We recently launched a whitepaper focused on finance professionals in the nonprofit space called "How to Stay Alive in the Accrual World". It provides an overview of many of the challenges CFOs and finance professionals are facing. Integration Platform-as-a-Service (iPaaS) can be a smart solution for many of these top finance and accounting challenges. In our blog today, we'd like to dive into Funds & Grants and Department Finances. I had the opportunity to interview Zachary Griggs, DataBlend's Director of Client Experiences on how iPaaS can help nonprofits. Zachary has over 10 years working with nonprofits and has served as a Director of Finance, so he has a unique viewpoint that many finance professionals can relate to.
"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result." ~ Albert Einstein
Funds and grants are one of the biggest challenges we see non-profit finance leaders deal with. Historically, managing them can be a nightmare. It involves inefficient systems and manual processes. Grant Managers need to figure out what money they can spend and how to spend it without overspending or underspending. It is a constant struggle, and it continues to get harder and harder because restrictions are increasing.
"The number of grants an organization needs to manage can vary – it could be in the hundreds. Which is why many organizations throw bodies at the process. I have been working in the not-for-profit sector for over 10 years, and I see the same process repeatedly. It all starts with Excel. They might try to tie it into an ERP (i.e., Sage Intacct or NetSuite). However, the entire process is the issue. Sage Intacct has gotten significantly better at managing grants; however, there is still room to grow, and the process can require manual steps to supplement. If your grants are not being managed effectively and efficiently, it can result in major issues. For instance, organizations can over or under spend; or worse yet, you could miss a deadline and put your eligibility at risk. You could also have errors or missing data, which leads to unhappy grantors and costly audits." ~Zachary Griggs, Director, Client Experiences at DataBlend
Implementing an iPaaS solution can help keep everything coordinated and reduce the manual processes that are failing organizations, as well as saving time. Grants go from a big challenge to a big success. Happy grantors equal happy organizations.
Organizations cannot afford to have inefficiencies and inaccuracies in their finance department. With the myriad of platforms and applications that an organization uses, they might be at risk of bad or disconnected data. The accounting and finance team has more important things to do with their days than chasing down data and flowing it into their system of choice. By implementing a finance based iPaaS platform, like DataBlend, the solution is quite easy.
"Without having DataBlend to do the connection, in order to get actuals into Adaptive, it would require downloading the spreadsheet from the accounting system then upload again into Adaptive and doing that as a manual process is time consuming. There’s a lot of formatting issues to get the file to upload manually so with DataBlend doing it, I don’t have to worry about it, I don’t have to do it. It just happens." ~ Jeff Aimonetti, Manager, FP&A, The Home for Little Wanderers
You might be asking yourself, my fintech platforms offer out-of-the-box integrations, why would I need to implement an iPaaS solution?
Here’s why:
Integrations allow finance teams to integrate multiple SaaS apps, ERP systems, FP&A platforms, etc., Integrations connect systems together so that no one misses a beat – or a number.
Download the full whitepaper: How to Stay Alive in the Accrual World
CFOs and finance leaders are challenged with turning the numbers into something meaningful. They need to be able to derive insights and deliver information to the rest of the organization. The integrity, flexibility, and speed of that information enable your management and staff to manage the business more effectively.