Introduction: Meet Livermore Valley Arts
Livermore Valley Performing Arts Center (Livermore Valley Arts) operates two landmark venues in downtown Livermore, CA: the Bankhead Theater and the Bothwell Arts Center. As a nonprofit performing arts organization serving a diverse regional community, the organization runs a lean finance team managing about 100 invoices a month across 11 departments with nearly 20 staff across coding, review, and approvals.
The Challenge
Invoices that got lost. Costs that kept climbing.
For a nonprofit operating two performance venues across 11 departments, AP wasn’t just an administrative function. It was a cash flow lifeline. Behind the scenes, however, Livermore Valley Arts CFO Reanna Bradford was managing a process held together by physical stamps, departmental mailboxes, and approvers who were often unreachable during evening performances and weekend events.
Invoices sat untouched. Payments ran late. Coordinating check signers around nights and weekends created constant friction for vendors and for the finance teams. Their existing AP automation tool only made matters worse: support quality declined while costs increased more than 200% year over year.
Bradford knew that it was time to find something better. She just didn’t realize how much better it could get.
Why Yooz
A moment of clarity and a much higher bar.
Bradford approached her search with one non-negotiable: she needed a vendor that she could trust. After experiencing firsthand what happened when a vendor’s priorities shift, she wasn’t just evaluating features. She was evaluating a relationship.
Yooz delivered on both. The platform offered everything a nonprofit needs including, advanced multi-department approval workflows, AI-powered invoice capture, seamless Sage Intacct integration, and YoozPay. All the tools required to support the complexity of nonprofit accounts payable. But in the end, it was the support experience that sealed the decision.
“When I spoke to Yooz I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’ve been missing out. I didn’t even know this was a possibility’” – Reanna Bradford, CFO, Livermore Valley Arts
Responses within 24 hours. Live calls to resolve issues on the spot. For Bradford, that combination of enterprise-grade capability and attentive, human support was exactly what her lean finance team needed to succeed.
“It makes it feel like it’s a small mom and pop company that cares, even though it’s not. I get all the big bells and whistles but then the customer service of a small company.
The Impact
Faster, cleaner, and ready for anything.
Since implementing Yooz, AP at Livermore Valley Arts runs on a fundamentally different rhythm. Invoices move from capture to Sage Intacct in 2-3 days on average (often just 1-2 days for routine items) with Brandford able to spot unusual vendor charges or unexpected price increases before they become costly surprises later in the process.
| 2 -3 days | 11 depts | 18 -19 users |
|---|---|---|
| Average invoice processing time, end to end | Coordinated through a single, automated workflow | Actively coding, reviewing, and approving invoices |
Three features, in particular, have transformed day-to-day operations.
First, automated approval routing eliminates guesswork and delays for multi-department invoices.
“The approval workflow is probably my favorite part of Yooz, because it takes the guesswork out of where the invoice is supposed to go next. Yooz just takes care of it and I don’t have to think about it.” – Reanna Bradford, CFO, Livermore Valley Arts
Second, centralized attachments eliminate the hunt for backup documentation.
“The attachments feature is huge because it is where backup documentation can be added to that invoice. It saves me time because I don’t have to go looking for the answers I need.” – Reanna Bradford, CFO, Livermore Valley Arts
Third, YoozPay has improved the vendor experience while helping offset its own cost.
“With our vendors I do push for the VCC payment option… because it is a lot faster. And we do get that little rebate back… which helps cover the cost of YoozPay.” – Reanna Bradford, CFO, Livermore Valley Arts
Perhaps most importantly for a lean nonprofit team, Livermore Valley Arts has built a resilient process that keeps moving, even when key people are unavailable.
“Thanks to Yooz there are no more information silos. If something happens to me tomorrow, I have many users in Yooz that could just pick up where I left off.” – Reanna Bradford, CFO, Livermore Valley Arts