Rehoboth Christian Ministries works to serve people with disabilities and allow them to flourish in life. Founded in 1976, they began their mission with a single camp in Central Alberta and now support over 50 group homes across the province. Their organization serves the disabled community with continued growth and development opportunities through residential, vocational, and respite services.
With corporate services managing five regional offices, Rehoboth migrated to Sparkrock 365 to manage their human resources (HR), finance, and payroll.
Before switching to Sparkrock, their finance and payroll departments were overwhelmed with manual tasks and disconnected systems. Payroll took 2-3 days to complete due to using paper timesheets, no scheduling solution, and the need to import Excel spreadsheets into their previous finance system.
"We've never not been able to submit our payroll on time to get our employees paid. In all the time we've been with Sparkrock we've never had a problem with getting our payroll done and our financials out to a system we need to have the information."
Janice Gerbrandt
Director of Corporate Services at Rehoboth.
The lack of integration also made reporting a tedious task. Like many nonprofits, Rehoboth must provide regular reports to its board of directors and the government. These reports were time intensive and prone to many errors. One example is source deductions. If this is not done on time or appropriately based on an organization's threshold, this could result in hefty fines. In the past, their organization has admittedly faced penalties for not filing source deductions on time.
They knew their existing system would not scale, so they searched for an ERP system. Their top priority was finding a way to integrate HR, finance, and payroll while reducing the need for manual calculations and human intervention.
Their leadership team created an RFP and looked at five different ERP systems. Ultimately, Sparkrock was able to provide everything Rehoboth needed.
"Sparkrock could give us finance, payroll and HR functionality with one system and make them talk to each other."
Janice Gerbrandt
Director of Corporate Services at Rehoboth.
They successfully migrated to Sparkrock in 2016 before upgrading to Sparkrock 365 in 2022. Sparkrock's partnership with also Microsoft was a key driver in their decision-making process. It allowed them to integrate other Microsoft 365 applications, such as Outlook for email and Microsoft PowerBI, a data visualization platform for advanced reporting. "It's so seamless going from one application to the next. It's all there. You don't need to jump around to get information. Sparkrock took it to another level when partnering with Microsoft as greatly as they did. That made all the difference for us, remarks Gerbrandt."
Sparkrock and their industry experts shared best practices that played a significant role in successfully implementing their software. A critical part of getting your ERP system up and running on time is trusting and relying on the team implementing the system. "There would be times when things wouldn't be working, but we could always count on them to be ready to support us. If they didn't know the answer, they were honest. They would say let us take this away, we'll find an answer, and we'll get this solved. They were diligent, and our relationship with them was invaluable," Gerbrandt says.
Before Sparkrock, the finance team would spend hours getting reports ready. This means Janice and her team were constantly buried in manual tasks instead of focusing on more strategic tasks. With Sparkrock 365 and Microsoft Power BI, the system automatically generates quarterly reports and bi-monthly financial statements for Rehoboth's Board of Directors. And with the drill-down functionality, users can dig in to find even more information if needed. This makes it easier for Rehoboth to assess the most impactful programs, where additional resources might be required, and ultimately provide a higher quality of care to those they serve.
"It's just invaluable to validate why we do what we do with our money and time. Our reports have just become more efficient. We are right down to the dollar with our spending. We are more fiscally responsible than ever because we can report accurately to the government."
Janice Gerbrandt
Director of Corporate Services, Rehoboth Christian Ministries
Janice also mentions that there's been a big payoff with Sparkrock 365 and significant organizational adoption from when they first got the system up and running. The permission-based roles give users access to what they need to do their job correctly. Management now has visibility into budgets, schedules, volunteer hours, and attendance management which was a big problem in their previous system. With over $1 million in vacation liability, ensuring employees use vacation appropriately was another top priority for their Board of Directors.
Submitting source deductions on time is no longer an issue, and Sparkrock has helped save thousands in fines for Rehoboth. Overall, it's been much easier for them to stay on top of payroll, manage their staff and provide care to those who need it most.