<![CDATA[Clear Impact financial

<![CDATA[Clear Impact financial - Blog]]>Sun, 23 Jul 2023 12:19:24 -0500Weebly<![CDATA[5 Technology Platforms For Nonprofits That Are Low Cost or FREE]]>Fri, 31 Mar 2017 01:11:49 GMThttp://www.clearimpactfinancial.com/blog/5-nonprofit-technology-platforms-that-are-low-cost-or-freeFREE. That word is magic to many people in the nonprofit world.

I am happy to share with you a few of my current free and low cost technology platforms that make running a nonprofit a little easier!

1. TechSoup

If you haven’t registered for a Techsoup account yet, open a new window in your browser and get that done. Then come back to me and finish reading this article. TechSoup is a nonprofit that offers technology solutions and other must have resources at a discounted price to other nonprofits. Why pay full price when you can access lots of great digital platforms at a lower price? www.techsoup.org

2. Google Apps for Nonprofits (G-Suite)

Free email, easy user management, Google drive storage and all the other great applications that come with G-Suite…and you can access it anywhere. This will also require a TechSoup account. There are a few steps to complete to verify you own your domain name and then you can set up your email addresses. I’ve set up quite a few of these, and even when faced with domain verification challenges, tech support at Google has been fantastic at helping out. Never pay for email hosting again! https://www.google.com/nonprofits/products/apps-for-nonprofits.html

3. Doodle

Nothing drives me crazier than multiple email chains back and forth with a group of people just to schedule a meeting. Doodle solves this problem. This online scheduling tool can be used quickly and easily to find a date and time to meet with multiple people. First you suggest dates and times for your event participants to choose from, then Doodle creates a polling calendar that can be sent to participants for feedback. Once everyone has responded, you can pick the day and time that worked best for everyone and send out your calendar invite. The free version has some ad placement, but nothing too obtrusive. www.doodle.com

4. SignUpGenius

Their slogan is ‘Group Organizing Made Easy’ and boy are they right. The platform uses a simple wizard to create your sign up forms which can include number of spots, descriptions, time slots, who they report to, etc. Then add email addresses or share the link with your volunteers so they can sign up to help. Manage events, volunteers, and other activities easily with this platform. The free version has lots of features, but if you need expanded reporting, no advertising and additional tools, they have 3 paid tiers ranging from $9.99/mo - $49.99/mo. www.signupgenius.com

5. Quickbooks Online Plus & Premier Desktop

Intuit offers a limited number of nonprofit licenses through the TechSoup website. Currently you can purchase an annual subscription to Quickbooks Online for $50.00/year. Premier desktop licenses are also available at a discounted price. I specialize in the Quickbooks platform and find it to be a great accounting tool for many nonprofits. http://www.techsoup.org/intuit

Technology is always changing and making decisions about what application is best for your organization can be overwhelming. Test driving a platform first is always preferable. Fortunately for consumers, the competitive environment that these tech companies have to operate in usually results in free trials or even basic versions of their products being offered at little to no cost. Many of these companies want to also do some good in the world, so ask about a non profit discount if you don't see it in their pricing.

]]><![CDATA[Make Grant Expense Reporting Simple With 3 QBO Features]]>Tue, 21 Mar 2017 16:37:42 GMThttp://www.clearimpactfinancial.com/blog/make-grant-expense-reporting-simple-with-3-qbo-featuresSo much goes into the process of getting a grant. There’s researching opportunities, drafting the letter of intent, moving on to the writing of the full proposal, developing budgets, getting all that work to the potential funder and so much more. You get the drift. It is a TON of work.

…and after you’ve waited those long, agonizing months, you finally found out you are getting the grant! Congratulations, now you have more work ahead of you.

Most funders require interim or final reports that not only include some narrative around your activities and outcomes, but they want to see how you spent their money. This is where implementing good bookkeeping practices from the beginning will come in very handy. I’m going to show you how you can manage your budget and track expenses for grants using 3 tools within QBO: Budgets, Class Tracking and Customer Tracking.

