Overview
FAES was established in 1959 to provide educational activities and professional services to the scientific community. Today, the nonprofit organization offers approximately 150 academic creditbearing courses a year and over 60 biotechnology training workshops.
Challenge
Over more than six decades, the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences (FAES) has educated over 100,000 people and continues to expand and customize development opportunities for the scientific community. The nonprofit organization offers affordable, public graduate-level courses in everything from bioinformatics and data science to immunology and microbiology, along with workshops, an event center, retail bookstores, housing, and other resources for the biomedical community. These diverse operations and income streams eventually grew difficult for FAES’ finance team to support with their Microsoft Dynamics GP accounting software.
Solutions
Working with Sage Intacct partner, RSM, FAES restructured its chart of accounts, configured Sage Intacct for maximum productivity, and integrated the financial system with Bill.com for seamless accounts payable workflows. As a result of these changes, the finance team estimates that they are around 30% more efficient. “The best-in-class combination of Sage Intacct and Bill.com has been a total lifesaver,” noted Luna. “Now all of our payables are online and happen daily behind the scenes, saving us a couple of hours every week that we used to spend importing expenses into Dynamics GP.”
Outcomes
One of the most valuable improvements since adopting Sage Intacct has been the ease with which it can slice and dice financials by different events, courses, housing, retail locations, or departments. Unlike their experience with Microsoft Dynamics GP, FAES’ finance team finds it effortless to produce tailored dashboards with financial reports for each separate department or for projects within departments. “Each of our business lines has its own sub-mission, goals, and operational considerations, so it’s a huge plus to be able to provide stakeholders with the metrics that are relevant to them, and also roll everything up for our CEO on her Sage Intacct dashboard,” said Luna. “This empowers our leadership to make more data-driven decisions that are informed by real financial insights.”
