How the Western NC Conference of the UMC Switched to ShelbyHQ and Increased Efficiency by 50%

Overview

The Western Conference of the United Methodist Church is one of two conferences with over 1,100 churches. Day-in and day-out Mark King, Conference Treasurer and Director of Administrative Services, and his team execute financial responsibilities.

Over the years, their financial system became overly complicated and heavily coded by the IT department. Mark was presented with the challenge to revamp the current system or find a new solution to ensure stability.

After carefully considering all options, Mark decided to partner with ShelbyHQ because it was one package and solution. Plus, the cloud-based financial software seamlessly integrated with other popular headquarter management systems.

WNC Church WNC Logo
WNC Mark

"Everything is streamlined with Shelby and we use it extensively. I would say Shelby, by virtue of it being accessible 24/7 anywhere, anytime you have the internet, makes it extremely efficient, reliable, and relevant."

"The 2019 audit was the best audit I have experienced. We had no adjusting entries, we had no deficiencies. It was just like a song."

Mark King   |   Conference Treasurer and Director of Administrative Services

Approach

  • Transition to ShelbyHQ

    The conference transitioned from Microsoft Dynamics to ShelbyHQ at the end of 2017. Shelby support worked diligently with Mark's team to ensure everything was ready to kick off Q1.

  • Internally reconfigure the account structure

    ShelbyHQ allowed great flexibility for the team to configure their account for the specific needs of the Western NC Conference of the UMC.

  • Implement new features to improve effectiveness

    The team worked closely with product leads to identify and implement necessary features like Remittance, Pension, Purchasing Management, and Insurance Billing.

  • Integrate with other Shelby products

    They adopted ShelbyNext Giving this past Spring and put AR, pension, and health on the portal, so churches can begin paying electronically versus sending checks.

Results

Mark and his team experienced a range of positive results after transitioning to ShelbyHQ such as a much cleaner and efficient audit by CPA auditors, improved server capacity, and gaining access to the system without a VPN login to their in-house server.

50%

increase in efficiency

75%

saved on IT support

50%

improvement on investment posting

Conclusion

With the goal of increasing efficiency and reducing IT costs for a financial department, a single system tailored to denominational headquarters is the most effective solution. Seamless integrations are also vital to success. ShelbyHQ is a flexible and robust financial system with first-class support to meet, and exceed, the needs of denominational headquarters.

Want to get your church smartphone app up and running today, or simply learn more about our options?

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These other church software products integrate with our Church Mobile App and are also available from Shelby Systems:

Church Management

Church Websites

Online Giving

Church Accounting

Church Hardware

Background Checks