United Church of Christ, Congregational, Burlington

Paragon Customizes Efficient, Financial Controls and Reporting System.

Located in Burlington, Massachusetts, the United Church of Christ, Congregational (UCC) is a historic congregational church that cultivates a thriving environment which empowers a beloved, diverse community. Its founding can be traced back to the town’s beginnings in the 1650s, but was officially founded in 1732.

Today, from an operating standpoint, the small church has very limited accounting expertise and was not using any financial software or tools. Various reports were created and maintained using Microsoft Excel, put together with hand entered numbers. All records were on paper, and it was cumbersome to look up and track past income or expenditures.

To further complicate the situation, most functions of UCC Burlington are performed by volunteers who may not have any experience in the area in which they are working. As well, there are few technologically savvy members, and there is little in the way of up-to-date computer equipment.

The church needed to move to a system that provided more efficient accounting, controls and reports – generated by various volunteers. It was also important to have a solution that did not depend upon on-premise computers as well as have the ability for frequent upgrades.

Paragon implemented Microsoft Dynamics GP, providing an integrated module based accounting system, configured to the church’s specific needs which strengthened financial controls and the reporting process. Microsoft Dynamics GP is hosted in the cloud via Paragon Cloud, simplifying technology infrastructure and reducing costs for the church.

Customized Financial Solution for Volunteer Organization

Paragon customized the Dynamics GP solution, addressing UCC Burlington’s specific needs including running the system only when needed. Paragon set up efficient generating of the reports previously produced by hand and trained members on how to use the system. Paragon took it a step farther.

“Most importantly for us, Paragon provided us with support and training that enables us to use the system productively and effectively,” said Mark Flecchia, treasurer at UCC Burlington. “Although a small, volunteered-based organization, Paragon’s support has been outstanding. We would never have been able to make the transition from cumbersome reporting and tracking in Excel so successful without the exceptional support of Paragon.”

Dynamics GP is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) tool specifically for small and medium sized businesses. The migration to Dynamics GP via Paragon Cloud has delivered numerous benefits for UCC Burlington, including:

• Efficient accounting and financial controls
• Efficient way to track income and expenses
• Consistent, readable and accurate reporting for annual operating budget and balance sheet as well as all areas of the organization to track expenses
• Ability to split the duties for accounting and reports among several people, making it easier for a volunteer organization
• Outstanding, ongoing support from Paragon Cloud

All available via Paragon Cloud, the system has simplified the technology infrastructure for the church hosting cloud servers, cloud email, cloud CRM and cloud ERP with web hosting, domains and storage with one fixed, affordable annual fee and unlimited 24/7 support. Additionally, disaster protection is greatly simplified, further reducing costs.

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