REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP): Chart of Accounts & System Implementation

Job Description

Summary and Background

MEDA’ s finance department is in the process of standardizing its chart of accounts globally and to increasing the capacity of its accounting system to be able to create varying donor financial reports. MEDA is seeking a consultant to assess the current accounting system (SAGE 300), and to lead, support design, and implement the new chart of Accounts. All proposals submitted for consideration must thoroughly cover all the above listed key elements and estimated duration to complete.

The following are additional requirements to consider:

• This is a fixed fee contract. The fees must be calculated based on days and all-inclusive daily rates. The daily rate should be inclusive of overhead costs.
• The final report must be submitted by September 30, 2022
• The consultant(s) may work remotely with an optional field visit.
• Minimum qualifications for consideration:
  1. IT background with demonstrated INGO Accounting system experience
  2. Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and SAGE / ACCPAC
  3. Evidence of executing similar assignment in at least two INGOs
  4. Bilingual is strongly preferred

Invitation

MEDA is transforming its financial services through a review of the cost allocation structure and related systems and processes. MEDA is inviting experts to submit their proposals for review and consideration. Through this request for proposal (“RFP”), MEDA is seeking to invite vendors to submit bids for a chart of account structure design, migration of existing data and related accounting system changes as per the statement of works annexed to this TOR. The vendor will be required to undertake an assessment of the current accounting system, and to provide implementation strategy including recommendation of new software application that satisfy requirements under annex 1 “statement of work,” if new system is required. Customization and training material on the proposed system as well as on-going support and service including system upgrades, fixes, and enhancements. The proposal will encompass all that is required to successfully implement the proposed system.

MEDA may, at its discretion, cancel the requirement in part or in whole. It also reserves the right to accept or reject any proposal and to annul the selection process and reject all proposals at any time prior to selection, without thereby incurring any liability to proposers/firms. Proposers may withdraw the proposal after submission provided that written notice of withdrawal is received by MEDA prior to the deadline prescribed for submission of proposals. No proposal may be modified after the deadline for submission of proposals. No proposal may be withdrawn in the interval between the deadline for submission of proposals and the expiration of the period of proposal validity.

All proposals shall remain valid and open for acceptance for a period of 180 calendar days after the date specified for receipt of proposals. A proposal valid for a shorter period may be rejected. In exceptional circumstances, MEDA may solicit the proposer’s consent to an extension of the period of validity. The request and the responses thereto shall be made in writing. Proposers must not communicate with any other person of MEDA regarding this RFP.

Functional Scope

• The new accounting system should be a centralized, Cloud-Based Solution maintaining all the data, globally, under a single database.

Award

• Award will be made to one Proposer. Award will be made to the highest ranked, responsive, and responsible Proposer whose proposal is determined to be the most advantageous to MEDA. The service contract will be based on the initial product cost, licenses, maintenance fee, and professional services for training and implementation.

Request for Clarification of RFP Documents

• A prospective proposer requiring any clarification of the solicitation documents may notify MEDA in writing by January 07, 2022
• MEDA will respond in writing to any request for clarification it receives by the due date.
• Any request for clarification as the set date above will not be responded solely due to time factor
• Written copies of MEDA’s response including an explanation of the query but without identifying the source of inquiry will be posted on MEDA website.

Amendments to RFP Documents

• At any time prior to the deadline for submission of proposals, MEDA may, for any reason, whether at its own initiative or in response to a clarification requested by a prospective proposer, modify the RFP documents by amendment. All amendments will also be posted on MEDA website in the “Work with Us” section.

Language of Proposals

• The proposals prepared by the proposer, and all correspondence and documents relating to the proposal exchanged by the proposer and MEDA, shall be written in English.

Submission of Proposals

• Interested consultants are asked to apply directly through BambooHR opportunity posting. Responses must be received no later than January 14, 2022.
• Proposals must be submitted in a single document and with clear subject description of the proposal (technical or financial) by the date and time stipulated.
• Proposals shall include all applicable taxes quoted separately. If taxes are not mentioned in the financial proposal, MEDA shall consider that they are included in the prices provided. Applicants are advised to ensure that they have a clear understanding of their tax position with regards to provisions of Canada tax legislation when developing their proposals.
• Proposals shall include implementation costs, license costs & expected recurrent costs for at least the first 3 years.

