Case study - Middlesbrough Credit Union

CREDIT UNION GOING THOUGH ALL STAGES OF CONACCESS SUPPORT.

I am the credit union development and support officer for the 9 credit unions in Middlesbrough, all of which are run solely by volunteers. Until Sept 2007, these credit unions all used bespoke software to do their collections, but the back office work was done manually. In October 2007, with the aid of some funding, I arranged for 5 of them to purchase the Conaccess BACUS system. Credit union membership in Middlesbrough has been growing steadily over the last five years, and with the Government’s program of Financial Inclusion, the credit unions found themselves more in demand than ever. This increase in the workload took a heavy toll on the volunteers, and it seemed that they were about to become victims of their own success.

The Conaccess program itself took some time to set up. Building the membership database was an easy, but time-consuming task. Within the database there is scope to enter a lot of personal information for each member. This is helpful in the fight against identity theft.

Once the set-up was complete, it is relatively simple to operate. It is a menu driven system which makes it a little difficult to navigate until you learn the various menus. It is helpful to have some knowledge of double entry bookeeping as the system is based on this method, and some of the terms used may be quite unfamiliar to non-accounting people (e.g. Reversing journals etc) as well as the normal contradiction where a debit is a credit and a credit, a debit etc. Initially, the volunteers found it difficult to remember to assign a ledger code for every aspect of expenditure. Previously it was simply a matter of an Admin or a Management expense.

Actual entry of the data is simple and there are lots of shortcuts once the user is familiar with the system. After using the system several times, I found volunteers checking and rechecking that they had done everything. Because they were finished so quickly, they were sure they must have missed something.

Retrieving the data is also a simple process and the number of reports that can be produces is ample even for the bigger credit unions. At any time of the month, a trial balance sheet can be produced or a bank rec. done. Bad debt provision can be calculated and adjusted automatically. Arrears letters can be produced almost at the touch of a button.

As with any system, the quality of the output is dependent of the quality of the input. My main concern is not with the Conaccess system itself but with the manual that accompanies it. The language of the manual presumes that the user has some accountancy experience and the descriptions and instructions reflect this. For new users, this makes it difficult to understand. Also it gives very little guidance on how to correct mistakes. Final problem with the manual is that the page numbers listed on the Index do not correspond to what is actually on those pages so it can be time-consuming finding the right page or section.

All in all, I like the system and whatever level your credit union is at, I believe Conaccess can deliver the solutions to your IT problems.

Elaine Gilmour BSc(Hons)