Martin House saw ‘game-changing’ benefits after moving to iplicit’s accounting software

The challenge

The finance team at Martin House was worried about its “backwards and clunky” on-premises software, which on one occasion prevented anyone working in the system for three days. Security was a concern and staff were bogged down in time-consuming manual work. 

A finance team of five deals with transactions of around £1m a month, handling around 400 supplier invoices, payroll for 215 staff and income from donations recorded in the CRM. The department also has to reconcile income from 15 shops, which use a separate till system. 

“We needed a cloud-based solution. The previous system felt out of date; we couldn't do electronic digital purchase orders or digital invoice authorisation. Everything was done manually, and the integrations were clunky. It didn't feel like a secure platform, so we looked to de-risk with an online solution.” says Lindsey Fellowes-Freeman, Director of Finance and Corporate Governance. 

The search for a powerful cloud accounting system led Martin House to iplicit.  

The solution

iplicit allowed the finance team at Martin House to drastically simplify everyday work and provided the charity with accurate, real-time financial data. 

“After several demos from three providers, we collated our findings, compared them with the best financial offer, and rated all three. For a non-finance perspective, we included members of the IT team, and it was a unanimous decision to select iplicit," Lindsey says.

“We were really impressed with the demos and how well iplicit was willing and able to deliver on the migration, which was a concern for us. 

“In our old system, every report had to be pulled out and put into Excel before we could do anything with it. With iplicit, we can run reports and see them on the screen immediately. It's a huge improvement”

Lindsey Fellowes-Freeman
Director of Finance and Corporate Governance at Martin House

“The system ticked all the boxes. The general feeling we got during demos was that iplicit is a really progressive organisation. Although relatively new compared with Sage and others, we had enough confidence that iplicit would deliver what we needed. It seemed like an organisation that is going places, which is very refreshing.” 

Lindsey is full of praise for Sean Kelly, Solution Designer at iplicit, and his colleagues. 

“The finance team and I were understandably nervous about how the handover and migration would go but it all ran smoothly. They held our hands throughout and we had a clearly defined structure for the training, handover, and migration, which was followed to a T - and we actually moved over a month earlier than anticipated," she says. 

The benefits of iplicit 

The move to iplicit has provided peace of mind. “It’s all cloud-based, so nothing will stop us from working for days on end - the old system once went down for three days, and we couldn't work. It was terrible, disconcerting and unreliable and you don’t really expect that in this day and age.” 

Reporting and purchase ledger are the two biggest improvements with iplicit. 

“In our old system, every report had to be pulled out and put into Excel before we could do anything with it. With iplicit, we can run reports and see them on the screen immediately. It's a huge improvement,” she adds.  

“With the previous system, if you wanted to run a P&L for a quarter in the middle of the year, you had to run it for the whole year-to-date and then manually deduct the other quarters. It was archaic. 

“On the purchase ledger side, in the past, we needed purchase orders in triplicate paper, which was unmanageable. Now, we have an invoice authorisation module that sends daily emails to budget holders if there are invoices to approve. This keeps things on track and is great for the purchase ledger controller.

“The invoice approvals are brilliant and game-changing. That’s a big improvement for us,” 

Lindsey Fellowes-Freeman
Director of Finance and Corporate Governance at Martin House

“We’ve had to move off-site for a year while our hospice is being refurbished, so having a system we can access remotely to approve invoices and raise purchase orders is a huge benefit for us.” 

Asked for her favourite feature in iplicit, Lindsey has a couple of answers. 

“The archive is really handy. We no longer have to log into a different system to see our previous information, as we used to,” she says. 

But the approval workflows are probably the most useful feature, she says. “Those invoice approvals are brilliant and game-changing. That’s a big improvement for us,” she adds. 

‘We have more confidence in the system’ 

With iplicit developing all the time, Martin House expects to see even more benefits. 

“We haven’t fully calculated the time savings yet because there’s more functionality we might want to add, but we have a great deal of confidence in the system now,” says Lindsey.  

“The monthly webinars that iplicit runs for customers, to introduce them to new features and make sure we’re getting the best out of the system, are brilliant. 

“The team absolutely really rate them. It's useful for us to learn new things about the system – and it’s great that iplicit is investing in progress.” 

Advice on switching systems 

What advice would Martin House have for other organisations looking to switch accounting software?  “I’d advise others not to wait to move systems at year-end,” says Lindsey. 

“We initially thought we needed to move at year-end, but iplicit was the only organisation that said we didn't have to. In fact, the iplicit team said it may be better if you don't because year-end is busy enough as it is. That was refreshing. I’d say maybe a half-year point is better. 

“My other advice would be to allow time, prioritise training and planning, and decide within the team who's going to do what part of the migration.” 

Find out more about how iplicit helps charities and nonprofits.