Centage Case Studies Detailed Reporting and Faster, More Streamlined Budgeting Provides Greater Insight Into Performance
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Detailed Reporting and Faster, More Streamlined Budgeting Provides Greater Insight Into Performance

Centage
Functional Applications - Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP)
Cities & Municipalities
Software Design & Engineering Services
The Housing Authority of Snohomish County (HASCO) is a nonprofit, government agency that provides housing solutions for the people and communities of Snohomish County in Washington state. HASCO has two primary sources of revenue – reimbursement they receive from “HUD” – the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development – for the Section Eight housing vouchers they administer and rental income from the properties the organization owns throughout the county. Prior to discovering Centage, Jenny Barker, senior budget manager at HASCO, and her team had been using Excel for their budgeting and planning. However, due to the complex requirements of being a government entity, especially when it came to managing and tracking multiple allocations, Excel was not powerful enough to meet their needs.
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The Housing Authority of Snohomish County (HASCO) is a nonprofit, government agency that provides housing solutions for the people and communities of Snohomish County in Washington state. HASCO partners with people who need support to achieve housing stability; communities to develop and maintain high quality housing for people at all stages of life keeping families neighbors and neighborhoods intact; as well as social service organizations helping individuals and families make progress in life. HASCO works with federal and local programs that help with rent, provide affordable housing and support tenants with services. HASCO leads within a network of housing services providers, working toward a future where all Snohomish County residents have good quality housing, and places to call home.
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HASCO adopted Centage's Planning Maestro, a modern FP&A platform that provides a better way to plan, budget, forecast and report financial performance. The platform integrates seamlessly with their accounting software, Elite, and operates as an extension of the GL, pulling in actuals data so the HASCO team could monitor and analyze budget vs. actuals on an ongoing basis. The platform automatically adjusts projected revenues, expenses, and the anticipated bottom line, offering transaction-level detail. Budget vs. actual analysis is simplified with the ability to drill down and understand why variances occurred, providing valuable insight into current and forecasted performance. In addition, HASCO uses Planning Maestro to calculate rental revenue, allowing for instant updates when rent amounts change.
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Planning Maestro operates as an extension of the GL, pulling in actuals data so the HASCO team could monitor and analyze budget vs. actuals on an ongoing basis.
The platform automatically adjusts projected revenues, expenses, and the anticipated bottom line, offering transaction-level detail.
Budget vs. actual analysis is simplified with the ability to drill down and understand why variances occurred, providing valuable insight into current and forecasted performance.
The budget before had 1,757 line items - simple yearly amounts per account number divided by 12. Now, with Planning Maestro, she has created a budget with over 6,000 lines, providing a level of detail and visibility that couldn’t be achieved in Excel.
Reports are created in minutes instead of hours.
Personnel planning was done separately and then brought into the budget. Now, with Planning Maestro, HASCO can budget at the individual employee level to see the implications of each employee’s taxes and benefits.
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