OSAS Helps Camp Fire USA Minnesota Council

When Tom Henry joined the not-for-profit organization as Director of Finance in March of 2000, he began searching for an accounting software package designed specifically for not-for-profits. Although he researched a number of well-known products, including Great Plains, Cougar Mountain, QuickBooks and MIP, he concluded that the best fit for his organization was OPEN SYSTEMS Accounting Software (OSAS). Although OSAS was first presented to Camp Fire USA Minnesota Council in 1991, as Henry learned more about the functionality of the software, he knew it was not being used to its fullest capabilities. Henry consulted with Howard Holz, owner of Minneapolis-based hp Consulting & Sales, for his recommendations on how Camp Fire USA Minnesota Council could take full advantage of the OSAS system.

“I started working with Open Systems products before PCs were even available in the marketplace, and have never sold any other system since,” said Holz. “After Tom Henry called me, we spent a lot of time training on the different features of the software, which then led us to customized projects designed specifically for Camp Fire USA Minnesota Council. OSAS is a powerful product - easily modified with source code and scalable from one user to hundreds, and it encompasses a breadth of solid applications.”

Camp Fire USA Minnesota Council is structured so that two-thirds of the business is a fee-for-service organization and the remaining third requires fund accounting for contributed revenue. This blend of accounting needs, along with OSAS’s powerful source code, allowed Henry and Holz to create a number of customized program modifications. Highlights include:

Customized chart of accounts: “With OSAS, we were able to design a system that would keep track of all provided services and also trace which grants were tied to each service,” said Henry. “Howard set up the system to really fit our business. It was very clear that OSAS’s flexibility would enable us to account for all of our data in one place.”

Payroll and Direct Deposit: Approximately 60% of Camp Fire USA Minnesota Council’s summer staff is American, while 40% is international and without bank accounts in America. With the Direct Deposit module, counselors no longer worry about live checks, reconciliation time is significantly reduced and staff is always paid on time. With the help of Intercept Corporation, paychecks are now deposited directly into an employee’s pay card account.

Camp Fire USA Minnesota Council registers approximately 2,500 children for multiple sessions in each camp. The organization needed a way for registration data to flow into OSAS without aggregating numbers and manually re-entering them into the system.

Together, Henry and Holz built a bridge between OSAS and the Camp Fire USA Minnesota Council registration database so that transactions that formerly took an average of five minutes each now take only seconds. Information does not have to be re-entered; instead, the data flows through to all other critical systems.

Report Writer module/ODBC connection: Campfire USA Minnesota Council can now regularly examine the wants and needs of their customers and each child. This valuable information is used to develop updated business models through data analysis and financial comparisons. For example, Henry can now cross-reference ideas, ventures and complaints with financial data to determine trends and patterns.

“Most small to mid-sized non-profits cannot afford to hire a certified accountant. We built our accounting staff with non-accountants—people with mathematical sense and good organizational skills—and taught them accounting procedures by creating manuals internally, with step-by-step instructions,” said Henry. “With OSAS and these new manuals, employee training was reduced from months to weeks. All OSAS modules, their strategic setup and the built-in security have facilitated the required segregation of duties to keep integrity in the accounting process.”

Camp Fire USA Minnesota Council currently uses OSAS General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Bank Reconciliation, Payroll, Direct Deposit, GENERAL Report Writer, and the ODBC Kit.