VSECU Gains Efficiency and Visibility With New Accounting, Budgeting and Reconciliation Solutions
VSECU wanted to modernize its financial functions for increased productivity and insight. After reviewing its current platforms, the credit union decided to replace its accounting, budgeting and reconciliation solutions at the same time. The change resulted in greater efficiency, visibility and control across financial functions.
Challenge
When VSECU realized it needed to replace an outdated accounting solution, the accounting team took the opportunity to evaluate and replace three key finance solutions.
Solution
VSECU turned to Fiserv for accounting, budgeting and reconciliation solutions - all integrated with the credit union’s account processing system - for greater efficiency and visibility.
Proof Points
VSECU reduced month-end close by one-third, from six to four days; saved 70 employee hours per year; streamlined workflow and reduced time to run reports with easier-to-use functionality; and provided greater data visibility and accuracy.
Serving Brokers and Clients
When VSECU realized its accounting solution was unreliable and needed to be replaced, the credit union didn’t stop there. To gain the greatest impact, VSECU evaluated and implemented three Fiserv financial solutions.
VSECU chose Prologue™ Financials accounting solution, Frontier™ Reconciliation, and Management Planning and Control from Fiserv. VSECU was already using DNA® from Fiserv as their account processing system.
The team at VSECU was ready for change and wanted to make all the improvements at once so they could start seeing the benefits as soon as possible. While they realized all change is challenging, they were looking for ways to improve their processes and reduce manual work.
Client Profile
VSECU is a member-owned cooperative and not-for-profit credit union for anyone who lives or works in Vermont. It offers a full range of affordable financial products and services to its member-owners.
VSECU, which opened in 1947, has nine branches and $796 million in assets.
Fiserv Solutions in Use by VSECU
Prologue Financials
A fully integrated accounting management solution that includes general ledger, fixed assets, accounts payable and investment portfolio accounting.
Frontier Reconciliation
A comprehensive end-to-end reconciliation and certification solution that makes exceptions instantly visible and reduces manual interventions.
Management Planning and Control
A financial performance management solution that enables your institution to plan, forecast, report, analyze and measure profitability.
Frontier Reconciliation: Time-Saving Automation
In the past, VSECU had reconciled the old-fashioned way, which included repetitious manual tasks like copying and pasting into spreadsheets. VSECU needed a better, more efficient solution, made possible with the technological improvements that Frontier Reconciliation provides. Frontier Reconciliation forms a complete picture of account reconciliation across the organization, which makes exceptions instantly visible and reduces manual intervention. It minimizes the risk of financial misstatements with transaction-level matching and a full audit trail.
VSECU results include:
95%
elimination of spreadsheet reconciliations, including the removal of paper copying, problems with macros and the potential for overriding formulas
80%
of accounts are reconciled, including Federal Reserve, ATM recons, prepaid lease expense, virtual cash advances, credit card payments, EFTPS daily, PIN debit card and more.
40
additional employee hours saved per year
Additional benefits to VSECU include:
- Increased accuracy and confidence in the numbers
- Greater efficiency in research and audit capabilities, eliminating the need to dig through data to find the right information
- Reduction in required training time, since Frontier Reconciliation is easy to learn and use, with prepopulated data
- Single, centralized location for easy access and visibility
Management Planning and Control: A Next-Level Budgeting System
Management Planning and Control is an enterprise budgeting and profitability solution built specifically for financial institutions that need fast, accurate budgeting and planning. It simplifies strategic planning, budgeting, forecasting, financial consolidation, management reporting and analysis.
For budgeting, VSECU previously created budgets using 10 different Excel spreadsheets, which increased the potential for errors.
Management Planning and Control provides VSECU with several capabilities:
- Ability to build budgets and run reports, allowing staff to easily enter their own data
- More visibility into capital expenditures for approval purposes
- Insights to enable VSECU executives to make more informed business decisions
Solution Synergies
The synergy between DNA, Prologue Financials and Frontier Reconciliation further boosts time-savings and accuracy. For example, nightly data from DNA automatically uploads into Prologue Financials and then into Frontier Reconciliation. In addition, the accounting team configured end-of-month reconciliations with the general ledger in Prologue Financials so both show the same balances.
The Fiserv team exceeded our expectations in every way – not only was their performance way above par, but their response time was outstanding.
- Kasey Cleaves, Vice President of Accounting, VSECU
Learn More
Preparing Finance for a Changing World
Learn how CFOs can implement three strategies – tools, talent and data visibility – to help successfully lead their financial institution into the future.
The Evolving Budgeting and Forecasting Needs of Financial Institutions
Take a closer look at four key factors driving financial institutions to adapt a more progressive approach to budgeting and forecasting.
The Not-So-Hidden Risks of Your Financial Institution's Accounting Processes
Learn more about how automated accounting systems free up CFOs and staff for more strategic projects while providing real-time insights to support decision making.
