Category

Nonprofit

Nov 07
0

Data Analytics: The New Resource for Nonprofit CPAs

By | Nonprofit | No Comments

According to a recent report in the Journal of Accountancy, the need for data analytics, and systems that support accurate data, has never been greater for CPAs and accounting firms. Today’s CPAs are as likely to be reviewing complex data reports as they are preparing tax returns. Data analytics has become especially important for auditors, and new initiatives are underway to research and support best practices for auditors. For those working at nonprofit organizations, these skills are also quite relevant.

The Importance of Data Analytics Skills

A survey by Robert Half and included in the previously cited article indicates 61 percent of CFOs believe that data analytics skills are mandatory for at least some of the accounting staff at an organization. Most finance and accounting professionals at both for-profit and nonprofit organizations, understand the importance of using data to build their organizations’ business plans and help them achieve their KPIs.

The Need for Data Analytics

CPAs today must have data analytics skills for several reasons:

* They must be able to use data to enable practices such as continuous monitoring, continuous auditing, and full data set analysis.

* Complete data sets can be used to analyze past trends and make recommendations for future plans.

* Data can be analyzed to uncover patterns and trends in customer, donor, and member behavior that can lead to new marketing programs, improved customer communications, and better materials for members, donors and the public.

A joint AICPA Assurance Services Executive Committee/Auditing Standards Board Task Force is developing a new Audit Data Analytics Guide, which will supersede the current Analytical Procedures guide. The AICPA has also partnered with Rutgers University to form a new research initiative into the use of data analytics for auditors. The new partnership seeks to test the effectiveness of new approaches to auditing using data analytics.

Four Types of Data Analytics Skills

Data analytics is an often misunderstood term. It is helpful to understand the four discrete skillsets included in the umbrella term “data analytics.”

1. Descriptive analytics: Data that provides insight into what is currently happening in the organization. This is commonly found in percent changes, sums, and other simple data records.

2. Diagnostic analytics: The practice of using analytics to examine and explain the causes of past results.

3. Predictive analytics: Helps predict and understand future patterns from past data.

4. Prescriptive analytics: Assists in identifying the best option to choose from among several options. Uses data to identify choices and best course of action.

Among these four skillsets, the first is the one with which most people are familiar and comfortable. Expanding your skills to encompass diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive analytics can help you use data from your organization to improve outcomes.

Accessing and Managing Data

Nonprofits seeking the benefits of data analytics can benefit from better software to manage their accounting. Good data begins with accurate data collection. The right software ensures that data flows seamless into your accounting system and throughout your organization. MIP Fund Accounting, for example, is a software package designed for nonprofit organizations. Abila MIP Fund Accounting offers several core modules including General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Budgeting and more to provide nonprofit organizations with the data and accounting support they need to be successful.

Within these modules, you will find reports that facilitate data analytics. Using this data, you can provide accounting support throughout your organization so that it can better achieve its mission.

At Welter Consulting, we are committed to helping you find affordable, useful technology, and to learning how to use that technology to its fullest capacity. We work exclusively with nonprofits and government agencies to help them find and use technology solutions. For more information, please contact us or call 206-605-3113.

Oct 31
0

How to Offer a Unique and Beneficial Membership Experience

By | Nonprofit | No Comments

Abila MIP Makes it Easy

According to recent studies, many membership organizations struggle to retain and attract new members. Marketing General reports that among the associates it surveyed, membership is down six percent overall, and the majority of 68% report that retention remains stagnant.  Ideally, we should be seeing an increase in new memberships so next let’s discuss why this is not happening and what organizations should be doing differently to attract new members, in addition to retaining current members.

 

What’s happening?

It seems that members no longer feel that their user or membership experience is providing them with the emotional satisfaction or experiential satisfaction they once had. Membership, in other words, isn’t providing the same value today that it once did. They are taking their money and memberships elsewhere, or foregoing membership altogether to find other ways of enhancing professional value, education, and interactions.

 

Some of the issue stems from the rise of new technologies, such as social media, which make it easier than ever before to interact and network with people who share similar interests, professional background and experience. This important function was once held solely by membership organizations, which provided meetings, forums, newsletters and other tools that enabled people within a similar profession or interest to find common ground, share industry information, and support one another in their careers.

But we can’t lay all of the blame at the feet of social media. Members always had a choice to join or not, even if it was a choice between local networking groups versus national membership, or organization A versus organization B.

 

A closer look at how big brands such as Amazon enhance user experience may help us learn how to enhance member experience and turn the tide on flagging interest in membership organizations. Then, using a software such as Abila MIP can help you manage the experience more easily.

