Customer Success Story
Alliance to Save Energy
Nonprofit Energy Organization uses Deltek Costpoint® to manage more than 100 project worldwide
The Challenge
With oil prices setting record highs and recent headlines about state-wide power blackouts, using energy efficiently is more vital than ever. Nonprofit organization Alliance to Save Energy (ASE) works to shed light on the best practices of energy efficiency both domestically and abroad. In addition, ASE promotes energy efficiency as a fundamental way to achieve a healthier economy, a cleaner environment and better energy security worldwide.
Quadrupling their growth in just five years, ASE was at a critical stage in its financial management, with reporting requirements to a number of different sources and inadequate accounting software illequipped to correctly manage ASE’s more than 100 projects around the world. The organization’s reports consisted of budget, financial and employee-related data compiled largely through manual calculations. In addition, other processes, such as transferring labor expenses from timesheet software to accounting software and recognizing revenue, were labor intensive and subject to human error.
The accounting software ASE used at this time was adequate for fund accounting, but was insufficient for the project management needs of the organization. The program was not integrated, so the finance team spent a large amount of time downloading information to spreadsheets and then reconfiguring the data to make it meaningful to various constituents, such as ASE’s clients and board of directors.
“Public scrutiny from auditors, our board and government agencies in the last couple years put even more pressure on us to update our accounting practices and software,” said Kathy Hulan, Director of Finance at ASE. “We needed a program that would set us up for long term success by streamlining operations and improving the quality and efficiency of financial reporting.”
The Solution
The firm was looking for an integrated accounting system with a single entry point for all data, as well as a program with the most upto- date governmental forms and requirements. They also needed to be able to review and manage project data easily, from anywhere in the world.
“Because our projects involve international education, it is critical we have an accounting system that is travel-friendly and accessible anywhere in the world via the Internet,” Hulan said.
After evaluating several other accounting solutions, ASE selected Deltek Costpoint®, an advanced enterprise software solution delivering fully integrated back office automation for sophisticated project-based businesses. Deltek Costpoint is the project and financial accounting system at the core of the Deltek Enterprise™ suite.
“We chose Deltek because it was clear that Costpoint was a proven solution that had everything we were seeking,” Hulan said.
After purchasing the solution in October of 2003, ASE began implementation in January 2004 with the reporting and project management applications. The first phase of implementation involved project management and reporting functionality, which according to Hulan, was made easier with Costpoint’s out-ofthe- box functionality and Deltek’s in-depth product training for the ASE staff.
The Benefits
ASE began seeing immediate benefits using Deltek Costpoint, most notably increased efficiencies in the areas of accounts payable and accounts receivable, cash disbursements, receipts, project reporting and revenue calculations.
Time savings is one of the most notable benefits of Costpoint. According to Hulan, closing out each month’s financial data took three days on average using ASE’s previous legacy system. Now, with Costpoint, each month closes in just six hours on average. In addition, by automatically calculating revenue, labor distribution and other key data, Costpoint’s benefits extend beyond time savings to data integrity.
“One of the biggest advantages of Costpoint is that we only enter project and financial data once,” said Kathy Hulan.
“With our previous system, we were using spreadsheets to manually calculate budget information, revenue, labor distribution and other critical information, which was a process prone to human error,” Hulan said. “One of the biggest advantages of Costpoint is that we only enter project and financial data once. Duplicate entries, missed entries and other human error have been drastically reduced, resulting in much more accurate and reliable information.”
Web reports also offer ASE vital performance management capabilities that have vastly improved the way the organization does business. Each program manager can access detailed, up-to-date reports on every client project – including key financial and budget data – anywhere in the world using Deltek Costpoint.
“With the global nature of our business, this is absolutely essential,” Hulan said. “Furthermore, the program managers can e-mail these reports directly to their project managers from anywhere in the world, as soon as the report data is available.”
Other benefits of Costpoint include more accurate tracking and management of restricted and unrestricted funds and grants – key elements to running a nonprofit organization.
| The Challenge | The Solution | The Deltek Advantage |
| ASE needed an integrated accounting system that would streamline operations and improve the efficiency of financial reporting on a long term basis. | ASE selected Deltek Costpoint, an advanced enterprise software solution delivering fully integrated back office automation for sophisticated project-based businesses. Deltek Costpoint is the project and financial accounting system at the core of the Deltek Enterprise™ suite. |
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ASE receives about 20 large grants each year and operates over 100 projects. Costpoint allows ASE to now assign indirect costs across all those projects, and to manage its restricted and unrestricted funds more accurately.
The purchase order system also is a key component for ASE. As a global nonprofit, the firm works with many subcontractors. Prior to Deltek Costpoint, the organization kept track of subcontractor costs on separate spreadsheets, another error-prone process. Today, ASE is able to enter subcontractor costs directly into purchase orders. This allows ASE to track information easily and consequently receive a complete financial picture of each project.
“Everything works so much better with Costpoint,” said Hulan. “Our whole firm is able to make more accurate and solid decisions while reducing previous inefficiencies.”
About Alliance to Save Energy
Headquartered in the District of Columbia, ASE uses donations from private parties and corporations, as well as 20 large government grants a year, to promote its cause. These funds are applied towards domestic and international projects designed to help citizens and government officials alike take advantage of energyefficient technologies and practices. One such program, Green Schools, trains elementary and high school students on how to promote the efficient use of energy at home and at school. Abroad, ASE reaches out to countries like Bosnia, India, Ukraine and Serbia to help officials there utilize energy sources more efficiently. For instance, ASE’s Watergy™ project aims to reduce the energy needed to supply water to communities in places like Sri Lanka, the Philippines and South Africa.