The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (Midpen) is an independent special district in the San Francisco Bay area that has protected nearly 65,000 acres of public land and manages 26 open space preserves. Formed in 1972 to create a regional greenbelt, Midpen’s boundary includes portions of San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties. From redwood forests to wetlands to miles of beautiful hiking, biking and equestrian trails, Midpen is open to the public free of charge 365 days of the year.
The budgeting process Midpen used was based on heavy use and management of numerous spreadsheets and lacked the insights they needed from reports to more effectively analyze budget data. To improve their ability to prepare operating and capital budgets to manage their $70+ million annual budget, Midpen searched for a budgeting solution that could offer dashboards, a formal change request process and robust reporting features, including the ability for departments to perform variance reporting within one system.
To better engage department staff in a collaborative budgeting process, Midpen selected Questica Budget’s operating and capital modules to work with their New World ERP system. Instead of compiling multiple spreadsheets and manually entering data, staff will have more time to produce dynamic dashboards for viewing and drilling down through budget data, as well as customizable and visually appealing smart reports to help them analyze the budget thoroughly. The robust change request feature allows the Budget team to track and review changes to budgets prior to approval and amendments to approved budgets throughout the fiscal year.
Questica Budget will provide the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District with the ability to prepare and manage budgets more efficiently and gain the actionable insights they need to deliver on their strategic plan and mission to protect the region’s natural spaces and connect people to them.
