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20 Accounting Software Recommendation
20 Accounting Software Recommendation
Prepared for
Project
Prepared by
Jean Vande Hey
920-788-8025
jvandehey@hbs.net
Heartland Business Systems, LLC
1700 Stephen Street
Little Chute, WI 54140
Table of Contents
Heartland Business Systems, LLC Page 1 of 16
1700 Stephen Street
Little Chute, WI 54140
www.hbs.net
Executive Summary
The Functional Requirements Document is a tool provided to help assure a high level of communication between the client
and the consulting team from Heartland Business Systems, LLC. The following is an overview of the contents:
It is critical that project managers and staff members for both the client and Heartland Business Systems, LLC, clearly
understand all of the above criteria. The objective of this document is to assure that understanding.
Company Overview
History: Southeast Services Cooperative (SSC) was created in 1976 and authorized under Minnesota School Law, is a
nonprofit cooperative of over 80 public and private school districts, cities, counties and other member organizations,
dedicated to maximizing resources and increasing value through collaboration. SSC’s programs include professional
development, academic enrichment, cooperative purchasing, health and safety, and insurance and risk management.
Summary of Systems: Southeast Services Cooperative uses SMART Finance, a school district focused software, for
General Ledger and financial reporting to satisfy their Minnesota reporting requirement, the Uniform Financial Accounting
and Reporting Standards (UFARS). SMART Finance is also used for payable and receivable processing needs. Payroll
processing is out outsourced to ADP.
Filemaker is used to maintain a database for workshop registrations credit card payments received. It also provides profit
and loss information by workshop. A second Filemaker database is used to capture employee hours worked to assist with
payroll allocation journal entries.
Adaptive Software is used for budgeting and forecasting and provided information for financial reporting. Hosted product
is used and SSC has a three year commitment with Adaptive.
Other Information: The plan is to have a July 1, 2017 go-live of the core financials and reporting. Human Resources and
Payroll Import would be implemented after the go-live date.
Primary Contacts:
Project Manager for SSC: Dale Walston
Additional Contact for SSC: Chris Hancock
Project Manager for HBS: Jean Vande Hey
Integration Experts for HBS: Randy Plachinski and Joe Derenne
Current Processes
1. Banking Activity
a. Operating Checking at Wells Fargo includes the following types of transactions:
i. Credit card deposits
ii. Electronic deposits from state and federal, schools
iii. Blue Cross pays commission to SSC electronically
iv. ADP withdrawals
v. Vendor and credit card payments
vi. Staff business credit cards auto withdrawal by BMO
vii. Leases payments to Enterprise and a flat fee is auto withdrawn
viii. Retirement withdrawals
ix. Flex spending withdrawals
x. ACH payments (i.e., employees reimbursements, board members, consultants) are entered in
Smart as vendor invoices and then entered in Wells Fargo ACH software to be paid
b. Health Insurance Checking at Wells Fargo has minimal electronic draws and deposits
c. Wells Fargo Savings transfers in and out
d. Liquid Asset Fund
e. Wells Fargo Investments - 3 funds
f. Bank reconciliations are done in Excel (about 100 checks per month and 30 electronic payments)
g. Miscellaneous bank transactions (i.e., adjustments, bank fees, transfers) are done as general journal
entries
h. Adjustments for value of investments, prepaid expenses, etc. are recorded monthly as a general journal
entry
a. Vehicle costs for ten vehicles (i.e., lease, fuel, insurance, repairs, mileage, etc.) are tracked by program in
Excel and recorded monthly as a general journal entry. Mileage need to available for the 12 month period
of December to November.
