Case Study: Visit Philly Transforms Tourism Strategy with Martus
How Smarter Budgeting and Forecasting Boosted the City of Brotherly Love's Tourism Efforts
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Visit Philadelphia (Visit Philly), the official leisure tourism marketing agency for Greater Philadelphia, has leveraged Martus Solutions to enhance its budgeting, reporting, and forecasting processes. Under the leadership of Controller Ajene Atkins, Martus has become an integral tool in the organization, allowing for more collaborative and efficient financial management while navigating critical changes such as a shift in its fiscal year.
Industry: Tourism
Accounting Software: Sage Intacct
Overview
Founded in 1996, Visit Philadelphia (Visit Philly) serves as the region’s official leisure tourism marketing agency, representing Greater Philadelphia, including Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia counties. Its mission is to elevate Greater Philadelphia’s image, drive day and overnight visitation, and bolster the local economy. With a website that attracts nearly 10 million visitors annually and a strong social media presence, Visit Philly is dedicated to spreading the word about the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection.
With 40 employees across eight unique departments and an annual budget of $20 million, Visit Philly exemplifies a small-to-mid-sized nonprofit that has successfully embraced Martus Solutions to optimize its financial operations.
Being responsible for marketing a high-profile city puts a lot of pressure on the finance team when it comes to budgeting, reporting, and forecasting. That’s where Ajene Atkins comes in.
Ajene joined Visit Philly in 2021 when his wife, a pastor, was reassigned to the Philadelphia area. Upon his arrival, Ajene discovered that the organization had purchased budgeting software just before the onset of COVID, but it was underutilized. Leveraging his experience in teaching, accounting, finance, and auditing, Ajene quickly provided staff with instruction and demonstrations on using Martus for budgeting and reporting.
For the past two and a half years, Ajene has championed the use of Martus across Visit Philly, seamlessly integrating it with Sage Intacct, the organization’s primary financial management software. Ajene’s experience at Sage Transform 2022, an annual conference for Sage Intacct customers and partners, furthered his understanding of best practices for using Martus and Sage Intacct in tandem.
“Looking back on it, our initial training on Martus was quick, and I was a little concerned that it would be too difficult to use by our staff,” he said. “But it wasn’t nearly as difficult as I had expected, and for quite a while now, our experience with Martus has been great – it does wonders!”
“I’ve seen many positive changes in both Sage Intacct and Martus – from a feature perspective – in the past several years. Specifically, Martus has become even more user-friendly and intuitive. It doesn’t overwhelm you – it’s very straight forward -- and forgiving as well.”
Martus has not only simplified the budgeting process but has also fostered greater collaboration among Visit Philly’s departments.
“We use Martus to do our annual budgeting, and we’ve taken our budgeting process to more productive, collaborative levels with Martus. Because Martus looks and feels like a spreadsheet, each of the department managers are able to learn the system quickly, taking a leadership role in their individual department’s budget.”
“We currently have 6 department managers actively using Martus, and we’re rolling it out to the remaining departments. In addition to user access in Martus being controlled at the function and dimension level, we can also further restrict access to certain accounts and/or limit drill downs on certain accounts – which is very important at the user level. We’re trying to make accessibility to Martus as simple as a dashboard, where they can see what they need, and get what they need – quickly.”
Visit Philly is currently undergoing a significant transition, aligning its fiscal year with the calendar year—a move that requires meticulous planning and execution. Ajene acknowledges the role Martus has played in this process.
“We’re now in the middle of a critical change to our financial operations – we’re changing our fiscal year to match up with the calendar year. It’s a big change so we’ve been planning on it from various levels for a number of months. The Martus Customer Support Team (in particular, Andrea M.) has been wonderful and extremely helpful as we close down the short period (a stub period) and prepare for our new fiscal year planning and budgeting.
“We’re creating some Excel documents and uploading them to Martus, specifically related to personnel and payroll budgets. In addition, I’m able to drill into a GL account, drop in a new budget number, and with the click of a button, automatically spread it throughout the year – SO helpful!”
“I look at Martus almost on a daily basis. There’s a budget vs. actual report we use that enables me to review holistically throughout the organization, and then I can drill down on each of the departments, which is very helpful before our monthly department meetings. I can get an organizational report to our CFO, and department reports to each department head. Whether it’s an internal request or from the board of directors, we’re just trying to make it as simple as possible– and Martus enables me to explain it to them in ways they can understand.”
“I’ve had a few occasions to connect with Martus’ customer support team. Each time, they’re very responsive and helpful. Literally, everything we’ve asked, they responded to in less than 48 hours. Sometimes, what I need is to pull down some instructions or watch one of their videos. Very useful videos, by the way.”
“For us, the accuracy of data is paramount. Martus’ reporting functionality has been equally vital, as we’ve used several reports to help catch budgeting and forecast coding errors – before they impacted the organization. And the ability to use a “sandbox” for testing out scenarios without affecting live data has been great.
Ajene’s endorsement of Martus Solutions is a testament to the software’s impact on Visit Philly’s financial management. His confidence in recommending Martus to other nonprofits underscores its versatility and effectiveness across organizations of varying sizes.
The bottom line from Ajene: “Would I recommend Martus to other visitor bureaus and other nonprofits? Definitely – without a doubt. I’ve audited other nonprofit organizations before, and I can assure you, Martus can be useful on so many levels for any size nonprofits. If it was one aspect we really appreciate, we find Martus’ Special Purpose Worksheets (SPWs) to be extremely useful.”
Martus Solutions has not only supported Visit Philly in navigating complex financial challenges but has also empowered the organization to thrive in a demanding environment. By providing a user-friendly, intuitive platform with robust features and responsive customer support, Martus has proven to be an essential tool for nonprofits looking to enhance their financial management.
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