Financial automation for non-profits
Automation is not a new concept and has been a buzzword commonly heard in recent years. During the past year especially, organizations have been forced to accelerate their use of digital technology. Operations that adopted these technologies out of necessity now have a chance to revisit how processes are being executed and see whether technology could bring further improvements in efficiency and accurate reporting.
There are three areas where non-profits can automate their financial processes to see rapid benefits through enhanced efficiency and easing burdens on their staff.
Accounts payable automation: The pandemic increased the need for accounts payable automation due to manual, in-office processes being impossible in a remote work environment. Unless your people and processes are very closely monitored, switching from a manual system to an automated system can increase inaccuracies. One such issue is establishing processes for functions like setting up new vendors and how to name them. Software solutions with systems already in place, such as assigning vendor numbers and invoice numbers reduce the likelihood of human error.
Internal controls: Good internal controls dictate that one person should have access to everything. You need to segregate duties in areas like invoice and payment approvals. Wi the right set-up, our team can set up multiple levels of approvals based on the amount of the payment, the different numbers of approvers and their responsibilities, and automate the routing to collect electronic signatures.
Allocations: Non-profit organizations almost always need to spread expenditures across different programs and grants. Performing these transactions in-house can be complicated or can require correcting journal entries that can be easily automated. This is useful when you have unique types of entries that leave your staff trying to recall how the allocation was entered the previous time.
Our team can show you how to produce quick wins for your organization through automating the areas of purchasing and expense management, all in tandem with your own team.