get real-time insight into your nonprofit operations
- Keep grant projects on schedule and in compliance with associated budgets
- Ensure teams can coordinate and communicate anywhere, anytime
- Analyze and respond to donor or member needs
A new age of cloud-based nonprofit accounting software
Another key aspect of cloud-based non-profit accounting systems like Intacct and Dynamics 365 is the ability to easily budget, forecast, and other powerful financial planning tools to show transparency and fiscal responsibility. Increased data insights can give you confidence when making prudent decisions, creating attainable strategic goals, and using the limited funding you may have available. You can also use the robust reporting tools to show your board of directors, membership base, and the community you serve that you are committed to complying with grant stewardship and other regulatory standards.
Stay in touch with your team from any location and at any time.
Learn how the cloud can empower your accounting team and why nonprofits are moving financial management to the cloud.
Download the “Benefits of Cloud-Based Nonprofit Accounting Software, Why Non-Profits are Moving Finance Management to the Cloud” and Contact Quisitive to learn how a cloud-based accounting and financial management solution can transform how your teams interact and how your leadership makes decisions.
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Data Sheet: Cloud Accounting Software for Nonprofit Member Associations
Understand the ins and outs of Sage Intacct Accounting Software for Nonprofit Member Associations with this downloadable data sheet.
At Quisitive, we’re passionate about providing nonprofit accounting software that helps you navigate the complexity and demands of nonprofit financial management. Nonprofits face unique challenges: from compliance reporting to generating outcome metrics and providing real-time visibility—we want you to spend less time on administrative tasks and more time on what matters: advancing your mission.
In this datasheet, you’ll learn more about how Sage Intacct…
Is built for nonprofits
Provides real-time visibility and insights
Offers true cloud technology with open API
Contains a long list of capabilities
Is recognized by finance experts
Access the datasheet
Fill out the form to get instant access.
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The Canadian Paralympic Committee Gets Real-Time Reporting and Decision-Making with Dynamics 365 Business Central
See how Business Central has helped the Canadian Paralympic Committee save time, and produce real-time time reports for decision-making.
In this case study:
Client: Canadian Paralympic Committee
Industry: Non profit
Products and Services: Dynamics 365 Business Central
Country: Canada
“Business Central has transformed our accounting processes and has greatly enhanced our ability to make decisions that have a real impact on our organization and the many organizations and individuals that we support.”
CPA, Executive Director of Corporate Services
About the Canadian Paralympic Committee
Ottawa-based non-profit, the Canadian Paralympic Committee, faced financial reporting challenges caused by multiple projects and manual processes. Thanks to Executive Director of Corporate Services, Laurie Cairns, and Microsoft Partner, Corporate Renaissance Group (a Quisitive company), the company migrated its processes and systems to Dynamics 365 Business Central.
A year after implementation and in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and its global effects, the organization is seeing the benefits of a cloud-based system for streamlined accounting and agile financial and operational reporting on decision-making.
Situation
The Canadian Paralympic Committee is a non-profit, private organization with 25 member sports organizations dedicated to strengthening the Paralympic Movement. The Canadian Paralympic Committee’s vision is to be the world’s leading Paralympic nation. Its mission is to lead the development of a sustainable Paralympic sport system in Canada to enable athletes to reach the podium at the Paralympic Games. By supporting Canadian high-performance athletes with a disability and promoting their success, the Canadian Paralympic Committee inspires all Canadians with a disability to get involved in sport through programs delivered by its member organizations.
Prior to launching Dynamics 365 Business Central in April of 2019, the Canadian Paralympic Committee relied on an off-the-shelf accounting tool and manual Excel-based reporting to handle financial and operational planning and analysis. With processes being carried out manually, the organization was experiencing an inefficient use of staff resources and a lag in generating financial reports, which resulted in a problematic delay in strategic decision-making within the organization.
“We needed flexibility in reporting and the ability to generate reports automatically from our accounting software vs. exporting and doing everything in Excel,”
CPA, Executive Director of Corporate Services
Given the complex nature of the organization, the importance of proper expense tracking and approvals, and the volume of projects, the organization needed a better way to manage their business.
The Search for Better Solution
The Canadian Paralympic Committee officially selected Dynamics 365 Business Central and began work in December of 2018 with partner, CRGroup, a Quisitive Company.
With the help of CRGroup, the Canadian Paralympic Committee started in Business Central with a new Chart of Accounts and over 2 years of historical financial data was brought over for reporting. CRGroup worked with Laurie to leverage the ‘dimension’ feature in Business Central to reduce the number of projects significantly. CRGroup created new reports in Business Central that factored in the new chart of accounts and additional 4 dimensions so the Committee could look at their business in real-time and from many different angles and levels – giving them information to make decisions quickly and accurately. Finally, CRGroup worked to create workflows using Power Automate, which would allow for a streamlined approval process and reduce the time it takes to process transactions.
