Foxborough Regional Charter School
Success Story
For this Charter School, Growth Became a Great Learning Opportunity
The Foxborough Regional Charter School (FRCS) in Foxborough, Massachusetts is a unique public K-12, college preparatory, community of learning, established in 1998 and serving students from 20 neighboring communities. FRCS currently employees 155 faculty and staff members, and has 1,270 students enrolled.
Its expectations of academic achievement are high, a solid commitment to serving others is valued and integrated into the daily curriculum, and leadership opportunities are woven into every corner of its foundation. FRCS challenges teachers and families to work in partnership in order to ensure that all students are prepared with college readiness and 21st Century skills upon graduation.
A Major Expansion Created a Need for a New Accounting Solution
When Foxborough Regional Charter School first opened, they used an off-the-shelf product for their accounting needs, as it provided all the functionality they needed in the early years. However, by 2010, with the school’s expansion and a change in its structure, they needed a fund accounting based product that would better meet their internal and external reporting needs.
They also needed a software tool for managing purchasing, as the school district makes a large number of purchases each year, such as desks, books and other numerous teaching and student supplies.
The School Did Its Homework and AccuFund Passed the Test
FRCS went to the Internet to research different accounting packages and found that one organization recommended the AccuFund Accounting Suite. F RCS interviewed four vendors altogether and then narrowed the list to two, ultimately choosing AccuFund.
“The AccuFund Accounting Suite offers software modules that other systems don’t,” explained Karen Calvert, business manager at Foxborough Regional Charter School. “The Budget Development module in particular was a deciding factor in selecting AccuFund.”
In addition to the AccuFund Accounting Suite’s Core Modules (General Ledger, Accounts Payable and Cash Receipts), FRCS obtained the Accounts Receivable, Purchase and Requisition modules for managing their purchases, with plans to implement the Budget Development and Fixed Assets modules at a later time. They installed the AccuFund system with the help of a reseller and started using it in August 2011.
“The AccuFund Accounting Suite is very easy to use,” said Calvert. “We can create a purchase order and then fax or email it through AccuFund. The PO comes from the accounting side of AccuFund and is applied to the vendor, so it shows what has been budgeted, encumbered and then expensed.”
FRCS has also been impressed with the AccuFund Accounting Suite’s reporting capabilities, which they use for all their reporting across the school. In addition to Calvert, the directors of the school’s five departments —Administration and Finance, Teaching and Learning, Students and Families, Outreach and Development, and Operations —have access to the AccuFundsystem and can enter and approve requisitions and view reports for their departments.
“The reporting is phenomenal and has proven to work great for our office,” said Calvert. “A director can see what has been budgeted on his/her side, but they cannot see other departments’ budgets.”
“With AccuFund, we can also get a breakdown of expenses by department and then by sub-departments within departments and sub-departments within those,” continued Calvert. “For example, we have one department, Students and Families, and within that department, we have Student Life. We can break expenses down to that level and beyond to the sub-department of Student Events and others. AccuFund really widened our reporting capabilities.”
“The AccuFund Accounting Suite offers software modules that other systems don’t,” explained Karen Calvert, business manager at Foxborough Regional Charter School. “The Budget Development module in particular was a deciding factor in selecting AccuFund.”
High Marks for AccuFund
Using AccuFund as opposed to a manual process for creating and managing purchasing orders has enabled FRCS to save significant time.
“We are saving at least one day a week because now we can go into AccuFund and see the PO in routing and its status. When we did POs manually, a PO would just land on someone’s desk and we wouldn’t know how long it was there. We can now keep POs moving along and get orders more quickly. By keeping the requisition and PO process moving, the AccuFund Accounting Suitehas helped us become more efficient. We’re getting things done in a more timely fashion.”
FRCS has also experienced better budget management because they always know where they stand with their budgets. By moving to fully electronic processes, they are also saving the time and expense of paper work.
Since implementing AccuFund, Calvert has recommended the AccuFund Accounting Suite to another Charter School. “I’m one of their biggest fans,” she said. You might say she gave AccuFund an A+ for accounting software.
“The reporting is phenomenal and has proven to work great for our office,” said Calvert. “A director can see what has been budgeted on his/her side, but they cannot see other departments’ budgets.”
Let's Get Started
AccuFund supports your mission with a full suite of financial management applications for nonprofit and government organizations. To learn more and arrange a demo, contact AccuFund at 877-872-2228 or