From challenges to triumphs: Visit Dallas finds the balance with outsourced accounting

Client background

Visit Dallas is an independent, not-for-profit visitor’s bureau that promotes Dallas as a premier travel destination, catering to both business and leisure, to benefit their city economically, but also to improve the quality of life for everyone who visits and lives there. In addition to overall city promotion, Visit Dallas also handles the booking of meetings, conventions and major sporting events, as well as coordinating film, television and commercial productions. They provide additional resources through their Visitor Experience and Membership teams.

The business challenge

When the chief financial officer (CFO) at Visit Dallas took a leave of absence, the new CFO found themselves facing a challenging workload. Prior to the new CFO’s arrival, Visit Dallas was experiencing a season of change — moving away from the financial software they had been using and outgrown, and beginning a Sage Intacct implementation.

Visit Dallas originally engaged with Baker Tilly to implement Sage Intacct as their new software solution, but as the relationship grew, so did the services provided by the Baker Tilly team. These additional services led to substantial improvements in both their accounting and human resources (HR) operations.

The strategy and solution

Baker Tilly began the relationship with Visit Dallas on a project basis, which positioned Baker Tilly to become a trusted Value Architect™ for their overall strategy and planning, as well as helped determine the areas where our expertise could make the biggest impact for the organization.

Prior to their engagement with Baker Tilly, Visit Dallas conducted organizational assessments that revealed some additional areas of improvement to better align their operations with strategic goals, including the need for additional accounting staff. Starting with a focus on process improvements, Baker Tilly's initial engagement with Visit Dallas achieved immediate successes. Encouraged by these results, Visit Dallas decided to delegate more projects to Baker Tilly, which ultimately led to:

• A comprehensive accounting and HR strategy: Developed a more integrated and efficient operational model.
• Improved efficiency: Baker Tilly's implementation of Sage Intacct helped Visit Dallas streamline their financial processes, resulting in more accurate and timely reporting.
• Enhanced staffing: The HR assessment and restructuring ensured that the organization had the right talent in the right places to support their growth.