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The Prince's Foundation is a London-based charity that was formed four years ago to deliver support and consultancy in areas of particular concern to Prince Charles – architecture and urban design and building. It has a £3m turnover and employs 30 people.

Changes required
Martin Tyler said: "I needed a suitable software package as accounting had not been done in-house before. I had previous experience of larger accounting software systems than the one the Foundation required, so I looked for recommendations from the auditor and I had a look through Accountancy Age. This gave me an initial list of five packages to consider.

"My main requirement was for a system that had integrated timesheets. Timesheets were something new at the Foundation, but with some of its work now being charged externally on an hourly basis, I needed to be able to analyse these billings against costs to ensure there was an adequate return on these projects (and to ensure the Foundation was definitely not making a loss!).

"These requirements, whilst not hugely complicated, did nonetheless need a system that could easily handle not just cost centres and departments, but also had the ability to let me monitor individual projects showing income, time spent and both direct and overhead costs."

Meeting my requirements
"My shortlist included Exchequer Software, which was provided by Whitegate Computing. I ultimately chose this system through a combination of the look and feel of the product, together with good chemistry with Tony Reissner and his team at Whitegate, whose references were also very good.

The implementation
"The implementation was straightforward – particularly helped by it being a new system to the organisation, so its arrival did not have to dovetail into an existing accounting system. However, the Foundation threw a potential spanner in the works when, at a crucial period of the implementation, I was also given HR responsibility and had to undertake a restructuring of the charity's personnel."

"This involved very large amounts of my time, but it did not knock the implementation off track. Having let Whitegate drive the implementation from the outset in terms of identifying the areas to concentrate on and setting timescales helped."

"Certainly any FD looking to introduce new accounting software should invest heavily at the outset in spending time with the implementer to ensure they understand their business and its specific characteristics, and requirements, as this will pay dividends later on."