Professional accountant improved accounting practices and increased management efficiency by moving the accounting of 20 churches to Aplos

Paul Veliquette serves as the Financial Administrator for the Rocky Mountain District Office of the Assemblies of God in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The district office provides resources to all 170 churches in Colorado and Utah, including accounting, computing, and technology environments.

In addition to overseeing the internal accounting and business operations of the district office, Veliquette is directly responsible for the accounting for 50 of the smaller churches.

The Challenge: Overseeing the Accounting of 50 Churches

Veliquette faced significant challenges since each church in the district was using their own software and accounting standards. The lack of standardized reporting throughout the churches that he oversaw meant that month after month Veliquette received reports in 50 different formats, making it difficult to interpret individual finances or identify larger trends throughout the district.

Furthermore, the churches were using desktop accounting software, which did not allow direct access to their books. This created a delay in correcting accounting errors that were detected during audits since he had to use cumbersome screensharing applications or physically travel to the destination to walk the church through the corrections. Since the bookkeeping skills varied within each church, he also wanted a simple, easy-to-use solution that included training.

As a professional bookkeeper, Veliquette wanted to increase his efficiency at managing the churches and resolving errors by standardizing their method of accounting and gaining direct access to the bookkeeping. “I dreamed of an online solution that could be standardized across the board!” expressed Veliquette.

The Solution: Managing the Accounting in Aplos

One of the churches within the district used Aplos and recommended it to Veliquette. After trialing the product with a couple of churches, he migrated more to Aplos and now uses Aplos Oversight to manage 20 of the churches.

To standardize their accounting methods and reporting, he made a custom chart of accounts that each church uses. He can obtain direct access to the bookkeeping of any of his managed churches through Aplos Oversight, which enables him to audit, correct errors, and pull the needed reports. His managed churches that use Aplos Accounting also benefit from free training, customer support, and webinars to increase their expertise.

"I dreamed of an online solution that could be standardized across the board!"

Results: Standardization, Transparency, Efficiency, and More Financial Control

Aplos Oversight gathers the district churches under one online system and provides standardization, transparency, and, ultimately, more financial control.

With more uniform reports each month and direct access, Veliquette has increased the speed and efficiency in which he can address individual accounting issues and identify larger trends about the financial health of the district. In addition, each church using Aplos Accounting maintains independent, consistent, and accurate financial records.

Download the Rocky Mountain District Office of the Assemblies of God case study (PDF).

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