The entire implementation only took three months, and by April of 2019, the Committee was live with Business Central.
Solution
The Canadian Paralympic Committee is a non-profit, private organization with 25 member sports organizations dedicated to strengthening the Paralympic Movement. The Canadian Paralympic Committee’s vision is to be the world’s leading Paralympic nation. Its mission is to lead the development of a sustainable Paralympic sport system in Canada to enable athletes to reach the podium at the Paralympic Games. By supporting Canadian high-performance athletes with a disability and promoting their success, the Canadian Paralympic Committee inspires all Canadians with a disability to get involved in sport through programs delivered by its member organizations.
Prior to launching Dynamics 365 Business Central in April of 2019, the Canadian Paralympic Committee relied on an off-the-shelf accounting tool and manual Excel-based reporting to handle financial and operational planning and analysis. With processes being carried out manually, the organization was experiencing an inefficient use of staff resources and a lag in generating financial reports, which resulted in a problematic delay in strategic decision-making within the organization.
“The entire implementation was seamless and smooth thanks to CRGroup. Despite starting at year-end, the CRGroup team was there to support us every step of the way. I built strong connections and friendships with our consultants and was always impressed with their level of responsiveness, experience, and guidance. It was also very helpful that they had accounting designations because they understood the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of our needs.”
CPA, Executive Director of Corporate Services
Benefits
Since launching, the Canadian Paralympic Committee has realized significant benefits from Business Central and Power Automate. By providing greater visibility into projects, expenses and data, and by automating vital tasks, Business Central has helped to save valuable time, streamlined processes, and has produced accurate data and real-time time reports for decision making.
Biggest Impacts of Dynamics 365 Business Central at the Canadian Paralympic Committee
- Manual entry and reporting processes have been eliminated, shifting staff’s time from administrative tasks to more strategic activities.
- Month-end close and reporting timelines have been significantly shortened.
- The flexibility in reporting has allowed the organization to better segment and use data for strategic decision making and in operational planning.
- Using Power Automate, the organization’s expense claim process was completely automated. Staff can review and approve expenses in Business Central quickly and from anywhere.
- Errors in expense submissions are now under control due to the ability for users to see coding and identify issues before they are even posted.
As a cloud-based system, Dynamics 365 Business Central has allowed the organization’s finance team and employees to work remotely and securely access their data. This is important for today’s modern workforce that increasingly expects systems and technologies to be available and accessible ‘on-the-go’, but has been especially crucial with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, where staff has required remote access.
“Given our current environment and the COVID-19 pandemic, we would have been halted for business reporting if we hadn’t made the move to Business Central. We also would not have been able to be as flexible and nimble in our shift to a remote working environment,”said Laurie.
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Quisitive Helps Non-Profit Hospital Establish Disaster Recovery in the Azure Cloud
As COVID-19 increased urgency, Quisitive helped this non-profit hospital prepare their environment for an emergency and establish disaster recovery with Azure Site Recovery.
In this case study:
Industry: Healthcare, Non profit
Products and Services: Azure Site Recovery, Disaster Recovery, Regulatory Compliance
Country: USA
“From both an operational and data protection standpoint, the redundancy provided by Disaster Recovery is crucial for any organization working in the modern world. This is especially true in healthcare, where doctors rely on the availability of patient data to provide quality care,”
Azure Infrastructure Architect at Quisitive
COVID-19 Increases Urgency for Disaster Recovery for Non-Profit
Quisitive was engaged by a non-profit hospital with over 5,000 employees to help the organization understand rational and business opportunities for establishing disaster recovery within the Azure cloud.
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the hospital, like many, experienced a nearly overwhelming influx of patients. They had experienced some systems and applications going down for periods of time in the past, but, in the current climate, an outage would be unacceptable if they were to lose access to their systems again with the number of patients now moving through their care. They needed a solution that could get them up and running again in less time with limited impact.
Disaster Recovery is a solution that protects an environment, whether physical or in the cloud, by creating an exact copy that a business can access and reimplement if something were to go wrong. In the case of this hospital, storing these copies of their on-premises data centers in the Azure cloud would provide the added benefit of cost savings by removing the need for duplicate hardware or a physical space to store it.
“From both an operational and data protection standpoint, the redundancy provided by Disaster Recovery is crucial for any organization working in the modern world. This is especially true in healthcare, where doctors rely on the availability of patient data to provide quality care,” says Greg Birdwell, Azure Infrastructure Architect at Quisitive.
Ensuring Regulatory Compliance in the Azure Cloud
Before Quisitive could begin to design a solution, it was important to gain a full picture of the hospital’s current environment. Quisitive did this through a detailed assessment to get a sense of existing inventory, requirements, and compliance.
Quisitive’s assessment began by validating that the hospital’s Azure subscription met all security and compliance requirements. In addition, Quisitive conducted joint sessions between the client and the Quisitive team, where Quisitive not only accessed the Azure environment but also demonstrated that access was secure and compliant.
