2 page Case Study - Posted 4/22/2008
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Microsoft’s Versatile Player in Accounting Technology Reports to University Coaches
Introduction
UCF Athletics Association, Inc (UCFAA) had difficulty tackling its sports-team accounting operations. Its DOS-based software was so inflexible, administrators couldn’t even adjust column widths in financial reports. Providing coaches with monthly budget reports was cumbersome and time consuming. With Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0, UCFAA can quickly e-mail clear, detailed budget reports to its coaches every Friday, while invoicing has become a breeze.
Business Needs
UCF Athletics Association, Inc. (UCFAA) in Orlando is responsible for communicating budget information to 13 head coaches and a number of assistant coaches who manage the school’s 17 sports teams. The organization was using DOS-based Paciolan software, which had been purchased primarily to handle ticketing and fundraising, and its accounting module presented many barriers to efficient budget reporting.
Coaches needed reports that provided updates on their budget for activities like recruiting, team travel, and equipment, including year-to-date actual expenses and available balances. But the software was so inflexible that it would not even permit the columns in the reports to be widened so that coaches could read the full headings describing the accounts. The reporting process was very cumbersome because data needed first to be translated to a .pdf document, which then had to be extracted into an Excel spreadsheet. Information that should have appeared on one to two pages required 20 to 30 pages to print out. Coaches, who were not trained in reading financial reports, often would ignore the reports because, without being able to read the full headings—e.g., Group Travel-Transportation vs. Group Travel-Accommodations—the figures were not very helpful for planning purposes.
Moreover, according to Ebony Garcia, business and finance director, “Putting in an invoice was an ugly transaction. It took forever to process invoices and payments because the modules were unconnected; we had to log out of the general ledger to go to accounts payable.”
Requisitions had to be printed, not e-mailed; and some coaches did not have printer functions.
Additionally, the school was required to report its expenditures in a different format to the NCAA, with breakouts by sport rather than by expense category, a very time-consuming process with the Athletic Department’s non-integrated accounting system.
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Microsoft Dynamics GP with FRx reporting has allowed us to keep the same number of people while becoming much more efficient, and our stress levels have gone down tremendously. |
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Brad Stricklin
Associate Athletics Director for Business and Finance
UCF Athletics Association, Inc. |
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Solution
The Athletic Association selected Orlando-based Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Integrated Business Group to help find a solution, because the partner was attuned to the specific needs of the university’s processes. Integrated Business Group recommended Microsoft Dynamics with its FRx automated financial reporting and analysis module, offering new levels of flexibility for the school. FRx makes possible the reporting of up-to-the-minute information, with drill-down capabilities to the transaction level. Reports from FRx can be delivered automatically or by e-mail. FRx served as a key technology for supporting the university’s process improvement. Integrated Business Group supplemented it with Microsoft Business Portal and all the accounting modules available with Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0. As a result, all accounting functions would be integrated and highly automated, speeding the reporting and invoicing processes. The Microsoft technology also would enable Athletics to communicate directly with the bank for the transfer of funds into various accounts. Additionally, a Web-based Business Portal would allow requisitions to be entered easily.
Benefits
Distribution of reports now is fast and easy for the UCF Athletics Association, Inc., and accounting staff has much more time available to work on analysis, rather than the physical preparation of reports. Coaches have increased trust in the reports and provide valuable feedback on them. Requisitions are done online, and staff operate much more efficiently than before.
Instead of struggling to get monthly reports to the coaches, the association now uses e-mail to send weekly reports, delivered every Friday in just a matter of a few minutes.
Instead of repeating a difficult distribution process for each report, the automated reports from Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0 can be sent with a few mouse clicks.
The processes to enter invoices and pay them “are a breeze,” according to Garcia.
The Web portal has made requisitions very easy, with requests handled online.
Information is more up to date and takes less time to compile than previously.
Linked to the bank, accounting now can direct-deposit expense reimbursements.
The working environment has become more productive than before. According to Associate Athletics Director for Business and Finance Brad Stricklin, “Microsoft Dynamics GP with FRx reporting has allowed us to keep the same number of people while becoming much more efficient, and our stress levels have gone down tremendously.”
Coaches trust the information more, because the reports now are more readable than before and they can see the actual transactions. In fact, coaches now let accounting staff know if individual charges have been assigned to the wrong account. “They’re doing a lot of our work for us,” says Stricklin.
The association now is producing improved NCAA Equity and Athletics Disclosure reports, having coded FRx to break out the information automatically in the form required by the NCAA.
