OpenSky Finance Navigator for Public Funded Agencies

80% of Organisations depend on spreadsheets for their reporting & budgeting processes - meaning data updates are an every day chore.

Yet...90% of spreadsheets contain errors as well as being tedious and time-consuming to maintain.

Regulation Adherence

Organisations that draw on (multiple) funding have to meet those (multiple) guideline requirements or will loose their eligibility.

Changing Guidelines

Public funding (especially politically sensitive areas such as healthcare and education) is constantly subject to new and changed laws, regulations and oversight, and organisations (and the system they use) must be able to adapt quickly and often with little notice.

Funding Letters

Automated capture & recording of relevant data from funding letters, pertinent to funding allocations.

Tracking Funding Spend

Track in detail how funds are being spent according to submitted budget and funding application.

Finance Navigator – a Business Intelligence and Corporate Performance Management Platform.

A self-service, online reporting, forecasting, tracking and budgetting platform, that integrates with existing accountancy systems, designed for agencies in receipt of Government funding.

Including Income360 functionality, built specifically to support Funded agencies, in tracking and accounting and integrated with 40+ finance data systems - Finance Navigator speeds up month-end process, enables forecasting and delivers accurate, quality financial data, pertinent to mandatory funding audits.

Intelligent speaker standing and lecturing at business conference in boardroom

CASE STUDY 1

Funding Management

Primary education depends on public funding from the Government.

Educational institutions receive different types of funding based on the type of school, number of students, locations, etc.

They need to adhere to specific rules and guidelines in their long-term budget. The most important parts of their budget are student forecasts, staffing and investments.

They often want to use their own budgeting process, even though they need to adhere to external guidelines. This often results in quite complex spreadsheets.

The Solution

Finance Navigator technology offers a comprehensive solution for primary education that makes budgeting and reporting easier for them.

Users enter estimated parameters, such as student numbers, courses, classrooms, and FTEs, and Finance Navigator calculates income and expenditure based on those parameters. The solution is highly scalable for institutions that operate multiple schools or locations.

Entry and editing of budget components can be delegated into the organisation, such as to budget holders, school directors, faculty managers etc. The budget is automatically consolidated.

St Patricks Cathedral Facade; Dublin; Ireland

CASE SUDY 2

Funding Management

The Cultural sector is highly dependent on public funding through subsidies & grants. This funding comes from different sources, such as (amongst others) the Department of Education, Culture and Science and various Funds for the Arts.

Cultural organisations in the sector can apply for subsidies for one-off and/or multi-year projects.

Recipients of public funding are obliged to submit applications, budgets, and audited financial statements in accordance with guidelines that are specific to each origin of funding. Different accounting and reporting standards apply.

This includes detailed activity-based budgets, allocation of spending against activities, tracking audience performance, and complying with external reporting guidelines.

This requires a high administrative burden which the sector used to solve with cumbersome spreadsheets.

The Solution

Finance Navigator technology offers a solution that allows customers to do the entire budgeting, tracking and reporting in one central online solution. Users can log in to the system and thus gain access to their budgets and forecasts, and reporting. The solution can handle both project budgets and multi-year budgets. The integration with accounting systems provides insight into budgeted versus actual spent.

Budget holders can budget their own costs and personnel. They only have access to their assigned activities, which is controlled with user authorisations.

Changes to budgets and forecasts are saved immediately. The management can view and approve all parts of the budget. It is even possible to create and compare multiple versions.

The budget models and reports are fully in line with how users want work. Users can drilldown to view the invoices in the accounting system for each transaction. This gives optimal insight.

The external reporting and annual accounts produced, comply fully with all guidelines.

Happy volunteers in the park on a sunny day

CASE STUDY 3

Fundraising Management

Charity organisations typically receive different types of funding (such as private and corporate donations, subsidies & grants, bequests and gifts, and income from activities). Funding can both be restricted or unrestricted with different project allocation and duration, often across multiple years.

This requires accurate project tracking that provides insight into which costs are incurred for any given project or activity. And costs have to be allocated against approved budgets.

Most organisations solve this with spreadsheets, however, this method is often tedious, error-prone, and time-consuming.

The Solution

Finance Navigator technology is a comprehensive solution for charity organisations that makes income planning and reporting easier for them. Through the integration with existing accounting systems, it knows which costs have been incurred for a project.

The budgeting process is supported with input models that allow activity-based and driver-based planning for each of the income streams. This also includes the distribution of income to projects, including the tracking of restricted funding. The customer has a clear picture of which funds have already been accounted for.

In addition, users can allocate costs and employees per project. The budget models can be delegated to each project manager, controlled with user permissions.

Reports provide the customer with insight into all income streams, and current, open and completed projects.