Transform Your Scouting Council

I am the controller of a multi-office council with a $10 million budget, who right now uses Black Pug for our camping and event registrations. These reservations then roll forward to our accounting system to book our revenue. More and more we are relying on Black Pug for all our registration needs. Camping uses it extensively. At the beginning of the year, we are converting over and using Black Pug as our POS system. So, we will be relying on Black Pug even more in the coming year. Why are we using Black Pug? Because their systems and software are built with Boy Scouts in mind. They understand our non-profit reporting system and can design their software to meet our requirements. Whenever we have a problem or a question, Steve and his team are right there to help us out. Customer service is superb, timely and helpful! Black Pug has always been responsive to our needs and will customize their software to meet any nuances we may have.

We used Sellwise for many years as our Point of Sale system…. Tracking inventory, sales transactions, and lots of Unit Deposit Account transactions. We knew we wanted to move away from a desktop based system to something in the cloud, as well as being very user friendly for our unit leadership. COVID-19 helped us accelerate the transition from a desktop system that we had no access to for months due to workplace restrictions. Now months after the transition, our unit leaders love it that they can inquire of their UDA balance 24/7, they can make a deposit anytime and see that it posts to the account immediately, use their UDA balance to purchase Council Trading Post and other items as well as pay camp and activity registration fees. Unit leadership’s ability to update Trusted Users as they need and when they need is a huge benefit to the units, and eliminate a great deal of administrative work previously done by council staff. Wow what a great toolset that has dramatically streamlined our operations related to retail sales (primarily internet sales) and Unit Deposit Account management. We would encourage every council to take a look at Black Pug Software.

I just have to tell you how much I LOVE Black Pug and the amount of time it saves me from prior years. I used it this past year for two NYLT sessions. The amount of time it saved me and the quality of work I was able to provide has been incomparable. Now, I'm doing University of Scouting and I used to have to manually track over 150 classes. I hated it. If classes closed over the weekend then I would have to call people who registered after the cut off and then find new classes, etc. I spent so much time trying to figure that all out. I just went in and pulled up Class Attendee Counts and all the information I need is right there! I already know what classes are closed, close to closing etc.. I just emailed that list to the U of S chancellor and now he has the info. If you ever have someone who is interested in this program and wants to speak with someone who uses it PLEASE give them my email and I will gladly speak with them. My volunteers so far are loving what I'm able to do for them.