Regional Parks Foundation Saves Thousands in Auditing Costs with PairSoft

The Client

Based in Oakland, California, the Regional Parks Foundation, in partnership with the Park District, is a nonprofit responsible for fundraising and supporting special events and activities for children, disabled adults, seniors and others enjoying its 65 public parks and more than 120,000 acres of land. With only five full-time employees, the Foundation’s efforts lead to about $1.2 million worth of projects each year, including upgrades to park facilities, accessibility modifications, equipment purchases, environmental stewardship projects and more.

The Challenge

The 501(c)(3) is required to keep stringent records and meet regulatory compliance standards while maintaining extreme transparency. In 2004 before bringing PairSoft on board, Regional Parks Foundation was using Blackbaud’s Raiser’s Edge and Financial Edge but needed a complementary document and workflow management solution to efficiently, accurately and consistently manage everything from accounts receivable and memberships to documentation and audits.

The Solution

Working in tandem with the Blackbaud software, PairSoft helps the entire organization manage membership and gift processing, accounts receivable for donations, invoicing and accounts payable. Thanks to its document scanning function, bookkeeping and maintaining journal entries is managed seamlessly. What’s more, Raj Hajela, Regional Parks Foundation’s administrator, says PairSoft’s exceptional customer service and support have helped ensure that the systems remain up-to-date, enabling the Foundation to focus on its core mission.

The Results

Since leveraging PairSoft, the Regional Parks Foundation has enjoyed several improved processes and has saved thousands of dollars annually. Hajela estimates the Foundation received an immediate return on investment thanks to the reduction in expenditures on overtime, errors and project disruptions that emerged after the low-cost software was installed. “Retrieval of documents from storage and researching, which could take up to a day—assuming they were filed and labeled properly, which is not always the case—is now done instantaneously, say in about a minute,” Hajela says. Temps and interns are no longer on the payroll now that the full-time staff has the accessibility to manage the archiving process.

“And PairSoft has allowed the accounting consultants to remotely access all the supporting documents and help us cut down the quarterly close cycle by about three days each quarter. It has helped me reduce the audit time by about 8-10 hours each year,” he explains.

Plus now that PairSoft is on board, Regional Parks Foundation has eliminated boxes of physical storage.

As a result of the immense efficiency gains, ease-of-use and PairSoft’s prolific customer service, Hajela affirms: “Any organization that is not using PairSoft is missing a great opportunity to streamline operations and enhance efficiency. With PairSoft, we can do more with less. It is absolutely worth every single penny we’ve invested.”

We just cannot imagine how an organization functions without PairSoft.

Raj Hajela
Foundation Administrator at the Regional Parks Foundation

Measures of Success

• Audits go smoothly and quickly, thanks to effective capture and search capabilities
• Bookkeeping is manageable and all employees participate
• High ROI and savings from lack of extra staff and physical storage