 

What Membership Organizations Can Learn from User Experience

Several online brands offer lessons in user experience we can translate into daily member experience.

  • Amazon: People love shopping on Amazon’s site because it provides seemingly limitless choice. The retailer began with books, added music to its list, and now boasts almost every category under the sun. The site’s search engine is excellent and makes it easy to find what you are looking for. Site members also rank and comment on their purchases, adding quality assurance for ‘real people’ just like you to each listing.
  • Google: Over 60 percent of the world turns to Google to find what they need online. It’s fast, intuitive, and easy to use.
  • Apple: Apple’s products were originally created for graphic designers. Microsoft’s PCs were introduced for office and home computing, so Apple staked out a niche as the computer for graphic design. Today, it’s sleek design and powerful, virus-resistant computing power appeal to many.

What can we learn from the user experiences listed above?

  • Amazon – comprehensive selection, something for everyone, easy to find what customers need
  • Google – easy to use, fast, understands it customer base
  • Apple – innovative, cutting-edge, new, fresh

These concepts are important over-arching concepts for membership organizations. Taking a cue from the popular brands, member organization can infuse “member experience” into their missions, values and offerings so that potential members see and experience greater value from their membership.

 

To enhance your member experience, think of ways in which you can:

  • Add comprehensive offerings to your member benefits, making it a ‘one stop shop’ for your members. Abila MIP can help you track aspects of member benefits and other pertinent data.
  • Enhance your membership so that it is as easy to use as a Google search.
  • Refresh your educational opportunities so that they are cutting-edge, and different from what members may find at their local colleges, universities, or other professional development providers.

With a little planning and a lot of creativity, you too can come up with ‘member experiences’ that rival that of the big brands. Membership organizations need to evolve, grow and change to keep pace with consumer demand. Make member experience part of your organization starting today.

 

More Mission, Less Accounting Worries

To make time for your new “member experience”, shift some of the accounting tasks into a software that makes things easier. Abila MIP Fund Accounting makes it easier for nonprofits to report and track the information most important to them. It’s a solution that grows and changes with you.

 

At Welter Consulting we are committed to finding you the most affordable technology, the most powerful solution, and providing expert support.   We are dedicated to assist you in achieving your mission by leveraging technology and superior reporting.  We are passionate professionals who choose to work in the nonprofit sector for the same reason you do – helping others.

 

Please give us a call at (206) 605-3113 or by visiting our website at welter-consulting.com to see a complete listing of upcoming training and webinars, including the NonProfit Enrichment Series, hosted by Welter Consulting, LLC or by clicking on the following link: NonProfit Enrichment Series Webinars.

Oct 26
0

Bringing Fundraising and Finance Together with Nonprofit Accounting Software

By | Accounting, Fundraising, Nonprofit | No Comments

Working Together Can be a Challenge

 

You play for the same team, but somehow you feel like cross town rivals.  This sometimes happens between the fundraising and finance departments of a nonprofit. You sit across from each other at meetings, but it doesn’t feel like you are on the same team.  In reality, you are all working towards the same common goal. Accounting software for nonprofits can help merge these two departments onto the same team. It’s easier to work together when you understand the roles of each department.

 

It’s Not Easy to Walk in Someone Else’s Shoes

 

When thinking about your finance and fundraising departments remember the old saying, “You don’t know what it’s like to be someone else unless you’ve walked a mile in their shoes.” When it comes to fundraising and finance, there are things that each department wished the other knew about their work and concerns.

 

Fundraising wishes that finance could…

  • Understand the challenges and process of fundraising;
  • Accept that you have to spend money to make money (or get donations);
  • Help us maintain good donor relations;
  • Offer us some flexibility – things aren’t always black and white in our world.
  • Respect that fundraising isn’t easy.

 

And finance wishes that the fundraising team could…

  • Understand the fact that finance’s job is complex and time-consuming;
  • Accept help from experts in finance.
  • Help us do our jobs better by providing us with information we need.
  • Offer to sit with us to learn some basic accounting practices.
  • Respect deadlines.

 

It’s often easier to come to consensus when you understand and respect one another’s positions in a situation. Knowing what the other ‘team’ wants can help you step closer to a compromise, and to support each other’s vital roles in an organization. One way to share information is through accounting software for nonprofits, which can help both teams step closer to one another through shared information.

