| Organization: Economic development organization helping women business owners. | Need: A strong financial foundation and updated processes to support growth. | Outcome: Transformed finance systems to boost efficiency and financial transparency. |
Understanding the situation
The Women’s Business Enterprise Center East (WBEC-East) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping women achieve their dream to own a business. With a range of workshops, coaching, and certification programs across Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Southern New Jersey, the WBEC-East team supports women-owned businesses throughout the entrepreneurial journey and helps them gain credibility. However, to continue its mission, WBEC-East needed to strengthen its financial foundation.
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Exploring the challenge
As WBEC-East grew, its financial systems and processes needed to keep pace. Then its longtime part-time controller retired followed by an unexpected resignation from its outsourced controller. Suddenly WBEC-East had an urgent need for finance and accounting support to manage month-end close, year-end close, federal funding, and more.
WBEC-East leaders leaned on CLA’s nonprofit experience for guidance. They explored options for structuring the finance function, from an in-house professional to outsourced support. CLA’s client accounting and advisory team conducted a business opportunity assessment. The results revealed the finance department needed to modernize.
Along with outsourced finance and accounting services, CLA provided HR support, helped WBEC-East comply with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), and assisted with maintaining accurate budgets and budgeting for grants. Together, they implemented a new digital platform, transforming manual processes into digital workflows.
CLA’s commitment to outsourcing our finance department is more than I could have hoped for. Now I sleep at night because I'm not worried about the books and finances. I don't know what I would do without them. Elizabeth Walsh, President, WBEC-East
Achieving results
With CLA’s help, WBEC-East improved its overall financial stability, found support to navigate challenges, and experienced sustainable growth.
- Improved financial transparency — Board members can focus on strategic thinking rather than day-to-day operations.
- Better reporting quality — 20-page briefing books with dashboard reporting provide the detail some board members are looking for, along with a management discussion analysis for the higher-level insights others need.
- Faster and more efficient operations — Timely vendor payments and data for the finance committee to make informed decisions.
- Enhanced staff productivity and efficiency — While hard to measure, WBEC-East leaders say the baseline was zero and now it feels they’re operating at 100%.
- Strategic consulting — Help for WBEC-East to pursue a major office relocation, breaking down costs, turning financial terms into language the team could understand, and assisting with the recent lease standard implementation.
- Annual fundraiser support — Getting strategic about how the event brings funds in the door (and volunteering at the event is a CLA team favorite!).
WBEC-East is thoughtful about being stewards of public dollars, and taking these steps helps them spend funds effectively so its business owner members can thrive now and well into the future.
Contact us
Identifying challenges and opportunities is the first step to getting results. See how a business opportunity assessment could work for you. Complete the form below to connect with CLA.
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