Monthly Archives

June 2024

Tame the Paper Tiger: How to Get Accounting Files Under Control

By | Accounting, Accounting Software, Nonprofit | No Comments
person using ERP accounting software on both a mobile phone and laptop, Accounting Files

How dependent is your office on physical paper? Do you have file cabinets crammed into every hallway and corner, or have you tamed the paper tiger and transformed your office into a streamlined and efficient digitally based accounting office?

The pandemic forced many organizations to consider going paperless as more employees had to work from home. However, not everyone continued the transition to paperless. Many organizations continue using basic software such as spreadsheets to manage their accounting. They print invoices and bills, file bank statements and credit card statements, and keep customer files in file cabinets.

This isn’t necessarily bad, but it is inefficient. Today’s digital transformation affects nonprofits just as it does for profits, offering time-saving software and technology to better manage accounting, finance, and overall paperwork. Let’s get your paperwork under control and talk about some of the new and better ways to manage these tasks.

Nonprofit Accounting Software

Specialized nonprofit accounting software can help you move from an inefficient paper-based or spreadsheet-based accounting to a nearly paperless office.

Nonprofit accounting software was built specifically for nonprofit organizations. It includes basics such as a general ledger, accounts payable, and accounts receivable, and organizes the information logically for nonprofits. Additional nonprofit accounting software offers grant management functions, tracking expenses and revenues by program area, and more. Donor management software can be used alongside nonprofit accounting software to manage outreach campaigns and provide a coordinated central repository for all information.

Using nonprofit accounting software instead of spreadsheets helps control excess paper in your office in several ways. Nearly all the basic accounting functions you need to track, from invoices to credit card and banking information, are all tracked electronically, eliminating the need to print and store everything. Additionally, you can run reports more easily from a dedicated nonprofit accounting program than from spreadsheets. You can create and share PDFs of your balance statement, income statement, cash flow, and more.

During audits, if you currently need the auditors onsite or must print reams of paper and carry it to their office, you’ll find it much easier with accounting software. With nonprofit accounting software, you can provide auditors with usernames and passwords, allowing the auditors to select and review any information electronically. And, if you’ve chosen to use a cloud-based accounting platform, the auditors can access the system remotely. They may not have to spend several days onsite if they can review information electronically.

By moving your accounting to a completely digital system, you’ll save paper (and trees!). You’ll also reduce the number of mistakes in your accounting. Unlike a spreadsheet, which may require you to type information into multiple worksheets, with an accounting program, you just enter it once into the system. Accounting software offers many timesaving features and improves efficiency in any organization.

Differences Between Nonprofit Accounting Software and Small Business Software

Many nonprofits consider specialized accounting software but opt instead for off the shelf small business software. Such software may be appealing. It may have a lower price tag and easier onboarding than a robust nonprofit accounting platform.

However, small business software is not designed for the specific needs of a nonprofit. It does not track revenues and expenses by program. It cannot manage grants easily. And it does not integrate with donation software. What you save in upfront and other licensing costs, you may end up spending on custom programing to get small business software to produce the right reports or track line items correctly to the general ledger.

Speak with Nonprofit Accounting Software Experts

If it’s time to make the switch and tame the paper tiger, speak with the nonprofit accounting and software consultants at Welter Consulting today. We’re experienced at working in the nonprofit world and understand the challenges you face managing your accounting. We can suggest the right accounting platform and other software to streamline your office and tame that paper tiger.

Welter Consulting

Welter Consulting bridges people and technology together for effective solutions for nonprofit organizations. We offer software and services that can help you with your accounting needs. Please contact us for more information.

The Art of Accounting Storytelling: Use Storytelling Techniques for Effective Presentations

By | Accounting, Accounting Software, Nonprofit, Uncategorized | No Comments
Person giving accounting presentation via a large computer monitor, Accounting Storytelling

Once upon a time …

Your mind probably raced back to childhood at that phrase, to many pleasant memories of adults reading stories to you. The human mind is hardwired to listen to stories, and our brains naturally gravitate toward the time-tested framework of a story: a beginning, middle, and end; a hero on a quest; a villain who tried to stop the hero; and the wise guide who helps the hero overcome the challenges.

Financial professionals may think that storytelling techniques are for sales, marketing, and donor relations, but they also offer a rich framework with which to share information so that it is understood and remembered. Let’s examine the art of storytelling and how accountants can leverage this method for better communications.

Why Use a Story Framework for Financial Presentations?

Every accountant or financial professional must present numbers. Whether it’s presentation budgets to stakeholders or reviewing the annual report with the board, at some point this year you will be asked to present to a group.

Part of the art of presenting wisely is engaging the audience’s attention. Accountants may face a significant challenge when presenting numbers because not everyone in the group understands basic accounting concepts. To have your point understood and remembered, you may need to use creative methods to share information. This is where storytelling techniques come into play.

Everyone has heard stories. We watch movies and television shows, we read books and see plays. We know the framework of a good story. It is burned into our subconscious mind through thousands of repetitions over the course of a lifetime. Tapping into this framework to share financial information helps engage your audience and share information in ways they can easily grasp.

