Apsley Paper Trail, a paper-making visitor attraction and registered charity, has invested over £8,000 in new business and accounting software from IRIS Enterprise Software. Exchequer will significantly improve the speed and quality of management reporting information within the organisation, whilst supporting its move towards commitment accounting to provide budget holders with greater visibility of all committed expenditure.

 

Exchequer delivers departmental reporting functionality that accounts for all of the charity's varied activities, including papermaking, training, book publishing and site-visits. Exchequer also ensures that Apsley Paper Trail is compliant with the latest SORP standards (Statement of Recommended Practice for Accounting by Charities). Exchequer was selected as the best value package ahead of other products in the market.

 

Peter Smith, Projects and Finance Co-ordinator at Apsley Paper Trail comments, "Charity organisations are increasingly facing financial reporting requirements as stringent as businesses, with the SORP code of practice now a blueprint for the industry. Using Exchequer gives access to up-to-date, accurate financial information that conforms with latest industry regulations. It also provides reports that give a true picture of the organisation's overall performance."

Smith continues, "The level of integration between Exchequer and Microsoft Excel was also important as the charity can review reports in a familiar format. In addition, the ability to import and export information to and from Exchequer gave it an edge over the other systems we evaluated."

 

Apsley Paper Trail will also be using Exchequer to support a commitment accounting model, which will provide visibility of all expenditure the charity is committed to as soon as an order is raised and a cost is incurred, giving greater control to budget holders.

Julie Kennedy, Finance Manager at Apsley Paper Trail concludes, "In the long-term the implementation of Exchequer will deliver far more efficiency in the accounts department, eliminating time-consuming processes, and making it much easier for us to present high-level information to the senior management team. Exchequer is a very user-friendly, flexible accounting system that is able to grow with us as our activities increase."

 

The principal aim of The Apsley Paper Trail is to create a unique visitor destination, focusing on Apsley's contribution to the world of paper-based communication by bringing together the practical application of paper, writing, art, craft, print, publishing, post, packaging and specialist retail activities. Visitors travel by boat to Frogmore Mill, which was home to the British Paper Company and is now run by the Apsley Paper Trail, and is where the very first automated papermaking machine was installed in the 19th Century.