Nonprofit Financial Management – Page 5

Using Project Management Systems for Better Nonprofit Financial Management

What do project managers and accountants have in common? Both professions seek to minimize and manage risk. Although the two at first do not seem to have much in common, it is this commonality that makes project management a great field to study for hints on how to improve nonprofit financial management. Accounting for nonprofits can be improved by using the terminology, processes, and systems developed by the world of project management.

Partnering with Project Management

Good project managers know that every project begins with fact-finding and the creation of a project document, called the project charter, that provides the scope of the project with goals, milestones, and action steps. Accountants can take this concept even further.

Accountants understand the scope and flow of information within a company. Although they may not create the project charter, they can review it when created by other team members to ensure that nothing is missed. By collaborating with the project management team, they can act as support for the project rather than gatekeepers to the budget. It’s a subtle shift in roles that can make them more of a partner than an adversary within an organization

Managing Project Risk

Every project carries with it some risk. Accountants dislike risk even more than project managers! To mitigate project risk, you can take several steps.

Remain involved in the project. Although you may feel as if you can delegate the project to others and provide only cursory feedback, it is best to remain actively involved in any projects. Watching and monitoring the work as it unfolds and progresses allows you to step in with advice and guidance as needed. As the project unfolds, your assistance may be invaluable.
Ask questions like an auditor. Auditors look at each area and ask probing questions to uncover gaps that need to be fixed. You can work with stakeholders to uncover gaps, problem areas, and untapped resources within a project. Think like an auditor and ask insightful questions.
Adjust for pressure points. Like a load bearing wall, there are going to be some people in the project management team who bear most of the load, especially around delivery time. Adjust around their schedules to free time for the project needs. Work with the project management team to apportion resources and prioritize around major tasks.

By staying close to the project from start to finish, you’ll have your finger on the pulse of the work and can offer advice and make adjustments to the project schedule as needed.

What About Scope Creep?

Nearly every project suffers from scope creep, that uncomfortable feeling that more tasks than originally anticipated are being piled onto the original scope of work. Some level of scope creep is inevitable, if undesirable. Changes may occur because new information comes to light, vendors have altered requirements, and other unexpected problems arise.

But other types of scope creep include the human element, or stakeholders piling work onto the project. If that’s the case, then accounting can act as the team member who validates and allows the request to go forward or pushes it to another project. As the person in charge of nonprofit financial management, you have a good sense of whether tasks might be requirements for the project or whether someone is padding it to help get work done. In that case, you know what to do…

Risk Assessment Post-Project

After the project is complete, an accountant’s job isn’t finished. Assessing post-project risk is another area where accountants can use their unique skills to contribute to the project.

Management may require a report on the project’s completion, budget, and open items. Nonprofit financial managers can lead and guide this effort to help uncover any areas left to complete and how these are best delegated.

The world of nonprofit financial management continues to grow and evolve. No longer limited to spreadsheets, audits, and taxes, the nonprofit accountant is an integral part of the leadership team. Project management skills can be learned and shared with groups to add value from an accountant’s perspective.

Nonprofit Accounting with Beck & Company

Beck & Company is a Washington D.C. area nonprofit accounting firm with a team of expert auditors, accountants, and advisors available to help nonprofits of all sizes. We provide a variety of consulting, auditing, and accounting services and blend knowledge from the accounting and nonprofit worlds to help you improve operations and efficiency. For more information, please contact us at 703-834-0776 x 8001.

The Urgency of Preventing Cyberattacks Hits Nonprofit Financial Management

The urgency of preventing cyberattacks is being felt at nonprofit financial management meetings nationwide. Since the latest string of viruses including Wanna Cry, which hit government agencies and nonprofits in the U.K. and to a lesser extent in the United States, causing millions of dollars in damages and lost work, nonprofits are taking another look at their cybersecurity preparedness.

It’s not a question anymore of “if” an attack will happen, but “when” – and to some extent, what kind. If you think we’re being alarmist, consider this. In 2014, approximately 40% of corporate directors discussed cyberattacks at their board meetings. Today, that figure jumped to 90%. Closing loopholes that keep your organization open to cyber attacks and taking measures now to prevent them is an important step in nonprofit financial management. And that discussion starts at the top of the organization with executive stakeholders, nonprofit boards, and others leading the nonprofit financial management teams.

