Roger Dean Stadium
St. Louis Cardinals and Montreal Expos Joint Venture Uses Peachtree® To Figure Out Who's On First

Upgrade Eliminates Errors and Scores High on Reporting Capabilities

In 1997, David Resnick, director of accounting for Roger Dean Stadium, was looking for accounting software to manage the St. Louis Cardinals and Montreal Expos Spring Training Joint Venture in Jupiter, Florida. The scope of the project was intimidating-to track income and expenses for each team, as well as the joint venture between the two teams. Resnick also needed to enter a 60-page budget for the Montreal Expos, keep track of their minor league, the Jupiter Hammerheads, and account for special events, scouting operations, and player development.

Resnick lucked out: he opened the yellow pages and found Elizabeth Way of Abaca.net. To solve his problems, Way recommended Peachtree Complete® Accounting.

"Prior to the switch, we were using BPI, an ancient DOS-based accounting software with very limited reporting capabilities," said Resnick. "I had to run multiple companies and do a lot of tedious consolidation reports in spreadsheets. It was a time-consuming, error-prone, and very frustrating."

Preliminary Planning Pays Off

Before setting up the software Resnick and Way met several times to organize the chart of accounts. "I knew it would be key to programming the reports, so we took our time and tested a variety of systems," said Way. The final result yielded a 14-character chart of accounts number with each numeric position taking on reporting significance. By masking on the various positions, reports can be generated by team, by category or by event. What had previously required use of multiple spreadsheets was now available on a reports menu. In all, Way programmed 32 separate reports.

Then Way tackled the second challenge: running a preliminary set of reports. These reports would give Resnick the data he needed to created journal entries in order to distribute expenses to each team and to the joint venture. Way devised a simple yet elegant solution: All preliminary reports were organized into a print queue labeled "Preliminary Reports," and Way set up a spreadsheet to capture and calculate the necessary journal entries. Once Resnick has entered the journal entries, he runs a second print queue called "Final Reports."

"Without the right consultant, this would have been impossible," said Resnick. "I had envisioned having to create many, many spreadsheets to capture all the detail, but we only do one. The time savings have been significant."

Business Profile

Headquarters:
Jupiter, FL

Type of Business:
Baseball Stadium

Number of Employees:
200

Annual Revenues:
$4 million


System Profile

Computer System:
PC Compatibles

Operating System:
Windows 2000

Software Products:
Microsoft Office®
Peachtree Complete® Accounting