Notes from the President

12 June 2013 khilton Notes from the President

Ken Hilton - President Red Wing Software

Be prepared and have a plan. The last few weeks have had some excellent and unfortunate examples of the importance of being prepared and having a plan. The recent weather tragedies around the country, especially in the south central United States, are perfect examples of how critical it can be if you’re not prepared for the possibility of severe weather events. Many people’s lives were saved because of severe weather warnings, and their own individual preparedness with storm shelters or evacuation plans.

Even the less severe weather events that have been prevalent throughout the central and upper Midwest with the late, wet spring and farmers’ inability to get field work done as early as normal, required contingency plans for the rest of the season.

Closer to home, we had a customer recently lose over two years of financial information because of a problem with his main computer. He had religiously backed up his data, only to discover his backups were not going to the correct location, and when his computer had a problem, he found that his last good backup was two years old.

These conditions give us a good wake-up call on the importance of being prepared and having a plan for the unexpected. Whether dealing with weather, economic conditions, or technology problems, we all need to think about what our plan is to recover from unexpected and uncontrollable situations.


What to Look For in Nonprofit Accounting Software Budget Management

07 June 2013 StephanieE Industry Specific Topics, Nonprofits

By Stephanie Elsen

Looking for nonprofit accounting software?

Looking for nonprofit accounting software? Good budget management is a crucial component of the system you choose. Here are some questions to ask vendors about budget management tools.

  • Can individual budgets be created for entity levels within the organization such as by projects, departments, and funds, with individual reporting capability and the ability to roll budgets together for overall organization totals?
  • Can the application create new budgets from previous history actuals with the logic of adjusting the new budget numbers by a percentage, flat amount, etc.
  • If department heads are responsible for their own budgeting, can the application export an entity budget to Excel®, allowing a department head to create their own budget numbers and then import the information back into the related entity budget?
  • Can the application allow for customized budget reporting and provide options to report by entity all the way up to organizational totals over different time periods.

Ask the right questions and you’ll be on your way to getting a system that can meet your organization’s budgeting needs.