Risks of Cyberattack: What Is at Stake?

If you haven’t dealt with a bad virus or attack you may not be aware of how much disruption it can cause throughout the organization. Some examples of the ramifications of a cyberattack include:

Extortion: Extortion is an ugly word but it accurately describes the FBI or Wanna Cry viruses that infected nonprofit organizations, for-profit organizations and to some extent with the FBI virus personal computers as well. These viruses encrypt data on infected machines so that users cannot move beyond the equivalent of a digital ransom note. Either pay up or face locked and useless data. While some systems can be cleaned after infection, computers may never fully recover.
Expenses: The expenses of a cyberattack can be astronomical. Consider how many consultants, freelancers, and temps you may need to hire to clean out an infected network. Data backups may need to be restored and everything cleaned, checked, and checked again. The average cost of recover from a cyberattack is $4 million – regardless of organization size.
Lost productivity: While the network and hardware are being restored, valuable time is wasted. Cyberattacks account for a great deal of lost productivity annually and nonprofit organizations are not immune.
Loss of intellectual property: Thefts can take up to 100 days or more to be noticed. If hackers make off with confidential data, plans, and financial information, your organization could face significant damages from loss of intellectual property.
Public relations nightmare: News of a cyberattack can be a public relations nightmare. You will have to conduct damage control PR and counteracts negative publicity. This is the time that could be better spent promoting your organization’s mission and more.
Lost trust: Unfortunately, when news of a cyberattack breaks, there is a sense of lost trust in the affected organization even if they did everything right and nothing wrong. People may be afraid to visit your website, make donations online, or share information with you if it is stolen.

Nonprofit financial management includes making your Board of Directors aware of the potential risks of a cyberattack. Only after understanding such risks can they review the information presented to them to prevent such problems and make sound decisions.

Steps to Take

Nonprofit financial management leaders should take every precaution when dealing with potential cyberattacks. By learning all you can about the dangers and the steps to take to prevent them, you can then share this information with your Board and other leaders to take preventative measures.

Steps you can take to prepare for discussions around potential cyberattacks include:

Taking an inventory of all software and systems, along with associated risks factors for each system such as access levels, password protection, etc.
Formulate a response plan now so that team members know what to do in the event of a cyberattack.
Purchase cyberattack While not preventing an attack per se, it can cover damages and losses so that your organization doesn’t suffer serious financial hardships from a cyberattack.
Hire a good consultant in the event you need extra help with an attack. A nonprofit financial management firm such as Beck & Company can be your backup plan to help you cope with potential attacks, conduct risk inventories, and create response plans.

Just as you cannot prevent every virus (like the common cold) from infecting you personally, you may not be able to prevent every instance of a computer virus from affecting your nonprofit organization. But just as you can wash your hands, get plenty of rest and avoid contagion from people already sick with the cold or the flu, you can also take important steps to prevent infection of your computers from occurring. Make cyberattack awareness, prevention, and recovery a priority this year.

Nonprofit Financial Management and Consulting from Beck & Company

If you need help planning, preventing, and formulating a response to cyberattacks, Beck & Company can help. We are Washington DC area nonprofit advisors and are Virginia certified nonprofit accountants. We work with nonprofits of all sizes serving many different constituents nationwide, providing a variety of consulting, auditing, and accounting services. For more information, please contact us at 703-834-0776 x 8001.

Smart Nonprofit Financial Management: Job Flexibility as a Retention Tool

Improving retention rates and lowering turnover is a necessary consideration as part of nonprofit financial management. The biggest issue for a nonprofit human resources manager is employee turnover. According to a survey from Nonprofit HR, total turnover percent is around 19%. This is high compared to the national average of 11%.

The hiring process takes time and costs, on average, $4,129 per employee. Consider all the good work that your nonprofit organization does; how much could it do with that $4,129 back in its operating budget?

There are several things that your organization can do to reduce turnover and improve retention. Some of these actions do not cost much in terms of cash outlay but offer high value to your employees. They can help you both attract and retain top talent. Among the things you can do is offer job flexibility to your employees.

The Attractiveness of Job Flexibility

The average worker today has more responsibilities than ever before. Both men and women may share childcare responsibilities while juggling elder care needs for aging parents. They may be pursuing advanced degrees or completing college degrees after hours, juggling co-parenting duties with former spouses, and maintaining a household for their children and current spouse. Lifestyles have changed, and with these changes comes ever-increasing demands on workers’ time.

