Perth Non-Profit Organisation
Achieves 85% Reduction in Manual Field Service Processes

A Perth-based non-profit organisation delivering community support programmes was struggling with outdated operations that were hampering their ability to serve clients effectively. The organisation relied on seven disconnected tools — manual Excel spreadsheets for rostering, a Microsoft Field Services configuration that required constant IT maintenance, separate HR software, paper-based client intake forms, email-based invoice approvals, and standalone time-tracking sheets that no one trusted completely.

Staff were spending over 40 hours weekly on manual data entry, scheduling conflicts were frequent, and compliance reporting required extensive manual compilation from multiple sources. With grant-funded programmes, the stakes were particularly high: funders required detailed activity reports showing service hours delivered against contracted targets, and the organisation had no reliable way to produce these without dedicating days of staff time to manual reconciliation before each reporting deadline.

The compliance burden was increasing year-on-year as funding agreements became more prescriptive. Staff at the coalface of community delivery were being pulled into administrative work that had nothing to do with supporting clients. Coordinators estimated they spent more time managing the systems around service delivery than actually coordinating services. The organisation needed a unified platform that would handle the operational complexity of funded programmes, award-based payroll, and funder compliance — without requiring a dedicated IT team to maintain it.

We designed the solution around an MCP Server — a custom integration layer we built specifically for this organisation — that connects every tool in the ecosystem and eliminates the manual handoffs that were consuming staff time. Rather than replacing everything at once, the MCP Server allowed each existing tool to be swapped out incrementally whilst keeping data flowing continuously across the stack.

SimPro was configured for community service delivery rather than traditional field service work, with programme types mapped to funding streams, client records linked to care plans, and service delivery hours automatically reconciled against contracted grant targets each fortnight. Coordinators could now see in real time whether programmes were tracking on target, without waiting for a manual report.

EmploymentHero was critical for this organisation specifically because of the complexity of NFP-sector payroll. Community services awards contain multiple pay classifications, overtime provisions, and allowances that generic payroll tools handle poorly. EmploymentHero's award interpretation engine handled these rules automatically, eliminating the manual payroll checking that had previously required a part-time bookkeeper. Volunteer management, leave tracking, and onboarding workflows were all brought into the same platform, giving the HR function genuine visibility for the first time.

Technology Stack

• SimPro: Community service delivery platform handling client care scheduling, support worker rostering, and programme delivery tracking across funded NDIS, aged care, and community programmes
• EmploymentHero: NFP-sector HR and payroll with automated award interpretation, volunteer management, and staff compliance reporting
• Xero: Financial management with automated invoicing, grant expenditure tracking, and funder-ready reporting
• Ezzy Bills: Automated bill processing and approval workflows reducing manual data entry by 90%
• Deputy: Staff scheduling and time tracking integrated directly with SimPro service delivery records
• Power BI: Real-time dashboards showing programme delivery against contracted targets, funder compliance metrics, and operational KPIs
• MCP Server: Custom integration layer built by Lakestone — the connective tissue ensuring seamless, automated data flow across all seven platforms

Six weeks after go-live, the operations manager reported that coordinators were no longer working late to prepare funder reports — the reports were generating automatically, on schedule, directly from SimPro delivery data. Manual processes fell by 85% across the organisation, freeing over 40 hours weekly that had previously been consumed by data entry, scheduling reconciliation, and compliance compilation.

The 99% compliance rate achieved through automated audit trails and real-time programme tracking gave grant providers a level of reporting transparency they had not previously received from the organisation. Two major funders have since cited the quality of reporting as a positive factor in contract renewals. Internally, staff retention has improved: removing the administrative burden from frontline workers has made community service roles more sustainable and reduced the burnout-driven turnover that had been a persistent challenge.

The organisation now enters each grant period with confidence rather than anxiety. Budget actuals reconcile automatically against funding agreements, service hours are visible in real time, and the compliance evidence required for audits is a single Power BI export away. The investment in integration infrastructure has compounded in value as the organisation has taken on additional funded programmes — new programmes onboard into the existing stack without requiring manual process redesign.