Field Studies Council

The challenge

Eliminating manual tasks and enabling comprehensive real-time reporting

The finance team at the Field Studies Council was bogged down in manual tasks. With 14,000 invoices to be laboriously keyed into the system each year and a huge amount of work done in spreadsheets, it was impossible for anyone to enjoy the benefit of comprehensive, real-time management information.

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The charity has three legal entities and 16 sites across the country. It needs to produce monthly management accounts for each of those, as well as an annual budget and reforecasts of those budgets during the year. It faced several major frustrations with its old Sage 1000 system.

• No integrations. The charity’s invoices are generated by a separate booking system and had to be keyed into the finance software manually, as did the resulting payments – taking a huge amount of time and presenting a high risk of error.

• Limited access to the system. Access to Sage 1000 was limited to nine users from the finance team, with nobody else able to see data in the system. People kept their own records of the purchase orders they’d raised and had to come to finance for a lot of their important data.

• Partial VAT. This had to be painstakingly calculated outside the finance system – and what’s more, the Sage software was not compliant with Making Tax Digital.  

“The reporting was hideous and the whole system was so manual,” says Financial Controller Carl Leah.  With the software reaching the end of its life, and support being withdrawn at the end of 2024, the charity was glad of the chance to upgrade.  

The solution

Automation saves time while powerful reporting puts finance in control

“We'd seen other software and there was a general feeling that most systems were either too over-the-top and too expensive for us, or just weren't good enough,” says Carl. “We were in that middle ground, too big for some systems and not big enough for others.”

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The team saw iplicit as the product to fill that gap. After a successful implementation, it found the system not only transformed the efficiency of the finance team but is improving all the time. “The system keeps growing and developing – and our experience with it is getting better as we learn more,” says Carl.

• Faster transaction processing. Automation is saving large amounts of the time that was previously taken up by data entry and routine processes. iplicit’s APIs allow the finance software to be seamlessly integrated with other systems, enabling invoices to be imported and payments exported.  

• Quicker and better reporting. “I would say we’ve probably gained a day or two just from better reporting – and we’re expecting that to get even better as we tweak the accounts structure,” says Carl. The quality of the management information is improving too.  

• Real time information. Budget holders and the finance team alike now have accurate, up-to-the-minute information at their fingertips.  This means the team have fewer queries to deal with, freeing up a lot of time for Senior Finance Officer Chris Price.

• Better approval workflows. Staff can handle POs and expenses much more easily, using the iplicit app to submit their expenses with receipts attached, and budget holders can quickly review and authorise them. “Everyone says how user-friendly it is. It doesn’t take people long to figure out how to use it,” says Carl.  

• Improved forecasting. Cost centres are given a rolling forecast month by month, rather than having to wait for a big reforecasting exercise to be carried out by the finance team twice a year.  

• Fixed assets management. Fixed assets are now managed in the finance system, with depreciation applied automatically rather than through complicated calculations or wrangling of spreadsheets.  

• Sandbox environment. iplicit's sandbox has allowed the team to test and train freely and safely, without affecting live data.

• Integrated systems. With the finance and sales systems set to be integrated, the team expects to free up at least half an admin post. That extra time will be spent on higher value tasks.

The team has been well looked after by iplicit’s support and customer success people. “The support didn’t stop just because we’d signed up and gone live,” says Carl. “If anything, it’s got better. We’re meeting regularly with Customer Success Executive Mo Miah now and he’s brilliant. We look forward to that meeting. And if we get bogged down with something, we just raise a support ticket and the team points us in the right direction. iplicit seems to be continually improving.”

The outcome

250 people are using the system while the finance team saves days every month

iplicit has transformed what’s possible for the finance team. Freed from answering constant queries about suppliers and purchase orders, the department can deal with higher-level work and take a more strategic view of the finances.

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Carl is laying plans for monthly cash forecasting now that this will no longer require coordinating spreadsheets for 50 different cost centres. “I don’t like standing still in the job,” he says. “iplicit is going to allow us some creativity as we review the way we do things. It’s been a massive help to us.

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“iplicit is so easy to use that we’ve got a better eye on things now than we’ve ever had.”  

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