Greentree was the software of choice for one of Australia’s Hospital Benefit Funds, GMHBA Limited, when they decided to upgrade their CBA Financial system. Streamlined reporting via the ‘impressive’ integration between Greentree and Excel made the decision to change reasonably easy.

“Now to get our financial reports directly out of Excel, we just press a button and they are there immediately. The integration between Excel and Greentree is very impressive and our month end reporting is now much more streamlined.”

Tony Ficca, Finance Manager & Company Secretary -GMHBA

Geelong based GMHBA is Australia’s 12th largest health fund, with revenues in the 2001 year of $77 million and around 55,000 members from all over Australia. With 11 branches across regional Victoria (in addition to a Perth office), the organisation is geared to provide a niche alternative to the larger national health funds.

GMHBA had been a CBA customer for many years and in early 2001 decided to update their financial system. According to Tony Ficca, GMHBA’s Finance Manager and Company Secretary, the organisation spent considerable time reviewing a number of mid-range products before selecting Greentree. With the implementation of a new system they wanted to improve on several key areas, including financial reporting.

“CBA reports, while they were adequate, didn’t allow a lot of flexibility and took quite a long time to process and print. When thereports came out we would have to re-key the values into Excel in the format we wanted,” says Tony.

“Now to get our financial reports directly out of Excel, we just press a button and they are there immediately. The integration between Excel and Greentree is very impressive and our month end reporting is now much more streamlined.”

GMHBA also took the opportunity with the new system to redesign their chart of accounts, better reflecting their business and reporting structures. A variety of financial reports have been defined in Excel, with live links to the Greentree Database. Reporting is immediate, accurate and real-time; giving all users of the financial reports key data and information regarding the Company’s performance in a timely manner.

“We are doing a lot more now. Previously we were fairly standard in our end of month reporting and now we are doing a lot more reports that are departmentalised and in more detail. The base operating system is also much better – we don’t need to reindex data files and don’t seem to need as much maintenance.”

Tony Ficca , Finance Manager and Company Secretary, GMHBA

The bulk of the GMHBA’s data processing requirements are managed by a specialised application for health funds operating on separate Unix system. Summarised financial information is loaded into a spreadsheet and journals are posted directly to Greentree.

Tony explains, “The main problem we had with CBA was that our figures were all keyed in manually. Using Excel, we have set up a worksheet with the accounts to post to define in a template. We just upload it – its fantastic”.

The organisation went live with Greentree in July 2001 after several months of planning and deciding how to best utilise some of the new features available. Tony says the organisation has reaped a number of additional benefits besides better reporting. “We are doing a lot more now. Previously we were fairly standard in our end of month reporting and now we are doing a lot more reports that are departmentalised and in more detail. The base operating system is also much better – we don’t need to reindex data files and don’t seem to need as much maintenance.”

With rising costs of providing health care combined with an aging population, many Health Funds are expected to face a number of challenges over the coming years. With a solid financials and reporting system now in place, GMHBA is certainly better prepared to face these future challenges.

About GMHBA

Since the Fund began in 1927, GMBHA has grown to become one of Australia’s most respected and innovative health insurers. Today, GMHBA provide healthcare protection to 1000s of individuals and families across Australia. GMHBA remains a not-forprofit 100% member own organisations.

For more information visit www.gmhba.com.au