 

Different Departments, Similar Challenges

 

Although finance and fundraising reflect different departments with varying needs, both seem to experience similar challenges when it comes to data and information. Ways in which both departments can help each other overcome their shared challenges include:

 

  • Collaborate on budgets and tracking
  • Improve reports and reconciliation of financial information
  • Jointly plan and set goals
  • Establish frequent, timely communications
  • Identify ideal processes and procedures
  • Integrate fundraising and accounting software

 

Software for nonprofits is a great tool that can help both departments communicate, collaborate, and plan together.  Various software packages including Abila MIP and others can work independently or together to provide data sharing among teams, timely updates and more. Cloud-based solutions ability to be accessed anywhere that there is a web connection makes it easier for fundraisers who travel to visit donors.  They can see and update accounts from the road, which in turn, will help the finance department do their jobs better.

 

The right accounting software for nonprofits won’t solve all of your internal struggles, but it can help to get fundraising and finance on the same team.  This will be a win win for all the players involved.

 

Contact Us

 

Welter Consulting makes choosing the right accounting for nonprofit software easier.   At Welter Consulting we are committed to finding you the most affordable technology, the most powerful solution, and providing expert support. We are dedicated to assist you in achieving your mission by leveraging technology and superior reporting. If you’re ready to cross the bridge to empowering technology, effective nonprofit solutions, and superior technology – let’s begin! We would love to talk to you about your specific needs.  Contact us today or call 206-605-3113.

Oct 19
0

Recruiting the Best Accounting Talent to Your Nonprofit Organization

By | Nonprofit | No Comments

Professional sports teams know that to find the top athletes in the country, they must recruit them early from the college teams. Imagine if they merely placed ads, screened resumes and videos of players, and then said, “You’re hired!” It is likely that the process would result in unsatisfactory teams.

 

The same may be said for the method by which nonprofits typically recruit finance and accounting talent. Many nonprofits place job advertisements, screen resumes, interview and hope for the best.

 

If you want to create a “starring team” for your nonprofit, here are a few ideas you can use to recruit top talent into the world of nonprofit finance.

 

Five Ideas to Recruit Top Talent

  1. Develop talent networks: Do not wait for job openings to have your eye on the next employee for your nonprofit. Participate in local networking events for your industry. Join chapters of local nonprofit business leadership organizations. Meet and get to know the top finance and accounting professionals. When an opening arises, you will already be connected to the people you want to recruit onto your team.
  2. Start an apprentice system: Another method to recruit top talent is to build it into an apprentice system at your organization. Offer paid summer internships, work-study programs, and starting positions that grow and develop into leadership positions. Organize your employment structure so that potential employees feel there is room for growth. Reach out to top accounting schools in your area and alert them to apprenticeships. They will grow into their positions, and you will begin working with young, bright graduates eager to succeed.
  3. Recruit widely: Although many aspects of nonprofit accounting are specific to the way in which nonprofits operate, there are many similarities to the for-profit world. A good accountant can quickly learn the differences and apply learnings from the for-profit world to improve operations and efficiencies. Consider recruiting top talent from all industries, not just the nonprofit world.
  4. Network with professors: An interesting but often untapped resource to find smart and rising accounting stars are the professors in the local business schools or universities. Professors know their students well and can attest to their strengths. To get to know the professors, host educational seminars on accounting for nonprofits, FASB changes such as FASB 958, and other pertinent issues. Along with cultivating a local network of accounting professionals, developing a network among the professors can help you later identify promising students to recruit into your organization.
  5. Consider competitions: A competition for the best business plan, paper or other accounting-related project offered through local universities can attract bright accounting talent. You can then assess their work by reviewing their submissions.

Creating an Environment Attractive to Professionals

The Society of Human Resource Managers (SHRM) conducts annual surveys among human resources managers to assess the most appealing benefits for different age brackets. Among their findings, SHRM reports that to attract highly skilled professionals, companies must offer attractive benefits packages.

Senior-level professional workers, such as top-level accounting and finance professionals, value health care benefits, retirement packages, similar traditional benefits packages. Younger workers, however, are open to additional benefits and find flex time, telecommuting, and unpaid leave opportunities valuable.

 

Nonprofits that have trouble attracting senior-level talent may wish to re-examine their benefits packages. Beefing up the healthcare package as much as possible and offering other benefits, such as telecommuting and flex time, may make your organization more appealing to potential employees.

 

Welter Consulting

Welter Consulting offers financial reporting, compliance, and software to help nonprofits with their accounting needs. We focus solely on nonprofits, bridging the information gap between nonprofits and business disciplines. We are passionate about helping nonprofits success. For more information, visit us or call 206-605-3113.