Mexican American Opportunity Foundation

The Mexican American Opportunity Foundation (MAOF) is a non-profit, community-based organization that was established in 1963 in order to serve disadvantaged individuals and families in the Los Angeles area. MAOF is the largest Latino-oriented, family services organization in the United States, and has achieved this status by providing high quality social services and programs to those communities where the need is the greatest.

MAOF was using an outdated and complex accounting system that was difficult to use and required substantial IT support.  As a result, operations were bogged down by manual reporting, “rogue” spreadsheets, and excessive duplicate data entry.  According to Casey Quinn with MAOF, “Grant-tracking and reporting was manual, tedious, and time-consuming.  I had four financial analysts that spent most of their time managing spreadsheets and very little time analyzing our strategic financial position which is necessary to run a business properly.”

MAOF contacted Wipfli to implement Sage MIP Fund Accounting which is designed specifically for nonprofit organizations.  According to Quinn, “The nice thing about working with Wipfli is that they really know the business of grant-funded agencies so they hit the ground running.  Not only were they able to get Sage MIP Fund Accounting implemented quickly and successfully, but they made fantastic recommendations to help improve overall efficiency and workflow.”  Quinn adds, “Plus, we continue to work with Wipfli on special projects, so our relationship doesn’t just end once the software is up and running.”  MAOF staff attends regular seminars and training sessions designed specifically for grant-funded organizations that Wipfli conducts nationwide.

Of Sage MIP Fund Accounting, Quinn is happy to report, “Sage MIP is a great software program.  It’s high-powered, yet extremely easy to use.  It’s really geared toward nonprofit agencies like ours.”  With features to track multiple funds and budgets and create audit-ready reports in minutes, MAOF is able to focus more on their mission and less on their accounting software.

“Our management reports are so much better,” reports Quinn.  “Previously, I was spending a lot of time patching data together in spreadsheets which really limited what I could do.  Now with the push of a button, I can produce reports for the board of directors and president to show them where the agency was and where it’s headed.”  In fact, MAOF has taken over $15 million in additional contracts with the state of California … growth that, according to Quinn, would have been impossible without the help of Wipfli and Sage MIP Fund Accounting.

Grant fund tracking and state reporting is also much improved.  Quinn says, “Our Accounting Manager is spending more time managing her department and programs and less time managing data and journal entries.  In fact, our entire accounting staff is much happier and has a better sense of program ownership because they’re doing less mundane work and more meaningful analysis.”  With the integrated budget module of Sage MIP, MAOF can compare budget to actual, analyze variances, and have a detailed report available before sitting down with managers to evaluate programs.

“We’ve automated much of the monthly and year end closing processes so we’re closing the books much faster,” reports Quinn.  Plus, Wipfli was able to integrate 3 different systems into Sage MIP Fund Accounting.  Quinn adds, “We’ve eliminated a huge amount of duplicate data entry on the accounts payable side which means we’ll eventually reduce our AP staff by 3 full-time employees through attrition.  That’s a lot of money we’ll be saving.”