Foodcorps improves budgeting efficiency by 85% with Sage Intacct budgeting and planning

Kids need healthy food to learn, grow, and thrive. Unfortunately, not all youngsters have access to healthy food, or education on how to make healthy choices about what they should be eating.

That’s where FoodCorps comes in. The nonprofit works to connect kids to healthy food with hands-on educational programs at more than 373 schools across 17 states and the District of Columbia. FoodCorps touches the lives of nearly 170,000 youngsters a year, helping cultivate healthy eating habits that can last a lifetime.

The Oregon-based organization has grown steadily since its founding in 2010, with an annual budget of nearly $18 million. Sage Intacct solutions play a key role in helping FoodCorps efficiently manage financials, generate insights for decision making, and ensure financial integrity.

FoodCorps first adopted Sage Intacct cloud accounting software in 2016 to replace QuickBooks and built on that success by implementing Sage Intacct Budgeting and Planning last year. That’s dramatically transformed budgeting compared to the manual Excel-based processes of the past.

“We’re able to budget more efficiently with Sage Intacct Budgeting and Planning and invest our time savings into analytics and strategy so senior management can make more informed decisions,” as Michelle Emeh, senior director of finance, says in our new FoodCorps customer success story.

Eliminating Hours of Manual Excel Consolidations

Emeh, who joined FoodCorps in summer 2019 after a 25-year career in finance at HBO in New York City, selected Sage Intacct Budgeting and Planning after evaluating competing solutions, including Workday Adaptive Planning and Vena Solutions.

“There was perfect alignment between our Sage Intacct accounting software and Sage Intacct Budgeting and Planning, and that was a huge benefit and deciding factor for us,” Emeh said.

Since going live with a “very quick and seamless” self-implementation, Emeh estimates that FoodCorps has improved efficiency by 85% across budget creation, forecasting, and budget vs. actuals reporting.

In one case, the nonprofit eliminated 40 to 50 hours of manually consolidating individual Excel budgets that 30 budget owners had updated. Then, it needed just a half-hour to move budget data into the Sage Intacct general ledger, compared to a six-hour upload via macro that was prone to error.

“Building our budget in Sage Intacct was a wonderful experience,” Emeh said. “I had an idea what the process was like in previous years using Excel, and I couldn’t imagine doing that because it had so many challenges.”

New Time for Collaboration and Analytics

With Sage Intacct Budgeting and Planning, the finance team at FoodCorps has improved collaboration and transparency with the 30 budget owners. They’ve been able to work more closely with budget owners on budget creation and ongoing budget vs. actuals reporting as the organization adapted during COVID-19.

“In the past, people felt detached from their budgets,” Emeh said. “Since moving to Sage Intacct Budgeting and Planning, we’ve been able to spend quality time with budget owners to provide clarity and context. They’re more empowered and comfortable with the numbers, and that’s very gratifying to see.”

And with greatly improved efficiency, Emeh’s team has new time to focus on strategic analytics that helps management make informed decisions based on timely and accurate data.

“The ability we have in Sage Intacct Budgeting and Planning to really analyze the budget to support decisions, and build scenarios on top of that, has been excellent,” Emeh said.

“When presenting to the board, I can easily drill down into the financial data and provide further details when questions are asked, instantaneously. That’s a beautiful thing that we couldn’t do in the past.”

Helping Ensure Financial Sustainability and Social Impact

Emeh has found the headcount modeling feature in Sage Intacct Budgeting and Planning to be especially useful. Now, she can drill down into service member stipends by states, departments, and hire dates, and examine employee salaries, expenses, payroll taxes, 401K contributions, and more.

Ultimately, greater productivity and insights through the combined Sage Intacct solution are helping FoodCorps better fulfill its social mission of connecting kids to healthy food. Sound financial management helps ensure that FoodCorps can invest its resources for maximum impact.

“FoodCorps is focused on sustaining its work for a healthier nation in the years to come, so having software in place like Sage Intacct Budgeting and Planning to support this mission is definitely beneficial to managing expenses, financial planning, and charting a clear path forward,” Emeh said.

Read the FoodCorps customer success story to learn more about how the nonprofit has transformed its budgeting processes with Sage Intacct Budgeting and Planning.