Using integrated not-for-profit financial software to create team collaboration

There is a not-so-subtle disconnect in most not-for-profit organizations between the finance team and the fundraising team. Providing the tools and technology necessary to enable these departments to collaborate and support each other allows your not-for-profit organization to achieve even greater mission impact with the right not-for-profit financial software. There are several reasons why finance and fundraising professionals find it difficult to collaborate sometimes. 

These teams: 

• Focus on different priorities 
• Measure and report on different metrics 
• Draw on different personalities 
• Speak different lingos 

Organizations need to increase their internal communication to improve the relationship between finance and development. Some practical ideas for improving communication include teaching each other basic accounting and fundraising processes and terminology, conducting joint meetings, and creating interdepartmental goals and objectives.

Another way to help bridge the gap between fundraising and finance is by having powerful, integrated not-for-profit software solutions. True cloud financial management solutions enable greater visibility into performance, better sharing of financial data, and easier collaboration between people. Development and finance can work together and add value to the mission impact armed with complete information from cloud solutions.

Freely share financial information

Cloud-based not-for-profit accounting software allows finance leaders to spread performance information more easily, allowing other parts of the organization to benefit. This means eliminating any data silos caused by outdated software and getting into a more comfortable position to share financial data with the development team. Cloud software requires no installation and can be accessed by web browser, making it much easier to share information internally.

Each part of the organization needs to see the relevant financial information. Development and fundraising want to focus on the financial information that pertains to their own objectives. This is one of the reasons Sage Intacct enables the finance team to create roll-based dashboards.

With Sage Intacct, you can create dashboards and reports for different users – from program managers to fundraisers to financial executives. Drag and drop outcome measurements, KPI visualizations, and reports that track the most important information for each role. Dashboards place statistical and financial data side by side for a comprehensive view of organizational performance.

This fundraising dashboard provides the most impactful metrics for measuring performance, including expense ratios, average donations, and fundraising costs. Another dashboard empowers all teams to monitor real-time expenses and budget to actual data — which is appreciated by program, finance and development teams alike.

Integrated systems help strengthen collaboration

Now that freely flowing financial information is established across the organization, it’s time to bring even more data streams into clear view. Cloud not-for-profit software has a distinct advantage by having open API integration with other cloud software systems. For example, Sage Intacct easily integrates with leading not-for-profit software for grant management, membership management, fundraising, CRM, budgeting, expense reporting, and more.

Sage Intacct has pre-built integration with over 45 best-in-class applications used by not-for-profits. Some of the not-for-profit-specific applications on the Sage Intacct Marketplace include MemberClicks for member-based associations, Fluxx for grants management, Gabriel Software for parish management, and SchoolConnect for billing.

Chat with team members right in the system

Collaboration across departments improves when organizations widen real-time visibility through system integrations. Integrating Sage Intacct and Salesforce.com CRM embeds Salesforce’s Chatter feed inside Sage Intacct. Sage Intacct Collaborate allows you to easily communicate within the context of related transactions in both Salesforce and Sage Intacct – right on the transaction page. It is a great way to keep both teams on the same page, and track and document key information.

Sage Intacct Collaborate allows you to easily communicate and capture narrative comments about anything – right on the relevant page. This example illustrates a conversation between departments and external auditors. 

Seamlessly integrate your financial data

Sage Intacct also offers advanced CRM integration for not-for-profits to Salesforce and Salesforce NPSP. With this integration, you can connect finance, sales, and revenue data from the initial transaction through reporting, forecasting, and billing, eliminating duplicate entry and inaccuracies.

Add value throughout the organization with new insights

After the full organization is armed with real-time financial data and new outcome metrics, it becomes easier for the finance and development teams to work together to add value. With the ability to make more informed decisions and a single version of financial truth, not-for-profit organizations can discover opportunities to make a bigger mission impact.

These opportunities come in different forms such as savings through efficiency gains or the insight to relocate funds toward a better purpose. Here are just a few of the ways Sage Intacct not-for-profit software has helped organizations discover opportunities and do more for their missions: 

• Improved planning and budgeting 
• Managed growth without adding headcount 
• Lowered cost of audits 
• Increased accountability through better expense tracking 

In Closing

Having high degrees of collaboration and communication between finance and development/fundraising in not-for-profit organizations can unlock efficiency and open new opportunities to advance the mission. Cloud financial management and integrated not-for-profit software allows teams to improve collaboration, share data and increase accountability for better transparency and stewardship to your donors.