Case Study: Zoological Society of Hertfordshire

ION supports the Zoological Society of Hertfordshire through consultation and implementation of Sage Intacct

The Zoological Society of Hertfordshire (ZSH) is a non-profit organisation dedicated to the conservation of wildlife and the promotion of public education about the natural world. ZSH has been in operation since 1875 and is one of the oldest zoological societies in the United Kingdom. The organisation is responsible for the management and maintenance of two zoos, a safari park, and a variety of other wildlife-related activities.

They have a small but very knowledgeable and passionate team of paid staff and volunteers who look after all of their animals, while working together to raise funds to support wildlife conservation projects, both in theUK and around the globe. Whilst the projects they support vary from year to year (ranging from indigenous British species such as hedgehogs and water voles, to red pandas and tigers), a key focus for ZSH is the conservation, in their natural habitat, of many of the threatened and endangered species they house at Paradise Wildlife Park.

In order to ensure the success of their operations, ZSH needed to find a reliable and efficient accounting system. After careful consideration, they chose Sage Intacct, a cloud-based accounting solution provided by Ion. Prior to implementing Sage Intacct, ZSH had been using Sage 50, but their needs had outgrown the system therefore it was labour-intensive and time-consuming, and it was difficult to track financial data. They were managing their finances through a number of manual workarounds which was costing the business significant amounts of time and money.

After consultation with ION, Sage Intacct was chosen as the solution for ZSH’s accounting needs.The cloud-based system allowed for easy access to financial data from any location. Additionally, the system was designed to be user-friendly, so that staff members with minimal accounting experience could quickly learn how to use it.

The ZoologicalSociety of Hertfordshire had a number of key requirements for their new finance solution, including:

1. All departments to have access to information of how their department is performing.For example, their income/expenditure against budget and prior year.
2. Streamline the purchase order system. For example, a workflow that goes through a purchase order to a purchase invoice.
3. To have the ability to create financial and custom reports.
4. To be able to input external figures (visitor numbers) through statistical accounts.
5. Create a dashboard that shows a range of financial or statistical data that can be filtered by location of department.

ION were able to deliver the project covering all of these identified needs, working collaboratively with ZSH’s small finance team using the ‘ION Way’ delivery method, with a dedicated project manager overseeing the whole process.

The ZoologicalSociety of Hertfordshire has seen a number of benefits since implementing Sage Intacct. The cloud-based system has allowed them to streamline their accounting processes, improve the accuracy of their financial data, and access their data from any location. As a result, ZSH has been able to better manage their finances and ensure the success of their operations.

Craig Whitnall – Commercial Director at ZSH said: “The savings we have made from the implementation of Sage Intacct have been invaluable to a charity of our size and scale. ION were fantastic throughout this implementation; their flexibility and ability to work with our team, who were of a small size and were balancing many different priorities in their day-to-daywork, and get this project successfully delivered within the timeframe was great testament to what they offer”.