Reasons Fitness Clubs Choose Dynamics GP

Our fitness clubs clients first come to us for a better financial management solution with three main goals:

• Close the books faster
• Consolidate all units/locations into simplified reports
• Get actionable insight faster and easier

For many fitness center executives, financial reporting continues to be one of the challenges we hear most often. In this industry, growth is fast, competition is fierce and before you know it you’ve added locations, staff, members, and technology. Getting the information you need to drive growth becomes much harder and slower, and just adding more reports isn’t helping at all.

This article highlights how to meet these goals and get a quick ROI by upgrading entry-level accounting software like QuickBooks to an integrated financial management and reporting solution, like Microsoft Dynamics GP.

Here are 3 big advantages of Dynamics GP for fitness clubs:

1. Consolidated reports at the click of a button

Over the years, we’ve heard from a number of growing fitness clubs that still manage their reports using Excel, and all of them complain that it’s overly time-consuming. Often, each fitness center or location has a separate accounting system. This means headquarters gets to consolidate data from up to 30 separate accounting systems to generate one report. Then you need to manually enter data into Excel, set up complicated spreadsheets that go on for days, troubleshoot formula errors in Excel, attempt the report again…and again.

With Dynamics GP, generating reports is as simple as clicking a button or two. It honestly is that fast. Talk about closing the books faster! You’ll be able to manage separate locations or units, quickly consolidate financial data, and easily generate reports from a user-friendly interface. Most importantly, you won’t have to do duplicate work in Excel. Nothing against Excel, but it’s not the most user-friendly tool in the world.

One of our fitness club clients in California with 30 locations told us, “Before, everything was Excel-based, which was just horrible. With our Dynamics GP system from BroadPoint, all the information we need is at our fingertips. If managers call and ask a question, we can run a report and use the filter to get the right information into the hands of our decision-makers in a matter of minutes.”

Imagine being able to respond to a manager’s request for information by producing an accurate, 80-page financial report in just a few minutes—and many times just a few pages.

2. Transform data into intelligence

In addition to saving tons of time and headaches on reports, Dynamics GP gives you actionable intelligence to strategize growth and market leadership.

Data from all your locations can be presented in a way that makes sense to each individual. So decision-makers get real-time access to information without the clutter--whether it’s a 13-month rolling trend report, spending on office supplies, or recurring revenue by club.

A dedicated business intelligence solution like Power BI takes your insight one step further and automatically translates your data into custom dashboards, reports and charts. From sales to marketing, finance to inventory, membership to club performance—you can see it all, exactly how you want to see it. Management can interact with data on a company-wide basis or club-by-club basis, simply by applying filters.

3. Reduce data errors

Another big risk when using entry-level accounting software and Excel? Way too many errors. It’s inevitable when data has to be entered multiple times there will be human mistakes. And in Excel, you probably know one minor error can throw off an entire report. By the time you get the reports, who knows if the numbers are truly accurate?

With Dynamics GP, there are built-in controls so you can be confident the data you use and present is accurate. Data is entered once, shared throughout the system and automatically populated in your reports and PowerBI dashboards. The risk of human error is drastically reduced.

Here at BroadPoint, we’ve helped fitness clubs transition from Excel-based reporting to a comprehensive financial solution. All of them have discovered just how powerful this technology can be for enabling growth, reducing stress, and facilitating good decision-making. Don’t wait until Excel and ineffective reporting is hindering growth. Invest in an accounting solution designed to move you forward.

Since 2001, BroadPoint has helped over 600 organizations, including fitness centers and health clubs, accelerate growth. Contact us to learn more about how we can help you get to the next level.