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Customer Success StoryRoom to ReadLearn how Room to Read improved theirfinancial efficiency by 80% and positivelyimpacted the lives of more than 100,000children worldwide as a result.Industry: Non-Profit Organization, EducationClient Since: 2016Solutions: Nexonia Expenses and Nexonia TimesheetsIntegrations: Sage IntacctFounded in 2000, Room to Read isa global organization transformingthe lives of millions of childrenin low-income communities byfocusing on literacy and genderequality in education.
THE CHALLENGEComplex, high-growth non-profitwith global operationsManual expense process, and no timetracking systemInsufficient reporting and lack ofactionable dataInefficient, weeks-long close processTHE SOLUTIONUnified expense, time tracking, andaccounting solutionsWhen you have an audaciousmission to improve access toquality education for over 20 millionunderserved children worldwide,you need processes that hold upeverywhere. Room to Read knewthey could do more to maximize theirimpact with an integrated solution.Room to Read is educating the world’smost vulnerable children with an increasingscale and level of impact. As the non-profitexpanded, they became painfully awarethat a modern expense and time trackingsolution was needed to support thisgrowth. “Our manual, Excel-based processwas simply not scalable. We were alwaysbehind schedule on our close dates andhad to constantly chase people for receipts,”said Shari Freedman, CFO at Room to Read.Leading a small finance team, Freedmanknew they had to find a way to optimizeemployees’ time to focus on more impactfulwork. She knew they needed a moreintegrated, automated system.Seamless integration with Intacctfor near-instant data syncCustom reporting, configurable forunique requirementsAutomated rules and approval workflowsUser-friendly, mobile solution with digitalreceipt captureTHE RESULTSOur manual, Excel-basedprocess was simply notscalable. We were alwaysbehind schedule on our closedates and had to constantlychase people for receipts.80% faster month-end close, goingfrom weeks to daysAutomation expedites reimbursementtime by seven daysAbility to comply with larger, diverse,multi-year custom awardsMobile capabilities support remote workand global scalabilityHappier employees can add more value2CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORY
The most crucial part of this strategy reliedon finding an expense and time trackingsolution that could easily integrate withtheir finance system, Sage Intacct. Roomto Read knew that a bi-directional syncwould provide their team with nearreal-time visibility into meaningful dataimperative to the non-profit’s success.“We had complex reporting requirementsand wanted the ability to share spendand performance data directly with ourprogram donors. This was fundamental tocreating a sense of trust and transparency,as well as securing future funding.”Room to Read selected Nexonia becauseof its strong reputation with the Intacctcommunity, its economic value, its customreporting features, and its user-friendlymobile capabilities. Users were eager tomove away from manual processes andembraced Nexonia Timesheets and NexoniaExpenses. “There’s always a degree ofchange management with new processes,but we’d already established credibility withour Intacct implementation, so users werevery receptive. This made for a smoothadoption,” said Freedman.We had complex reportingrequirements and wanted theability to share spend andperformance data directlywith our program donors.Users find the solution intuitive andappreciate its mobile capabilities likedigital receipt capture and on-the-gotime and expense submission. Thesefeatures save users time and let themfocus on more productive work, ratherthan worrying about lost receipts andclunky spreadsheets. For the financeteam, auditing and approvals can alsobe done from anywhere. This helps keepthe organization moving toward its goalswithout being limited by location.Finance was impressed with howeverything effortlessly synced withIntacct to streamline the entire expense3CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORYTHE SAGE INTACCTINTEGRATIONNexonia’s award-winning integrationwith Intacct allows data to effortlesslyflow between platforms. Our solutionsserve as the user-friendly entrysystem, a simple and intuitive toolthat everyone can easily use. Intacctremains private, protected, and thesingle source of truth for data.“The integration between Nexoniaand Intacct is fantastic. It hasstreamlined our entire reimbursementand AP process so we can close indays, not weeks. This frees up asignificant amount of time for moreimpactful projects.”Shari FreedmanCFORoom to ReadLEARN MORETo learn how Nexonia can revolutionizehow you manage expenses, payables,and time tracking, visit nexonia.com
only takes a few days, so we can easilyclose on time each month without the addedstress,” said Freedman. Efficiency gainsempower the finance team to focus on moreanalytical work to support Room to Read’sobjectives. “Having more time for moremeaningful work has been very satisfying,”said Freedman. It has also improved moralecompanywide and enabled finance tooperate at an elevated level within theorganization. Additionally, as Room toRead grows, the solution scales with them,allowing finance to meet increased demandwithout adding headcount.reimbursement process. “The integrationbetween systems works beautifully, andgives us so much time back,” said Freedman.With over fifty bank accounts in variouscountries and reimbursements in nineteenlocal currencies, manually processing andcoding expenses was cumbersome. Nexoniaautomates and expedites the entire processwith custom rules, approval workflows, andintegrations with the general ledger, sousers get reimbursed seven days faster.Nexonia helped simplify the audit processand reduced the time to close by more than80%. “With our manual system, it requiredseveral weeks of intense auditing and latenights to resolve our expense reporting.With Nexonia and Sage Intacct, the process4CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORYCustom reporting allows usto easily track the outcomeof our programs in terms ofthe number of children beingimpacted, and tie that backto specific donor investments.Through the Intacct integration, Room toRead can easily track time across bothinternal and donor-funded projects withdetailed reports to show the impact.Freedman explicitly mentions this has beenvital to the non-profit’s success: “Customreporting allows us to easily track theoutcome of our programs in terms of thenumber of children being impacted, andtie that back to specific donor investments.”Improved donor compliance through timetracking has directly impacted Room toRead’s ability to secure larger, multi-yearawards, and more diverse funding. “Donorswant to see the impact of their investments,and now we’re able to share this level ofdetail with just a few clicks.”Since migrating to an integrated, cloudbased strategy across their technologystack, Freedman estimates that Room toRead has realized enough cost and timesavings to have impacted 100,000 children.“Modern solutions like Nexonia help supportour mission and enable us to delivereducational programs to the world’s mostvulnerable communities.”
HIGHLIGHTED FEATURESIntegration with Sage IntacctAs part of its digital transformation, Room to Read needed anexpense and time tracking solution that could easily integrate withIntacct to deliver efficiency gains and provide robust data insights.ABOUT NEXONIA,PART OF EMBURSEEmburse, Nexonia’s parentorganization, is a global leaderin expense management andAP automation solutions, trustedby more than 4.5 million usersMobile Capabilitiesin over 120 countries.Nexonia makes work easier by enabling mobile expense and timemanagement, so Room to Read can continue to improve livesfrom anywhere.Nexonia is a leading provider ofweb- and mobile-based financialmanagement solutions for expense,time, travel, and more. Our simple-Robust Reporting and AnalyticsThe integration with Intacct allows Room to Read to generate customreports highlighting program performance and investment. Datainforms strategic forecasting and helps Room to Read secure moreconsistent donor awards.to-use applications fully integratewith a variety of business systemsand are designed to enhanceoperational efficiency. We’re trustedby organizations including CrossFit,Hamamatsu Corporation, andDigital Receipt CaptureRoom to Read doesn’t have to worry about lost receipts or manual audits.Nexonia’s digital receipt capture and built-in compliance rules streamlinethe process for quicker submission and approval.5CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORYLufthansa Systems.Visit emburse.com or nexonia.comfor more information.
embraced Nexonia Timesheets and Nexonia Expenses. "There's always a degree of change management with new processes, but we'd already established credibility with our Intacct implementation, so users were very receptive. This made for a smooth adoption," said Freedman. Users find the solution intuitive and
