Client Profile
The DoSeum is San Antonio’s only children’s museum, welcoming more than 400,000 guests each year through hands-on, STEM-focused exhibits and educational experiences. As they grew, the DoSeum needed a more scalable financial platform to support its operations, reporting, and long-term mission.
Searching for Scalability
When Heather Ryniker, the DoSeum’s VP of Finance and Administration, joined the organization, they were using a hosted desktop version of QuickBooks. Ryniker explains, “We had no visibility. There are customers that you can set up, but there was no way to capture multiple dimensions. Trying to report and search for things, they were taking the financial reports from QuickBooks and then plugging them into this 12-tab spreadsheet that we would then generate for the board.”
As a result, even routine board reporting became a highly manual process taking nearly half a day to complete.
At the same time, the DoSeum was operating with a small finance team and needed a more efficient solution that could improve reporting and performance without adding more staff. “I didn’t want to have to hire people when I knew that technology could help eliminate that need,” states Ryniker.
Having previously implemented Sage Intacct accounting software with Intellitec Solutions at another organization, the decision was easy. Ryniker knew the platform and trusted the partner. Combined, they provided the DoSeum with the scalability, efficiency, and reporting they were looking for.
Guided Training + Long-Term Support
To help staff adjust to the new system, the DoSeum completed Intellitec’s full hands-on training classes, which included practical lessons on day-to-day workflows. “Some of the sessions are two to three hours at a time because we’re doing things like reporting or going through all the questions related to accounts payable,” Ryniker explained.
The training process was especially valuable for longtime QuickBooks users to become more comfortable and confident in the new system. Intellitec’s training also provided recordings and resources for the team to reference ongoing or for new staff as needed.
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Monthly Close Cut from 25 to 5 Days
After go-live, one of the biggest improvements the DoSeum saw was in their monthly close process. “When everything was still in QuickBooks, I couldn’t get anything out before the 25th of the month.” With Sage Intacct, the team was able to cut the monthly close by 20 days. “To go from 25 days to 5 days is huge,” Ryniker adds.
A faster close has given Ryniker more time to analyze results and answer questions quickly. “Now, I’m not having to make excuses to the Finance Committee about why we don’t have our financial reports ready or looking at them an hour before the meeting. I have time to digest them,” she continues. “I can pull up a report and drill down into the detail if I need to assess, ‘Why is this variance so high?’ It takes me five minutes to figure that out, ” she explains.
Historical Accuracy Maintained
Intellitec’s expertise made the transition from QuickBooks to Sage Intacct accounting software seamless by making sure valuable historical financial data was migrated cleanly and easily accessible for future reporting & analysis.
“I would send Intellitec the reports out of QuickBooks. They extracted the data, put it into Sage, and now I can do year-over-year reporting with that data without having to go back to QuickBooks. It comes right out of Sage,” explains Ryniker.
Faster Reporting = Faster Decisions
With Intellitec help, the DoSeum gained reporting speed, financial visibility, and operational efficiency, all while keeping the finance team lean. “We still only have three staff, so we didn’t have to add a body. We’re in the quiet phase of a capital campaign, and I’ve been able to manage everything we’ve done so far through Sage. That would have been a whole different thing in QuickBooks,” states Ryniker.
With Sage Intacct accounting software, financial reports are now done in 80% less time. Ryniker says, “I’m able to do my financial reports in two hours now, as opposed to before, it would take a day and a half to fill out that silly spreadsheet.” This has given her more time to focus on strategic initiatives that support and enhance the museum activities for children and families.
“When everything was still in QuickBooks, I couldn’t get anything out before the 25th of the month. To go from 25 days to 5 days is huge.”
Heather Ryniker – VP of Finance & Admin
Empowering Staff with RealTime Data
Leveraging Sage Intacct’s custom dashboard and reporting tools gave front-line managers, directors, and executives more direct visibility into the data they’re responsible for. “Now they have a dashboard where they can see their actual-to-budget report anytime they want. Before, they had to wait on finance to push reports out; now, they can pull it up. They can drill down to the transaction level and see what it was for. The number of questions we have going back and forth has diminished to almost nothing,” explains Ryniker. With easier access to reports and built-in budget visibility, not only has this freed up time for the finance team, but operational staff is more self-sufficient.
