Case Study: Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas
Under the umbrella of the Jewish Federations of North America, the Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas (“JFGD”) is a non-profit organization serving the Jewish community in Dallas. JFGD serves the community by raising funds for services and programs, such as meals and programs for seniors, scholarships and camps for children, Israel experiences for teens and young adults, leadership development, and counselling activities for families. Donations from thousands of donors enables JFGD to support more than 85 local, national and international agencies and programs that have a significant impact on the lives of Jewish people of all ages.
Financial System
Blackbaud’s Financial Edge
Annual Operating Budget
$11 million
Number of Employees
32 staff, 4 on the financial team
PowerPlan (On-premise Solution)
Business Benefits
- Integration with current Financial Edge system
- Easy access to budget data for financial and non-financial staff
- Time saved from manual data entry and using error-prone Excel spreadsheets
- Robust reporting and forecasting capability
- Exemplary customer service that provides satisfaction and peace of mind
Odessa Beverly-Johnson, Controller at Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas shared JFGD’s journey from spreadsheet budgeting to a streamlined process using Questica’s PowerPlan non-profit budgeting solution that all of the staff are enjoying.
Business Challenge
JFGD tracks budgeting activity by department and project which makes developing the budget a challenge. They understood that while GL systems can act as a repository for a budget already developed in Excel, most GL systems don’t include a full budget development toolset including employee level budgeting, configurable calculations, and formatted budget templates. Although staff were skeptical about purchasing a budget preparation and management solution, the finance team knew they needed to move away from using time-consuming and error-prone Excel spreadsheets, and find a dynamic solution for their budgeting process.
Business Solution
Choosing Questica’s PowerPlan has allowed JFGD departments to not only develop their budgets, but gain deeper insight into how departments are budgeting for the programs and services the agency provides. PowerPlan’s robust reporting features has allowed JFGD to run different comparisons, forecasts, and year over year analysis of expenses and trends. With all of their budgeting data in one place, Questica’s PowerPlan software solution has enabled JFGD’s President and CEO to quickly make decisions based on information in the system.
Business Benefits
Integration with Financial Edge
Questica’s PowerPlan non-profit budgeting software integrates with the leading non-profit financial, human resources and payroll systems. Seamless integration with their current financial system was key in JFGD’s search for a budgeting solution and they were pleased with how PowerPlan could easily interface with their system.
Easy access to budget data for financial and non-financial staff
JFGD originally purchased a few licenses, but once staff learned how Questica’s PowerPlan is intuitive and user-friendly, more licenses were subsequently purchased so that both financial and non-financial staff can access the budget at their convenience. Staff no longer need to rely on the finance team to find the information about their programs and service activity revenues and expenses.
Breaking away from Excel spreadsheets
With PowerPlan’s direct integration with their financial system, JFGD can prepare their department budgets in one centralized system, eliminating the need for spreadsheets. By doing away with manual data entry, they no longer have the challenge of spreadsheet errors, and can now budget with greater accuracy and efficiency.
Robust reporting and forecasting capability
Reporting has been “a piece of cake” with PowerPlan’s robust capability and easy-to-use features for reviewing results across the organization for funds, departments and projects. Forecasting and using what-if scenarios provides an opportunity to analyze and plan for the future. With this actionable data, JFGD is able to make better data-driven decisions for their organization.
Exemplary customer service
Questica’s support team made a difference in providing JFGD with exemplary customer service and the peace of mind they needed to get through the challenges of implementing a new budgeting solution.