How a social enterprise saved 64% on finance costs

Client

A social enterprise teaching film studies to adults with disabilities and people from marginalised communities, using filmmaking to shift attitudes towards the rights and contributions of people with disability.

Industry

Media and film education, not for profit

Founded

2009

Annual turnover

AUD $5 million

Scope

Accounts payable and receivable, payroll, reconciliations, month-end journals, P&L and balance sheet

Our client

A $5 million organisation running finance on two part-time seats

Operating since 2009, our client teaches film studies to adults with disabilities and people from marginalised communities, using filmmaking to shift attitudes towards the rights and contributions of people with disability.

With an annual turnover of AUD $5 million, they wanted accuracy, standardised processes, better data quality and cost savings from their finance function.

The challenges

What was breaking before the finance team

1. ▪Two part-time finance resources in Sydney costing $150,000 pro rata.
2. ▪Senior management frustrated by the lack of timely, accurate information.
3. ▪No true and fair picture of the business to plan against.
4. ▪Forward planning was effectively impossible.

The solution

Sixty days to take over the transactional workload

We assessed existing processes, systems, policies and stakeholder requirements, then over 60 days took over the full transactional workload.

1. ▪Accounts payable and accounts receivable
2. ▪Payroll processing
3. ▪Bank, debit and credit card reconciliations
4. ▪Month-end journals
5. ▪Production of the P&L and balance sheet

The result

More dedicated capacity, at a third of the cost

Where the client was spending $150,000 on part-time resources, they now have 1.5 dedicated full-time resources for $54,000. That is a 64% saving, worth $96,000 a year.

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