Financial Technologies & Management- E-Newsletter for July |
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Upcoming Live Webinars Dear {CONTACT.SALUTATION} We hope you find our monthly E-Newsletter useful for your nonprofit organization. We are pleased to provide you with access to our knowledge articles and live webinars!!
These live webinars will help Nonprofit Leaders, Treasurers, Finance Directors, Finance Staff, Executive Directors and other Nonprofit Staff.
Our upcoming live webinars for financial management training are broken into the following areas: Nonprofit Financial Forum, Nonprofit Finance Certificate, MIP Fund Accounting, and Financial Management Training. -
Nonprofit Financial Forum-These FREE monthly forums are back for 2024 during the last Wednesday of each month from 11:30 EST to 1:00 EST-FMI or Register-August 28th-Tips for Smooth Audit and Common Audit Pitfalls; and September 25th-Building a Superior Budget
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MIP Fund Accounting-Quarterly User Group Meetings for 2024 are as follows: Fall-September 26, 2024-Budget and Microix Budget. 15th Annual User Conference on October 8 to 10 in Las Vegas. We will once again by presenting and sponsoring this year's conference so let us know your coming and please select FTM as your referral contact when you register. See you in Las Vegas in October. Please click on this link for conference web site FMI and to register.
Please contact us via phone, email, or directly book a consultation on my calendar for all current and prospective clients. Also, you can use the contact us page to subscribe to our newsletter for you, your staff, or your colleagues. Please click here for the current and previous monthly newsletters back to 2020. Best Regards, James Simpson, CPA, CFE, CITP, and CGMA. |
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GAAP Refresher-Contributions & Exchange Transactions |
It has been several years since we should have implemented the new revenue recognition standards but we are still finding revenue recognition errors so thought might be good to do a refresher. It is important that you distinguish between contributions and exchange transactions is important because the recognition and measurement standards for each are different.
The indicators for distinguishing a contribution from a exchange transaction focus on whether the resource provider receives commensurate value in the transaction. But when the general public, not the resource provider, is the primary beneficiary of an asset transfer, the resource provider hasn't received commensurate value and the transaction is a contribution.
After it's determined an asset transfer is a contribution it needs to be classified as either conditional or unconditional. The criteria changed in ASU 2018-08, which states a contribution is conditional if it contains both a right of return and one or more barriers to overcome before recipient records contributions.
If the agreement does not indicate barriers that must be overcome and does not contain right to return assets, the contribution is considered unconditional. Conditional contributions are not recognized in the financial statements until they become unconditional as a result of the recipient's action to overcome barriers. The full article includes more about the GAAP Refresher for Contributions & Exchange Transactions. |
| While standard nonprofit financial reports – the budget, income statement, and balance sheet – provide important management information, these statements alone do not tell whether there is enough cash on hand. It is important to manage cash flows especially when operating with a financial deficit and unexpected events. Also, when your organization is undergoing financial changes like changes in funding or new programs and staffing. You can start to manage your cash flows by developing cash flow projections that look forward up to 12 months. Once you develop cash projections, you can then work to develop cash flow management strategies. The following are cash management strategies: -
Speed up the receipt of income
- Slow down payments
- Increase Cash Receipts
- Reduce Cash Disbursements
Best practices to avoid cash flow problems include: - Develop realistic budgets each year
- Operate with goal of obtaining a financial surplus
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Build cash reserves over time
- Be aware of cash flow and budget assumptions and react to changes as they occur
- Maintain good relationships with funders, donors, and vendors and keep them informed of cash flow issues
Please click the full article for managing your cash flows including what to do when developing financial projections. |
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Eight reasons to outsource your nonprofit accounting |
The current employment market has nonprofits looking more externally to obtain necessary accounting talent and seeing significant increases and retention issues with internal accounting staff. In this current environment, organizations need to look at where they should hire internal staff or externally outsource various accounting functions of their organizations.
Nonprofits typically outsource accounting already for payroll processing and audit services so it is not surprising that nonprofits are looking at other aspects of the finance and accounting department to outsource. With limited resources, a nonprofit can outsource some or all its financial functions, which can help a nonprofit efficiently staff and conduct its financial operations. It also respects the board and executives limited time or expertise to manage the finance functions, and allow more allocation of resources toward mission and program outcomes.
Here are eight overlooked reasons to outsource accounting - Improved efficiencies
- Reduce costs
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Reduced fraud threats
- Higher level of expertise
- Ability to scale
- Accounting software expertise
- Manage your finance and accounting function
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Stay current with regulations and laws
Please click for the full article for details of the eight reasons |
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FTM offers client care plan for our MIP Fund Accounting and Microix users-Sign up today |
We provide software advisor services to our MIP clients. Our system review services provide recommendations on how your organization can better leverage the software. Please click here for our MIP Training page and look for our customized courses which includes all the modules training available from community brands university and more.
We are excited to expand our software advisory services by offering a client care plan for our MIP and Microix clients.
Do you wish you had an MIP Certified go to consultant whenever you have questions about MIP or accounting? At FTM, we have the answer with our Client Care Plan options. Keep in mind your Community Brands Maintenance and Support Agreement does not cover critical topics that keep your accounting software performing to its potential.
The full article will provide specific examples of software topics resolved by our certified trainers and consultants along with the benefits to your organization.
FTM has certified trainers, dedicated trainer support line, average response time is 2 hours or less, and priority client assistance to meet your needs and insure you are fully utilizing your MIP investment.
We offer three plans that start at $500 per year. Our plans cover everything and don't have limitations like M&S plan provided by MIP including offering accounting services help. |
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