For Beau Stonehouse, soccer has always been more than just a game. As a lifetime player in his local program, he now serves as the treasurer for Sarnia FC, a longstanding soccer club in Sarnia, Ontario, and volunteers his time to manage the club’s finances. Beau uses his background as a professional accountant to modernize the organization’s financial processes and make life easier for everyone involved.
When he first took over the treasurer role, Beau found himself stuck in a time-consuming, paper-heavy system for managing payments. “Previously, we were cutting over 150 checks a month to pay referees, league fees, and other expenses,” Beau said. “As a not-for-profit, this was volunteer work, but it often felt like a second job.”
Following nonprofit regulations, Sarnia FC's payment process required double signatory approval. The manual workflow — writing, printing, signing, and mailing checks — was not only inefficient but also delayed payments to referees, many of whom relied on the funds as their primary summer income.
Beau set out to find a digital solution to streamline the club’s payment processes, and the search wasn’t easy. Many payment platforms catered to payroll or lacked the flexibility needed for nonprofits. After careful evaluation, Beau landed on Plooto to handle approvals and simplify processes for businesses and nonprofits alike.
Beau didn’t overhaul the club’s systems overnight. He took a phased approach, first testing Plooto with small batches of payments and gradually integrating it with Xero, which he had recently implemented.
“I wanted to make sure everything worked for both the club and the people receiving payments,” Beau said. “We started small, made adjustments, and eventually got to a point where we could run our payments seamlessly.”
Through Plooto’s integration with Xero, Beau was able to automate much of the accounts payable process. Conveners at the club now upload payment information via a simple CSV file, which Plooto uses to process and approve payments quickly.
Thanks to Plooto, the time savings for Beau and other club volunteers have been significant. The process that once took hours every month now takes just minutes. Most importantly, referees and other recipients are getting paid faster — up to four weeks sooner, in some cases.
“For some of these kids, this is their only summer job,” said Beau. “Getting payments to them faster is huge for their morale and retention, and it helps build a better community around the club.”
Beyond time savings, Plooto’s automation ensures that Sarnia FC’s payment process is repeatable and scalable — important for any nonprofit reliant on volunteer support. “I wanted to make the system easy enough for someone else to pick up if I step away,” Beau said. “Plooto has helped make our processes much more sustainable.”
The platform’s ability to handle multiple signatories also ensures compliance with nonprofit regulations without adding complexity. “If I had to write checks manually every time, I probably wouldn’t still be doing this,” Beau joked.
Sarnia FC isn’t the only organization benefiting from Plooto’s capabilities. After seeing the results, other soccer clubs in the region adopted the platform for their own payment processes.