A group of community mental health (CMH) organizations.

Reporting is a major priority for the health industry, regardless of providers’ specialties. Being publicly funded organizations, these mental health care providers all had a government reporting mandate that they needed to meet by a certain date. The hard deadline was October 1, 2021. That date marks the beginning of the fiscal year for government entities, both state and federal. Consequently, all eight of our clients needed to have their accounting software used for reporting set up and in place by Oct. 1 so they could fulfill their governmental reporting requirements.

The enterprise resource planning software most of the community health organizations in Michigan were leveraging up to this point was Microsoft Dynamics GP (formerly known as Great Plains). Microsoft Dynamics GP is an on-premise, mid-market business accounting software solution that’s been used by organizations in a wide variety of industries since GP was first introduced in the 1990s. While groundbreaking at the time, Microsoft Dynamics GP lacks many of the operational, visibility, technology and functionality advantages that cloud-based ERP solutions have to offer today. None offers more than Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, which most of eight of these clients were planning to transition to from GP, except one which was on a different on-premise accounting application.

The Solution
Part of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 family of products, Business Central is a fully cloud-based enterprise resource planning solution with feature-rich capabilities. From core accounting functions like General Ledger, Receivables, Payables, Bank Reconciliation and Fixed Assets to other areas like Purchasing, Projects, Sales Orders, Distribution, Manufacturing and Field Service, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is customizable and offers capabilities that are germane to many different industries beyond health care. These include retail, life sciences, manufacturing and wholesale distribution.

The TM Group’s CMH clients, in particular, were each drawn to Business Central for dimensional accounting reporting capabilities, which isn’t available in Great Plains— or most of the other ERPs on the market, for that matter. Dimensions is a feature that is a standard part of the Business Central suite (meaning it’s not something you have to pay extra for and native throughout the application) which makes it easier to perform different types of computational analysis for audit and reporting purposes. This is done by categorizing data in dimensions as they are entered into the system. While the organizations were also interested in other functionality, Dimensions was the application the clients were most interested in leveraging to address their reporting requirements and simplify their chart of account structures.

In addition to Business Central, two of the clients also wanted The TM Group to implement an add-on called Tangicloud Fundamentals. Tangicloud is a Microsoft Solution Provider whose application allows users to get more out of Business Central and its applications. For example, the fund accounting functionality of Dimensions is greatly enhanced with Tangicloud Fundamentals. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is designed to be useful for organizations in many different industries. However, Tangicloud’s primary customers are government-affiliated entities, non-profit groups and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and they provide add-on functionality for Business Central specific to those industries requirements.

Knowing that all eight of the clients had the same reporting and go-live date, we developed a unique  implementation plan for the group as a whole that aligned with their common timing, needs and pain points of each of the clients. In so doing, The TM Group was able to consolidate resources and train clients in a couple of groups on how to use the solutions. This enabled all of our clients to save money since they were able to share the price of training. This was a very unique project approach since we usually do implementations and training for each client individually.

The Results
Not only were we able to complete the implementations by the deadline, but all of these clients are now capable of producing more comprehensive reports that help to provide the specificity, details and accuracy the government and medical oversight bodies demand from health care providers.

Choose The TM Group
Since our founding and subsequent partnership with Microsoft, The TM Group has specialized in helping organizations in virtually all industries improve their decision making and performance with the right Microsoft solution. If you’re in a business situation that is comparable to these clients’ situation — where you and a group of your peers have a need or deadline that puts you in the same boat — we can offer group implementation plans that can reduce your implementation costs. We’re flexible at The TM Group and aim to tailor implementations to your unique situation without compromising quality.

For speed of service, convenience and affordability, The TM Group is your one-stop shop for enterprise resource planning. Contact us today to learn more.