From black box to strategic financial foresight

A shift toward integrated, long-term budgeting

Accolade’s journey reflects a growing trend among UK housing providers: shifting from short-term, finance-led budgeting to integrated, organisation-wide planning. What was once a five-year budgeting cycle, managed solely by the finance team, has evolved into a collaborative, long-range process extending to 2040. This new approach involves input from the executive team, board, and tenant associations—ensuring transparency and shared ownership.

“We can now prepare a comprehensive long-term budget—looking ahead to 2040—in close collaboration with the management team, board, and tenant associations. It’s well-substantiated, transparent, and easy for everyone to understand.”

Why WALS?

For CFOs grappling with legacy systems, Accolade’s rationale for switching will resonate. Their previous software lacked the flexibility and speed required for today's dynamic financial planning needs.

“We wanted to easily create and compare scenarios and look further ahead, but our old system simply couldn’t handle that” explains Niels. Each calculation took ages, and even a small error could cost us hours. It was frustrating and compromised quality.”

“The switch to WALS felt right from the start,” Niels continues. “We began implementation in December 2023 and went live by February 2024. While we initially planned to run it in parallel with our old system, that quickly proved unnecessary. We learned by doing, and the platform's extensive analysis capabilities gave us confidence.”

Enabling faster, evidence-based decisions

WALS has empowered Accolade to respond quickly to policy changes and financial shocks—capabilities that are increasingly vital in today’s unpredictable environment.

“WALS isn’t a black box,” Jan-Tjalling emphasises. “We validate whether outcomes make sense, and if something looks off, we can easily trace the cause. Changes are quick to implement, recalculations are fast, and the impact is immediately visible.”

“A recent example is the dual rent freeze,” he continues. “Within a week, we had calculated the impact and were discussing it with the management team. We could respond immediately and plan ahead. That’s the added value WALS brings to the whole organisation.”

Building financial literacy across the organisation

Accolade’s approach to budgeting goes beyind the numbers—it’s about engagement. By involving colleagues from across departments, they’ve built a culture of financial understanding and collaboration.

“We work with a cross-departmental stakeholder group. In June, we’re hosting a joint budgeting day to discuss the scenarios Niels and I have prepared in WALS. That forms the basis for our discussions.”

“WALS fosters connection - colleagues have a clearer understanding of the figures, and conversations become more substantive. It's strengthened collaboration across the organisation.”

Risk analysis: from compliance to strategic insight

Using WALS’ Risk Management (RM) module, Accolade conducts in-house risk analysis based on macroeconomic scenarios. This enables them to assess the resilience of their financial plans and clearly communicate risk to stakeholders.

“We conduct the risk analysis independently. Ortec Finance’s manual is very clear. It took some time to get comfortable with interpreting the results, but we now use them effectively in discussions with the management team and tenant associations.”

“The risk analysis presents a range of possible outcomes, both numerically and graphically. This allows us to assess how resilient our budget is and we now include this in our budget report.”

Seamless implementation and support

“The WALS implementation went smoothly, despite a few ICT issues on our side,” says Jan-Tjalling. “Ortec Finance supported us brilliantly—especially Jeroen, Mika, and Sow Sum. They were engaged, solution-oriented, and really helped us resolve the issues.”

“We’ve also been very satisfied with the aftercare,” adds Niels. “After preparing our first WALS budget, we had a second opinion on the data input, which gave us confidence. For smaller questions, we can always contact the service desk.”

Final words: speed, flexibility, and insight

“WALS not only helps us run calculations quickly but also enables timely, meaningful conversations. It supports our growth into a future-proof, data-driven organisation.”

Let’s continue the conversation

If you are interested in exploring how these insights could benefit your English housing association or want to see how Ortec Finance solutions like WALS can support your strategic goals, we’d love to connect.

Contact David using the contact details below or learn more about our housing solutions.

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