Budgets. One of the beautiful things about Quickbooks Online (QBO) is the ability to have multiple budgets in a single fiscal year. Entering your budgets into QBO is the first step in making the reporting process manageable. This will allow you to run Budget vs. Actual reports as you move through the grant period to see how on track you were with your estimates and real time expenditures.

Class Lists. Think of the class list as a way to track your 3 different buckets you need to allocate to: Administration, Fundraising and Programs. If you are writing the grant for a specific program you may even want to have that program listed separately in the class list. Now, whenever you receive income or spend money that is for that program, you will tag it as such in the drop down box at the end of the transaction line.

Customer (Donor) Tracking. Finally, use the customer (donor) section on the expense transaction lines. By tagging the name of the customer in this line you can then run a profit and loss report and filter it by ‘customer’ (or donor if you changed the naming rules in QBO set up).

Sub-Customer (Donor) Tracking. Let’s say you have a single foundation that gives you multiple grants in a year or even the course of multiple years. For this example we are going to call it the Do Good Foundation. Do Good Foundation gives you 2 grants in the current year. You want to track the expenses for those 2 grants separately. First, add the Do Good Foundation as a customer. Next, create a new customer and in the display name section title it with the name of the grant with the year: DGF Operating Grant FY2017. Then, on the right side of the customer box, check ‘Sub-Client’ and select Do Good Foundation from the list. Now you’ve create a sub-account under Do Good Foundation for that grant. When you go to enter your expenses, you will select the sub-customer account, DGF Operating Grant FY2017, that it correlates to.

Now you can run Profit & Loss and Budget vs. Actual reports that can be filtered by class and customer to give you exactly the information you need to generate beautiful and accurate reports for your grantors. Effectively reporting on how your grant money had an impact on your mission is more likely to get you future grant awards!

]]><![CDATA[3 Financial Statements That Will Show You The Past, The Present and The Future]]>Fri, 24 Feb 2017 02:23:51 GMThttp://www.clearimpactfinancial.com/blog/3-financial-statements-that-will-show-you-the-past-the-present-and-the-futureWhen was the last time you heard a board member say this?

“One of the most exciting things for me to do is to analyze financial reports.”

Probably not very often, unless that board member is a bookkeeper or CPA. I’m not saying that everyone needs to LOVE pouring over the fine details of the organization’s finances, but I do believe if you know what to look for and how to read them, you will see how your finances tell an important story and will make you a more effective board member.

Your financial statements tell a story that will ultimately guide your organization in making important decisions. There are three key financial reports that will help you understand the past, the present and the future.

Think of this as your check register, broken down by categories that you’ve pre-determined, for a specific range of time that has past. It tells the story of where your money came from and what you spent it on.

If you are like many board members I’ve worked with, you might be focusing on the wrong part of this report. The number one problem I see is when board members focus on the expense line items and pick them apart, while totally ignoring the revenue side. I believe this comes when people internalize organizational finances with their own. Think about when you look at your monthly income and expenses. Do you focus on how much money you made that month or do you look at how much you spent on eating out and think "wow, I have to watch my spending". The same thing happens in the board meeting. I have witnessed 30 minute conversations revolve around a $500 office expense (that you can’t do anything about because it’s in the past) instead of focusing on evaluating the revenue and making sure the sources are diversified. This isn’t to say looking at the expense line items isn’t important, but it’s not something to get hung up on. Once your board understands the significance of looking into the past and has the context to evaluate the numbers, they will stop wasting time on insignificant expense line items.

The balance sheet is a snapshot of your organization’s financial position at a specific point in time. It shows what you own and what you owe in that exact moment. It tells the story of how healthy your organization is at that moment.

When you look at either side of the balance sheet, understand that no single number tells a story by itself. For example, if you see that you have $10,000 in the bank you may think that is a lot of money, but if you look at the other side and see that you owe $50,000, that might not seem so great anymore. Likewise, in this same scenario you might also have $100,000 in outstanding accounts receivables (money people owe you). With this additional information it puts what might appear as a dire situation into better perspective. Now you can start having important conversations, such as ‘do we need to change our credit policy to receive payments faster’, or ‘do we need to have a line of credit’.

