Lakeside Behavioral

The company, with $37 million in revenues, maintains 165 inpatient beds and a number of outpatient programs. The agency had been operating with a UNIX-based system called CMHC (Community Mental Health Care) that is specific to the healthcare and behavioral healthcare industry. But that software’s accounting capabilities in the areas of general ledger and financial reporting were weak, and it offered no inventory management capabilities. Much of the reporting required manual processes, entering data into Excel spreadsheets.

  Microsoft Dynamics GP       Not-For-Profit Healthcare

Lakeside Behavioral is a not-for-profit agency serving people with mental illness and substance-use disorders in Orange County, Florida.

“The financial software we’ve been using most likely will be phased out in the next couple years. We wanted to be ahead of the curve with Microsoft Dynamics GP,” said Lakeside Behavioral CFO Carla Caponi.

After considering other products, including Sage software, Lakeside Behavioral chose Microsoft Dynamics GP version 10.0 because of a number of advantages that it offered:

• Integration. The Microsoft Dynamics solution works like Microsoft Office and other Microsoft products that the agency is using, so it is familiar to their users and works with their existing Microsoft technologies.
• Time savings. The agency’s previous software was outdated and cumbersome, requiring data to be manually entered into Excel sheets. Microsoft Dynamics GP will save considerable time with its robust reporting capability and the ability to view real-time refreshable information from Microsoft Dynamics GP in Microsoft Excel, Microsoft SQL Reporting Services, or SmartLists
• Improved reporting. With Microsoft Dynamics GP and Microsoft FRx software, Lakeside Behavioral gains flexible and reliable reporting options not previously available to its staff. Moreover, now reports can be stored electronically in a central location for easy access via the Internet or Microsoft Outlook, ending the agency’s practice of printing, sorting, stapling and stuffing reports into intra-company envelopes.
• Proven technology. Lakeside Behavioral liked the fact that Microsoft Dynamics GP was widely used by other companies that had gone through a similar selection process; and because it is familiar to many accounting professionals, future new hires in finance will be easier to train.
• Advanced features. The agency felt Microsoft Dynamics GP offered a wide set of features that the organization could grow into, so that the technology would continue to support Lakeside Behavioral as it expanded in size and in its scope of work.

Lakeside Behavioral is working with Microsoft Gold Certified Partner InterDyn-CFO Consulting of Orlando, Florida, to implement its new Microsoft solution. InterDyn is installing a number of modules that will automate much of Lakeside Behavioral’s business processes, including general ledger, payables, bank reconciliation, financial reporting and distribution modules for consumables, improving accuracy, business productivity, and significantly accelerating the reporting process. With online financial statements, management will be able to drill down all the way to source documents, instead of having to flip through multiple spreadsheets.

“Microsoft Dynamics GP ultimately will mean executives can put their hands on business information in a more timely manner to help them make better decisions, with less data manipulation,” said InterDyn-CFO Consulting Business Development Manager Jeff Petersen.

The new system also will enable the agency for the first time to expense consumable items to various departments and to establish a purchase order process. “Lakeside never has had a formal purchase order system,” Caponi noted. “We anticipate that, with Microsoft Dynamics GP, we will be able to accumulate better information on our vendors and our purchasing habits to help monitor and control spending.”

The Microsoft Dynamics GP business management solution will be integrated into the agency’s ADP software and the CMHC clinical package, while replacing CMHC?s general ledger software.

“With its Microsoft SQL Server platform, Microsoft Dynamics GP will enable Lakeside Behavioral to integrate all its information in a single database for faster, more accurate accounting and reporting,” said Michael Park, corporate vice president for the U.S. Dynamics business at Microsoft. “The agency will be a healthier organization, with technology that will contribute to its growth and its mission in the community.”