CaseStudy

From Document Manager Magazine Vol 18 No 02 - April 2010

Leading UK charity Asthma UK has been able to reduce its paper records and improve Gift-Aid audit trails, thanks to document management technologies

Asthma UK is a charity dedicated to improving the health and wellbeing of the 5.4 million people in the UK whose lives are affected by asthma.

The charity is the largest independent funder of research into asthma in the UK. It funds approximately £3 million of research annually and works directly with asthma sufferers, schools, healthcare professionals and parents to share expertise to reduce the impact of asthma on people's lives.

PAPER HINDERING AUDITS AND CUSTOMER SERVICE

Like many organisations Asthma UK had historically relied on a loosely structured paper filing system for its records management. This dispersed and fragmented system did not provide the efficient retrieval of documents which the charity was obligated to provide HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) during auditing of its Gift-Aid claims. The charity was unable, with the paper filing system, to easily provide a complete audit trail for each of its Gift-Aid claims because it was almost impossible to quickly link an individual claim to all the relevant paper records. Asthma UK entered a formal process to procure a document management software system which would address the challenge of providing the accurate audit trails required to secure its Gift Aid tax claims. The charity decided upon Infonic's Document Manager system because of its flexibility, strong functionality and the system's integration into the charity's Raiser's Edge database.

Infonic's software would enable all incoming Gift-Aid documentation to be efficiently scanned, indexed and linked to other business applications. Asthma UK was also impressed with the responsiveness and high levels of expertise demonstrated by the Infonic product support team.

BREATHING EASIER

The Infonic Document Manager system provides Asthma UK staff with a fully secure and instantly searchable audit trail of every document related to each Gift Aid claim. The solution is fully integrated to the charity's existing database system, which saves staff a significant amount of time by providing the ability to reconcile the scanned Gift- Aid claim images all the way back to the original donor name within the Raiser's Edge database.

Whereas in the past it would possibly take a staff member an entire day to manually locate the information required to justify a Gift Aid claim from thousands of records stored in archive boxes, this retrieval process now happens in seconds. Manually sorting through paper records has been entirely eliminated. Staff are now able to quickly locate all the documents needed to verify the validity of claims and the charity is able to confidently make its Gift-Aid claims knowing it has a fully secure and reliable system, with no likelihood of reclaims from HRMC.

Asthma UK were "very satisfied" with the efficiency of the installation project and are impressed with the ongoing performance and stability of the Infonic solution.

"The Infonic Document Manager system provides Asthma UK staff with a fully secure and instantly searchable audit trail of every document related to each Gift Aid claim," commented Gregory Yakub. I.T. Director of Operations, Asthma UK, "Potentially saving the charity hundreds of thousands of pounds per annum."

More info: www.infonic-document-management.com

CaseStudy