Accounting Storytelling Framework

So just how can you use a storytelling framework for your numbers-based presentation? Think of the hero’s journey. Every hero starts off on a quest. Luke Skywalker set out to return R2D2 and the Death Star plans to the Rebels to thwart Darth Vader and the evil empire. That was his quest and the hero’s journey unfolded in two hours of adventure that has kept audience spellbound for decades.

Now you may not be a Jedi knight, but you are the ninja of accounting, so let’s apply this framework to a common scenario: presenting budgets to stakeholders. In your accounting story, you must first explain the challenges from the audience’s perspective. You must see the information through their eyes and focus on what is important and memorable to them.

What information are you sharing with them? What is the story behind the numbers? Focus on the narrative flow around the data. What is the high-level takeaway, and what is the story inherent in the information?

Good stories paint visual pictures in the mind of the audience. You can do this with your data by using data visualizations such as graphs and charts. The old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words is true when it comes to presenting accounting or financial data.

Using Your Accounting Software to Craft a Compelling Story

The right accounting software plays an important role transforming basic data into stories through data visualizations. Does your software help you create various charts, graphs, and other visualizations for compelling presentations, or do you spend hours exporting data into spreadsheets and crafting visuals from imported data?

If the latter describes a typical scenario, it’s time to consider updating your software. Newer government accounting software and nonprofit accounting software provides robust data visualizations. It can really make a significant difference not only in how you present but in the impact your presentation has on the audience.

Using storytelling techniques to share financial information may seem far-fetched, but it’s a time-tested method for helping audiences engage and connect with information. Try it and become the hero of your finance team

Welter Consulting

Welter Consulting bridges people and technology together for effective solutions for nonprofit organizations. We offer software and services that can help you with your accounting needs. Please contact us for more information.

New Law Raises DOL Minimum Salary Threshold for Overtime Pay – Are You Ready?

By | Accounting, Budget, Government, Nonprofit, Overtime | No Comments
binders labeled salary and overtime, with printout, calculator, and magnifying glass, Minimum Salary Threshold for Overtime Pay

Salaried employees are typically exempt from overtime, but a new law from the U.S. Department of Labor slated to become effective on July 1, 2024, may change that for up to one million people. What is this law and how might it impact your business? We’ll look at the law, what it means for the average business, and what you need to do now to prepare for it when it becomes effective.

What Is the DOL Minimum Salary Threshold Raise?

The DOL released a final rule on April 23, 2024, which raises the minimum salary threshold for the standard exemption applied to executive, administrative, professional, and outside sales employees, as well as certain computer employees, exempting them from minimum wage and overtime protections under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). These exemptions are typically called “white collar” exemptions meaning that so-called white-collar jobs—usually salaried office jobs—do not normally qualify for overtime. The new law may change some of that.

FLSA covers organizations with two or more employees earning $500,000 or more in annual sales. It also includes education institutions and hospitals caring for the sick, mentally ill, or elderly. If your organization falls into these categories, you must adhere to the overtime laws and the new rollout of the minimum salary threshold increase.

What Are the New Salary Thresholds?

The threshold for the EAP exemption’s minimum salary will increase to $844 per week (approximately $43,888 per year) from its current level of $684 per week (approximately $35,568 per year) on July 1, 2024, and then to $1,128 per week (approximately $58,656 per year) on Jan. 1, 2025

The second increase marks the threshold nearly $3,600 more than the previous Department of Labor proposed overtime rule back in 2023. Increases for highly compensated employees’ (HCE) salary are also more than originally proposed.

The new minimum annual compensation threshold for Highly Compensated Employees increases to $132,964 on July 1, 2024, and then to $151,164 on Jan. 1, 2025

How Can Your Organization Prepare for the Change?

Now is the time to take steps to prepare for the new law to take effect. While several states have filed lawsuits to block the law from going into effect, it is uncertain whether this will happen. You should proceed as if the law will indeed be effective on July 1, 2024, and plan accordingly.

First, consider your options. You can adjust an employee’s salary or reclassify them as nonexempt. However, changing classification from exempt to nonexempt may create additional considerations such as how compensation and bonuses impact overtime pay owed to a reclassified employee.

Additionally, changing employees from exempt to nonexempt increases your record-keeping responsibilities. Do you have the right nonprofit accounting software to handle this step? If not, is it time to upgrade or seek new software?

Consider also how reclassifying employees may impact your budget and employee morale. From a budgetary standpoint, you may incur higher overtime expenses, which can strain money you may have set aside to pay bonuses. From an employee morale perspective, benefits tied to compensation may change. Some employees may view the change as a demotion. You may need to think through how you will roll this out. Speak with your accounting and human resources team and consider all options.

Another area of consideration is around workplace policies, such as travel, or equipment use. If you currently restrict nonexempt workers from travel or from using equipment while traveling, you may need to revise your policies if you choose to reclassify people from exempt to nonexempt.

Work with Your Accounting Consultant 

There are many, many considerations when this law goes into effect. Each organization is different, with complex needs and considerations. For our current clients, we encourage you to speak with our team to determine the wisest course of action with minimal disruption to your organization and its finances while fully complying with the law.

Welter Consulting

Welter Consulting bridges people and technology together for effective solutions for nonprofit organizations. We offer software and services that can help you with your accounting needs. Please contact us for more information.