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Leaf Blog

Nonprofit case study - Keeping Pace with High Growth Demands at Meals on wheels

11/16/2020

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Meals on Wheels Case Study
Are you a finance or accounting leader in a growing nonprofit organization? Then this case study will go a long way to help you understand the impact of implementing cloud based financial software.  

Challenges
Keeping Pace with High Growth Demands

Meals on Wheels America is the leadership organization supporting the more than 5,000 community based programs across the country that are dedicated to addressing senior isolation and hunger. The nonprofit’s challenge is to prepare the network that already serves 2.4 million Americans each year to meet the increasing demands of a rapidly growing senior population.

Meals on Wheels America needed modern financial management to keep up, as Don Miller recognized when he joined the nonprofit as chief financial and administrative officer in 2013. “I walked into an organization that was running on QuickBooks and Excel and was very limited by its systems, especially when it came to managing grants,” Miller said. “I knew we needed an accounting system that could help us grow.” As it was, Meals on Wheels America faced tons of time-consuming manual accounting work, and relied on Excel to manage grant funding - which was especially problematic with restricted grants from funders that specify a particular use. Reporting was severely limited, and travel and expense accounting was still done on paper.

Please download the complete case study here: 
https://online.sageintacct.com/rs/473-QSL-641/images/cs_Meals_on_Wheels.pdf

Questions on how Leaf can improve your nonprofit organization with cloud financials? Please contact us and we'll collaborate towards a solution.
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Audit Ready Financials for Nonprofits - Webinar

11/9/2020

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Audit Ready Financials Webinar
Webinar: Wednesday November 18, 12:00e/11:00c
You've just wrapped up another audit -- or maybe you're in the midst of planning for the next one. How can you be better prepared?

Revenue, receivables, and consolidation. Typically, financial statement audits get derailed by deficiencies in these 3 areas. Join Sage Intacct to hear real stories of good and bad audits directly from a financial auditor. You'll learn how cloud accounting software can reduce your audit risk and have you well prepared every time auditors open your books.
 
Join us for this one hour webinar and discover:
  • How to Improve your process for preparing audit-ready financials
  • The 3 key steps you don't want to miss
  • Ways to ensure your organization earns a "clean" opinion from your auditor
register now
If you need help evaluating whether Sage Intacct would be the right financial management solution for your nonprofit, schedule an appointment and let's talk. We are here to help.
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The Nonprofit CFO's Survival Guide White Paper

11/2/2020

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Nonprofit CFO Survival Guide
Increasing revenue. Consolidating across multiple entities. Budgeting. Implementing internal controls. Facilitating audits and compliance reporting. Sometimes, it’s easy to overlook the fact that CFOs of nonprofit and for-profit organizations alike, share many of the same challenges in pursuit of the same overarching goal: optimizing the returns of the organization’s activities by carefully managing all aspects of its finances.

But, of course, in the nonprofit world, it’s not about maximizing profitability it’s about maximizing impact. Nonprofits typically pursue a “mission-first” philosophy, aiming to achieve greater social or philanthropic goals and balance the competing interests of social mission and a sound financial foundation. The result is a host of additional challenges that can burden the nonprofit finance team and its financial software infrastructure.

The fact is, it’s never easy to be a CFO. Regardless of the organization, every CFO faces both common and unique challenges and pressures. However, in many ways, financial leaders at nonprofits must address even greater difficulties than their for-profit counterparts. It can be a result of thin or part-time staffing (and sometimes merely volunteers). There are always tight budgets, primitive tools (think of dozens of spreadsheets from multiple contributors), and far-flung management teams. Nonprofit CFOs are under the gun to achieve so much: to automate processes, improve productivity, create greater levels of transparency and visibility, enhance the governance of the organization, and strengthen the team’s decision-making and strategic focus.

How can a CFO survive this challenging environment? The guide linked below discusses some of the key challenges, special requirements, and unusual constraints of financial management and shares some tips and best practices from numerous nonprofit finance experts.

Download the white paper ‘The Nonprofit CFO’s Survival Guide’ here.

Ready for more information? Please schedule an appointment and we'd love to collaborate on a project to help with your cloud financials.
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How to Speed Up Your Nonprofit Audit with Audit-Ready Financials

9/8/2020

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Is Your Nonprofit Audit Ready?
Are your nonprofit financials audit-ready? Do your financials present the lowest possible risk of errors, earning a “clean” unqualified opinion from your independent auditor?

With growing competition for funding and intensified scrutiny by stake holders, audit-ready financials are vital for your nonprofit organization’s mission success.

Download ‘How to Speed Up Your Nonprofit Audit with Audit-Ready Financials’ 

In the eBook, you’ll gain insights into the key to audit-readiness, learn how to properly organize and prepare audit-ready financials, and see how nonprofits like yours have been able to shorten audit preparation time by 62%.

