The National Maritime Museum has a three year funding agreement with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). However, since the suspension of entrance fees to national museums, the Museum has had to increase its focus on alternative sources of income. In addition to expanding the corporate hospitality and retail that is handled by National Maritime Museum Enterprises and the sale of information, such as ship plans, the Museum has increased the number of special projects, such as its highly successful Elizabeth exhibition and its Tintin exhibition, for which it charges admission.
The National Maritime Museum is now handling the business requirements of a museum, leisure venue, charity, retailer and publisher, as well as having to carefully project cost its exhibitions. Key in this process is the use of PS Financials accounting and business management system, which provides statutory SORP & SOFA annual reporting, real-time budgetary and project control and 'self service' facilities to allow non-financial staff to access and input information in the way that they need it.
Formally established by Act of Parliament in 1934, the National Maritime Museum was opened by King George VI in 1937. The Museum works to illustrate for everyone the importance of the sea, ships, time and the stars and their relationship with people.
Located at Greenwich in south London, the Museum is responsible for safeguarding and enhancing its collections, buildings and expertise while maximising access, satisfying local, national and international stakeholders and delivering effective organisation and sound financial management.
With annual reports to both DCMS and the Audit Office, as well as the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) reporting required by all charities, accountability of spend is a great importance. The Museum decided that budgetary control could only be improved if cost centre managers had
direct, real-time access to financial information - 'Self Service' financials. However, as David Neale, Finance Systems Manager, National Maritime Museum explains, this level of budgetary control could not be provided by the existing UNIX based Tetra system. "We wanted to implement a system that was Windows compliant," he says. "Furthermore, we wanted multi-currency support to ensure, should the UK ever join the euro, that we could embrace the new currency simply and without a major system overhaul."
Following an extensive market review, the Museum opted to implement PS Financials' accounting and business management system. In addition to Windows compliance, the software, which runs on Microsoft SQL Server, provides the flexibility required to deliver statutory reporting, real-time budgetary and project control and integrate with other operational systems such as retail EPOS, membership etc.
Neale says, "PS Financials as an organisation is familiar with the evolving requirements of museums and the leisure attractions sector. The software provides the Museum with immediate access to both budgetary information and the comprehensive reporting required for SORP, DCMS and the Audit Commission."
The total integration and real-time update of ledgers - the unified ledger design - ensures information is always up-to-date, reflecting postings made into the system immediately. "The unified ledger also eliminates the need for checks on each ledger, making the process of creating month and year-end accounts far easier," says Neale. "Traditional modular systems run the risk of lost or inconsistent data. Using PS Financials the time taken to produce management reports each month has been halved. As a result we can now spend time creating more in-depth information for the board."
The Museum is also using PS Financials' User Defined Input (UDI) to improve the quality of data entry into the system and to provide 'self service' facilities for both financial and non-financial users alike. These screens can be tailored to meet the needs of specific users and include embedded rules to enforce nominal coding, automate complex postings and ensure information completion. Neale confirms, "All invoices are on UDIs. We have limited the complexity of the screen to just the information required, with prompts to help users and excellent data validation to avoid mistakes."
Cost centre managers now have secure real-time access to financial information, including Purchase Orders raised on the system and invoices posted to the relevant department. The system's flexibility has been key in meeting the diverse information requirements of the 50 cost centre managers, who have the requirements of a charity, leisure venue, retailer and publisher- all within the one organisation.
Indeed, the Museum has wide-ranging activities. For example, one team is focused on the commissioning of exhibitions, including the buying of goods and services related to exhibition set-up. There is also a department responsible for conserving and restoring artefacts, whilst another team is responsible for the facilities management that is required to manage and run a major public building. This means that the information required by cost centre managers varies significantly and these cost managers include financial and non-financial users.
Neale continues, "Since the implementation of PS Financials, the Museum has improved budgetary control and cut down administrative overhead." This budgetary control now extends to the increasing number of projects which affect every department across the Museum. "Using PS Financials we are also now undertaking project accounting," he says. "As a result, each department can budget sensibly, taking projects into account - even if they run across year ends."
The Museum has also significantly improved the quality and depth of financial information. Neale adds, "The process of regulatory reporting has been largely automated, and we can easily manipulate reports to meet legislative changes. PS Financials also enables us to meet an increasing number of ad-hoc requests for information, particularly from DCMS. Without the ability to drill down through the information, answering some of these questions would be extremely difficult and time- consuming."
The Museum is also able to create multiple views of data to meet the specific needs of both cost centre managers and the board of directors. "Analysis is now carried out by cost centre, by type of expenditure, such as staff, supplier or travel, and, critically, by a particular project," he says.
He concludes, "The National Maritime Museum has a complex role in delivering services to the public in line with our mission while ensuring tight budgetary control, financial accountability and effective approval hierarchies. We use PS Financials to track financial performance, a key facility given the increasing focus on projects." | 
