The power of using the cloud-based MIP Budget Module.
In 1972, the Ela Area Public Library opened its doors in the basement of Lake Zurich's St. Francis de Sales Church. The library occupied 3,000 square feet. Over the last 50 years the library has expanded into a multi-floor collection, and is now circulating over 1,000,000 items for patrons.
Lauren Rosenthal, Executive Director for Ela Area Public Library did an extensive analysis of fund software options, analyzing functionality, ease of use, popularity, availability of call center staff, ease of data migration, hardware requirements, and price including both setup and recurring costs.
The Ela Public Library was growing and needed a true fund accounting solution that would grow with them. They also desired a system that would give clearer reporting for department budgets and easier data import and export capabilities.
Prior to MIP implementation, library managers had to each use individual Excel files to keep track of budget spending. Additionally, managers had little to no tracking of spending. The library with it's growth needed a more robust and long-term system to manage and plan their budgets.
Rosenthal also had experience with Quickbooks and knew the library needed to invest in a fund accounting software solution built for nonprofit accounting. With so many budgets, the library finance team also wanted a solution that could provide strong fraud protection and transparency.
Additionally, the library finance team needed efficient and quick importing and exporting capability from Excel sheets to a fund accounting solution.
The library is now in its seventh year of using MIP for all of its accounting needs. The budget module implementation for the library has provided more freedom for each department manager and higher transparency overall for audits.
"The budget module allows each department manager to create a budget worksheet complete with chart of account codes. It allows managers to include detail data so we’re performing zero-based budgeting," notes Rosenthal.
Using the module worksheets the library can quickly export from Excel import back into MIP serving the finance a superb long-term solution where worksheets can be easily modified for budgeting year after year.
Lauren notes, "The biggest benefit in MIP versus QuickBooks, which isn’t a true fund accounting system – it's too easy to delete transactions in QuickBooks, we're looking for more security than that."
MIP’s audit trail and session reversing provides complete traceability. MIP’s reporting is robust and versatile, offering summary and detail reporting for the board and staff.