February 26, 2018

Dashboards provide a window into your organization’s performance and financial health. With the increased emphasis on outcomes—defined as a change in skill, knowledge, attitude, behavior, condition, or status—nonprofits must demonstrate the progress of those outcomes in a visual, understandable way. An article in Nonprofit Quarterly notes that a dashboard must: Align definitions of success across…

February 23, 2018

Excel is the go-to reporting and budgeting tool for countless finance teams, including financial planning and analysis (FP&A) professionals. In fact, there are more than one billion users worldwide—that’s about one in seven people! Excel is comfortable and familiar, but for growing nonprofits, it can be a real drag on your budgeting processes and productivity….

February 22, 2018

How do you know if your nonprofit is making an impact—if your mission is a success? The answer to this question affects everything about your organization, from day-to-day operations to the success of your fundraising efforts. The National Council of Nonprofits alludes to five actions: Identify what success looks like to you. Make a plan…

February 6, 2018

Donors want to know if their donations are impacting the work of your nonprofit through its mission. Increasingly, this means telling your story through numbers—something that nonprofits don’t always do well. Marc J. Epstein, co-author of the book, Measuring and Improving Social Impacts: A Guide for Nonprofits, Companies, and Impact Investors, says that “The need…

How do you measure the success and impact of your nonprofit’s mission? Similarly, how do your donors—be they individual, foundations, or corporate—know if their donations are impacting the work of your nonprofit through its mission? Many nonprofits gauge their impact through statistics such as the number of people served, families fed or housed, or the…

January 30, 2018

At some point in your technology journey, you’ll have to decide whether to step up your investment in servers and other infrastructure upgrades—or seek a more cost-effective option. For many businesses and nonprofits, costs related to IT infrastructure, personnel, outside services, and other expenses necessary to keep your critical applications running can consume up to…

January 17, 2018

In the good old days, comparing the cost between different financial management solutions was fairly straightforward. They were built on similar technology platforms and were going to be deployed in roughly the same fashion. The only considerations were subtle differences in system requirements and pricing. The advent of subscription-based (SaaS) cloud applications for fund accounting…

January 15, 2018

In the mission-driven nonprofit world, fund accounting software can sometimes slip down the priority list. It’s not always easy to allocate budget dollars to back-office infrastructure that doesn’t directly support the nonprofit agenda and harder to find the time and expertise to make it all work. Some of the obstacles include: Capital investment for software…

January 5, 2018

Moving your nonprofit financials to the cloud from an on-premises solution can significantly reduce your costs. There are other benefits you may not have considered, though—pluses that are just as beneficial as bottom-line savings. Your fund accounting becomes more efficient, compliance is easier, and you have a better view of your organization’s performance. A closer…

October 3, 2017

Being able to comply with FASB and funder guidelines for compliance reporting is a requirement for every nonprofit organization. To truly realize your nonprofit’s potential, you need the ability to plan, forecast, and deliver meaningful insight to the leaders of your organization. In this post, I’ll discuss, reporting strategies and tools every Intacct user can…

October 2, 2017

Communication Service for the Deaf (CSD) is a 501c nonprofit organization based in the United States and New Zealand, providing a plethora of services to the deaf.  They recently worked with JMT Consulting Group to enhance their financial management solution by implementing Sage Intacct and Nexonia.  We recently sat down with Brad Hermes, CFO and…

September 29, 2017

The day of global giving, #GivingTuesday 2017, is coming up. And if you want your nonprofit to optimize the world’s biggest day of giving, it’s time to start planning. We’ve already addressed some facts, figures, and tips for your #GivingTuesday campaign. Now let’s drill down into what it takes to make that campaign a success…

September 5, 2017

If you are like most nonprofit organizations, your primary focus is to benefit society in a tangible way. But many nonprofits have considerable overhead costs when it comes to expense management and use manual processes. So why are so many organizations still using manual, paper-based processes to manage spend? Excel-based expense reports are often still…

August 30, 2017

One of the most rewarding elements of our job is being able to assist individuals and organizations that are making the world a better place on a daily basis. JMT Consulting has had the honor of working exclusively with nonprofits for more than 20 years. Each of these organizations has their fair share of incredible…

August 21, 2017

For the first time in over 20 years, there will be considerable changes in the way nonprofit organizations are required to prepare and present financial statements. On August 18th, 2016, The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued Accounting standards Update (ASU) 2016-14, Not-for-Profit Entities (Topic 958), Presentation of Financial Statements of Not-for-Profit Entities. The goal…

August 15, 2017

If you’re an IT Director or CIO at a nonprofit organization, you may be experiencing something that sounds a little like this: In the last few years, you have moved a lot of systems from your internal network servers. Your Development department has migrated to a cloud-based donor management system like Salesforce. Your Program people…