That’s why flex-time is so appealing. Job flexibility offers a benefit that, to some, may be even more attractive than money. It’s difficult for families today to work around school and employment schedules. Having options already worked out in advance with an employer gives workers peace of mind. They know that if the school nurse calls and says that a child is running a fever and needs to leave school they can leave without a fuss and take care of their family first. Such arrangements boost loyalty to your nonprofit organization and help keep employees long-term.

Job Flexibility Options

There are many ways in which an organization can offer job flexibility. These include:

Flex-time: Let workers adjust their hours to meet family needs, medical appointments, or other obligations. Approximately 96% of the largest for-profit firms in the nation offer flex-time, and it’s a growing trend. If you compete with for-profit entities for talent, this may be a simple way to make your benefits package as attractive as theirs to potential employees.
Reduced hours: If your nonprofit organization has seasonal peaks and valleys in its work, consider allowing reduced hours during the ‘valley’ demand periods. When demand for services drops, consider allowing people more time off, shorter working hours, or other perks.
Telecommuting: With the amount of free technology and cloud-based systems available today, it’s surprising that more nonprofits aren’t embracing telecommuting as a job flexibility option. Telecommuting is a very attractive job option for some nonprofit organizations. While not every job can be a telecommuting job, positions in the operations, accounting, finance, membership services and other departments may be able to accommodate telecommuting.

Cloud Technology and Job Flexibility

It’s worth mentioning again how cloud technology facilitates job flexibility. Cloud technology is accessed via the internet, so any device – tablet, desktop, smartphone, laptop – can be used to access important software needed for work.

Communication services that include messenger apps, email, instant messaging, video and audio conferences can make it easy to telecommute. Employees can attend meetings, share files, and ask quick questions via their computers. Virtual offices are becoming more the norm, so people outside of your organization will likely take the dog barking, doorbell ringing, or other ambient noises during calls in stride.

New Recruiting Tools Boost Nonprofit Financial Management

These and other recruiting tools can help your nonprofit financial management by reducing the high cost of employee turnover. When employees leave, you lose more than the $4,129 previously mentioned. You lose precious time – time spent posting job notices, reviewing resumes, and interviewing candidates. You also lose a great deal of organizational knowledge and momentum as new employees must learn the organization’s culture and methodology as well as their job requirements. Embracing job flexibility can be of enormous help to the problem of nonprofit turnover.

Beck & Company

Beck & Company are Washington DC nonprofit advisors. We also are Virginia certified nonprofit accountants. We work with nonprofits of all sizes serving many different constituents nationwide, providing a variety of consulting, auditing, and accounting services. For more information, please contact us at 703-834-0776 x8001.

Mentoring Helps Executives with Nonprofit Financial Management

Executives and managers in the field of nonprofit financial management can benefit from mentoring just as much, if not more so, than entry-level staffers.

We often think of mentoring as the process of helping a novice or junior-level employee gain the confidence, experience, and seasoning needed for promotion or increasing responsibilities. The name itself, mentoring, conjures images of an old, wise counselor and a young person shadowing the mentor to learn through experience.

Learning isn’t just a young person’s purview anymore. Nonprofit financial management offers many challenges that can be difficult for executives and managers to navigate on their own. Through a mentoring relationship, managers and executives have the opportunity to seek guidance, insight, and feedback from someone with equal or greater experience.

It’s Lonely at the Top

You’ve heard the expression “It’s lonely at the top.” Senior-level leaders often struggle to find someone to share ideas and solicit feedback from because there are few, if any, people with the same amount of experience as they have within the organization.

Mentors can help you with these issues. A mentor who works for another organization can act as a sounding board and confidante for problems you need to talk out with an experienced person. Asking for guidance, ideas, suggestions, and solutions and working on them with your mentor can also broaden your leadership skills.

By forging professional relationships with other nonprofit leaders, you’ll have a ready-made network of people to tap into when you need to consult with others.

Making the Mentorship Relationship Work

To make the mentor-mentee relationship work to its fullest potential, start with an action plan. Mentors should work with their mentees to form a written plan. Identify the skills you wish to work on together. Then, identify projects, opportunities, and areas where you can build those skills in the next several months.