Ah, the budget….that report that you run a week before the end of your fiscal year that is basically a duplicate of what you brought in and spent the prior year. You know, the one your board just rubber stamps and then moves one to the next agenda item. Yes, that actually happens. Don't let it happen in your organization!

I believe this is the most important financial document you will draft, and one that will go through some heavy analysis and multiple revisions before even making it to your board for a final vote. The budget tells the story of your future. What impact do you want to have with your programs? Do you have an aggressive fundraising goal compared to the prior year? Are you looking to bring in new revenue streams? This will all be seen through the numbers in your budget. It’s not uncommon for budget preparation to start 6 months out from the new fiscal year. I recommend drafting a budget calendar to help keep your organization on track. Email me HERE if you want a template you can use.

Why is this all so important?

Board members have a fiduciary responsibility to be prudent in decision making. A fiduciary is someone acting on the behalf of another based on an expectation of trust. Trust that the work has been done to have a certain level of financial literacy and context in making decisions. When you listen to the stories your financial statements tell you, it will position you to be a more effective and engaged board member.

]]><![CDATA[Why You Should Judge Me For Cleaning My Range Vents]]>Sun, 05 Feb 2017 06:00:00 GMThttp://www.clearimpactfinancial.com/blog/why-you-should-judge-me-for-cleaning-my-range-ventsI cook A LOT. Cooking as much as I do means that grease eventually accumulates on every surface of my kitchen. That being said, I’m pretty good about keeping my house clean. I wipe down surfaces frequently and enlist my children to do their fair share of keeping up with daily housekeeping.

But then this morning I looked at the vents on my over-the-range microwave. I wish I had taken a before picture to show you how gross they were, but it didn’t hit me until after I finished cleaning them. So here is something to give you the idea of what they looked like.

Photo courtesy of www.serenabakesimplyfromscratch.com

Once you are done reading this post, you can head on over to Serena’s blog and learn how to clean yours as well! http://bit.ly/cleanyourvents101

The reason I didn’t take a picture was because I didn’t realize what I was doing at the time. You may be thinking, of course you knew what you were doing, you were cleaning.

But I wasn’t cleaning and this is why you should be totally judging me.

I wasn’t cleaning, I was procrastinating.

See, that morning I had blocked time to finish a project for work. It was the type of project where I wasn’t overly excited to work on it and I was feeling a little stuck. I walked into my kitchen to refill my cup of coffee and then I saw them. The greasy vents. I immediately took them apart and started scrubbing vigorously. I was determined to get them shiny and new looking.

I think I did a pretty good job!

I intentionally blocked time to finish this project and I let myself get distracted by something that didn’t have to happen at that very moment and was inconsequential to my daily life.
We all do this at some point in our day, our week or maybe you are doing it RIGHT NOW!

The bottom line is I’m not going to beat myself up over it. I recognized what I was doing and went back to my desk to finish the project. It's okay if this happens to you every once in awhile, because once you start adding intentional actions into your life, these moments are easier to recognize so you can move on. We all need a little distraction once in awhile.

I'd love to hear all the random and crazy things you've done to procrastinate. Feel free to share them in the comments below!

]]><![CDATA[What Is So Special About The 3rd Week Of The Month]]>Fri, 03 Feb 2017 04:01:10 GMThttp://www.clearimpactfinancial.com/blog/what-is-so-special-about-the-3rd-week-of-the-month

As a financial professional, the first day of every month is pretty crazy. This is because the last month’s bank statement is most likely available for me to start working on my month end closing activities. My day is spent completing bank reconciliations, auditing transactions and drafting financial statements.

Now, you might be wondering why I want to talk to you about the 3rd week of the month.

Because it's the best week to plan your nonprofit board meetings from a financial reporting perspective.

