How School in the Square Uses ProcureDesk for Budget Accountability
School in the Square was founded in 2016 by Evan Meyers, who was assigned a principal apprenticeship at one of the lowest-performing schools in NYC with a 25% graduation rate. He became aware of the dismaying statistics of NYC public schools, specifically at his then-current district, where 73% of students could not read at grade level, and 50% of teachers gave up teaching within only a few years.
THE CHALLENGE
Providing Accurate Budget Updates and Preventing Overspending
For non-profit organizations, accurate budget oversight is essential. However, many organizations are trying to track spending and budget statuses in spreadsheets, which makes it almost impossible to provide accurate, real-time budget updates. This is the situation that School in the Square was in, and it was time to make some changes.
The team at School in the Square relied on a Google Sheets document to track spending, and a third-party finance company to pull reports whenever a budget update was needed. However, because many orders could be pending at a given time, it was extremely difficult to gain an accurate snapshot of a given budget. This could result in budget mismanagement and over-spending, which required logistical meetings to re-distribute funds between budgets.
This meant that School in the Square’s leadership team had an incomplete picture of the company’s budget status, and it also caused issues with day-to-day procurement tasks. Not all orders were marked as received, and invoices were not cross-referenced, meaning it was possible to pay for an item that was never received, or even never ordered.
“There was a general lack of clarity and transparency around our budgets. Because we wouldn’t get invoiced right away, we would pull budget reports in Quickbooks, but they were never fully accurate or up-to-date because of those pending orders.”
Monica Merchant
Director of operationsThe easiest way To implement tighter Spend controls
“Now, I feel totally confident when providing a budget update that all the information is accurate and up-to-date. It’s helped us prevent over-spending and makes it much easier to make informed budgetary decisions in the moment.”
Monica Merchant
Director of operationsTHE SOLUTION
Real-Time Budget Management and Oversight
It was clear that the School in the Square needed a solution that gave them the ability to track their budget in real time, but found this surprisingly difficult to find. After meeting with the ProcureDesk team, it became clear that this software had the ability to offer real-time budget overviews and accurate spend analysis.
With ProcureDesk, School in the Square could:
- Quickly and easily track spending and view budget status in real-time
- Limit invoice payments to only received orders
- Streamline their ordering processes from punch-out vendors
THE RESULTS
For School in the Square’s leadership team, ProcureDesk has dramatically improved the accuracy of budget reports. For finance and operations team, the software has made it easier to quickly pull accurate reports and manage invoice payments. And for employees placing orders, ProcureDesk simplifies the process of requesting, tracking, and receiving.
After using the system for some time, School in the Square has experienced:
- Accurate budget reporting and minimized risk of over-spending
- Tightened controls relating to spending
- More informed budgetary decisions and smarter spending
Accurate Budget Reporting and Minimized Risk of Over-Spending
ProcureDesk accounts for pending and unpaid orders, making it easy to see a holistic budget overview at any point in time. This provides leadership with a greater understanding of budget health, and helps to prevent over-spending, as the system flags orders if they are at risk of going over budget.
Tightened Controls Relating to Spending
Not only does ProcureDesk reduce the risk of over-spending, but it also tightens spend controls in general. Rather than paying invoices without cross-referencing whether they were received, ProcureDesk enables School in the Square to easily check whether an order was received before paying an invoice, which reduces both the risk of overdue invoices and authorizing payment for unreceived orders.
Improved Efficiency for Punch-Out Orders
The process of ordering from punch-out vendors is also much more efficient with ProcureDesk. Purchase requests are now sent for approval with individual products already keyed in. Once the order is approved, the finance team doesn’t need to re-key these items – the order can be placed in one click, which is especially helpful for orders with a large number of individual items.
“We’ve been so impressed with the support we’ve had from ProcureDesk. We get quick responses and find the team very receptive to feature requests. I think ProcureDesk is a great solution for schools and non-profits where budget oversight and accountability are essential.”
Monica Merchant
Director of operationsIf you would like to experience a struggle-free purchasing & invoicing process, click on the link below to schedule a demo with one of our product specialists.
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