Choose an area to work on that will make the biggest impact on your own needs. Time management and delegation are two areas that leaders often struggle with and that a mentor can be helpful to resolve. The more time you free up through delegation, the more time you will have to work on projects that will benefit your nonprofit.

Regular face-to-face meetings are also an essential component of the mentoring process. Regular meetings ensure accountability, clear feedback, and trust-building that is essential to successful mentoring.

Finding a Mentor

All of this may sound terrific, but how do you find a mentor? Check with professional associations first. You may find someone willing to become a mentor or an active mentorship program. If they do not have one, suggest one. You may be surprised by the interest in such a program.

Consider becoming a mentor to others too. Skilled executives are teachers, leaders, and cheerleaders. By sharing what you have learned along the way, you’ll help improve nonprofit financial management skills for others as well.

Mentoring others also brings with it several positives. If you take the time to mentor others within your own organization, you’ll help people improve their skills so that when the opportunity for promotion and advancement arises, you will have leaders ready to step into new roles. It’s a win-win for all when you embrace a culture of mentoring and begin the mentoring process yourself.

Beck & Company

Nonprofit Financial Management Made Easier: Manage Towards Surplus

One often overlooked aspect of nonprofit financial management is managing towards a surplus or ensuring adequate margin to continue your organization’s mission even during lean donation years.

“No margin, no mission” is a saying often heard at nonprofit organizations. It means that without an annual surplus, your organization cannot achieve its mission.

There’s a delicate balance between being prudent stewards of your nonprofit finances and over- or under- investing in programs. Too much surplus looks as if you aren’t doing enough to fulfill your mission; deficits cause undue hardship and struggle. What’s a nonprofit to do?

Mandating a Surplus

One way to improve nonprofit financial management is to manage towards a surplus. A mandated surplus of X percent means that in any given year, a set amount of margin is set aside to act as a cushion against lean times. It’s a similar concept to putting aside money in an old-fashioned Christmas account or tucking ten dollars a week away in an account against a rainy day. For nonprofit financial management, the idea is to create a managed surplus that can be tapped into when donations or other sources of income fall.

A mandated surplus for every department in your organization may seem strange. What about the operational division? How are they supposed to create a surplus? It seems obvious that the finance, donor and membership management groups can work towards a surplus, but how do operational divisions manage it?

Departments that do not generate revenue but support other revenue-generating areas of the organization can budget towards a surplus by cutting expenses. By systemically trimming expenses, they can contribute towards the mandated surplus.

Preparing for Down Years

The economy will also rise and fall, so preparing for the down years is an essential skill of nonprofit financial management. It may not be possible to meet a shortfall through simple cost-cutting during a particularly difficult year. Mandating a surplus and banking that surplus against lean times is your insurance against having to cut essential programs or personnel in order to keep your nonprofit active during lean times.

What If You Exceed the Mandated Surplus?

Just as in some years you’ll find you have a deficit, in good years you may not only meet the mandated surplus but exceed your target goals. During such times, the Board may wish to discuss adjusting the surplus at their annual meeting. For example, if the mandated surplus target is usually 15% but an especially healthy year finds you with a surplus of 20%, the Board may wish to vote on adjusting the surplus down to 10% for a one-year term only. In this way, the mandatory surplus can be flexible without being an arbitrary number. Board participation, discussion, and voting are essential to making a flexible number work.

Tip to Make Surplus Budgeting Work

Many nonprofit organizations have successfully balanced their accounts and improved nonprofit financial management thanks to surplus budgeting. But in order to make it work well for your organization, you’ll need to focus your efforts on communications, strategic planning, and improved budgeting.

Some tips include:

Analyze your current financial situation. A good fund accounting program can help you with generating the reports of your accounts.
Assess each budget item, especially unrestricted funds. This is typically where surplus may be found.
Educate and communicate with all departments within your organization to ensure that everyone understands why you are seeking a surplus and how you anticipate being able to achieve the goal.
Align all portions of the organization towards the goal.
Underscore how achieving margin enables you to achieve your mission (money isn’t just for money’s sake but to help your constituents).
Develop strategic plans and budgets to achieve your goal.
Watch the progress carefully and be ready to change course depending on how well you believe you’ll achieve your objectives.

