USA Diving chose Decimal to provide them with detailed financial visibility into the organization and build improved processes to make financial operations more manageable. This streamlined monthly reporting to the board of directors and annual audits. The non-profit organization now spends less time chasing down reports and more time supporting the divers of the United States and their mission.
USA Diving is a non-profit organization that is the governing body for the Olympic sport of diving. As a nonprofit, they have to comply with strict regulations and make every dollar count. The team previously relied on a contracted bookkeeper, but as the time required to complete the accounting tasks grew, Lee Michaud, President of USA Diving, looked to make a change. Working with Decimal, the group built new processes to cut the time spent on bookkeeping and reduce operating expenses.
When Lee Michaud came aboard in 2020, the organization needed help with its accounting tasks. They spent too much time on day-to-day accounting tasks, struggled to see a real-time picture of the financials, and were frustrated with inaccuracies in their books. Lee mentions, “It was a very manual process still… Somebody had to go in and manage the process of AP and AR at the end of each month.” He continued that sometimes there “were things on the ledger that were categorized as one thing and were clearly not that at all.”
As a non-profit organization operating as a 501c3, there was also a need to follow strict guidelines with regard to Grants and the specific uses of these funds. While compliance was not an issue with a second set of eyes handling the bookkeeping, USA Diving wanted a better picture of exactly how funds were being spent to manage expenses. Lee says, “I could tell you how much we were receiving in grants, and I could tell you how much we were spending…But getting greater levels of detail was hard to do.” Without a defined process and several people helping with the tasks, the number of items in the ledger grew without consistency. Lee says, “Expenses weren't coded the same way. So you'd have grant money come in, called one thing, and go out, called something completely different…Tracking it through the system was a nightmare.”
Lee mentions, “We needed to find a way to fix all those challenges and get it to a place where we can manage it.”
Lee and the team at USA Diving wanted to identify a partner that was familiar with the nonprofit space and the associated rules and regulations. Lee said, “I hadn’t worked in the non-profit sector in years… so there was a learning curve for sure.” USA Diving brought on a part-time accountant as well as the Decimal team to collaborate on new processes and software solutions to cut the time spent on accounting tasks and handle their financial operations in the most cost-effective way.
Collaborating with Decimal, USA Diving was able to implement systems that made reporting more accurate and provided greater detail. Lee mentions, “We had to get our ducks in a row and make sure that the ledger was accurate. So office supplies are actually office supplies. Expenses are broken out into more detail, like subscriptions and dues... then it’s easy to report, and it’s easy to measure… It’s easy to do year-over-year reviews because we’re comparing apples to apples.”
To tackle the accounts payable challenges, the team implemented bill.com and built processes to maintain a consistent and reliable experience. Lee says, “It was mainly about getting processes defined, cleaning up the books, and making the forward-looking processes a bit more straightforward. Less complicated and more repeatable.” Decimal cleaned up the chart of accounts. This reduced the unnecessary complexity that had caused problems every single month. Lee saw the number of variations drop “from over 2000 line items or so down to more like 400 now.” With fewer variables, the team spent less time on AP and AR and shifted their focus to other priorities.
With the right processes in place, the financial reviews take less time, and the team can see a greater level of detail of how grant money is spent and the operating structure of their organization without having to reinvent the wheel every time. Lee says, “I can actually pull a report and do financials for our board of directors, and I don’t have to spend six hours revising a spreadsheet.”
Having processes take less time and resources allowed the team to accomplish more with a lower cost structure. Instead of spending unnecessary hours on financial operations, Lee mentions, “The processes are so much easier and quicker.”
Lee also saw the benefit of collaborating with Decimal to find the right answers and processes for their organization. He says, “At some points, we didn’t know what to do necessarily, and somebody could come on a Zoom with us and explain how to handle something.” Looking at the solution experts within Decimal, Lee says, “They're good folks. They're willing to dig in and create solutions according to what people need.”
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