Businesses are organic — ever-evolving in their practices and needs. Nonprofit organizations are no different!
The Arkansas Single Parent Scholarship Fund (ASPSF) is a prime example of how nonprofits can leverage NetSuite to advance their processes and broaden their impact.
In their 30+ years of operation, the ASPSF has made it their mission to provide financial assistance and personal support to low-income single parents working to advance their education and provide a better standard of living for their families.
In 2022 alone, the ASPSF distributed over $1M in funds to nearly 1500 students, impacting an estimated 1700 single parents and children. Their operation has become considerably more sophisticated since its inception, requiring an ERP to match.
Here’s how StratusGreen worked with the ASPSF to improve their NetSuite environment and boost efficiency.
ASPSF + NetSuite: A Winding Journey
After many years of not getting what she needed from Quickbooks Enterprise, Finance Manager Tammy Ellis knew ASPSF needed to modernize. In the nonprofit world, keeping a paper trail of how donations are received and where the funds are allocated is paramount.
“We outgrew Quickbooks based on our nonprofit needs,” Ellis explained. “The payroll system was clunky, and there were very limited options for tracking donor funds.”
In 2021, ASPSF officially switched to NetSuite. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the end of their woes.
“Our implementation with NetSuite was horrific,” said Ellis. “It was just one thing after another. Going into the relationship, it was clear that we are a nonprofit, but then we found out at our go-live that the nonprofit bundle wasn't even activated.”
So Ellis went to SuiteWorld in 2022 to search for solutions.
“I happened to pop by StratusGreen’s booth and picked up a mouse pad with all the shortcuts and information,” remembers Ellis. Shortly after SuiteWorld, ASPSF received their renewal bill price for NetSuite, and the sticker shock sent Ellis on a new search altogether.
“We started researching alternative consulting options. We had 4-5 different contacts from SuiteWorld, but we just really clicked with StratusGreen and appreciated their competitive pricing,” said Ellis.
With that, StratusGreen & ASPSF partnered to fix what their previous NetSuite consultants couldn’t.
Working Out The Kinks
Much of ASPSF’s relationship with StratusGreen has been optimizing NetSuite for nonprofit use.
Ellis has been particularly pleased with the all-in-one nature of payroll, accounts receivable and payable, expense management, and soon, CRM (Customer Relationship Management).
The primary focus has been to bridge NetSuite to other systems and boost efficiency.
“StratusGreen recently helped set up an automatic bridge between NetSuite and Stripe, a credit card processing system, that allows the two to talk to each other on the accounting side. It’s saved us a lot of data entry time,” Ellis explained.
The next frontier will be transferring customer data from their donor platform to NetSuite, allowing them a 360-degree view of customer information both current and historical.
“StratusGreen has been so great to work with,” Ellis said, “They’ve done everything I needed them to do while being really nice and understanding about my own evolving knowledge of NetSuite.”
We Work With & For You
StratusGreen is a customer-first business. That means taking the time to listen to your needs and work out solutions that meet expectations and exceed them.
If you’re interested in learning more about how StratusGreen can enhance your NetSuite experience, don’t hesitate to give us a call! We have team members with knowledge across a vast number of industries, and we’re all thrilled to talk through NetSuite solutions for your business or nonprofit.
If you’d appreciate a direct reference, Ellis invites you to contact her at tellis@aspsf.org, and if you’d like to support their life-changing program for single parents, visit aspsf.org/give-now.Â