A surplus can mean the difference between a healthy, fully functioning nonprofit organization and one that limps along hoping for the best. Don’t hope or wish for the best – plan for it. With enough margin, you can surely achieve that mission.

Beck & Company: Nonprofit Financial Management Success

Beck & Company can help with your nonprofit financial management needs. We are a CPA and business advisory firm dedicated to the nonprofit sector. Our many years of experience can help you update your financial compliance or handle all types of accounting for nonprofits. Please contact Beck & Company today for further details.

Cloud-Based Nonprofit Financial Management: It’s Time to Make the Switch

Throughout all the years when you’ve been handling nonprofit financial management, you know that there comes a time when new technology becomes ubiquitous. The fax machine seemed novel at first but now is as common as a telephone. Telephones themselves gave way from rotary dials to touch-tone, then to cell phones and smartphones. Computers are now so commonplace that they’re as necessary as a chair and a desk to most offices.

Cloud computing has also entered this phase of adoption throughout the world of nonprofit financial management. Once seen as an intriguing concept, the cloud is now a part of most nonprofits’ daily business. It’s time you switched to the cloud.

Concerns About Switching to the Cloud

Some nonprofit managers have concerns about switching over to the cloud. They’re used to software running on computers within their office. Accessing everything through the Internet seems both odd as well as risky. Here’s are some of the potential concerns you may have about switching to the cloud and the facts.

Security: Cloud-based software is very secure. Your account is accessed through secure user names and passwords, and data is kept behind multiple firewalls for added security. Cloud providers must spend a great deal of time, money, and effort on security since they are keeping not just your data secure but that of hundreds of other customers. Cloud security is often better that security individual companies could enact on their own.
Costs: Cloud software is less expensive than site-based software because it is shared among multiple companies. Best of all, you do not need to invest heavily in expensive hardware and infrastructure to support a cloud-based system. All you need is a reliable and secure Internet connection and your typical PC, smartphone, or tablet to access cloud-based software.
Mobility: Older software had to be loaded onto an individual computer for users to access it. Cloud software can be accessed from any device connected to the Internet, so you’re not locked into using the same desktop or laptop. Data is also stored on the cloud so that users throughout your company can access the same information. It’s great for nonprofit financial management on the go.

How to Choose Your Cloud Provider

Ready to switch to the cloud? Choosing a service provider may take some time, but with the proper due diligence, you can find a great vendor who offers the support that your organization needs. When choosing a vendor, consider the following:

References: What do other companies using the vendor’s services have to say about their reliability and response time?
Support: Does the company provide 24/7 support? If so, how is the support provided – telephone, chat, help desk, user forums?
Data ownership: Who owns the data?
Backup: What is their backup plan? How often is their system backed up?
Security: Ask for details on the security provided on your account.
Downtimes: What is their average downtime, and why do their systems sometimes go down? Do they guarantee any level of service?
Costs: What are the costs and are they steady or do they fluctuate with data or storage use? What does the cost include?

Using these questions as a guideline, you can evaluate the services from several cloud vendors and make a smart choice for your nonprofit financial management.

Beck & Company: Cloud-Based Nonprofit Accounting Software

Beck & Company can help you choose cloud-based accounting software and other systems and services for your nonprofit organization. We are a CPA and business advisory firm dedicated to the nonprofit sector. Our many years of experience can help you update your financial compliance or handle all types of accounting for nonprofits. Please contact Beck & Company today for further details.

Big Data, Big Worries: Ethics and Nonprofit Financial Management

Does the amount of data your nonprofit collects from donors, members, and other supporters worry you? It should. If you have big data, you have big worries, as well as responsibilities. An important part of nonprofit financial management is securing and managing the data that your nonprofit collects so that you safeguard the interests of all.

You Collect More Data Than You Think

At first glance, you may think you don’t collect all that much data. Sure, you’ve got a mailing list on file of people interested in your nonprofit’s work, and email addresses for that monthly newsletter to send out, but doesn’t everyone?

Consider how people donate to your nonprofit. If you accept credit card donations over the internet, website security becomes critical to prevent criminals from stealing data from your donors. Passwords may also be important if you have a member-only area on your site where you host forums. When you really sit down to analyze your organization’s data collection methods, you’ll quickly realize that you’ve got more data than you initially thought.

