The Parish Council in Bærum Paves the Way for Standardization: Everything Will Be Streamlined

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An increasing number of parish councils are recognizing the value of adopting Aider’s tailored ERP solution. Among those leading the way in realizing economies of scale is the Parish Council in Bærum. “Our goal is for everyone who follows after us to quickly reap these benefits,” says Stein Bjertnes, Chief Financial Officer of the Church Council in Bærum.


With nearly 160 payslips issued per month and approximately 100 full-time equivalents across 10 parishes, the Parish Council in Bærum is one of the largest in the country. This also means that the potential gains from streamlining are substantial.


“Our guiding principle is that the work should be as seamless as possible. A good system takes you a long way, and the rest comes down to effective processes,” Bjertnes explains.

-Saved money by outsourcing payroll

Not all processes used to be particularly efficient. Agreements for volunteer work and ad hoc honorariums were created spontaneously. Contracts had to be requested via email, and extra administrative work was commonplace. That is no longer the case.


“Now, everyone who receives a salary is registered in the HR system. From there, the fixed data is sent to ‘Tid,’ our time-tracking system, where everyone logs their hours. At the end of the month, these are reviewed and transferred to the payroll system. If everything is in order, no one sees these figures again until the salary is in their account,” he explains.


In addition to Xledger, which is the foundation for Aider’s solution for parish councils, the team also uses SD Worx and the time-tracking system Tid. Aider handles the payroll processing.


“We’ve outsourced payroll because it’s simply cheaper and more efficient. This setup saves us a significant amount of time in coordination, and we can also rest assured that all legal requirements are met.”


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Streamlining and Simplification


From the very beginning, the goal has been to create a simpler workday, and the Parish Council has collaborated closely with Aider in both developing and implementing the solution.


“We see enormous potential in this system. We’ve already improved efficiency and created better workflows in several areas, including invoicing, time tracking, and payroll, but we have more plans. Among other things, we intend to do much more with reporting and Power BI in the future,” explains the CFO.


He believes many other parish councils could benefit from economies of scale by joining this shared solution:


“Many congregations run local payroll systems because they also finance their own staff. With the module we helped develop, the invoice is allocated to the congregation while we manage the payslip. This significantly simplifies parish accounting and has now become part of the solution,” says Bjertnes, concluding: “It demonstrates the power of standardization.”


 


 

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