RSMUS.comA recent survey highlights why reporting matters more important than ever for nonprofits of all shapes and sizes.
The survey asked hundreds of nonprofit professionals about their successes, challenges, and outlook. Among the key findings was that around 2/3 of all nonprofits struggle with inconsistent access to data that would be useful for fundraising and storytelling, which is another way of saying they struggle with reporting. The reasons cited why range from the amount of time it takes, the disorganization of the data, or the struggle to get actionable insights.
Another insight to emerge from the survey is that donor-related challenges are the single biggest obstacle for nonprofits. Funders are feeling fatigued and disengaged, making it hard to retain donors or promote recurring giving. Conditions like these make it essential for nonprofits to plan and strategize carefully, which all starts with reporting done to analyze and understand the state of affairs. Unfortunately, as the survey also reveals, getting insightful and actionable reports in a timely manner is a recurring challenge.
Sage Intaact, a cloud-based financial management platform for organizations with growing and maturing accounting requirements, offers nonprofits the reporting tools they need so badly right now. Not only are those tools extensive and tailored to the needs of nonprofits—they’re also designed to be user-friendly and immediately accessible out of the box. With Sage Intacct, powerful reporting has never been easier, and neither has making data-driven decisions that steer the nonprofit in the best direction possible.
Reports Built Specifically for Nonprofits
Sage Intacct, like lots of modern accounting solutions, comes with pre-built reporting templates. What sets Sage Intacct apart is that those templates are built around the reporting needs of nonprofits specifically. These organizations don’t have to tweak or make do with generalized reports because they have a deep library of templates to report on what matters to nonprofits, including but not limited to:
- Balance Sheets
- 990 Statement
- Functional Expense Reports
- Cash Analysis
- Statement of Activities
- Budgets vs. Actuals
Anything that nonprofits could conceivably want to report on likely has a suitable pre-built template in Sage Intacct. And when there isn’t something suitable, report categories can be repurposed and renamed to fit the nonprofit’s processes and goals.
It’s a simple affair to link the report templates to the chart of accounts. Once that link is in place, people can create reports almost effortlessly and review them immediately. Reporting becomes as easy as requesting the finished document.
Dashboards Built Specifically for Nonprofits
In addition to 30+ pre-built reporting templates, Sage Intacct comes with 5 dashboards ready to use on day one. Dashboards are like real-time reports. They collect metrics, indicators, and visualizations in one place, then update them in real time whenever new data enters Sage Intacct. Dashboards keep decision-makers focused on the numbers that matter most and provide an up-to-the-minute snapshot of nonprofit performance.
Similar to how Sage Intacct approaches reporting, the dashboards are both tailored to the unique interests of nonprofits and designed to utilize immediately. The accessibility is matched by the flexibility, however, since users can pick and choose the data points they want to include in their dashboards and customize how that information gets displayed. The options are endless.
Solutions Built Specifically for Nonprofits
The need for stronger tools to access, analyze, and share data is part of a bigger trend: Today’s nonprofits need technology to run everything they do and data to back every decision they make. Furthermore, as much of that technology and data as possible needs to live on the same platform to facilitate things like on-demand reporting but also so much more.
As nonprofits embrace technology like never before—and seek solutions from it with increasing urgency—it helps to have a digital partner to help select, implement, and optimize the missing pieces. RSM has been a partner to countless nonprofits. To learn more about Sage Intacct and the many other solutions we can offer or engineer, contact us.
