LifeWorks Success Story
LifeWorks and Sage MIP Fund Accounting: Shelter, Safety, Support, Success
Nonprofit Fund Accounting Software Success Story - LifeWorks Crisis Shelter
"Sage MIP Fund Accounting is a terrific platform. One of Sage Software's competitors called me just last week to see if I'd consider switching products, and I just laughed. Sage MIP Fund Accounting is everything I need in a program, and there's no reason for me to look at anything else."
Jay Scheumack
CFO
LifeWorks
"If it wasn't for this agency, I would be a statistic, a dropout, a nobody."
That's how Larissa, a teen parent and college-bound high school graduate, describes the importance of LifeWorks, a central Texas nonprofit agency that helps youths and families transition from crisis to safety and success. As the only organization providing a continuum of direct services to the Austin area's youth and families, LifeWorks assists more than 10,000 families every year. Its services to homeless youth are a national model, and it is the only area agency to achieve both national accreditation from the Council on Accreditation for Services to Children and the Austin Quality Award.
Sage MIP Fund Accounting has been the backbone for LifeWorks' business systems for years, performing all financial accounting and record keeping.
Remote Access, Awesome Reports
"The enhanced features in Sage MIP Fund Accounting proved to be exactly what we needed," says Jay Scheumack, CFO. "Because data processing is now done on the server rather than on workstations, we have remote access to agency-wide information. I can work on my laptop at home or at any of our nine locations. And at meetings at other sites, I can easily run a quick report or even pull up payroll information if we're working on a budget. This functionality is a huge asset from a strategic management standpoint."
LifeWorks uses Sage MIP Fund Accounting to automate all of its payables, processing payments to more than 100 vendors and cutting upwards of 200 checks a month. The system also does payroll processing, mostly through automatic bank deposits.
Reporting functions are so robust that tasks like running the balance sheet, which used to take more than an hour, can now be done in just two minutes.
Executive View licensing option has been a big hit with LifeWorks' program managers and directors. "We asked management what kinds of reports they'd like most, and then set it up so they can easily structure reports on their own," Scheumack says. "Because users are not actually touching the database, there's no danger of accidental damage to information. Management is crazy about Executive View. So is the finance group, because we're freed up from constant requests for data. We like it so much, in fact, that we're getting a grant to add ten new users to our license."
Accurate Allocations
LifeWorks receives funding from dozens of government contracts and grants, and expenses must be allocated carefully. "Sage MIP Fund Accounting is fantastic for tracking where every penny is spent," notes Scheumack. "We receive frequent visits from contract monitors, and they really appreciate the level of detail we're able to give them with our reports. We can segment by program, revenue source, contract, GL code, function, contract year, or any combination of the above. The result is that auditors say they're very comfortable with our level of accountability."
One of the additional features that Scheumack likes in Sage MIP Fund Accounting is being able to export data to spreadsheet programs without losing formatting. "Although we're heavy users of the various reporting capabilities built into Sage MIP Fund Accounting, there are also program people in our organization who sometimes feel more at home with spreadsheets. Our new system gives everyone the flexibility to manipulate data in many different ways."
Scheumack adds that customer service is excellent. "I haven't come up with a question yet that they couldn't resolve," he says.
"Overall, Sage MIP Fund Accounting is a terrific platform," says Scheumack. "One of Sage Software's competitors called me just last week to see if I'd consider switching products, and I just laughed. Sage MIP Fund Accounting is everything I need in a program, and there's no reason for me to look at anything else."
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