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"I used the Customer Support department heavily during the conversion. They walked me through the conversion and I did not have any problems—there were no glitches."
"Sage MIP Fund Accounting has enabled us to be confident in our ability to manage federal dollars. We could go to federal sources and large public foundations for money with the confidence that we could manage their money responsibly," Will Belongia, Chief Financial Officer of the Vermont Community Loan Fund (VCLF), said. "This confidence allows us to get a large pool of money. The more money we get, the more needs in the community we can meet. The ability to manage and report on money and be responsible to those providers has enabled us to bring in those monies and serve large needs."
When VCLF started participating in federally funded programs in 1995, they purchased Sage MIP Fund Accounting to handle the multiple funds and the reporting required for each fund. Sage MIP Fund Accounting and its ability to manage the funds individually and still consolidate them into a single set of books have given them the capability to go after more programs.
"Without a financing and accounting program that can handle federal funding, it would be difficult to go after the additional sources of funding," Belongia said. "Sage MIP Fund Accounting has been able to handle that very well." Belongia said they are hoping to achieve $3 million in lending this year. To do this they need to raise $2 million in lending capital-they have already raised close to $1 million.
"Sage MIP Fund Accounting serves me everyday in a pinch. I use it constantly every day-it is really the backbone of my function," Belongia said. "Things run like clockwork with Sage MIP Fund Accounting. Putting out financial statements and putting out payroll is just quick and easy. Sage MIP Fund Accounting makes my life easy."
Belongia said he recently put several employees on direct deposit. "How easy it was to do that. I marked a little check box and it worked perfectly," he said.
"With Sage MIP Fund Accounting I can do things a lot faster than before we switched. It seems to be real quick."
"At the time we moved into business lending in 1995 we began seeing federal money as a larger source of funding. Our software program was not able to do the segregated fund reporting we needed. The Vermont Housing and Conservation Board was using Sage MIP Fund Accounting software. They said they liked Sage MIP Fund Accounting. After making a comparison, I went with Sage MIP Fund Accounting too," Belongia said. "In 1999 I upgraded to Windows-it has what I need to have."
Belongia is looking forward to more growth in VCLF. "Sage MIP Fund Accounting has the ability to keep up with our growth. If we keep growing in capital, it will be useful to have Sage MIP Fund Accounting. I am confident that Sage MIP Fund Accounting can handle our growth well," Belongia said.
"We recommend Sage MIP Fund Accounting to nonprofit housing developers in Vermont. Sage MIP Fund Accounting is able to handle multiple programs, multiple grant fund sources and multiple projects. In the housing field we deal with separate funds and we need to track grants. We require developers to report with project by project accounting statements. Developers are able to print out project by project statements with Sage MIP Fund Accounting," Belongia said.
"I used the Customer Support department heavily during the conversion. They walked me through the conversion and I did not have any problems-there were no glitches," Belongia said. He has had reason to use Support since the conversion as well. "I like Sage Software's Customer Support department. I receive good support on the phone. They are pretty timely in getting back to me and when I have problems they fix them."
THE VERMONT COMMUNITY LOAN FUND
The Vermont Community Loan Fund (VCLF) is a statewide community development financial institution with twelve year's experience in promoting and providing more equitable access to capital. They accomplish this by: delivering affordable loan capital to capable community groups and businesses, providing technical assistance and support to help develop and sustain successful community projects and offering an investment opportunity for individuals and institutions who want to invest in local community renewal.
Since 1988, VCLF has lent over $10 million to dozens of community-based organizations and small businesses around the state.
The Housing and Community Facilities arm of VCLF provides loans for the acquisition or rehabilitation of property that will provide affordable housing or essential services for low-income Vermonters.
The Natural Resource Financing division of VCLF provides access to capital for small and micro businesses that cannot obtain sufficient credit from traditional lenders.
VCLF is capitalized with interest-paying investments of private capital from individuals, religious organizations, corporations and others.
For more information about the Vermont Community Loan Fund, visit their Web site.