Ryniker continues, “The clarity into their own budgets is a lot better. We have spend management turned on, so they know right away if it’s out of budget. It allows them to proceed, but gives them a warning, so they don’t have to check a separate report to see, ‘Do I have the money for this?’”
Modernizing Purchasing
The DoSeum also improved purchasing and accounts payable workflows by replacing manual approval processes with Sage Intacct’s purchasing module. Previously, invoices moved through a heavily manual DocuSign workflow before being manually entered into QuickBooks by the finance team.
“Now, they submit the invoice through a purchase requisition, we convert it to an invoice and pay the bill,” adds Ryniker. Departments quickly saw the benefits of faster processing, improved visibility, and fewer manual steps for the finance team.
“I’m able to do my financial reports in two hours now, as opposed to before, it would take a day and a half to fill out that silly spreadsheet.”
Heather Ryniker – VP of Finance & Admin
Transforming Budgeting with Martus
To further modernize financial planning and reporting, Intellitec helped implement Martus with a direct integration to Sage Intacct accounting software.
Before the integration, budgeting was managed entirely through spreadsheets, requiring the finance team to manually create, distribute, compile, and import budget data across departments.
Ryniker states, “The amount of time that I was spending creating all the spreadsheets to send out, and then compiling them when they came back, I calculated, if I worked straight through, at least 40 to 50 hours a time. A full week’s worth of time I don’t have to do with Martus.”
The integration eliminated manual budget imports and the need for hand-keying financial data, significantly increasing accuracy as well. For department leaders, Ryniker notes, “They have visibility to see real-time what their bottom line is. It’s been really transformative.”
Turning Data into Action
The increased visibility in Sage Intacct accounting software has also helped the DoSeum make more informed operational and financial decisions across grants, exhibits, and capital projects.
“We’re now able to capture capital expenditures with more clarity. That has helped not only our facilities team, but also our board understand those capital expenditures.”
Heather Ryniker – VP of Finance & Admin
By assigning funders directly to expenses, the finance team can quickly generate reports tied to specific grants without manually searching through spreadsheets or transactions.
“All we do is run a general ledger report using that funder, and it tells us what all the expenses are. If we need to put it into an income statement, we could do that. It really is very easy,” explains Ryniker.
Sage Intacct also gave the DoSeum greater insights into costs associated with maintaining and developing exhibits. Heather Ryniker states, “We were able to create projects out of that, so every time there’s an expense related to a specific exhibit, we can attach that exhibit name to it.”
By tracking expenses at the exhibit level, leadership can better understand where resources are being spent and evaluate the long-term sustainability of exhibits and projects. Ryniker adds, “We’re now able to capture capital expenditures with more clarity. That has helped not only our facilities team, but also our board understand those capital expenditures.”
Support Every Step of the Way
For Ryniker, one of the most impressive parts of working with Intellitec was the team’s flexibility, patience, and support. Even when unexpected challenges arose, including a personal health event, Intellitec remained steady and solution-focused.
Ryniker recalls, “I’m relatively new to the organization, I have a cancer diagnosis, and I’m implementing software. Intellitec helped me get through it with relative ease. They were very understanding. They sent a care package. I think it just speaks to the humanness. I felt like the Intellitec team cared about what was happening.”
A Partner Focused on Solutions
For the DoSeum, Intellitec stood out not only for its technical expertise but also for its collaborative and solutions-oriented approach.
“There was never a time when they didn’t try to find a solution”, added Ryniker. Whether configuring workflows, building integrations, or troubleshooting challenges, the team consistently focused on finding practical solutions while keeping the project on track.
“Knowledgeable. Personable. They get the job done but also have a sense of humor.”
Heather Ryniker – VP of Finance & Admin
Ryniker describes the Intellitec team as “Methodical. They follow the process. They’re helpful” and highly knowledgeable about both Sage Intacct and the technology ecosystem. She also appreciated the Intellitec team’s balance of flexibility and strong project management.
Reflecting on the partnership, she comments that they are: “Knowledgeable. Personable. They get the job done but also have a sense of humor.”
For the DoSeum, Intellitec delivered more than a successful Sage Intacct accounting software implementation. They became a trusted long-term partner committed to helping the museum operate more efficiently while supporting meaningful experiences for the children and families they serve.