3. Budgeting
a. Budgeting and forecasting is done in Adaptive Budget software
b. Budgeting preparations begins March 1 and is approved by at the June 30 board meeting
c. Budget amounts are created with annual amounts but will become monthly for the next fiscal year
d. Approved budget amounts are transferred to Smart for financial reporting
4. Fixed Assets
a. Book depreciation is calculated in Excel and is recorded annually as a general journal entry
b. Capital threshold is $2,000
c. Approximately 50 assets
5. Reporting
a. Financial reporting for Board is done in Excel
b. Financial reporting for Program Managers is generated in Smart
c. Financial reporting is necessary to satisfy the Minnesota Uniform Financial Accounting and Reporting
Standards (UFARS) requirement
d. Bank Account reconciliations are provided to finance committee which include Cash on Hand by bank
account and by general ledger accounts
e. Investment report is provided to Board which includes details about the instruments, their activity and
reconciliation to the GL investment account. Income accruals is then calculated and booked as general
journal entry
f. Grant crosswalk report is created in Excel for the State of Minnesota
g. Reporting is done for grants that cross the fiscal year is in Excel for Program Managers and Grant Funding
Source
h. Balance Sheet is provided to Board by Fund (1, 8, 9) with current month vs. last month
i. Revenue and Expense Summary by programs is provided to Board Members
j. Revenue and Expense Detail by programs is provided to Program Managers
k. Compiling and distributing reports is a labor-intensive, manual process
2. General Ledger
a. Balance Sheet is provided to Board by Fund (1, 8, 9) with current month vs. last month
b. Revenue and Expense Summary of programs is provided to the Board with Annual Budget, YTD Budget,
YTD Actual amounts
c. Revenue and Expense Guideline Program Totals by Ledger is provided to Program Managers with Annual
Budget, MTD and YTD amounts with account detail
d. Revenue and Expense Posted Activity Audit Report is provided to Program Managers with MTD
transaction details and YTD subtotals
e. Financial reporting is provided to the Minnesota Department of Ed according to the Uniform Financial
Accounting and Reporting Standards (UFARS) requirements
f. General Posting Journal is produced monthly for all journal entries
g. Investment report is provided to Board which includes details about the instruments
h. Annual budget and YTD budget amounts are presented on several monthly income statements
i. Annual budget and YTD budget amounts are presented on the quarterly Grant Financial Report
3. Fixed Assets
a. Monthly ad Annual Depreciation Expense report
b. Depreciation expense journal entry report
c. Additions and Retirements
d. Annual Activity (Cost less Accumulated Depreciation =Book Value
Phase 1 Recommendations
1. Banking
a. Services charges will be recorded as bank transactions
b. Interest income will be recorded as bank transactions
c. Miscellaneous receipts (unrelated to a customer invoices) will be recorded as bank transactions
d. Bank transfers will decrease the source account and increase the destination account as one bank
transfer transaction
e. Complete bank reconciliation will be done in GP to include clearing of deposits, checks, electronic
transactions, bank charges interest income, transfers, etc. Consider using Electronic Bank Reconcile to
imported cleared transactions monthly.
2. General Ledger
a. Will post transactions in detail or summary as selected for each GL account
b. Inter-fund accounting will be for tracking transactions that cross Funds 1, 8 and 9, maintain Cash, AR and
AP control accounts for each fund
c. Recurring transactions will be used for standard/recurring journal entries
d. Copy/Paste into a journal entry screen when entry is already created in a spreadsheet
e. Can use Copy/Paste for difficult allocations
f. Revenues and expenses for specific workshops can be captured using GP’s Multi-Dimensional Analysis
tool
g. Fixed and Variable allocation accounts can be used to perform real-time allocations
h. Unit Accounts can be used to capture nonfinancial, statistical data and include it in financial reporting
i. Vehicle costs can be tracked using GP’s Multi-Dimensional Analysis tool. Business and personal miles can
be captured and reported on the December to November 12 month period.
j. Divisional Closing will be used to close revenues and expenses to the proper programs.
3. Budgeting
a. GP Budgeting Wizard will retrieve the financial budgets from Excel making the budget information
available within in GP’s financial reporting – eliminating the need to “finish” financial reports in Excel
4. Fixed Assets
a. Fixed Assets can be used to track and depreciate fixed assets
b. Lease, maintenance, custodian, location, etc. fields can be used to capture expenses by vehicle and
technology equipment
Current Processes
Phase 1 Recommendations
1. Continue to outsource payroll processing to ADP
a. Change the payroll check date to allow for the pay period to be completed before payroll check are
processed. The will reduce the risk of paying employees for hours which were not yet worked.
b. Provide the employee hours worked by program to ADP. This will allow ADP to provide reporting of the
financial accounting distributions, eliminating the need to create the allocated payroll journal entry in
Excel.
c. Use the Payroll Connect functionality in GP to retrieve the allocated payroll entry from ADP eliminating
the need to enter the lengthy journal entry
2. Maintain employee demographic and pay and benefit information in GP’s secure, backed up environment in a
consistent, organized manner. This would allow SSC to prepare from 1095 in GP as well
Phase 2 Recommendation
Purchase the JAT Payroll Interface product which provides a bi-directional interface of payroll and human resource
information and transactions between ADP and GP. This would allow for employee changes (e.g. wage increase, W-4
change) to be entered in one product affecting both products. This also allows for completed payroll check details with final
accounting distributions.
