A Herefordshire that is “richer and more diverse in wildlife, bringing its people closer to nature” is the vision for this charity, which works with over 300 volunteers, for some 5,800 members. Caring for 55 nature reserves, Herefordshire Wildlife Trust (HWT) works with its partners to inspire people of all ages to discover and care for their local wildlife.
In July 2022, Xledger interviewed Finance Manager, Amanda Eckley following her experience moving onto Xledger’s finance software. Having already implemented Xledger across numerous other Trusts within the country meant that the selection process was able to be streamlined. In this interview, Amanda explains what challenges their organisation was facing; the ways Xledger has supported their digital transformation, and the tangible results that enabled their internal processes to improve.
The challenge
“Our main financial challenge was keeping track of restricted funds for our funders. We are given a certain amount of money for a purpose or project, and must record spend against that in order to report back”. Restricted funds can be particularly challenging; so HWT were looking for a system that could clearly portray all expenditure for these funds.
What were the main reasons for changing finance system?
- Advocacy from other Wildlife Trusts already using Xledger
- A desire to enhance remote capabilities, following a move to remote working that had already happened
- Fund management capabilities
- Supporting the wider team to take more ownership of their finances, reducing reliance on one finance manager
- Keeping track of data more easily
- Managing expenses, income and expenditure
Selection
Given the existing experience with Xledger, Amanda’s selection process was relatively straightforward. However, while there was a clear steer towards Xledger, Amanda needed to confirm 100% that the system could do what was needed for Herefordshire Wildlife Trust. Their primary decision criteria was for “a software that was agile in its reporting. Trustees often want information in different ways, so we wanted a way to easily pull data.”
Once Xledger had proved it was able to fulfil our criteria, HWT began the process of implementation. “We had an initial chat with your consultant, Fleur, and then kicked off in December. We’d already seen the system for other Trusts, so knew it would work for us.”
Results
What have been the highlights since implementing Xledger?
System experimentation
“The part I love about it is the Sandbox system. Now, when we’re playing around with functionalities that we’re not sure about, having an environment that we can experiment in is great as it gives us the results without affecting the live system. I can have the test open on one screen, and the live in another. We’re huge, huge fans of it; it’s a massive USP, especially when you’re getting to grips with the system, and it reduces a lot of the fear. Everyone can have access to it, so you can train staff too. Also, because data is regularly refreshed it’s constantly updated. I’ve not seen this function in any other finance system.”
Automation
A key benefit of Xledger’s capability is reducing time through manual entry, “your automated payments save so much time. Also, being able to drag and drop budgets saves a lot of time, whether it’s invoices or payroll journal.”
Ownership and insight
“It has given our project managers more transparency with their budgets; allocating spend against restricted funds. Rather than waiting for me, they can look at it themselves. This saves us time and enhances the reporting capability, so it’s more accurate.”
Excellent support
“The support team have been brilliant. When I felt stuck and experienced frustrations, Jordan helped calm me down. He’s been absolutely amazing. When I’ve been desperate, the support team couldn’t have been better. They know their stuff.”
Consulting expertise
Support for customers continues long after implementation finishes. This includes regular knowledge webinars; led by Xledger’s accountancy-qualified consultants. “Alastair did the last knowledge webinar, and he was brilliant. All of the webinars are really good, especially for new starters. The consulting team are so personable, nothing was too much bother, the solution training was excellent too.”
How would you describe your overall experience with Xledger?
“Xledger does exactly what I wanted. The fund management is brilliant – our auditors were very thankful! They came in and loved it. Because we could give them direct access to the system, I had very few interruptions to my work, as they could pull out any information they needed. We weren’t able to do that with our last system.”
With the system now fully integrated into HWT’s team, Amanda ended with her advice and recommendation for other organisations: “I would recommend Xledger, and have spoken to other Trusts. I would allow plenty time for implementation: due to its multi-dimensional functionality, it takes longer than you might think. Extra time, but worth it!”
Herefordshire, along with the many other Wildlife Trusts in the UK play a huge role in protecting our land and seas. We are proud to be empowering the Trust in driving its mission to bring nature to more people and protecting the UK’s natural environment for future generations.
