Freedom Church, based in South Carolina, is a vibrant, non-denominational congregation. With a mission to bring those distant from God closer, the church operates across various departments such as finance, pastoral care, youth engagement, creative marketing, worship, production, and education through a preschool/day school, facilitating a broad spectrum of community and outreach programs.
The challenges
Freedom Church was facing uncontrolled spending, limited budget tracking, and time-consuming manual reconciliation processes. As James McDaniel, Chief Finance and Operations Officer explained, “Before Procurify, our finance operations were cumbersome, reducing our focus on community outreach.”
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Disjointed procurement data: Freedom Church struggled with scattered purchasing data, relying on multiple systems to track expenses, approvals, and deliveries. This lack of a centralized system led to workarounds and inefficiencies, hindering expense tracking, budget-informed approvals, and efficient credit card reconciliation.
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Lack of budget tracking and control: Opaque spending habits and a lack of budget control created an environment ripe for uncontrolled expenditures. A lack of visibility across departments made it impossible to track expenses effectively, hindering informed financial decision-making and potentially leading to budget overruns.
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Manual process delays: Manual reconciliation of credit card statements created bottlenecks, diverting valuable resources from core activities. Expensify helped manage transactions, but the lack of a purchase order system made it difficult to verify received items, further slowing the reconciliation process.
The solution
Freedom Church set out to streamline procurement processes, consolidate multiple point solutions, and reduce dependence on physical credit cards. They chose Procurify’s user-friendly purchasing and AP automation platform to help centralize their spend data, streamline processes, cut costs – and ultimately free up valuable resources for mission-critical activities.
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Approval times cut from days to minutes: Procurify’s user-friendly interface, Amazon Business PunchOut, and full-feature mobile app helped streamline workflows for Freedom Church, accelerating approval times from several days to just minutes.
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Faster reconciliation (from 30 hours to 3): Procurify’s virtual Spending Cards replaced physical cards, enabling precise budget allocation and streamlined expense tracking. This reduced credit card reconciliation time from a staggering 30-40 hours per month to just 3-4 hours, dramatically reducing manual effort and freeing up valuable staff time.
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Cost reduction and control: Eliminating physical credit cards not only tightened control over spending but also slashed costs associated with annual card fees. The precise allocation of funds (e.g., pre-loaded budgets for volunteers or mission trips) and transparent budget management empowers users to easily track spending, fostering responsible, budget-informed spend.
Takeaways
Streamlined processes and improved budget control with Procurify empower Freedom Church to spend less time on manual tasks and more on their mission. This newfound efficiency lets them redirect resources toward serving their community through outreach initiatives.
As James from Freedom Church says, “Procurify has freed up time and money for volunteers, community programs, and mission activities, allowing us to focus on our core purpose and make a positive impact.”
