How United Way South Hampton Roads was able to streamline their purchasing process with Spendwise
Overview
United Way South Hampton Roads (UWSHR) is a non-profit organization promoting health, education and income to ensure everyone in the community thrives.
A year and a half ago, Barbara Hickok joined UWSHR as Controller with responsibilities that included streamlining its purchasing process. At the time, the organization was using paper and another software program to manage its purchasing process which took a long time and wasn’t working. After doing some research, Barbara found Spendwise and hasn’t looked back.
Since adopting Spendwise, the organization has been able to speed up approvals, cut down on paper, and track funds more accurately.
Industry
Non-profit
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Company Size
51-100 employees
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Location
Norfolk, VA
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Website
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Key Outcomes
FASTER
Processing
BETTER
Accounting
LESS
Paper
The Challenges
The purchasing process that UWSHR had in place before implementing Spendwise was cumbersome and inefficient.
To make a purchase, team members had to submit a purchase request through another software program which wasn’t working. After the accounting department received the purchase request, they would have to turn it into a purchase order and then turn the purchase order into an invoice which was time consuming.
“The process that was in place before was taking a long time. With Spendwise, we have been able to streamline the process which is saving us a lot of time.”
– Barbara Hickok, Controller
Why UWSHR chose Spendwise
In her search for a solution, Barbara was focused on finding a procurement system that: i) could easily transfer data to and from QuickBooks, ii) allowed for different levels of approval based on expenditure amounts, iii) made it easy to track details on how money was being spent, and iv) included the ability to upload and store files.
Barbara evaluated a range of options and found that Spendwise was the best fit for what the organization needed.
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The Results
Soon after choosing Spendwise, Barbara was able to roll it out to the organization and has already seen the benefits.​
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Faster approval process
Once a purchase request is created and submitted for approval in Spendwise, approvers receive a notification letting them know that their approval is needed. If approvers don’t act on the approval request in a timely manner, they receive reminder notifications. After the request has been fully approved or rejected, the requester receives a notification so they can proceed with the next steps.
With Spendwise, everyone can see what purchase requests are outstanding, whose approval is pending and what steps need to be taken next at any time which keeps things moving along quickly.
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Less paper
Since implementing Spendwise, UWSHR has been able to dramatically cut down on paper and make good headway on its goal to eliminate paper files.
Better accounting
Keeping track of how funds are being spent is an important part of the organization’s operations.
With Spendwise, UWSHR can use accounting codes to keep track of spending by category, department, and grant. When team members create a purchase request in Spendwise, they are able to select accounting codes which can then be reviewed for accuracy as the request makes its way through the approval process.
Later, after bills are received from vendors and recorded in Spendwise, they are electronically transferred over to Quickbooks with all of the information that was entered into Spendwise including accounting codes.
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Learn how Spendwise can streamline your purchasing process!
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