AU & NZ
SG
MY
US
IE
Case Study: Dolphin Living Group Transforming Financial Control & Reporting with Access Financials
Dolphin Living Group are a housing charity located in Inner London, managing a large portfolio of affordable and secure homes, for key workers, creatives, professionals and everyone in-between. As the organisation grew, its previous entry‑level finance software could no longer provide the depth of reporting, control, or efficiency they needed. Access Financials has since become central to their daily operations - streamlining procurement, enabling deeper cost analysis, improving VAT accuracy, and supporting growth.
Business size
Small
Industry
Not for Profit
The challenge
Dolphin Living Group had outgrown its previous entry‑level finance system, which could no longer support their growing portfolio, complex governance requirements, or detailed cost analysis needs. Their processes required heavy use of spreadsheets, leading to inefficiencies, manual error risk, and limited visibility for teams outside finance.
- Lack of control over procurement and approvals
- Manual VAT calculations
- Insufficient detail in financial data
- Inability to deliver self‑serve reporting to non‑finance teams
- Growth needs not supported by the old system
The approach
Dolphin Living Group implemented Access Financials to centralise and streamline their entire financial workflow - from transactions and procurement through to analysis and project-level reporting.
- Implementing Structured, Enforced Procurement Controls
- Using Automated VAT Calculations
- Leveraging Segmental Ledger Coding for Deeper Insight
- Improving Reconciliations and Banking Processes
- Enabling Self‑Serve Reporting for Non‑Finance Teams
- Providing Feedback for Future Enhancements
The results
With Access Financials, Dolphin Living Group achieved greater control, higher accuracy, and significantly improved efficiency across their finance operations.
- Full Compliance With Governance Rules
- Major Efficiency Gains Across Key Processes
- Dramatically Better Cost Insight Across the Organisation
- Accurate Home- and Project-Level Costing
- Scalable System That Supports Their Growth Plan
- Stronger Collaboration Between Finance & the Business
How Dolphin Living Transformed Financial Control and Reporting with Access Financials
Hear how Access Financials helped Dolphin Living eliminate manual processes, ensure full governance compliance, and achieve accurate, data‑driven insights.
Why They Chose Access Financials
Dolphin Living needed a system that could:
- Support growth and accommodate new housing developments
- Offer strong governance & approval workflows
- Provide accurate, segmented financial data
- Enable non-finance teams to self‑serve
- Replace manual spreadsheets with automated, reliable processes
- Handle complex VAT scenarios
- Deliver project-level costing and reporting
As David Gardner, Financial Controller at Dolphin Living puts it:
"When we changed to Access… we'd clearly outgrown our old system."
Implementation Experience
David described the implementation of Access Financials as not only smooth but enlightening:
"When we were installing Access… and talking to people about what we were doing… it came up that things probably weren't happening perfectly before."
The implementation revealed broken or inconsistent processes and gave the organisation a chance to embed governance rules properly in a system.
The team also valued the collaboration with Access during onboarding:
"It was nice to have an ability to hopefully influence the way it's going forwards… based on real-world use."
Life With Access Financials Today
Daily Operations Now Fully Run Through the System
"Everything goes through it really… everything from payments to any money coming in or going out."
They rely on Access Financials for:
- All payments & income
- Cost control
- Project costing
- VAT calculations
- Procurement approvals
- Segmental reporting
- Reconciliations
- Budget tracking
Non-finance teams now empowered
"Members outside the finance department can go in and self‑serve their own information… against budgets."
This has reduced bottlenecks and improved ownership across the organisation.