Groundwork South and North Tyneside, a UK charity, has moved from Sage 50 and Sage 200 to cloud-based Sage Intacct, according to a Sage customer story. The branch belongs to the Groundwork federation of charities, has worked for more than 30 years in its region, and manages around 100 projects a year, each with its own budget and funding streams.
Sage reports that project teams now work from live data, that paperwork has fallen sharply, and that the charity can show funders more clearly how money is used.
From Spreadsheets to Live Project Budgets
Natalie Cora, Groundwork’s Director of Corporate Services, said staff had kept their own data in spreadsheets, budgeting relied on manual comparisons, and knowledge left with people when they did. Limited finance staff could not give remote project managers timely data. Sage 50 required people to be in the office, and Sage 200 offered more flexibility.
Intacct now gives project managers self-service access, according to Sage. They monitor budgets, track funding streams, and assess progress without waiting on finance. Teams also upload funding agreements, budgets, reports, contracts, and communications into the system, so project records sit in one place and stay when staff move on.
Andrew Watts, Groundwork’s CEO, said charities “don’t have much unrestricted funds or reserves,” which makes a clear view of each project’s performance vital. Some staff were hesitant about the change at first, Cora said, and training and a test site settled those concerns.
Funding Rules, Staff Costs, and Day-to-Day Spending
Costs are tracked to the individual employee, including staff who work across several projects. Sage says this supports workforce planning and retention, and Cora said she can run a report on one person to see how their time is covered across projects.
Groundwork’s funding streams carry different regulations, and Cora said the system makes it easier to classify and keep them separate. Budgets also link to suppliers, which Sage says streamlines supplier tracking and compliance.
Administrative steps have changed as well. Invoices and correspondence upload directly from email, removing printing and scanning, and prepaid cards have replaced petty cash, which Sage says gives better visibility and control over daily spending. Carbon data measurement across staff travel, buildings, and operations is still in development, according to Cora, so it is a planned capability, not a current feature.
What This Means for ERP Insiders
Separate funding streams before widening access. Groundwork runs projects under different funding regulations, and Cora said the system makes it easier to classify and keep them apart. ERP teams can define fund and project structures first, so project managers open the system to data that already follows each funder’s rules.
Use employee-level cost data for workforce planning. Groundwork tracks costs to individual employees across projects, and Cora uses those reports to plan progression. ERP teams can confirm that time and cost data is captured at that level before building staff reports, giving managers a clear view of how each person’s time is covered.
Run a test site before rollout. Some Groundwork staff were hesitant, and Cora said training and a test site settled those concerns. ERP teams can give users a test environment early, so they know the system before real project data depends on it.