Current Processes
1. Vendor invoices approved by Program Managers and are manually entered in accounting system.
2. Verizon expense allocations are done in Excel prior to invoice entry. The Verizon allocation changes each month
based on hours worked within programs. The distributions are then entered into with the invoice based on the
allocation. Additional expense allocations are needed for several other vendor invoices but are more simplistic
than the Verizon allocation.
3. Charges on the BMO credit are entered as a single invoice due to BMO credit card vendor.
4. Check runs are processed from the Operating Checkbook for all invoices, other than those on hold, on the 15th and
last day of the month.
5. Blank checks stock is used. Mekorma is used to print the electronic signature and MICR coding on the checks.
6. Invoices from vendors that provide both taxable and nontaxable services on a single invoice need to be entered as
multiple invoices.
7. 1099s are processed by SSC.
Phase 1 Recommendations
1. Create a consistent Vendor ID strategy for ease of use
2. Use Vendor Classes to group similar vendors for inquiry and reporting
3. Use default GL accounts on vendor records to populate consistent expense accounts on invoices eliminating the
need for manual entry of GL accounts on each invoice
4. Utilize GP’s electronic payments to reduce costs and eliminate the process of entering the ACH’s in current system
and on the bank’s website
5. Utilize GP’s Fixed and Variable allocation accounts for specific vendor invoices
6. Utilize GP’s Credit Card functionality to record purchases made by credit card to the appropriate vendors. Credit
card charges could be downloaded from BMO and imported into GP as payable invoices.
7. Utilize GP’s Document Attachment functionality to attach documents (contracts) to vendors and vendor
transactions
8. Utilize GP’s Scheduled Payments functionality for calculating lease payments and creating related payable invoices.
9. Utilize recurring invoices for non-invoiced purchases such as rent, loan payments, etc.
10. Utilize GP’s Positive (Safe) Pay for protection against check fraud by confirming a check’s authenticity
Phase 2 Recommendation
Purchase/Implement an expense reporting product to provide employees with a remote/web-based method to submit
their travel expenses, allocating them to the proper departments and programs and upload receipts.
Current Processes
1. Filemaker database maintains data related to:
a. Workshop attendee demographics (both employee and employer), registration info and credit card
payments for workshop activity
b. Customer demographics, rental activity and credit card payments for meeting center rental customers
c. Membership statuses for discounts
d. Rental room rates (20-25 rooms, 3 rates), service fees, catered food sales/purchases, etc.
2. Workshop and room rental revenues and expenses include the GL program account number well as the Workshop
ID to be posted to the GL
3. Invoices (approximately 100 per month) are created in the current accounting system within a day or two of the
registration or rental transaction occurring in Filemaker
4. Filemaker accepts all forms of for workshop registrations
5. Authorize.net is credit card processor for registrations paid by credit card
a. Download of payments can be obtained from Authorize.net’s website
b. Email notification is received by SSC when a payment has been made
6. Other customer demographics, invoices and cash receipts are maintained in the current accounting system.
a. Invoices are created for annual billings to members. There are several membership types with varying
fees (city, county, local government)
b. Miscellaneous items are invoiced to customers (wellness items)
c. Sales orders are created for mulch and paper transactions
d. Monthly billings to other Coops that manage purchasing agreements/grants
e. Monthly billings to members for third-party dental reimbursements
f. Monthly billings for fiber optic cable usage
g. Quarterly billing for reimbursement of costs for federal and state grants
h. Billings for mobile science labs to schools
7. Statements are generated at the end of the month for customers with balances. Statements are manually pull out
invoices and statements for customers that don’t want/need to receive them.