We hope you find value in this resource - please contact us at info@leafsoftwaresolutions.com with your questions.
download ebook
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Nonprofit CFOs Agree - Cloud Financials Key in Running a Nonprofit Today

8/24/2020

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Nonprofit CFOs Agree - Cloud Financials Key in Running a Nonprofit Today
In the mission-driven nonprofit world, accounting and financial management can sometimes slip down the priority list. It’s not always easy to allocate budget dollars to back office infrastructure that doesn’t directly support the nonprofit agenda, and it’s even harder to find the time and expertise to make it all work. Consider some of the obstacles:
  • Capital investment for software and hardware
  • Facilities and expert personnel to implement and maintain the system
  • Lengthy deployment cycles
  • Capacity / scalability
  • Reliability / availability
These issues aren’t part of most nonprofit organization’s core competencies. That’s why many nonprofits are increasingly turning to new-generation cloud-based solutions to automate financial management. Cloud-based financials enable the application vendor to deliver shared, scalable services that the nonprofit agency can access over the Internet using a web browser or mobile device. There’s no need to buy, own, license, understand, manage, or control the underlying hardware, software, or data / networking infrastructure that supports the financial infrastructure. Cloud services are typically delivered on a term-based subscription basis, eliminating the need for upfront software licensing fees or major purchases of hardware. The result is cost-effective, anytime, anywhere managed access. While the urge might be to invest in programs rather than technology, it may be wise to calculate how a modest investment in technology can transform operations and ultimately help better manage programs. Cloud technology is much easier to implement than legacy systems of the past, and quickly delivers return on investment.

What do nonprofit financial leaders have to say about their move to the cloud?
“All of our chapters can access our cloud-based financials,” said Nikki Jones, Controller, Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association. “We have volunteers working all over the world at all hours of the day and night. With our system, they access the same world-class financial foundation that many companies use. Our board and chapter leaders have real-time access to reports, registrations, metrics, and analyses. That means we’re constantly on top of our operation and can make strategic decisions faster.  For us, the cloud is critical.  It’s the only way to go.”

“Cloud financials are absolutely key to running a nonprofit today,” said James Linday, Vice President and CFO, Great Books Foundation. “Now we can eliminate lots of manual work, be more productive, and eliminate all of those capital investments. This is a predictable, flat operating expense, and we save at least $30,000 a year this way.”

​In nonprofit financial management, survival depends on predictable costs, a reliable infrastructure, and world-class functionality.

Key Best Practices for Survival:
  • Move financial management to the cloud for optimal accessibility and lower cost
  • Enable global real-time access to financials, reports, and analyses
  • Use cloud architectures to eliminate manual work and improve productivity while providing world-class functionality that far exceeds primitive single-user tools
To learn more about the cloud-based financials we recommend, you can view this short,  on-demand video https://rc.sageintacct.com/product-demos/sage-intacct-for-nonprofits?referral=LeafSoftware
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Transparent Nonprofits

7/30/2018

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8 Ways Nonprofits Can Be Financially Transparent

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Businessman Simon Mainwaring once said, “The keys to brand success are self-definition, transparency, authenticity and accountability.”  Transparency and accountability, in particular, are essential to a nonprofit achieving mission success.

In fact, these two principles are foundational to the rating system used by Charity Navigator, the nation's largest and most-utilized evaluator of charities. Charity Navigator offers these two definitions:
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Accountability is an obligation or willingness by a charity to explain its actions to its stakeholders.

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Transparency is an obligation or willingness by a charity to publish and make available critical data about the organization.​​


How to show accountability and transparency
The willingness to be accountable and transparent about your nonprofit — especially finances — creates an environment of trust that encourages donations. Financial transparency and accountability are also essential for legal compliance.
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The National Council of Nonprofits lists several ways your nonprofit can - and in some cases, must - demonstrate financial transparency:​​
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  1. If requested, provide copies of the three most recently filed annual information returns (IRS Form 990) and your organization’s application for tax-exemption. These can be posted on your website.
  2. Be honest in your solicitation materials and in communications with donors about how their gifts will be or have been used.
  3. Adopt a conflict of interest policy with a disclosure statement that your Board and staff must create an executive compensation policy that ensures the Board is aware of, and approves, the salary and benefits of your Executive Director or CEO.
  4. Have the Board of Directors review important financial reports as well as review the IRS Form 990 before filing.
  5. Adhere to sound financial management policies, including internal controls. This ensures accountability.
  6. Adopt an expense reimbursement policy that requires prior approval and limits expenditures to a reasonable limit.
  7. Publish information about your nonprofit’s tax-exempt status, who’s on your Board of Directors, and appropriate financial information on the website.
  8. ​Simplify financial transparency with cloud software.

Nonprofits face significant challenges as a result of thin staffing, tight budgets, primitive financial management tools (e.g., spreadsheets), and far-flung management teams. Financial transparency may seem almost impossible.

Fortunately, there’s cloud-based fund accounting software from Sage Intacct. Now you can create greater levels of transparency across every dimension of your organization and get real-time visibility into your organization’s financial health. Key stakeholders like the Board of Directors have instant, actionable insight to make smart decisions about your nonprofit’s future.

Let Leaf Software Solutions guide you to greater financial transparency and accountability. By focusing on your business needs first, so we can design a solution that scales as your nonprofit grows. Call us at 317-814-8000, or email us to get started today.
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