Here’s the deal, most nonprofits like to report activity and their financial position based on the close of the last month. That day is most likely to fall in the first week of the month. In the year 2017, that will happen 10 times out of 12. So depending on what day of the week you have the meeting, your financial professional will be hard pressed to get your month closed and financials in your board’s hands on time. So what do most boards do? They either report a month in arrears (to the last reconciled month end) or use the financials as of the date they run the report and don’t give a second thought to the fact they may be incomplete, hoping to catch any additional transactions in the next month’s meeting.

You may be wondering why don’t you just hold your meeting during the 2nd week of the month. This is because if you use a consent agenda, I recommend you send your board packet out to members 4 days in advance of the meeting.

Now if you just said to yourself, what is a consent agenda, click HERE to learn more.

Certain financial reports and the last meetings minutes are typical to include in a consent agenda. Even if you aren’t using a consent agenda format, I highly recommend you still get board packets out at a minimum of 2 days in advance so your board members can come to the meeting prepared to work.

Just how effective will a board member be if they are reading the documents the moment they sit down for the meeting? And do you really want them reading financial statements and minutes during a meeting as opposed to listening and engaging in board work?

When does your board normally hold meetings? Share in the comments below!

]]><![CDATA[How To Use Your Accounting Platform As A Donor Management Tool]]>Mon, 30 Jan 2017 03:01:57 GMThttp://www.clearimpactfinancial.com/blog/how-to-use-your-accounting-platform-as-a-donor-management-tool

Donor management or client relationship management, best known as CRM, is something you need to know about. (I promise to never use an acronym in a post without first saying what it is. I can’t tell you how annoying that is when people assume you know what it stands for!)

CRM is quite the buzzword, err, buzz acronym. Rightfully so. It is this magical concept of practices and strategies used to manage and analyze your donor data throughout the relationship, with the goal of using that data to raise more money, be more effective and execute your mission. To many small nonprofit organizations, it really does seem magical, because it’s hard to harness and implement effectively when you have very little money to spend on administration and fundraising.

I’m going to share with you some tips on how to use your accounting platform to start collecting and storing critical donor data until you can budget time and money for a donor CRM platform.

There are quite a few accounting platforms out there, but at the core of most of the products available, you should find these 4 basic functions that will allow you to use your accounting platform as a donor management tool.

1. Enter all your donations as Invoices or Receipts. I’ve worked with many nonprofits that batch entry their donations as a deposit transaction to the corresponding revenue account instead of first creating an invoice or sales receipt and then creating a deposit record. By selecting your donor and creating a new invoice or receipt transaction, you can now run customer reports that give you valuable insights on donations and other revenue activity.

2. Use the Notes section in your Customer List. While this may not be a reportable field in most accounting platforms, it’s better than nothing! Every time you send a note, make a call or have a meeting, be sure to update the notes section so you have a record of your interactions. When you do finally set up a CRM platform, you’ll have the information to migrate to the new system. Some accounting platforms, like Quickbooks Desktop, even have ‘To-Do’ sections that you can use to track activity.

3. Set Up Product/Service Items. This is where you can track campaign information and ultimately run reports that can show you how diversified your revenue streams are. For example, if you have a Spring Fundraising Gala where you sell event tickets, raffle tickets, auction items, etc. you can enter them individually as service items and nest those separate revenue generators under a master category called Spring Fundraising Gala. Now, when you run a report you’ll be able to see quantities, amounts and donors for each of those product/service items. When you set these items up you will map them to specific revenue accounts in your chart of accounts.

4. Take advantage of internal email and mail merge functionality. Most accounting platforms have the option to email anyone in the customer list or export information for a mail merge. The email option is my favorite because it’s fast and free. I encourage you to take the time to customize your client facing templates for receipts and invoices so that you are making a good impression when interacting with them. You should also be customizing the email message that accompanies the receipt or invoice.

