Nonprofit healthcare center boosts accounting efficiency 80%, gains agility in COVID-19 crisis

The accounting team at Whole Family Health Center, a nonprofit healthcare provider on Florida’s Treasure Coast, was constantly scrambling to keep up as the organization grew steadily since its founding in 2013.

An upgrade to Sage Intacct solved a host of challenges in core accounting functions and reporting — and it came just as COVID-19 arrived in March 2020. With Sage Intacct, Whole Family’s accounting team has been able to absorb new workloads and demands linked to the pandemic.

For instance, Whole Family gained certification as a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) Look-Alike that provides healthcare to underserved communities. That opened new opportunities, along with strict reporting requirements that would have been difficult to meet with Whole Family’s legacy environment of Sage 50 and Excel.

“We have a lot on our plate, and Sage Intacct has been very helpful in how we can run reports by funding source and any other dimension,” as Sabrina Rivera, AP and payroll specialist, says in our new Whole Family customer success story.

“If we were still on our previous solution, the COVID-related grant reporting would have been difficult because we’d be relying on spreadsheets,” Rivera added. “We don’t have the luxury of days to produce a customized report.”

Eliminating 20 Hour a Month in Manual Accounting Work

Much-needed accounting efficiency and new reporting flexibility are among the many benefits that Whole Family has realized since graduating to Sage Intacct. The nonprofit has:

• Improved overall accounting efficiency by 80%
• Eliminated nearly 20 hours of accounting manual work a month
• Reduced monthly close time from as many as 15 days to just eight, a 73% reduction
• Improved reporting timeliness, scope, and accuracy

It’s a wholesale transformation from the past, when Rivera was working nights and weekends just to keep up with regular accounting and reporting duties. “Before we moved to Sage Intacct, I was working a lot of overtime — starting early and working late, even seven days a week,” Rivera said. “Sage Intacct has saved us so much time and let me focus on other things.”

Sage Intacct helps the lean accounting team scale along with the growth the nonprofit has experienced in recent years. With clinics in Vero Beach and Fort Pierce, Whole Family has expanded its full-time workforce by about 60% since late 2017, to 105 full-time employees.

It’s recently added 10 new providers, for a total of 19, and has expanded its offerings to a full range of adult, pediatric, behavioral, telehealth, pharmacy, and HIV/AIDS services, with dental services in the pipeline.

On-Demand Insights Through Reporting and Dashboards

Reporting was a particular challenge, consuming 20 hours of manual spreadsheet work that’s been eliminated with Sage Intacct. The executive team was initially skeptical that a new accounting platform was needed.

Now, they are delighted with the marked improvements Rivera’s team has achieved with Sage Intacct. “Our executive team has been giving us compliments on how great the reporting has been with Sage Intacct. They can understand the reports and the numbers very easily”, said Rivera.

In addition, use of tagged dimensions such as location, department, and funding sources generate valuable insights into costs and revenue streams. “Our CEO can review the data she needs and access reports we’ve saved in the system,” Rivera said.

Streamlining Expenses, AP, and Fixed Assets

With ease of use, simplicity, and built-in HIPAA compliance, Sage Intacct was Whole Family’s preferred solution over Oracle NetSuite. Plus, the IT department preferred Sage Intacct and remaining within the Sage product family of products.

Implementation and staff training by Sage Intacct partner CliftonLarsenAllen (CLA) got Whole Family on the fast track to success. “CLA was amazing,” Rivera said. “The implementation was very smooth and clear, and their knowledge and response time was great. It was so nice to have a partner you knew you could rely on.”

In core accounting, handling credit card expenses is streamlined with Sage Intacct and a credit and expense management solution, saving eight hours a month. Automated accounts payable has eliminated paper-based manual processes, including six hours a month that the CEO spent signing checks.

With the Sage Intacct Fixed Assets module, Whole Family is on track to cut 6 hours a month of manual data entry into spreadsheets. Improved efficiency and ease of use allow Rivera to reconcile bank transactions and manage journal entries on a daily basis, rather than in month-end rush.

The new efficiency means that Rivera no longer works on overtime on accounting tasks. But like many Whole Family employees, she’s been pitching in with weekend work since COVID-19 vaccines became widely available in early 2020. “I’m working Saturdays and Sunday at a clinic with the patients, certifying vaccine appointments and scheduling follow-ups,” she said. “It’s big a little bit crazy, but I do enjoy it.”

See our Whole Family customer success story to learn more about how the nonprofit healthcare provider has transformed financial management with its move to Sage Intacct.