Confidence in financial data:

Pride celebrations are associated with revelers draped in the rainbow flag―not being in the black or in the red.

“We brought BDO on to help us at Vancouver Pride Society to ensure that we were being fiscally responsible and to streamline financial procedures”, explains Andrea Arnot, the current executive director of Vancouver Pride.

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BDO partner, Kristine Simpson began working with Vancouver Pride Society in 2015, helping to establish the financial stability that clears the road for the annual parade.

Roadblocks: Vancouver Pride's obstacles

Historically, within Pride organizations, the finances and bookkeeping has been organized by a volunteer board. These volunteers only had capacity to activate during the Pride season. The Vancouver Pride Society was fortunate in 2016 to switch from a volunteer working board to a volunteer governance board and hired year round staff to take the place of volunteers. BDO was hired in 2016 to assist with finances and bookkeeping. Since then the BDO auditors have given suggestions on ways to enhance financial policies and procedures, these recommendations, along with recommendations from Imagine Canada have helped refine the VPS' financial processes. The BDO bookkeeping team has assisted with organizing monthly reports, posting daily transactions and making accounts receivables and payables easy to track.

Clearing the way: BDO's path to success

Kristine Simpson brought in a second partner, Bill King to facilitate bookkeeping services for the Vancouver Pride Society through the Kelowna Outsourcing Centre of Excellence. A team of bookkeeping professionals cleaned up Vancouver Pride's data―making over 100 correcting entries―and were attributed with helping management secure the not-for-profit's financial viability.

BDO Outsourcing gave the Vancouver Pride Society:

• Quick, easy access to a cloud-based client portal, reducing paper handling and allowing for the back-up of financial data
• Superior technology with robust reporting, providing better data management of the financials for the organization
• Accurate and complete information, resulting in better audit readiness and a cleaner year-end

Pride with BDO

The Vancouver Pride Society chose BDO because we're active in supporting the not-for-profit and charity community and are well known for our specialization in the sector. The Vancouver Pride Society already trusted the quality and consistency that BDO could deliver with annual audit services.

BDO Outsourcing continued to deliver that quality and consistency: we brought cloud-based technology and unparalleled access to data. The board and the executive developed deeper confidence in our services, allowing volunteers and staff members to focus on building the organization.