About NBCA
New Braunfels Christian Academy (NBCA) is a private Christian school in Texas serving students from early education through grade 12. The school has operated for more than 45 years. Following the launch of Texas Education Freedom Accounts, NBCA experienced a sharp increase in enrollment demand and began expanding facilities to support growth. With millions of dollars flowing through construction and school operations, finance needed consistent approval workflows and clearer visibility into spend.
Key Products
Integrations
The challenges
NBCA managed purchasing and bill payment across separate systems, with purchase requests submitted through JotForm and accounting handled in QuickBooks Online. As purchasing activity increased, the lack of a connected workflow not only created gaps in approvals, coding, and visibility, it was extremely time consuming.
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Amazon purchasing without consistent pre-approval
High-frequency Amazon ordering and teacher requests needed tighter controls to ensure purchases were approved before orders were placed. Any orders submitted incorrectly or needing changes created rework and additional follow-up.
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Manual invoice processing, coding, and budget alignment
Account and department coding wasn’t consistently captured at the time of purchase, which meant invoice processing required manual handling and corrections during reconciliation. This significantly impacted the ability to track spend against department budgets.
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Disconnected purchasing and QuickBooks records
Purchasing activity needed to translate cleanly into QuickBooks Online. Workflow and synchronization gaps created manual steps to keep accounting records accurate, and non-PO spend increased reactive invoice processing.
The solution
The school implemented Procurify’s platform, purpose-built for charter school procurement, to centralize purchase requests, approvals, and purchase orders in a single, structured workflow.
Procurement, AP, and expense management operated in one connected system, allowing approved purchases to flow straight into invoice processing and reconciliation. With direct syncing to QuickBooks Online and consistent account and department coding, purchasing activity was accurately reflected in the general ledger.
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Purchasing controls with Amazon PunchOut
Amazon PunchOut enabled staff to shop directly on Amazon while routing carts through approval before checkout. Orders were coded and authorized prior to purchase, bringing high-frequency Amazon spend under defined financial controls.
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Approval workflows for school purchasing
Requests were automatically routed to the appropriate approvers based on department and spend thresholds. Only approved requests converted into POs or orders, reinforcing accountability across departments.
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Centralized invoice and expense management
Accounts Payable and Expense operated within the same platform as purchasing, allowing bills to be matched to approved POs and non-PO expenses to follow a defined submission and approval process. This connected requests, invoices, and employee expenses in one consistent workflow.
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QuickBooks Online integration for reconciliation
Approved transactions synced into QuickBooks Online with account and department coding applied, ensuring purchasing activity translated directly into accurate accounting records and supporting a smoother reconciliation process.
Takeaways
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3.7x faster approvals
Approval cycle time dramatically reduced from 49 hours to 7 hours. Defined approval routing accelerated purchasing while maintaining control across departments.
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$6.6M in spend tracked in one system
Purchasing across school operations and facility growth was centralized, improving visibility and budget oversight.
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98% PO-backed billing
Nearly 100% PO-to-bill conversion across 2K+ POs and bills. Most invoices were tied to approved purchase orders, strengthening traceability from request through payment.
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10x faster invoice processing
Invoice processing reduced from ~5 minutes to ~30 seconds per bill, the equivalent to saving up to 120 hours per year in administrative time.
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Broad adoption across departments
94 users onboarded, with 90–95% of company spend managed in Procurify.
