In a recent Charity Times article "Binning the Paper Trail" — Duncan Jeffries examined the potential of accountancy software, considering improvements to financial reporting, and how to significantly cut down on waste.
Speaking with Richard Pierce, Managing Director of PS Financials, Duncan reported about the additional capabilities of accounting software that give Charities the ability to respond:
According to Richard Pierce, managing director of PS Financials, accounting software can provide charities with more immediate information on their finances. "The problem for a lot of these charities is that they have to respond to disasters, and disasters don't wait until 15 days after the end of the month," he says.
Strict controls on restricted and non-restricted funds can be put in place to prevent the misallocation of funds. Charities with designated funds also need to produce reports on the progress of particular projects, which accounting software can help with.
"Dynamic charities are looking to provide much more information on demand for their budget holders so they can more effectively manage their projects," says Pierce. "An additional benefit of this is that they are building up an invaluable amount of data on the cost of providing their services."
This project planning capability is important for Save the Children, which uses PS Financials accounting software. "Planning for projects is the fundamental basis of everything that we do," says Robin Brown, financial accountant for Save the Children. "What that really means is that you need to have a very sophisticated analysis type product. Some systems do that better than others. With PS Financials it's all integral within the main module - it's part of the design from day one."
To read the full article and more examples of how accounting software is helping charities to better manage their funds and activities go to Charity Times...
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