AcctTwo Blog

AcctTwo’s Head of Nonprofit, Allison Webb, is the latest guest on the Christian Nonprofit CFO’s podcast, hosted by David Beroth.

David’s podcast focuses on enhancing the stewardship of church finances with increased CFO insight and expanding ministry impact. Financial leaders in ministry are often ill-equipped to address, let alone overcome, the many challenges they face. Too often they pivot from crisis to crisis. In this mode they run on the tactical treadmill instead of proactively contributing strategic value to their nonprofits. Unfortunately, the full impact of their ministry suffers. Proverbs 19:20: “Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future.”

Nonprofits don't get enough credit for their savvy strategic thinking. They have to sustain themselves and secure growth just like any private enterprise. But they must do it with tighter budgets, tougher restrictions, and higher standards for transparency and accountability.

It's an impressive achievement that nonprofits are able to balance boldness with prudence so successfully. But it's also a challenge. When every dollar of every donation or grant matters, nonprofits can't afford to make bad bets or hasty decisions. Otherwise, they could put their mission, reputation, or future in jeopardy.

When the tech-giant Sage announced plans to acquire Intacct we were excited for several reasons. Obviously, the resources of Sage Intacct would grow, which would allow us to offer more to clients, but we also knew that Sage shared our deep commitment to giving.

In a December 12, 2017 article in Diginomica, a leading web publication designed to serve the interests of enterprise leaders in the digital era, co-founder Jon Reed covers a panel discussion at this year's Sage Intacct Advantage user conference with AcctTwo Founder & CEO Marcus Wagner and JMT Consulting Group CEO Jacqueline Tiso.

The goal of any mission-based organization is to grow in influence and have a greater positive impact on the world. However, when growth does begin to ramp up, it’s both an achievement and an obstruction.

With growth comes complexity. Everything from staffing to operations to marketing becomes more challenging. But accounting is the area where the stress is felt most acutely.

Mission-based organizations that rely on a simplified approach to accounting quickly discover that approach is ill-equipped to serve the needs of a larger and more complex organization. Individual accounting processes may work, but they do not communicate and cooperate in a way that the demands of enterprise accounting require.

What features should nonprofits and faith-based organizations look for in a modern nonprofit accounting software system?

Accounting systems are not something you change or replace often. However, as your nonprofit organization grows in size or complexity, you reach a point where manual processes drain your productivity, and you struggle to analyze your growing range of financial and operating data. At this point, you need a system that leverages the latest technology advancements.

Today's nonprofits face an increased demand for greater transparency and accountability.  Many nonprofit software systems struggle  to meet the requirements to be met with higher expectations and scrutiny. 

As a mission-based organization, your agenda is clear – doing good work around the world. Unfortunately, accomplishing that is more complex than ever, requiring leaders to rely on a lot more than just good intentions in order to achieve the positive outcomes they desire.

As the scope of mission-based organizations has grown, decision-making has become a high-stakes process. At the same time, donors demand a level of transparency and accountability that raises the stakes of decision-making even further.

Ok, I am not going to deny it. I am a fortunate fellow. I come to work every day knowing we are helping our clients improve their processes and reach their goals. And the best part is they make us proud. So, I’d like to recognize them.

Today I want to talk about United Way of Central Indiana, the Indianapolis local chapter of United Way Worldwide.

In case you are not familiar with them, United Way Worldwide is the leadership and support organization for a network of local United Ways in about 1,800 communities in more than 40 countries. These local United Ways are independent entities—separately incorporated non-profits with their own structure.

With Growth Comes Complexity

Among the many trends we see today all around the church, and among faith-based organizations, one of the most interesting is the expansion of multi-site churches. As congregations grow, it makes more sense for churches to establish new locations and spread the word to new communities. Social media and new marketing strategies are helping organizations grow to new locations and new audiences. The rise and ease of giving through smart phones and mobile devices is helping fuel this growth. A marked rise in volunteering is helping spread the good works of these churches, and demonstrate their importance to the community.

A Ruling that Church Ministers' Housing Allowance is Unconstitutional has been Appealed...

Pastors and others in ministry find themselves in a very different world today - one with new challenges from those of a generation ago. One such challenge is the court ruling in November that declared church-provided, tax-free housing allowances for ministers unconstitutional. The appeal of this ruling may be very good news for the ministry due to the impending strain the additional expenses and reduction in income would cause.