8. Collection calls are made to customers when invoice is 60 days overdue (minimal overdue invoices)
Phase 1 Recommendations
1. Continue with current Customer ID strategy for ease of use. Organizations (employers) and Workshop attendees
(employees) will remain as is to match to the existing customer ID in the rental and registration Filemaker database
2. Use Customer Classes to group similar customer for inquiry and reporting
3. Use default GL accounts on customer records to populate consistent revenue accounts on invoices eliminating the
need for manual entry of GL accounts on each invoice
4. Utilize GP’s Non-inventory Items functionality to automate invoice line item descriptions, fees, quantities and GL
posting accounts
5. Create an integration to bring Filemaker transactions into GP’s Accounts Receivable system
6. Create an integration to record Authorized.net credit card receipts into GP’s Accounts Receivable system
7. Create an integration that sends the GP Customer Accounts Receivable payments to the Filemaker database
8. Utilize GP’s Document Attachment functionality to attach documents (contracts) to customers and customer
transactions
3. Install Applications/Modules/Registrations:
a. Core GP (GL, AP, AR, Banking, Budget, Inter-fund Accounting, Fixed Assets)
b. Electronic Fund Transfers
c. Positive (Safe) Pay
d. Integration Manager
e. Management Reporter
f. Professional Tools Library
4. Companies
a. SSC - Southeast Services Cooperative
b. TSSC - Southeast Services Cooperative Test Company
6. Inquiry/Reporting Users
The integrations between the Filemaker databases and GP is an area of risk. Concerns are:
1. Availability of SSC staff to complete development and testing before the busy time.
2. Process to handle integration failures/exceptions. SSC will take the lead on developing the procedures needed to
keep the systems in sync.
Project Estimate:
We quote the services estimate for the implementation phase (Phase 1) covered by this document to be 512 hours range at
rate of $195/hour. Services will be billed on a time and materials basis and invoiced monthly. Options for prepaid discounts
are available upon request. Travel expenses are not included in this estimate and include one-way travel from our Little
Chute, WI office per visit, and will be invoiced at the hourly rate.
A copy of the tentative Project Plan (with estimated hours) and Timeline will be provided as an addendum to this
document.
Approved by:
Contact Information
CONFIDENTIALITY STATEMENT
This document contains proprietary information. We ask that you do not release the information contained within
this document without the written consent of Heartland Business Systems. Please provide the same level of security
for the information contained within this document, as you would provide for your company’s data.
Heartland Business Systems
ID#: 10922
Dynamics GP Software
Based on information known to date, the following outlines the anticipated Dynamics GP licensing components
required for implementation at SSC, and is subject to change after completion of the Functional Requirements
Document.
As a phase following go-live of Dynamics GP, the following outlines anticipated expense reporting licensing costs:
Acceptance of Proposal
Heartland Business Systems requires the Acceptance of Proposal be signed and a copy be sent back in order to
start the engagement. Any changes to this document must be submitted to HBS for review and approval. Upon
notification, HBS will revise and resubmit the document for signature.
Software invoicing will be in conjunction with the expected installation date. Software will be ordered upon
receipt of payment.
Please scan and email back the signed proposal to: sow@hbs.net. Pricing and estimates outlined in this proposal
are valid for 30 days and do not include applicable taxes.
Signature:
Name:
Title:
Date:
Phase 2 ‐ Optional Solutions
Estimated Software Year 1 Year 2 Year 3+
JAT's JPI ADP Connector ‐‐ $4,800.00 $800.00
Concur Expense Reporting ‐‐ $2,619.00 $2,619.00
Concur Integration to Dynamics GP (estimate only) ‐‐ $5,100.00 $1,000.00
TOTAL $0.00 $12,519.00 $4,419.00
Notes:
‐Dynamics GP software year 2 assumes no changes to the value of the software (i.e. additional users)
‐Dynamics GP software year 2 assumes moving from an 18% renewal plan to a 16% renewal plan after year 1
‐Concur software waives setup fee for NFP organizations
‐Services for informational purposes only; see current Project Plan for actual services proposed
For informational purposes only
Southeast Services Cooperative
Implementation of Microsoft Dynamics GP
Project Plan
Estimated Hourly Estimated
Hours Rate Cost
Phase 1 Implementation, Training and Project Management
Software Installation and Setup
Installation 12 $ 195 $ 2,340
Load and register software
Install GP
Install eConnect
Install Integration Manager
Install Management Reporter
Data Migration/Imports 70 $ 195 $ 13,650
Chart of Accounts
5 years General Ledger Transactions
Customers
Vendors
Items
Employee Information
Optional Solutions
Phase 2 Implementation, Training and Go Live Support
Adaptive Insights Integration-Vendor 60 $ 200 $ 12,000
Adaptive Insights Integration-HBS 10 $ 195 $ 1,950
Employee Expense Reporting System-HBS 20 $ 195 $ 3,900
JAT JPI Payroll Check Detail Interface-Vendor 15 $ 195 $ 2,925
JAT JPI Payroll Check Detail Interface-HBS 15 $ 195 $ 2,925
Phase 2 Total Hours 120 $ 23,700
632 $ 123,540
Additional Services
Additional Report Writing TBD
Ongoing Support $195 per hour