Enterprise Resource Planning Solution

The vendor is required to provide for the design, delivery, implementation, and ongoing support of the enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution.
- The zoo is not looking for custom applications yet rather “out of the box” functionality which integrates with other core systems utilized at the zoo.
- Core accounting functionality
• General ledger: chart of accounts management, journal entries, allocations, closing process, real-time financial visibility 
• Account payable: vendor invoice processing, payment scheduling and tracking, purchase order matching (3-way match), expense coding and approval workflows, expense reporting and purchasing card integrations. 
• Purchase orders: manage the full lifecycle of purchasing from request to payment to ensure control, visibility, and efficiency in acquiring goods and services. 
• Allow departments to request good and services, include descriptions, quantities and preferred vendors, route requests through approval workflows which may be determined based on company and department structure, support standard, blanket and contract po’s, assign po numbers and vendor payment terms, link to vendor records, have the ability to attach and store necessary support documents tied to specific po’s, track vendor performance and preferred supplier lists, allow real-time tracking of committed costs against department or project budgets, ensure spending control and prevent over-budget purchases. function should also support alerts, escalations and electronic signoffs, match received against po’s, flag discrepancies, automate matching and payment processing, support credit memo and partial payments, status tracking, and vendor spend and category spend analysis. 
• Accounts receivable: customer billing and invoicing, payment collection and tracking, aging reports and integration with CRM and ticketing. 
• Cash management: bank account reconciliations, cash flow forecasting and monitoring, funds transfers and liquidity tracking. 
• Financial reporting: real time daily income reporting (pulled from integrations with pos and ticketing and membership), easily customizable and filtered reports for the organization, by department, fund, or project. 
• Fund and grant accounting (nonprofit focused): track restricted vs unrestricted, donor-specific fund allocations, grant budget tracking and compliance 
• Fixed asset management: track asset details, calculate, generate and post depreciation expense and integrate with capital management (asset investment). 
• Internal controls and security: role-based access control, audit trails for all transaction, segregation of duties enforcement
- Capital project planning
• The capital management module ensures that large-scale investments are strategically aligned, financially controlled, and transparently reported. for mission-driven organizations like zoos, it also enhances accountability to donors, boards, and grantors while improving long-term sustainability. 
• Core functionality should include the ability to create and manage capital project proposals and approvals, define project scope, budget, timelines, and funding sources and prioritize projects based on strategic goals or ROI. 
• This could be included as part of the ERP or the ERP could have a vendor partner that provides this solution via API.
- Budgeting and funding allocation 
• Allocate and track budgets across multiple funding sources (grants, donations, internal funds), support multi-year budgets with phase-based tracking.
- Cost tracking and forecasting
• Track all costs in real time (materials, labor, contracts), compare actual vs. budgeted spend by phase or activity, forecast remaining costs and potential overruns.
- Procurement and vendor integration 
• Link capital projects to procurement processes and control spending through purchase order and invoice tracking.
- Workflow and approvals 
• Enforce governance through structured approval workflows, manage change orders and scope adjustments with audit trails.
- Reporting and analytics 
• Project health dashboards: cost, timeline, and risk indicators, capital utilization and investment return reporting, support for audit, compliance, and stakeholder transparency.
- Database:
• The zoo prefers a software as a service (SaaS) solution or a cloud-hosted system where the vendor is responsible for server management.
• The system must be scalable to support peak volume days. 
• The proposed platform should have a web-based user interface.
• Mobile access to core functionality preferred for review and possible approval need
• The system needs to limit access within the system by functional area. different teams within the institution require access to different functionality.
• The system should set security permissions by user group or role.
• The system should also set security for reports and documents.
• Integrated payment processing, if applicable must be secure, using tokenization or point-to-point encryption methods.
• The system should support two-factor authentication.
- Integrations:
• CRM and ticketing: the solution must integrate general ledger (GL) posting information to the financial system from its transactions, such as tickets, memberships, and program registration fees. 
• Food and beverage, retail, parking: the solution must integrate and pull daily sales and financial transactions for posting to the general ledger and for daily revenue reporting to stakeholders. 
• HR (UKG): integration should provide a direct connection to recognize salary and benefit expenses to the general ledger with each payroll processing 
• Cash logistics manager (CLM): although the zoo is reviewing the option of moving to cashless operations, currently the CLM system is used to count and reconcile cash to sales transactions in the pos systems. 
• This area is also utilized to track daily attendance and weather for tracking and reporting. system utilized due to lack of accounting system reporting capabilities.
- Questions/Inquires Deadline: June 25, 2025