Keeping Data Safe: Creating a Data Ethics Policy

Register for this Webinar Now: The New Roadmap for Nonprofit Finance

Many organizations are creating their own data use and security ethics policies to help safeguard customer privacy and maintain the high level of trust they’ve worked so hard to build with their constituents.

To create your own organizational data ethics policy, follow these five tips.

Establish data-use goals: Knowing exactly why your organization collects data, and the use to which you will put it in the future, is the starting point for a data ethics policy. You’ve got to know the reason why you’re collecting the data in the first place to establish guidelines about its use. Some common reasons for collecting customer data include future marketing, such as requesting that interested people sign up for your email list so that you can send them donation solicitations later.
Create a privacy policy: Privacy policies are ubiquitous on websites but an important part of your data security and ethics work. You can create a privacy policy in several ways. There are privacy policy generators online that help you build a simple boilerplate privacy policy for your website. You can also ask your legal counsel for a recommendation. Once you create your privacy policy, post it online.
Assess the risks: Take a data inventory to understand exactly what data you have stored and what the risks are of maintaining it. Know what you have to work with, how and where it is stored, and who has access to it. Lastly, determine who controls access to the data and the steps your organization has taken to safeguard it.
Add safeguards: Every day it seems that hackers have found new ways to break into websites and steal personal information from customers. It may be worthwhile to consult with an internet security expert to make sure that your website and network have the latest security safeguards in place. Updating software and plugins for websites, adding Akismet to WordPress-based sites to screen for virus-filled spam, and using other simple measures may go a long way in preventing theft and security breaches.
Conduct due diligence: If third parties have access to your data, such as mailing house or email service providers, do you conduct due diligence to ensure that their safety procedures match or exceed your own? Few organizations give much thought to who in other companies may use or access their data. Make sure that you have steps in place to screen companies and understand their data security policies. Common third-party vendors who may access your data include marketing agencies, mailing list companies, list brokers, email service providers, and fundraising organizations.

Nonprofit Financial Management: Data Security Policy

Once you have the basic information about your current data collection and use, formulate a general ethics policy and procedure document that can be shared throughout your organization. A little work now will come in handy later if the unthinkable happens and you have a data breach on your hands. Your constituents will thank you for taking extra steps to safeguard your data.

Financial Advice and Assistance for Nonprofit Organizations

Beck & Company Certified Public Accounts and Business Advisors specializes in nonprofit financial management, nonprofit accounting audit services, and issues pertaining to the world of nonprofits. We have extensive experience helping nonprofits of all sizes achieve their mission without sacrificing margin. Contact us for more information.

Nonprofit Financial Management and the Responsibilities of CPAs: What You MUST Know

CPAs play an important role in shaping federal financial policy. But to shape any type of policy, you need to understand the basics underlying the current structure. One way to do this is to review the 10-K of an organization. Surprisingly, the federal government files a 10-K. Citizens can review it, and CPAs should also review it for a peek behind the curtain of the often-misunderstood government agencies and bureaus.

The Government’s 10-K Report: What You Need to Know

The government’s 10-K report includes financial reporting for 150 government entities. Some of these entities may impact your nonprofit organization, which is yet another reason why nonprofit financial managers and accountants should note the reports and make it a point to look at them.

The reports include:

Financial position and condition
Revenue and costs
Assets and liabilities
Financial obligations and commitments
Analysis of important financial issues
Significant conditions that impact future events

This should be enough information to provide a comprehensive and detailed picture of the government entity’s financial picture. The Federal Reserve and a few other entities are excluded from reporting.

These reports are either traditional, accrual-based accounting, such as you will see in the corporate sector, or nontraditional sustainability reports. Each report includes eight basic financial statements, with details on many aspects of the current and future budget.

What’s at Stake – and What You Need to Know

The complete analysis of these reports is available in the Journal of Accountancy. What CPAs and nonprofit financial management experts need to know is this: many of the budgets show disturbing fiscal gaps that, if left unchecked, can be dangerous for the economy.

The AICPA discusses the use of the U.S. government’s financial statements as they pertain to the nation’s fiscal health in a paper entitled “What’s at Stake? The CPA Profession on Federal Fiscal Responsibility”. Greg Anton, CPA, CGMA, a past chairman of the AICPA board of directors explains the far-reaching consequences if current policy is kept in place.