Late Proposals

• Any proposals received by MEDA after the deadline for submission of proposals will be rejected

Conflict of Interest

• Contractor and Contractor’s Personnel have no business, professional, personal, or other interest that would conflict in any manner or degree with the performance of its obligations under this agreement. Contractor and Contractor’s Personnel shall not represent MEDA in any transaction in which they (or their extended family) have a personal material connection or financial interest. Immediate or extended family includes a spouse, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, cousin, niece, nephew, or corresponding in-law. Contractor and Contractor’s Personnel shall not offer or promise anything (of value) in order to influence or reward a person or organization in any business transaction under or connected to this agreement. Contractor and Contractor’s Personnel shall not use MEDA Confidential Information for personal or business benefit. This also applies to the appropriate use of electronic and computer resources such as electronic mail, the internet, e-commerce, license agreements and software copyrights. Contractor and Contractor’s Personnel shall take all appropriate steps to ensure that neither they nor any employee, agent, supplier, or sub-contractor is placed in a position where there is or may be an actual conflict, or a potential conflict, between the pecuniary or personal interests of Contractor or such persons and the duties owed to MEDA under the provisions of this agreement.
• In their proposal, proposers must confirm that, based on their current best knowledge, there are no real or potential conflicts of interest involved in rendering services to MEDA.
• If any actual or potential conflict of interest arises under this agreement, Contractor shall immediately inform MEDA in writing of such conflict.

Confidentiality

• Information relating to the evaluation of proposals and recommendations concerning selection of Firms will not be disclosed to Firms that submitted proposals.

Disclaimer

• MEDA reserves the right to determine the structure of the process, number of short-listed participants, the right to withdraw from the proposal process, the right to change this timetable at any time without notice and reserves the right to withdraw this tender at any time, without prior notice and without liability to compensate and/or reimburse any party.

Implementation Plan

• The date of award of contract to the Proposer will be considered as the start date of implementation.
• The Proposer should propose a suitable project plan.
• The Proposer will further detail the project plan in early stages of the project and get it validated by MEDA. The project plan should include training strategy, describing, and implementing proposed approach in providing training materials to various categories of users.
• The bid should include a post-implementation support strategy.

Scalability

• The solution must be scalable both in terms of the content capacity, volume of transaction, users, and master data capacity.

24/7 Support Operations

• The Proposer must ensure that the accounting system is supported 24/7. This should specifically be on finance support as relates to system usage. This is necessary as MEDA will work with implementation partners and stakeholders across all time zones worldwide.

Training Scope

• The key to successful implementation will be the Implementor’s ability to train the finance team on operating the accounting system. In this context, the Proposer is expected to:
• Provide a description of the training hand-outs and/or operating manuals to be provided to the core team members and the end users.
• Training materials organized for separate categories of users based on functions, roles, and responsibilities.
• The Proposer will be responsible for the preparation of the training material and end user manuals. End user manuals should cover “how to use” concepts for all modules implemented.

Proposals

• Proposers are requested to submit a proposal that demonstrates the capability in delivering requested services.
• The proposal should include a financial proposal with pricing information covering the requirements detailed in this document. The financial component of the proposal document must be clearly marked.
• The financial component shall include the following:
  • Fee structure and pricing details in CAD dollars including all expenses and applicable taxes
  • Financial methodology that explains the rationale of the financial component and how it offers best value.
  • Unit rates; and
  • Total Lump sum Contract amount.

• Financial proposals that do not have the above details will be disqualified.
• Proposer shall include and clearly show all expected taxes in the financial component.
• MEDA reserves the right to give preference to the most appropriate baseline in terms of expected economies of scale.
• The financial proposal shall be fixed price and not based on time and material. The bidder must provide a total lump sum fixed price for determining the financial score and contract value.

Commitment to Diversity

• MEDA has a commitment to inclusion, equality, fairness, gender inclusion and diversity in our work. Please describe how you demonstrate the same in your organization, work, and staffing.

Evaluation Criteria

• An evaluation committee will be formed by MEDA and shall include cross-functional, international group of employees.
• All members will be bound by the same standards of confidentiality. Bidders should ensure that they fully respond to all criteria to be comprehensively evaluated.
• In deciding the final selection of qualified bidder, the technical quality of the proposal will be given a weighting of 60% based on the evaluation criteria below. Only the financial proposal of those bidders who qualify technically will be opened. The financial proposal will be allocated a weighting of 40% and the proposals will be ranked in terms of total points scored.