These are a few easy steps you can put into your accounting processes that will help you in your quest to build relationships with your donors and understand where your revenue comes from. When it comes time to implement a donor CRM system, you will have the data at your fingertips to take your development efforts to the next level.

I love to hear what accounting platforms different organizations use. Take the short poll below and get entered for a chance to win 1 hour of basic bookkeeping coaching for FREE.

]]><![CDATA[5 Ways To Strengthen Internal Controls At Your Nonprofit]]>Wed, 25 Jan 2017 04:19:19 GMThttp://www.clearimpactfinancial.com/blog/5-ways-to-strengthen-internal-controls-at-your-nonprofitWe live in a world where things move fast and wearing multiple hats is a reality for many small nonprofit volunteers and staff members. In the mix of executing your mission, internal controls may get overlooked. And who can blame you? When faced with working on programs or doing mundane tasks related to risk management, it can be far more gratifying to serve food to the homeless rather than evaluate policies and procedures.

Here’s the harsh reality though, it will eventually catch up with you and affect your ability to do the gratifying mission based work.

Nonprofits are held to a different standard than for profit businesses because they are stewards of gifts. The occurrence of fraud or even the appearance of fraud can cripple the ability to fundraise and significantly affect your relationship with donors.

Risk management can be approached in many ways. It’s important to consider your organization’s unique environment and risk tolerance.

Here are five low cost ways to get your organization started:

Set a strong internal tone. It should start with your leadership and trickle through every person in the organization. The actions and attitudes by people in your organization will set the tone for how others think and act in their day to day tasks.

Leadership needs to be engaged. Staff and board members should be aware of tensions, pressures or incentives that could compromise decision making and the authenticity of your organization’s financial records. Board members should be asking questions, reviewing board documents thoroughly and avoid ‘rubber stamping’ decisions.

Establish a whistle-blower policy. Have a formal process by which people can report concerns in a discreet and safe manner. This policy should be documented and incorporated into new employee or board member orientations.

Build a culture of open communication. Trust can be established among individuals in your organization when you take the time to explain the ‘how’ and the ‘why’ in your processes. This can be especially important when establishing controls and processes that are new to the organization. Employees or volunteers may question motives or feel they are being the target of distrust when there is a shift in policy or procedures. Explain the business rationale and have an open conversation to avoid an internal power struggle.

Enforce policies consistently. This helps ensure fairness and diligence across the organization. Being consistent also set expectations and supports that strong internal tone that should resonate throughout the organization. In the nonprofit world this can be challenging when working with volunteers or interacting with donors. Being mindful that favoritism, cutting corners or looking the other way in an effort to appease those supporters can increase your risks.

Interested in learning more about what your organization can do to increase internal controls?

Email me now for your free Controller Tool Kit for Nonprofit Entitie s!

]]><![CDATA[What Should You Be Using...Credit Cards or Debit Cards?]]>Tue, 24 Jan 2017 03:09:23 GMThttp://www.clearimpactfinancial.com/blog/what-should-you-be-usingcredit-cards-or-debit-cards

So much of what we do is now online, including bill payments and purchases. Unfortunately, with that increased online activity comes with it increased risk in having your financial information comprised. Recently I’ve had a few of nonprofit clients ask me if they should get a credit card for their organization or if they should just use the debit card linked to their bank account. Before I go into best practices, lets summarize the differences.

	Credit Card	Debit Card
Connection	No need to connect the card to an existing bank account	Must connect the card to an existing bank account
Monthly Bill	Monthly bill	No monthly bill
Spending Limits	Set by your approved credit line	Set by the amount of money in your account plus any overdraft protection you may have
Associated Fees	Some have annual fees plus any interest charges that may accrue	No fees unless your bank allows you to overspend the deposited balance and then you may incur overdraft fees
Security	Security is poor but has been getting more stringent with the introduction of chip cards	A PIN helps with security, but it still may be used as a credit card unless you have been issued an ATM card, which is different than a debit card
Fraud Liability	Low liability. Many issuers will not hold you liable for any fraudulent charges and if they do it is capped at $50 per card	Higher liability. The money is removed from your account at the time of the transaction and you may have to wait for your bank to finish an investigation before recovering losses

The important takeaway from these differences is the fraud liability component. In the event you are using a debit card and it is compromised, your organization is at a higher risk of losses. When someone steals your debit card they have immediate access to the funds in your account. It can take up to 10 days for the bank to investigate the fraud and return your money. Even worse, if it takes you more than 48 hours to notice and report the fraud, you might be liable for as much as $500.00.

