Guide Dogs for the Blind Finds its Way to Organisational Efficiency with NetSuite

Founded in 1942 as a way to help wounded veterans returning from WWII, Guide Dogs for the Blind has since evolved into an organisation that trains roughly 300 guide dog teams per year and now counts 2,200 active teams across the U.S. and Canada. When a new CFO came aboard, she quickly realised the need to replace an antiquated accounting system and manual, spreadsheet-based processes.

Company

Guide Dogs for the Blind

Locations

San Rafael, Calif., Boring, Oregon

Industry

Nonprofit

BUDGET

$40million

EMPLOYEES

280

NUMBER OF USERS

NUMBER OF COUNTRIES

2 (US, Canada)

NETSUITE PRODUCT IMPLEMENTED

NetSuite

LEARN HOW CLOUD ERP CAN STREAMLINE YOUR BUSINESS.

Schedule a free consultation

“With NetSuite, we can easily plan what donations are needed to accomplish program objectives and determine what direction to take to achieve these goals. We are in a better position to explore 'what if' scenarios.” M. Cathy Martin, Treasurer & CFO, Guide Dogs for the Blind

Modern Accounting System Steers New Course

NetSuite fosters efficiency, visibility: Guide Dogs for the Blind turned to NetSuite for its cloud-based system and its experience with nonprofits. With NetSuite, managers can create their own reports without going to finance, the organisation can make decisions based on accurate forecasts and easily provide donors with detailed reports on spending.

Enabling strategic work through automation: NetSuite provides the visibility into financial organisations that lets the organisation quickly and easily compile its annual report, replace finance’s cumbersome manual work with more strategic efforts and course correct as circumstances change.

Flexibility creates the right fit: NetSuite’s flexibility has allowed Guide Dogs for the Blind to customise the system for its needs, with some help from the NetSuite Pro Bono program. For example, a custom script for the organisation’s roughly 150 puppy clubs automatically tracks balances, something that used to be done manually.