Key Areas for Evaluation/Assessment

A) Technical Proposal - Weight: 60

• Understanding of MEDA’s needs and requirements (5)
  • Demonstrated familiarity with iNGO sector
• Expertise of Firm/Organization(10)
  • Management structure of the company
  • Demonstrated financial capability of the company
  • Demonstrated relevant experience and recent engagements for similar assignments
  • Letters of reference from past customers/clients

• Proposed Methodology, Approach, and Implementation Plan (35)
  • Meets and complies with the mandatory criteria
  • Clear and suitable project management, planning and scheduling plan
  • Proposed solution satisfies the data management requirements
  • Solution meets all functional scope requirements
  • Solution satisfies all scalability requirements
  • Demonstrated ability for 24/7 maintenance support
  • Demonstrable training support with clearly defined operating manuals
• Management Structure and Key Personnel (10)
  • Provide comprehensive curriculum vitaes (CVs) of key personnel
  • Clearly defined roles and responsibilities

B) Financial Proposal - Weight: 40

• Clarity, relevance, reality to market value/value for money of cost of the Assignment (20)
• All applicable taxes quoted separately in the proposal (5)
• Clear illustration of implementation costs, license costs, and recurrent costs (15)

Annex 1. Statement of Work

The bulk of the work will be in the assessment of current accounting system (SAGE 300), the design and implementation of the Chart of Accounts (COA).

The solution proposed should have the functionality below.

1. Needs Analysis

• Full needs assessment – MEDA wide, for financial information:
  • Build financial accountability into reporting
  • Project accounting for iNGO
  • Internal and external reporting (ease of pulling data, ease of report development)
  • Review reports to get a sense of the types of reports issued
  • Multiple reporting currencies (source and functional)
  • Financial key performance indicators (KPIs)
  • Systems integrations (i.e., Balanced Score Card, ADP for payroll)
  • Dashboards
  • Consultations with key stakeholders

Review existing software:

• • present recommendations for optimization
  • OR options for fit for purpose software

Provide report of recommendations:

• • Including timelines

2. Standardization of COA for Global Operations

• Current State:
  • MEDA North America currently has a different COA than its field offices
  • MEDA field offices currently have different COAs from each other
  • Each *project operates as its own “company” in SAGE 300
• Future State:
  • A uniform COA that is consistently used across operational worldwide offices
  • A COA that accommodates an international project-driven organization with multiple legal entities

3. Development and Implementation of Accounting Software

• Develop implementation plan
• Guide or project manage implementation on:
  • Successful testing of the new COA four months post-implementation
  • Flexible financial reports and dashboards
  • Guide migration of previous and current fiscal year data in the updated COA
• Guide rollout of modules in selected software:
  • Accounts payable
  • Purchase orders
  • Accounts receivables
  • General ledger
  • Fixed assets
  • Bank reconciliations
• Integrations with:
  • ADP
  • Bank statements
  • Corporate credit cards
  • Concur
  • Dashboards
• Design and setup of roles & permissions
  • Security
  • SysAdmin
  • Processes related to security access (SOP – Standard Operating Procedure)

4. Training (Remote Delivery)

• Tailored training manual for COA & selected software
  • Preparation of training manual on the new chart of accounts
  • Training manuals on the functionalities of the accounting system
• Software Training for all Global Finance staff (Bilingual - FR/EN)
  • Training of the core finance managers
  • Short videos to aid self-training and / or future reference
• COA training
  • 2 Trainings for users (finance and non-finance staff)

Definitions of Key Terms

• ADP: Automatic Data Processing
• COA: Chart of accounts
• KPI: Key Performance Indicator
• Project: refers to donor grants that MEDA implement in-country
• SOP: Standard Operating Procedure

Submission Deadline:

January 14, 2022, at 4:00 PM EST (Submissions will be reviewed on a rolling basis)

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Thank you for your submission.

MEDA is an equal opportunity employer and accommodations are available during all phases of the recruitment process. We ask that any applicants requiring accommodation make their needs known in advance.

About the Organization

About Us

MEDA (Mennonite Economic Development Associates) is an international economic development organization that creates business solutions to poverty. For nearly 70 years, MEDA has been creating business solutions to poverty that are sustainable, scalable, measurable, and replicable. MEDA began as an association of Mennonite businesspeople who believed they were called to be faithful in generously sharing their abilities and resources. Continuing in that Christian tradition, MEDA welcomes all who share our values and want to join us in our mission.

MEDA has worked in over 70 countries and brings a unique market systems approach to project design that integrates technical assistance and access to capital. As an early leader in innovative finance, MEDA leverages public and private funding to advance social enterprises around the world that are positively impacting social, environmental and governance challenges in their communities. We work in agri-food market systems, focusing primarily on women and youth in rural communities in the Global South. Our success is measured by income, improved processes, increased knowledge, and the creation of decent work.