How The Associated Jewish Federation of Baltimore Modernized Budgeting with Solver

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Um we really just um integrated, uh, Sage Intacct with Solver. Um, and the data types integrated were GL, GL detail, payroll, projects, um AP and AR. Um, there were no other data sources besides that.

00:00:27
Our business is a network of social services organizations serving the Jewish community and the greater Baltimore area in addition to global interests and communities.

00:00:35
We received a demo from RSM, um, on Solver while we were doing the RFP for Intacct, and Solver was the only service that looked like it would meet our reporting and budgeting needs.

00:00:59
And that is part of what drove us to seek a new reporting and planning solution for budgeting, um, because what we had before was more piecemeal and manual, and we were looking for something that was going to be able to optimize and automate. We had seen the demonstration, and, um, it was really the only software that could meet those needs.

00:01:25
The reporting, um, features meet our needs, and it's robust. It is difficult to learn to use and make work for us.

00:01:32
The out-of-the-box version also would not have worked for us. So the Solver RSM team was instrumental in extensively customizing the environment for us, and we still rely on them constantly for help in design.

00:01:49
Um, we did not have budgeting software before. So Solver is streamlining that process for us, which has been a huge help.

00:01:57
Um, in terms of limitations or areas for improvement, there have been issues of communication between Intacct and Solver, between the softwares, and sometimes that impedes us from relying on up-to-date data in Solver.

00:02:12
Um, this is due to the amount of data being brought into Solver and also not necessarily being notified of updates to either Intacct or Solver software that can affect the overnight updates.

00:02:31
Solver has improved our critical business processes. Um, it's taken us from budgeting in separate Excel files to being able to collaborate with department heads and different entities on budgets.

00:02:39
Uh, we're still not done creating all the reports we need to fully streamline the budget process. Um, but what we have so far has greatly, um, helped us in terms of time and optimization.

00:02:57
Um, in terms of process improvements or streamlining specifics, um, the customized budget templates have really been key.

00:03:12
We've definitely customized Solver. RSM built us customized budget templates, reports, and a data structure specific to our organization and to each of our entities.

00:03:20
We do have a complex, um, environment because we have so many different entities with different needs. So that was definitely customized.

00:03:27
Um, and the reason for that customization was Solver out of the box didn't meet the intricate needs of our multi-agency system. Um, we had a lot of different dimensions and utilizations, including different fiscal years.

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So it definitely did need to be customized.

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So the key benefits that we've seen since implementing Solver, especially in terms of time savings—

00:03:55
Um, the entire budget process has been sped up. Consolidated financial statements are now able to be run in one report and run very fast.

00:04:01
It allows us to see information in any state, like for instance posted, unposted, draft, and submitted, which we were not able to do before. And we can run financial statements that way, which is incredibly helpful.

00:04:17
Um, the people who use Solver are the finance team at each agency, and soon we're expanding to department heads for reporting and budgeting, and that's going to increase productivity a lot.

00:04:28
Um, and Solver has definitely enabled more collaborative and streamlined processes. Again, we're really excited to launch it to all of our department heads to be able to enter into budget templates and really streamline that process and make it more collaborative.

00:04:47
In terms of our future financial planning and analysis plans, um, and expanding Solver, we would like to be able to automate more and continue to schedule reports, um, and to get more users to know how to write reports.

00:05:02
Uh, we also want to create some dashboard reports that we don't currently have.

00:05:06
In terms of scaling or extending the use of Solver, we would like to expand the user base so users can access their own information, or more users than we currently have.

00:05:14
Um, and other additional customization and integration plans—we are working with RSM to customize the remaining entity budget templates, um, and are planning on expanding to retrieving additional modules of information from Intacct.

00:05:30
Um, we're not planning on any further integration though.

00:05:38
It's hard to quantify ROI in terms of hours saved or risk reduction or increased efficiencies at this time. We don't have that metric yet.

00:05:51
Um, so the answers to questions on data accuracy, decision-making, and even the non-financial benefits—we just haven't assessed those yet. But there are those benefits; we just don't have the metrics on them yet.

00:06:09
Um, our implementation and project team were awesome. They spent a lot of time understanding our complex needs and building and customizing an environment that we could really use and get meaningful data from.

00:06:20
Um, just highlighting some beneficial aspects—our RSM team had a lot of availability for on-site training, which was really key.

00:06:32
We first were going to do online training, and the in-person training was really instrumental in our success with Solver.

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Um, in terms of guidance for other organizations considering Solver, definitely make sure you have a great implementation team that's going to continue to support you through your first budget cycle and beyond.

00:06:57
Um, I think that that's really key and one of the reasons for our continued success.