Azure Site Recovery Offers Native Disaster Recovery that Meets Regulatory Compliance
Once Quisitive felt highly confident in the security of the hospital’s Azure environment, they began to architect a solution that addressed their needs in the event of a disaster.
Quisitive used Azure Site Recovery as the foundation for this solution as it offers ease of deployment, cost-effectiveness, and dependability to its users. Azure Site Recovery is a disaster recovery-as-a-service offering from Microsoft that is native to Azure and allows organizations to deploy replication, failover, and recovery processes through Site Recovery to help keep applications running during planned or unplanned outages.
Once access was gained to the hospital’s Azure subscription, Quisitive proceeded to architect and implement the hospital’s Azure Site Recovery environment, including setting up storage and network and performing all work according to security requirements.
Partnership Sets Non-Profit Hospital Up for Success Post-Engagement
A strong disaster recovery strategy does not end with the conclusion of the engagement. To ensure the hospital’s internal IT team was prepared to continue the strategy as designed, Quisitive provided instructions on how to retrieve and install the Azure Site Recovery Process Server on-premises from the Azure distributed OVF file.
Once the Azure Site Recovery Process Server was installed, Quisitive connected it to the Azure Site Recovery environment so the process server could register on-premises VMs that will be protected with Azure Site Recovery.
Agents were then manually installed on each of the VMs due to the small sample of machines. The datacenter agents were installed by the client’s internal team with Quisitive providing technical guidance and consultation. Once the agents were installed, replication was able to begin and continue on a predetermined schedule.
Once failover testing was completed successfully, Quisitive conducted knowledge transfer sessions to share the steps necessary to perform a failover test, ensuring the client’s team was fully prepared to take over the process from Quisitive once the engagement was complete.
“The last step in our engagements focused on disaster recovery is always to test the failover mechanism. We want to ensure we have filled all gaps and that the environment is in a state that allows the client to run with it. We work to include the client’s team throughout the full engagement process to provide full details of the documentation and process. Our goal is to be a true partner and really act as an extension of their team”.
Azure Architect at Quisitive
Protection for the Future Provides Peace of Mind for Doctors and Patients Alike
By implementing Azure Disaster Recovery, this non-profit hospital will be able to provide reliable care while keeping their vital systems and applications available, securing sensitive data, reducing costs, and maintaining regulatory compliance.
“Quisitive is proud to be able to provide this valuable service to our clients. We understand that disaster recovery is an important component of any organization’s cloud strategy, and we are glad we are able to provide the relief that comes with knowing your systems are protected from the unexpected and unknown.”
– Rob Carek, Director, Global Solution Development, Quisitive
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eBook: Cloud Accounting Software for Community Improvement Nonprofits
Spend less time on administrative tasks and more time on what really matters with Sage Intacct Accounting Software for Nonprofits. Read more.
Understand the power of Sage Intacct’s Cloud Accounting Software for Nonprofits
We’re passionate about building nonprofit accounting software that helps you navigate the complexity and demands of nonprofit financial management.
Nonprofits face unique challenges: from compliance reporting to generating outcome metrics and providing real-time visibility—we want you to spend less time on administrative tasks and more time on what really matters—advancing your mission.
Learn more with this eBook, Cloud Accounting Software for Community Improvement Nonprofits.
Access the eBook
Fill out the form and get instant access.
Digital innovation and transformation have been booming left and right. We’re making our way towards a more efficient, agile and sustainable future that’s powered by technology. The last year has fast-tracked these changes, and as they progress, it’s important that we keep up. This past year, Microsoft’s Industry Cloud offerings have expanded to meet industry needs head-on. Here’s a look into what’s new, and how these new clouds can take organizations to the next level.
Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services
- Modernize core banking services
- Develop deep analytics
- Enable new ways to reach customers
Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing
- Secure remote work and the safety of frontline workers
- Create more resilient supply chains
- Enable always-on service
Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit
- Utilize a connected intelligent platform that allows staff and volunteers to focus on their mission
- Connect with constituent engagement, program design and delivery, volunteer management, and fundraising
Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare
- Automation and efficiency on high-value workflows
- Deep data analysis functionality for both structured and unstructured data
- Now including virtual health, remote patient monitoring, care coordination and patient self-service, and support for eight new languages
Microsoft Cloud for Retail
- Connect the end-to-end shopper journey
- Improve operations, sales, and customer service
What’s unique about these offerings?
These new clouds, as well as the cloud offerings Microsoft has already provided, will be able to work either independently or together depending on the organization. They allow for customization and seamless integration with endless possibilities.
Microsoft has a wide range of partners that are leaders in every industry. Customers have access to hundreds of thousands of solutions, making it possible for each organization to find a solution that can tailor to their specific needs and challenges.
Learn more in Microsoft’s blog: https://blogs.partner.microsoft.com/mpn/give-customers-an-edge-with-new-microsoft-industry-clouds/