When someone steals your credit card, they have immediate access to your line of credit. The funds in your actual bank accounts are separate and under the federal consumer protection law, you can never be liable for more than $50 of fraudulent activity on a credit card.

Another issue that organization may face with the use of debit cards is “blocking”. This is where a merchant will block a card in advance for the estimated cost of the transaction even though the charge might not be completed for several days. If you are close to your account limit, you could end up having transactions refused or checks bouncing.

If your organization needs to make online purchases and applies for a credit card, you can always keep limits low and balances can be paid on time so as not to incur fees. Here is a great resource from the Federal Trade Commission with more Debit Card and ATM facts and how to protect yourself.

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0213-lost-or-stolen-credit-atm-and-debit-cards

]]><![CDATA[Have You Been Reporting Raffle Prize Payments Incorrectly?]]>Mon, 23 Jan 2017 04:02:01 GMThttp://www.clearimpactfinancial.com/blog/have-you-been-reporting-raffle-prize-payments-incorrectlyRaffles are one of the most common fundraising tools used by nonprofits. Whether they are part of a larger fundraising event or by themselves, raffles are typically easy to run, a great way to spread the word about your organization and most supporters will play a game of chance for a good cause they support.

I purchased a $10 raffle ticket from a local nonprofit for a chance to win a cash prize. 1 winner would be drawn to win $6,000 and a 2nd winner would be drawn to win $1,000. I felt good about supporting the organization and of course I would have been super excited to win a sizable cash prize. While I did not have the luck of winning, I did sit at the same table as Jack, the grand prize winner. It’s amazing how contagious that winning feeling is just by sitting next to someone that won $6,000.

So if your organization was hosting this raffle, would you know to issue a tax form to the winners? I’ve worked with nonprofits that never consulted their accounting/tax professional or referenced the IRS publications, and mistakenly issued a 1099 to the winner. It’s not an uncommon error since the 1099 forms are the most common tax forms to report payments over $600 for a variety of reasons, one of which is in Box 3 or Box 7 for prizes and awards.

The difference here is that a wager was made. If a wager is made, the winnings are reported on Form W-2G and in some instances the nonprofit may need to withhold taxes.

So let’s look at what conditions need to exist in order for your nonprofit to report the payout.

The amount paid to the winner is $600 or more, reduced by the amount paid for the wager, and
The payout is at least 300 times the amount of the wager

Jack paid $10 for the raffle ticket and won $6,000. This is a winning of over $600 and 600 times the wager. So the nonprofit needed to file a Form W-2G with the IRS and give a copy to Jack.

But wait, there’s more the IRS needs you to do…

There is an additional condition where the nonprofit must withhold tax if the winnings are more than $5,000. Failure to do so before distributing the prize makes the nonprofit liable for the withholding tax. In the case of the 2nd place winner who got $1,000, no reporting is necessary even though it was over $600 because the payout was only 100 times the wager. Keep in mind that when dealing with non-cash prizes or shared winnings, there are other conditions and guidelines that go into determining filing and withholding requirements. You can reference the IRS publication on this topic here.

Many nonprofits are full of passion but strapped for resources. Unfortunately, this sometimes means the finer details in tax compliance or accounting gets lost in the focus of fundraising and executing your mission. Even the easiest of fundraisers require a high level of diligence to make sure you are in compliance with state and federal laws.

Question: Has your organization ever hosted a raffle fundraiser? If so, what was the best or biggest prize you ever awarded? Share your comments below!

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