Overview
Founded in 1900, the Association of American Law Schools is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit association of nearly 200 law schools and more than 9,000 law faculty. AALS members enroll most of the nation’s law students and produce the majority of the country’s lawyers and judges, as well as many of its lawmakers.
Background
The AALS was frustrated with the lack of detail in its budget and the inability to track by subaccounts. The organization’s budgeting process was complex and tedious, entries had to be proofed manually, and it was impossible to budget by function or sufficiently allocate to subaccounts with its Excel spreadsheets.
Project
After evaluating multiple potential solutions, AALS chose to implement RSM’s Full Circle Budget platform. Ultimately, Full Circle Budget was the only solution that offered everything the organization needed. It was the only software product that could communicate with Microsoft Dynamics SL from Excel and could run multiple reports while still being comfortable for staff to use.
With Full Circle Budget, AALS no longer needs to manually enter data into Dynamics Budget Maintenance. The platform has enabled the organization to group its subaccounts by eight functions and run eight reports with multiple worksheets.
After the Full Circle Budget implementation, AALS is easily able to involve the entire staff in the budgeting process and meet its budgeting process goals each quarter. Ultimately, the solution has helped AALS craft a detailed, and more realistic, budget to meet management’s needs.
Outcomes
With RSM’s Full Circle Budget solution, AALS has transformed its key budgeting processes, increasing efficiency and visibility into the organization’s financial information. The platform has reduced time-consuming manual efforts, and organized data to help executives make more confident decisions.
Key benefits of RSM’s Full Circle Budget implementation for AALS include:
- Improved budgeting processes while continuing to use Excel worksheets
- Seamless integration into Dynamics SL
- Minimal training to get all staff on board
- Ability to group reports by subaccounts and functions
