What Rising FQHCs Want from Their ERP – Buzz Credit score

When your neighborhood well being middle opens its third, fifth, or twelfth location, it’s a milestone value celebrating. However behind each growth ribbon-cutting is a finance staff silently bracing for the following wave of operational complexity.

Progress is nice. However it may well break issues — particularly outdated monetary methods.

At too many Federally Certified Well being Facilities (FQHCs), finance leaders are requested to scale operations, report precisely on federal funds, and assist strategic selections… all whereas utilizing accounting instruments that have been by no means constructed for this degree of complexity.

Let’s be clear: Legacy methods weren’t designed for multi-site, grant-funded, compliance-heavy healthcare organizations. And the cracks present quick as you develop.

This put up explores the warning indicators, the smarter path ahead, and the real-life examples of two FQHCs — Wesley Group and Well being Facilities and Elica Well being Facilities — who made the swap earlier than their methods price them extra than simply time.

When Legacy Instruments Hit Their Limits

It’s one factor to handle a single clinic with fundamental basic ledger wants. It’s one other when your FQHC is juggling:

• Dozens of funding streams with distinctive restrictions
• Web site-specific reporting for HRSA and board oversight
• Uniform Knowledge System (UDS) metrics, Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards (SEFA) audits, and grant-specific billing
• Hybrid groups and distant auditors who want clear, cloud-based entry

And nonetheless, many clinics stay caught with local-server software program and handbook Excel reconciliation. It’s not sustainable.

James Mohrherr, Controller at Elica Well being Facilities, noticed this firsthand because the California-based FQHC grew from three to 12 clinics. “We have been utilizing Sage 50—it was clunky, on-premise, and we had outgrown it,” he mentioned. “When the pandemic hit and we have been all distant, the wheels actually began to come back off.”

Progress With out Monetary Scalability Creates Threat

There’s a hidden price to outgrowing your finance instruments, and it’s not simply inefficiency.

• Compliance danger will increase when your system can’t observe restricted funds or generate audit trails in seconds.
• Management blind spots deepen when you possibly can’t entry real-time financials for decision-making.
• Employees burnout escalates when monetary reporting requires handbook workarounds that by no means finish.

At Wesley Group and Well being Facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, CFO Sonya Wilkins knew the group’s progress — from a church-based clinic to a multi-site well being system with cellular clinics and a brand new $20M facility — demanded a extra versatile and scalable ERP answer.

“QuickBooks simply wasn’t chopping it,” she mentioned. “Attempting to satisfy UDS reporting necessities and separate roles like nurse practitioners from docs meant consistently including accounts. It was messy and handbook.”

Sensible Finance Isn’t Simply About Velocity — It’s About Management

Trendy FQHCs want greater than a sooner shut (although Wesley did achieve seven days again every month). They want management over their operations at scale.

Right here’s what that appears like in motion:

• Actual-time visibility throughout grants, job codes, and places
• Function-based entry so program administrators see solely what issues to them
• Click on-to-report audits that not require three-ring binders
• Scalable automation that retains you lean at the same time as you develop
  

When Wesley carried out Multiview, they constructed out Associated Accounting Particulars (RADs) to tag monetary information throughout dimensions. “We will now pull revenue statements by RADs, observe FTEs for UDS, and generate studies that reconcile each time,” mentioned Wilkins.

Elica noticed related enhancements. “Now I can click on and print as an alternative of digging by way of binders,” mentioned Mohrherr. “Multiview made it straightforward to trace grant-specific income and bills—with out creating 50 completely different GL accounts.”

Key Developments Driving Smarter Finance in FQHCs

So what ought to CFOs at rising FQHCs be excited about? Listed here are some finest practices from well being facilities which have scaled efficiently:

1. Automation, Not Simply Effectivity

Automating reconciliations, grant billing, and audit prep frees up your staff to concentrate on evaluation, not information entry. And it reduces the danger of human error throughout high-stakes reporting.

2. Actual-Time Monetary Visibility

With delays in Medicaid reimbursements and ongoing board questions on program-level efficiency, FQHCs want reside information — not month-old numbers.

3. Integration Throughout EHR and ERP

Integrating your Digital Well being Information system along with your ERP can eradicate duplication and enhance visibility for smarter selections.

4. Cloud-Based mostly Collaboration

Distant work isn’t going away — and neither are distant audits. A cloud-based ERP allows safe, permissioned entry with out ready on IT or VPNs.

Difficult the Standing Quo: Why “It Works for Now” Might Be Holding You Again

Do these statements sound acquainted?

“We’ll improve when issues decelerate.”
Actuality: They received’t. And ready typically creates extra tech debt and operational danger.

“Our present system will get the job executed.”
Actuality: If “the job” is late reporting, harassed audits, and burned-out employees, that’s not success, it’s survival.

“We will’t afford a brand new system.”
Actuality: What’s the price of delayed UDS submissions, clawbacks, or one other audit discovering? The ROI of modernization reveals up quick – in saved time, fewer hires, and cleaner books.

Constructed for the Method FQHCs Work

Multiview isn’t a generic ERP system attempting to suit right into a healthcare field. It’s constructed, carried out and supported by a staff that understands healthcare finance, giving FQHCs key capabilities that assist:

• Fund and grant accounting
• UDS and SEFA compliance
• Web site-specific and RAD-based reporting
• Departmental budgeting with role-based entry
• Versatile progress — throughout places, providers, and funding fashions

Able to Cease Patching Issues?

Scaling your FQHC shouldn’t imply stretching your finance staff to the breaking level. You deserve methods that flex along with your mission.

And as Sonya Wilkins from Wesley shared:

“Multiview most likely saved us from needing one other rent. We’ve automated a lot. Our four-person finance staff runs like a a lot bigger division. We’re rising and wish instruments that develop with us. Multiview offers us that basis—whether or not it’s managing grants or onboarding new places.”

Closing Thought: Scaling Neatly Begins with Techniques

When the board approves a brand new website or program growth, your staff wants to reply with confidence — not duct tape.

Multiview ERP was purpose-built for this second. For CFOs who’re executed patching issues, it’s the accomplice that allows you to:

• Automate audit prep
• Remove spreadsheet chaos
• Meet compliance with confidence
• Empower decision-making with real-time visibility

It’s not nearly higher instruments. It’s about higher outcomes — on your staff, your board, and the sufferers who rely on you.

Able to see what this appears like at your FQHC?

Ebook a personalised demo of Multiview ERP