Sheffield Diocesan Board of Finance

Supporting the work of the Church of England

Company Overview

Sheffield Diocesan The Diocese of Sheffield was formed at Pentecost in 1914, by the division from the Diocese of York, and the Board of Finance was incorporated in 1924. It covers most of the County of South Yorkshire, with a small part of East Yorkshire, one parish in North Yorkshire and one in North Lincolnshire – an area of almost 576 square miles.

The main objective of the Diocese is to support the work of the Church of England, and provide an administrative service to each of the 175 parishes across the Diocese, which covers a population of around 1.2 million. Roger Pinchbeck, Deputy Diocesan Secretary, discusses the challenges the Diocese faces.“As a charity, of course, we face financial issues as all charities do, but our major difficulty as the Board of Finance, is to be able to plan ahead to ensure that the work is able to continue into the future.”

Each year, the Sheffield Diocesan Board of Finance has to account for around £7.6 million in incoming resources – the main source being from parish contributions.The headquarters employs over 40 staff, of which there are three employees in the accounts department. Although there are no other official offices, the network of parishes across the Diocese includes Vicars and Treasurers, working from home, with whom there is a constant flow of information.

Switching Solutions

The Board of Finance had been using a Tetra system since 1992, but when the provider was bought out by a bigger market player, no further development or support was planned for the system.The millennium compliance was also questioned and with no reassurance offered from the provider, the Sheffield Diocesan Board of Finance decided that a new system was the best way forward. Roger explains where he began the search.“I went to a Softworld show so I could see everything that was available. I then contacted other Dioceses for their recommendations, and visited two that were using different solutions so I could see the systems in action.”

“I looked in detail at Microsoft Navision and Access Accounts and decided that Access offered us the best solution.The functionality was very good – I was looking especially at the nominal structure and sub-analysis abilities, as we need to be able to provide analysis by fund and by project. Access’ main selling point for me was that it provided the functionality and the flexibility we needed in an accessible system - the entry level was appropriate for our requirements. It also offered very good value for money compared to other solutions.We could have spent more and got something different, but it certainly wouldn’t have been any better.

For any business, that would be a consideration but for a charity, that was key. I got in touch with Access who put me in touch with their local specialist centre.They are well regarded locally and have extensive experience, and meeting them gave me confidence that I had made the right decision. I also had the confidence from having another Diocese recommend the solution.”

After presenting a report on the proposed solution to the Business Committee of the Board of Finance and receiving positive feedback, Roger set out an implementation plan with the specialist centre.“We ran the year’s transactions of a very small fund as a test sample and everything ran without a hitch, so we proceeded with the implementation. Our system went live in January, 2001.The only real challenge was planning for the new system whilst still running the old one.With a relatively small team,we had to find the right balance, but our specialist centre was excellent in helping as much as they could.”

Immediate Benefits

Roger continues,“Although no-one in the department had experience of an Access solution, the training that our specialist centre provided was very comprehensive and within a week we had picked it up.The solution is very user-friendly and the support is first class so we had no problems.”

With their previous system, at year end, only the balances were brought forward and the only way of accessing historical data was to print a hard copy of the year’s operations in order to look back to find out any detail. “This is where Access same into its own for us” says Roger.“The key with an Access solution is that it provides readily accessible historical information over a number of years which is what we really needed.”

“We also save a significant amount of time in terms of preparing up to date management information. Even with over £4.5 million coming in from 175 parishes, I can quickly provide any comprehensive up to date information that is required – both at planned and ad hoc times, whenever it is needed.”

“The two-way links with Excel are also a strong feature,” Roger comments.“I am easily able to import and export data. Essentially it gives us the ease of transferring information, without needing a detailed technical knowledge of the structure.”

Looking to the Future

The Sheffield Diocesan Board of Finance is currently planning to use the Access Executive Desktop feature to extend the accounts functionality across the Diocese to non-accounts users.“This will allow people to have access to the data they need, at their own leisure, whether they are based here at the headquarters, or by remote access.We are also aware of the potential of our Access solution for extensive integration with other nonfinancial applications, and are at the thinking stages of what it is possible for us to do.”

“Access has provided us, firstly, with excellent ongoing, local support. Our specialist centre has a superb helpdesk – there is always someone there ready with an answer. Secondly, we now have the depth of management information that we need – as well as the ease of preparing it. Finally, we have confidence in the solution.We knew that we were buying something which was well developed, tried and tested. It is important that we have this confidence and that the solution is continually being developed.As a result, I would have no hesitation in recommending an Access solution.”

Benefits

Extensive functionality - enables sub-analysis by fund and by project
Accessible system - offers appropriate entry level for requirements
Well-regarded - local specialist centre provide first class support
Best value SQL solution
Strong two-way links with Excel - enable straightforward import and export of data