It is all too easy to carry on with what you have always done, making do with old reports, or extracting data and dumping it into a spreadsheet to produce comparisons or bespoke reporting - but it is always worth asking this question, and then taking the time to answer it.
Many of us are working from our kitchens, using MS Teams, Google hangouts and Zoom to have meetings, setting up shared drives and making use of the internet to get on with our work - 18 months ago many of us would not have thought this was possible. Today home working is a new normal, thousands of us are doing it, and doing it well. So perhaps we should take the same approach at looking as some of our other working practices. Can we modernise them? Can we make them more efficient?
Many Charities use cloud based accounting systems, they are modern and meant to be more efficient - but are they helping the management team and the Trustees run the charity effectively? If your accounting system is not set up to allow you to run reports to show how each department has performed, or what the balance is on a particular fund account - the chances are you could make improvements whether they are cloud based on not. Taking time to understand your requirements, and then set up your accounting system so that it can be used properly, track projects, and produce reports that are easy to understand, and don’t take an age to produce, is really important. It means that Trustees and management can make the right decisions, with real time information. Using your accounting system properly can save time, and reduce the risk of making mistakes when reports are produced manually.
Are you using all of the functionality within your accounting system? Seems an obvious question - but this is not always the case. Tracking data, cost centres, and projects can often be set up within the system to allow you to identify income and expenditure accurately - making life easier for everyone. But if you have a cloud based system you can also use a variety of different ‘Add ons’ to make processing expenses, as an example, easier. Volunteers and staff - download an App, take photos of receipts which can then be uploaded and approved online - minimal hassle and saving on weeks of chasing to get receipts to be submitted.
Changing an accounting system can feel like a big step - but sometimes moving away from what you have been using for the past 20 years and stepping into the cloud can make a huge difference, streamline your processes and freeing up time to work on other areas of the charity. However sometimes, tweaking things around the edges of existing accounting systems can make a big difference to all those that use it and the management team that relies upon it.
It doesn’t matter which accounting system you are using, but if you think you are not getting the best out of your accounting system - and it is more of a hindrance than a help, then contact us and we can help by reviewing how you are using it, and make some recommendations to help you either get more out of it, or possibly change it to something more suitable.
The next step
Should you have any queries in relation to any of the above, please contact Shona Munday or your your usual UHY adviser.
