Greentree continues growth of EnviTE

The Business Scenario

EnviTE is a not-for-profit organisation providing employment, training and environmental services in the NSW north coast region.

At any given time, there can be over 200 projects and jobs on the go, each at a different stage of completion. The Peachtree-based accounting system could not cope with the rapid growth of the organisation, and eventually 3500 general ledger accounts were used to track projects as well as jobs. Finance & Administration Manager Peter Hughes found project management had become a logistical “nightmare”. Key requirements in a new system were integration to eliminate the need for manual re-keying of data, and advanced job costing and project management capability, which is why Greentree was chosen.

Project Management prowess

Greentree’s Job Cost module includes user-definable Activity Codes and Work Centres, which provides the flexibility to present project costs in a format which is relevant to the funding organisation. Peter explains, “We can present financial data for Environmental Trust projects, for example, using their funding headings. Greentree ensures project managers can view reports in the funding body’s format. This makes it much easier to ensure that projects are on track and complying with the individual funding body’s requirements. Previously, lots of time was wasted converting standard accounts to the form required by the funding bodies for reporting and acquittal.”

With only a two-year view of data, it was difficult managing projects spanning several years. Greentree matches data availability with the duration of the project, so management has high visibility of projects and resources as they progress. Peter says this has enabled managers to make strategic decisions with confidence. This has been critical for attracting new and ongoing funding, and growing the organisation’s project capability.

The ‘need to know’ flexibility of the Excel Reporting functions allows project data to be converted to a few key items including ‘days worked per project and days remaining’. Having this critical information allows work to be scheduled up to 12 months in advance and ensures that the on-ground work force is allocated to meet EnviTE’s commitments.

‘Kicking and screaming’into 21st century accounting

Peter concedes that it wasn’t until they began scrutinising existing systems, procedures and IT infrastructure that they realised how far behind they had fallen.

“Implementing Greentree forced us to grow up fast and get a bit more sophisticated about how we do things. If we hadn’t been forced to do this, EnviTE would not have the capability to take advantage of the opportunities that are now arising from funding bodies seeking complex overarching projects in their drive to reduce costs and achieve better outcomes. In fact, we are now providing project and financial management for other organisations that do not have the capacity to handle complex projects,” he says.

Tree analysis improves project bargaining position

EnviTE ‘bundles’ community projects in the district councils which fall within its geographical region. Projects are no longer standalone activities with support and resources required from all stakeholders. “The tree analysis allows hard data when negotiating with councils to be at our fingertips. This required a level of sophistication that simply wasn’t available with Peachtree,” Peter says.

Greentree now enables EnviTE to capture and analyse data using Tree Analysis codes to separate and group similar data sets. This helps to identify activities which are costly and areas where the allocation of additional resource would bring the project back on track.

Peter says that without doubt, Greentree provides the tools required to report the statistical facts about projects. This effectively arms management with the evidence to prove organisational performance, which significantly improves EnviTE’s bargaining position when it comes to pitching for restoration and labour market projects.

Scalability matches growth

Although the level of manual data processing reduced, the number and complexity of projects increased, which had the overall effect of doubling staff numbers. Peter points out there’s plenty of scope for growth: “We could quadruple turnover with the same staffing level and not bat an eyelid, since Greentree will be absolutely scalable to whatever level we might require in the future. We envisage using it for a good few years to come.”

Growing into the possibilities

With an increasing level of understanding of the Greentree computing environment, Peter says he constantly figures out how he can leverage more of its functionality to improve the business. He’s currently looking at how the collection of time sheets from remote staff could be accommodated using Greentree’s e-timesheet capability. For this, he will call upon the expertise of the local Greentree business partner, who provides a flexible and consultative approach to business improvement.

Peter is confident that his increasing understanding of the possibilities Greentree presents, plus the know-how of the Greentree business partner, will return the original investment back to the organisation many times over.

“The Greentree business partner provides the peace-of-mind confidence that support is readily available. They’re great at presenting all the options and working through them with us to achieve the most optimal outcome,” says Peter.