As Hennepin Arts expanded its operations following a major organizational merger, the nonprofit faced growing complexity across budgeting, reporting, and financial planning. By implementing Abacum, the organization transformed its planning processes from disconnected spreadsheets into a centralized, collaborative financial planning environment.
About Hennepin Arts
Hennepin Arts operates four historic theaters on Hennepin Avenue in downtown Minneapolis, supporting arts programming, community engagement, and venue operations across the city.
In July 2024, the organization merged with their partner organization responsible for day-to-day theater operations, significantly increasing operational scale and complexity. The organization grew from approximately 30–40 full-time employees to more than 75 full-time staff and 300 part-time employees.
Today, Hennepin Arts operates with a modern financial technology stack that includes:
NetSuite for ERP and financial operations
Bill.com for AP/AR workflows
Abacum for budgeting and financial planning
Salesforce for donor management
Together, these systems provide the organization with greater operational visibility and a scalable financial foundation.
Hennepin Arts recognized that continued growth had made its existing processes unsustainable.
The Challenge
As Hennepin Arts expanded, budgeting processes became increasingly difficult to manage through spreadsheets and manual workflows. Department collaboration was fragmented, version control became challenging, and finance teams lacked real-time visibility into changes happening across the organization.
While NetSuite strengthened core financial operations, the organization needed a planning solution that could better support cross-functional collaboration and decentralized budget ownership.
Key challenges included:
Disconnected spreadsheets across departments
Limited visibility into live budget changes
Heavy reliance on manual processes
Difficulty collaborating between finance and operational teams
Increasing complexity following organizational growth
The organization also needed a platform that non-financial stakeholders could use comfortably in day-to-day planning and decision-making. Managing multiple spreadsheet versions made it increasingly difficult to maintain a single source of truth.
Why Hennepin Arts Selected Abacum
After evaluating several planning platforms with support from their advisory partner, RSM, Hennepin Arts selected Abacum because of its flexibility, usability, and collaborative planning capabilities.
One of the platform's standout features was Abacum's "Spaces" functionality, which allowed the organization to create tailored workspaces for different departments and stakeholders while maintaining centralized oversight within finance.
For Hennepin Arts, accessibility and adoption were critical. Department leaders needed easy access to relevant budget information without navigating overly complex financial systems, while finance teams needed a centralized source of truth.
Key capabilities included:
Real-time collaboration across departments
Flexible reporting structures
Tailored workspaces for department leaders
Centralized budgeting and planning
Seamless integration with NetSuite
Hennepin Arts viewed Abacum's Spaces functionality as a key differentiator because it enabled tailored visibility for teams while maintaining simplicity.
Implementation and Partnership Experience
Beyond the platform itself, Hennepin Arts valued Abacum's hands-on implementation approach and ongoing partnership throughout the rollout process.
The organization highlighted the responsiveness and expertise of the Abacum team, particularly during onboarding and integration planning. With a structured implementation process and access to enablement resources through Abacum Academy, the finance team was able to get up and running quickly while building confidence across stakeholders.
Because Hennepin Arts was navigating significant organizational growth at the time, having a collaborative and responsive implementation partner was especially important to the success of the rollout.
The Impact
Hennepin Arts now runs its budgeting process within Abacum, replacing disconnected spreadsheets and version-control challenges with a centralized planning environment.
Department managers can now update budgets directly in the platform, add context through notes, and collaborate with finance in real time, while finance leaders gain greater visibility into organizational performance.
Early benefits include:
One centralized source of truth for budgeting
Improved collaboration between departments and finance
Greater visibility into budget updates in real time
Stronger ownership at the department level
Reduced reliance on spreadsheet-based workflows
In a dynamic performing arts environment where programming schedules and revenue can shift quickly, having a collaborative and adaptable planning process has become increasingly valuable.
Looking Ahead
With Abacum, Hennepin Arts has established a more connected and scalable approach to financial planning.
By centralizing budgeting workflows and enabling broader collaboration across departments, the organization is better positioned to adapt to operational changes, improve financial visibility, and support its mission with greater confidence and agility.
