Next week is the annual Altruic Advisors staff meeting, when we all get together and drool over spreadsheets and fancy calculators. Just kidding - our annual meeting is actually a very important part of our company culture, which is founded on shared knowledge and solid communication.
With team members spread out over a number of locations in Colorado and Michigan, it’s important for us to all get together at least once a year to talk about what we know, what we’re learning, and how to make things better. Our cloud-based accounting software and digital document storage means that we can communicate easily and efficiently from hundreds of miles away. (Not to mention the time we save on filing papers!) However, as much as we love a good Google Hangout, sometimes there’s no substitute for face-to-face interaction.
We developed our Nonprofit CFO Solutions services after talking to dozens of directors, board members, and nonprofit executives about their needs. And you know what we found? Most of their problems were rooted in poor communication. Nonprofit accounting can be very complex, but the most complicated part of any financial management system is figuring out who needs to know what when. That’s why we developed a system to enhance clarity and communication between our team members and our nonprofit clients.
Our bill pay management portal can be accessed by approvers from anywhere, anytime, so you can quickly and easily see which bills have been paid. You can even pay your vendors digitally, with direct deposit into their bank accounts. Those frantic last-minute payments will be a thing of the past (and your wrist will appreciate the break from signing checks!).
You can also access your online accounting file 24/7, even when you’re out of the office. Our secure cloud-based document storage system means no more digging through boxes of files to find what you’re looking for. It makes it easy for us to see what documents we already have and which ones we still need from you, so there’s no confusion or endless strings of email attachments.
It’s important for you to communicate with us, but it’s equally important for us to communicate - clearly, comprehensively, and effectively - with you! We produce monthly financial statements and quarterly dashboard reports to give you a clear overview of your nonprofit’s financial status. We’re always working to make our reports easier to read, because you shouldn’t have to be an accountant to understand an accounting report.
Next week at our annual meeting, we’ll be sharing our thoughts, experiences, and the lessons we’ve learned from our nonprofit clients. Our goal is to never stop improving our services, and communication with clients and with other team members is a huge part of that.