Although CPAs can probably understand the technical aspects of the document, reviewing eight statements from 150 federal agencies would take a considerable amount of time. There’s a layperson’s guide which might come in handy: the Guide to Understanding the Financial Report of the United States. This may prove easy reading, from which to grasp key insights useful for CPAs.

One of the most troubling aspects of this report is that, despite 19 years of releasing the report, the GAO has been unable to release an audit opinion. Many of the agencies included within the report have been audited, but certain groups like the Department of Defense remain an exception.

The AICPA urges CPAs to become better informed and to raise questions and concerns with local elected officials. CPAs are in a unique position to understand and explain these policies to local business leaders and others. As a nonprofit financial management leader, you are also in a special position of responsibility to your constituents, and some of this information may have deeper meaning for your nonprofit.

Understanding the information and taking the appropriate actions through your local elected officials is one way that CPAs can demonstrate important leadership skills in the nonprofit sector. Citizens and policymakers look to CPAs for guidance on important matters. Elected officials too need guidance on the technical aspects of federal budgeting, and concerns from local taxpayers. CPAs play an important role in this process.

At Beck & Company, we offer CPA services, nonprofit accounting, and business advisory functions for nonprofit organizations. Contact us today if you would like more information about our services or help with your nonprofit business needs.

Surprising Skills Nonprofit Financial Management Needs – and New Ways to Acquire Them

Nonprofit financial management just took a step in the right direction with the introduction of two new ways in which CPAs will be able to obtain Continuing Professional Education (CPE) credits. The AICPA and the National Association of State Board of Accountancy recently changed the standards for CPE providers as well as NASBA’s Field of Study document. The result? Two new ways in which CPAs can earn valuable professional education credits.

Blended Learning and Nano Learning for CPAs

The two new opportunities for CPEs include blended learning and nano learning.

Blended learning includes a combination of learning methods such as seat-based (classroom) sessions, self-study, and video lessons on demand.
Nano learning consists of short 10-minute modules, usually focused on a specific task. This type of learning is often used to help CPAs acquire specific skills rather than master overarching concepts.

Although not all states accept the new learning methods, many do. CPAs should check with their state chapters of their accrediting body to learn which methods are acceptable for CPEs.

Additional changes are also being made to the Fields of Study document. These changes update categories and descriptions so that they are both current and relevant. The biggest change occurs in the Specialized Knowledge field of study, which now separates computer science application and information technology into its own categories. Specialized knowledge topics can now be specific to industries or categories.

The Importance of Continuing Education for Nonprofit Financial Management

Like any profession, financial management takes knowledge, skill, and practice to do well. The world of nonprofit financial management continues to grow, change, and evolve over time. Consider the new FASB rules of which we’ve written so much. The updated guidelines are the first since 1993, but if you’re not keeping up to date on all the changes in the world of nonprofit accounting, you could miss some of these important elements.

What skills should CPAs in nonprofit organizations master? Here are some you might not have considered:

Presentation and public speaking skills: Nonprofit CPAs may be called upon to address board meetings, present at conferences and in other public spaces. Good speaking skills are critical to represent your organization well.
Interpersonal communications: Interpersonal communications ensure that you can share and listen to knowledge within your organization in an effective manner.
Social media skills: Sure, you might know how to tweet or comment on social media. But nonprofits need social media guidelines for their workplaces just as much as for-profits do, and you may be called upon to assist with and guide social media campaigns for donors and other financial managers.
Management: Learning how to manage a team is both an art and a science. Managers are made, not born, and these are important skills to acquire so you can lead your team successfully.

There are many opportunities for you to learn these skills. Online learning, self-guided learning, professional courses and more provide opportunities for these and more ‘hard’ accounting skills. CPE credits may not necessarily be offered for these skills, but they are equally as important for success as a nonprofit manager today.

New Year, New You: Education and Assistance for Nonprofits

With a new year on the horizon, it’s time to make some much-needed changes. This includes updating your education credentials and staying up to date on the skills you need to make your nonprofit successful.

It may also include working with a nonprofit financial consultant to prepare for audits and more. At Beck & Company, we offer CPA services, nonprofit accounting, and business advisory functions for nonprofit organizations. Contact us today if you would like more information about our services or help with your nonprofit business needs.