Rick Koffarnus first partnered with Multiview Financial Software in 1994 when Multiview ran on an HP 3000. He was in a Senior Accountant role with The Wisconsin Medical Society when the organization looked at Multiview and two other software vendors to provide accounting solutions. Multiview was the obvious choice, which was evident during the demo. “We were pleased with the functionality and flexibility,” says Rick. “Then, I just stayed with Multiview and was able to stay with it [Multiview] at different organizations.”
At the time, Multiview had Viewfinder, which was a report writer. Eventually, Viewfinder in that original version of Multiview was graduated to client-server. Then Multiview introduced Dave, a reporting tool that could run off a desktop. Dave disappeared, and the client-server became more robust.
Rick left The Wisconsin Medical Society for a Finance Manager role with The Lansing Housing Commission, where he worked for ten years. When Rick started, the company had a custom-built accounting product that had limitations compared to Multiview. He had to convince management that Multiview was worth the investment, and they soon realized it was.
The third time he implemented Multiview was in his current role as the Finance Director at the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee. Four years ago, the city migrated to Multiview’s budgeting module. Two years ago, it migrated from N10 to the cloud, “This was probably the best thing that happened because the flexibility went farther. Now, all I need is a browser, and I have access to Multiview from anywhere. That’s a big plus,” says Rick. “Many users appreciated the ability to access the product from the cloud. They can now work from home, a hotel, or the office as long as they had internet access.” He adds, “Working in the cloud, we no longer have to maintain a server on our end. We save costs there.”
After nearly 25 years of partnership, here are a few of the defining elements of Rick’s success with Multiview.
Rick hasn’t found an accounting system with Multiview’s advanced functionality and flexibility. The flexibility in reporting and GL, AP and reporting functions is just excellent for capturing and drilling down on the data.
For Rick, the flexibility of Multiview extends to month’s end. “We don’t close the month every month. We usually wait until the end of our year (that is we have a month end close process, but do not close the periods each month, which works well for us). So, everything is in a relational database where it’s all driven by dates, that’s a big plus because some products force you to do a monthly close before you get into the next one.”
Each time Rick implemented Multiview, the process was easy, “with Multiview, we’ve stayed on task and on time to the dates we had put on our implementation schedule … We always had access to the implementation team and quickly solved problems.”
Rick’s took a gradual approached to implementation with Multiview, especially on the reporting side. “We start with the basic reporting, budget report, and then get into the more complicated things like comparative reports.”
Over his time with Multiview, Rick says the staff has been accommodating and good to work with, and Multiview has just continued to have success, “and with Mike Johnson’s leadership, I see the company progressing even more and getting better.”
At Multiview, we pride ourselves on the flexibility, efficiency in process and customer care that has kept clients like Rick Koffarnus with us for 25 plus years. To learn more about the advantages of using Multiview, how we can impact your financial strategy and end month’s end, please click here.
Founded in 1990, Multiview builds powerful financial and operational management applications to companies across a multitude of industries. The organization’s flagship offering, Multiview ERP, is used across client organizations where they benefit from the powerful integrated modules combined with sophisticated real-time reporting. Headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, Multiview maintains sales and support operations throughout North America.