Smart ideas bring quick success for the Congress of Neurological Surgeons
Industry
Nonprofit
Solution
Sage Intacct
Client Since
2020
Congress of Neurological Surgeons
The Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) is a not-for-profit membership society for neurosurgeons, providing networking and educational opportunities to its more than 11,000 members worldwide. Founded in the 1950s, CNS remains relevant through its expansive range of publications, online courses, and in-person meetings and conferences. With a lean staff and a heavy workload, CNS needs tools that streamline tasks and automate workflows — and a partner with the skill to make it happen. For CNS, it’s Sage Intacct and BT Partners.
"BT Partners is an amazing partner. They are skilled, experienced, and hands-on in their approach."
Overdue for change
Patricia Gaber, CPA, now the Controller for CNS, first joined the organization as a contractor hired through CNS’s accounting firm. “CNS was using Microsoft Dynamics GP as its accounting application, and there were some challenges. We need to track our activities in very granular ways, and that required a new GL account for each thing they needed track. As a result, there was a 25-page chart of accounts. It was simply unmanageable, so we proposed a move to Sage Intacct.”
Gaber met BT Partners through the accounting firm and instantly liked the Sage Intacct team. “They are an outstanding partner,” she says. “They are skilled, experienced, and hands-on in their approach.”
Streamlined reporting
Reporting under the old system was a particular challenge for CNS, as it struggled to gain the granularity it needed to manage and track grants, funds, and projects.
Tapping into the power of Sage Intacct dimensions to track attributes like project, department, and grant, Gaber was able to eliminate 90% of CNS’s general ledger accounts. “Dimensions allow us to easily report on our data from every possible angle, and they simplify and streamline reporting since we no longer have a separate account segment for every attribute.”
Automation saves 40 hours
Previously, accounting for prepaid expenses required staff to maintain complex spreadsheets to calculate and track amortizations. Sage Intacct automates the entire cycle. For example, leading up to CNS’s annual meeting, it collects registration fees from members and pays hotel, catering, and venue deposits. CNS can create an amortization schedule for the expenses, establishing rules to expense the assets when the event begins. Similarly, it establishes a schedule to recognize the revenue from corporate sponsors and member registrations.
“Before Sage Intacct, this was an entirely manual process,” Gaber says. “We easily save 40 hours of time during our annual meeting period and additional time throughout the year for smaller events.”
Simplified expense processing
More recently, BT Partners recommended Nexonia to CNS. Nexonia is a fully integrated expense management solution that dramatically streamlines employee expense processing. “Our employees log in to Nexonia and can select the corporate credit card transactions they want to include on their expense reports — or enter their own,” explains Gaber. Once they finish, the application routes the report for approval, and when approved, it creates a bill in Sage Intacct.
The visibility the solution provides allows CNS to quickly see what credit card transactions have yet to be accounted for. “It’s really a smart way to handle expense reporting,” she adds.
Salesforce integration saves 10 hours
CNS is a long-time Salesforce user, and the native integration between Sage Intacct and Salesforce was another quick win for the organization. The business development team uses Salesforce to invoice corporate partners for sponsorships, educational grants, and advertising. The integration between the two applications keeps this data synchronized in real time. Gaber estimates that the development team saves ten or more hours each month by eliminating the need for duplicate data entry.
Faster payment processing
BT Partners also introduced CNS to Versapay, an innovative application that allows customers to accept credit card and ACH payments from customers within Sage Intacct.
“We can also include a link with our invoices that customers click on to enter their payment information,” explains Gaber. “This too, was formerly a manual process. We save several hours a month, and with the customer payment portal, we’re seeing payments quicker than before, which boosts our cash flow.”
Promoting collaboration
One of CNS’s favorite tools within Sage Intacct is the collaborate feature. It’s an internal, real-time communication and documentation tool built into the software. It’s available from most Sage Intacct screens and allows employees to record notes and details — or ask questions — and tag colleagues to share the information. “Our Senior Accountant and I use this feature all the time,” Gaber says. “It gives context and leaves a trail about why we did what we did with a particular transaction.”
No hesitation recommendation
Gaber has a long list of reasons why she’s happy with the move to Sage Intacct. “With Sage Intacct, I have a better line of sight into our finances. We’ve eliminated manual processes that were time-consuming and error-prone. Overall, the best thing we gain with Sage Intacct is confidence. We know it’s right, and there’s an audit trail to prove it.”
She has similar praise for BT Partners. “If a colleague asked, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend BT Partners,” Gaber concludes. “They are much more than a vendor to us. They listen, ask questions, and give solid advice. They never overpromise and always overdeliver. You can’t ask for more than that.”