SBS Delivers Improved Productivity and Financial Visiblity
Musicians Institute prepares graduates for creative and professional careers in the contemporary music industry.
The Challenge
“We were not happy with the performance of our financials software,” said Cesar Lopez, Director of Finance and Accounting for the institute. “The accounting system was slow, outdated, inefficient, and crashed frequently. Anytime we needed to make a change in the system it was costly and time-consuming.”
The Dilemma
Upgrading to the current version of the software would be cost prohibitive, Lopez said. Even with the upgrade, “There was no guarantee that the software would perform better than the version that we had.”
But the dilemma didn’t end there.
Upgrading the accounting system meant that all of the add-ons would have to be upgraded too. It was frustrating. “The third-party add-ons were only there because the main system did not have the functionality that we needed,” Lopez said.
Working with the third-party support team was not ideal either, Lopez added. “Overall, it was a huge tangle.”
Exploring the Alternatives
He began researching accounting software alternatives. “I had used the SBS system previously. I remembered being able to get anything I wanted with a few clicks. Reports were easy to build and export to Excel. Most important, there were no questions that the friendly SBS support staff could not quickly answer.”
“After comparing the costs and benefits of the different accounting systems available, SBS was the clear choice,” Lopez said.
Moving to the Cloud
Switching to SBS financials also provided the opportunity to move from on-premises to cloud accounting software, explained Lopez. “We chose the cloud-based solution. Our IT team was very happy about that since they would no longer be responsible for maintaining our on-site hardware and software. With the SBS Cloud, we have access to best-in-class hardware and software updates are seamless and automatic.”
Data Migration, Implementation, and Training
“The implementation process was very simple. The SBS support team did a great job of walking us through the process and assessing our needs. They provided Excel templates to upload our data. A few days later, our new SBS system was up and running.”
Integrating Other Systems with SBS
Integrating data from the Institute’s other systems has been seamless, Lopez said. “We export files such as Revenue, ADP payroll, and Daily Billing transactions from other operating systems, then import them into SBS. The upload process is quick and easy.”
Everyday Tasks
Using SBS Financials the institute’s team has streamlined and automated many of its business processes including:
- Journal Entries: “Before, we would manually input long, compound entries. Now, we simply upload using an Excel template. It could not be any easier.”
- Financial Statements: “They are easy to create and to modify. With full drill-down and export functionality, I could not ask for more.”
- Integrated imaging: “Our staff used to run backups of journal entries and copies of invoices several times a day. Now that we upload all of the supporting documentation, I can quickly drill down to source documents and let the staff work on more important items.”
- Audits: “Our auditors are getting their backups in record time.”
Support
Training on the system was done via a series of webinars. Using the Institute’s own data to set up and learn the software made training and set-up efficient and effective. Once training was complete, support has been handled by phone or email. “The support staff is always available to us and our questions are answered quickly,” Lopez added.
Recommendation
Lopez and his staff are glad they switched from their previous accounting package. They spend less time on manual tasks and more time on higher-level activities. “SBS is the best accounting system period,” Lopez said. “I would recommend it in a heartbeat.”
