When folks in your neighborhood are hungry, you search for any alternative to be extra environment friendly so you possibly can spend extra time getting meals to those that want it. However with out the best programs in place, administrative duties like pulling grant reporting might be time-intensive and error-prone, taking away from time you possibly can be utilizing to give attention to extra strategic tasks.
Your meals financial institution wants accounting software program that may make it easier to handle a wide range of funding sources whereas additionally serving to you make strategic, data-driven selections primarily based on stock and forecasted neighborhood demand. Listed below are 5 methods software program designed for nonprofit organizations will help your meals financial institution save time and improve transparency—so you will get again to feeding your neighborhood.
1. Present clear stewardship for restricted funds.
From fundraising initiatives to grant awards, your meals financial institution seemingly juggles a mixture of restricted and unrestricted {dollars}. With a fund accounting system, you possibly can simply observe that restriction again to the donor or grant that trusted your group with these funds. With allotted tasks particular to these restrictions, you possibly can simply present your donors and grant funders that their cash aligned with their particular intent.
Enhance transparency by speaking the standing of your restricted fund stability to the stakeholders inside your group. Create a model of your stability sheet that features a column for restricted funds so your management can see at a look what property  are tied to a program or particular use case. Having this up-to-date stability will help your group make higher data-driven selections.
2. Cut back danger with a single supply of reality for all of your grant funding.
Monitoring one grant award exterior of your accounting software program isn’t best, however manageable. However in case you are like most meals banks, it’s not only one grant. It’s a number of. Or dozens. Every further spreadsheet isn’t solely one other headache, but in addition a possibility for outdated or inaccurate information to get into your system.
Use your fund accounting system to trace the small print of every grant, together with standing, quantity awarded, and kind of grant. Add the grant tips and finances worksheets so they’re at your fingertips any time you could have a query. Having one place for all of your grant-specific info breaks down silos and avoids introducing danger by pulling information out of varied programs into spreadsheets.
3. Finances and forecast throughout all packages.
Meals banks must be nimble. You would possibly get some superior discover a few main native employer closing, however local weather occasions and pandemics not often provide you with quite a lot of days warning. However working—and re-running—finances situations and forecasts all year long can maintain you from feeling flat-footed throughout a disaster to your neighborhood.
With a fund accounting system, you possibly can finances on the program degree to see all funding sources that help every program, together with grants that cross fiscal years. You may as well construct a rolling forecast for all bills, grants, and packages. This lets you verify in your pacing to see in case you are over- or under-spending particular grants.
Correct forecasting and budgeting are additionally essential to your stock necessities. With multi-scenario budgeting, you possibly can see what it could appear to be in the event you had a 20% or 50% improve in demand, after which plan for these situations. You may set up benchmarks for when extra fundraising appeals have to exit and alter your objectives primarily based on the place you might be in comparison with these situations.
4. Format your Chart Organizer as soon as for particular reporting necessities.
Versatile reporting permits you to meet your compliance and transparency necessities with out having to recreate studies every time you want them.
For instance, if you have to file Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards (SEFA) Stories, you possibly can create a report that reveals these expenditures by grant. You may simply group all of the accounts that fall below the emergency meals help packages and classify the columns so you possibly can clearly present what funds had been from direct awards and what was from pass-through awards
Even exterior of grant reporting necessities, you need to use versatile reporting capabilities to maintain your management updated on key initiatives. Use your fund accounting system to run studies by particular packages or grants to supply extra transparency to your board and funding organizations.
Your inside stakeholders aren’t the one ones who will respect these studies. With view-only entry, your auditors may drill down into the specifics of every report, getting the knowledge they want with out taking your employees’s time.
5. Combine your stock administration to keep away from duplicate entry.
Trendy APIs imply you don’t have to compromise. As a substitute of getting a single system that does one side nicely however falls quick for the remainder of your group, every division can choose the software program that works greatest for his or her particular wants. By integrating your warehouse administration software program along with your fund accounting system, you get info in your system rapidly and precisely so you may make extra knowledgeable selections.
These interfaces robotically pull buy orders, receipts, and invoices straight into your accounting system for fee and monitoring. You may as well push up to date valuations and stock fluctuations into the overall ledger with out having to enter the information in each locations. This protects your employees time and reduces the probabilities of mis-keyed info.
See Fund Accounting in MotionÂ
In case your meals financial institution is prepared for an accounting system designed to your wants, try our webinar, Combine and Innovate: Why Meals Banks Want Fund Accounting Software program. You’ll see how Blackbaud Monetary Edge NXT can simplify your reporting and enhance transparency, serving to you propose higher and earn extra funding.
