Alnet Technologies introduces Sage Intacct to help non-profits take financial management to next level

Netesh Maharajh, Director, Alnet Technologies.

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Alnet Technologies has revealed its capabilities in the implementation of the Sage Intacct solution aimed at helping non-profit organisations (NPOs) realise the full benefits of Sage Intacct. Netesh Maharajh, Director, Alnet Technologies says that the company has already helped organisations to successfully make the transition onto Sage solutions.

Alnet Technologies is a Sage Platinum Business Partner and a Sage Intacct Certified Implementation specialist partner.

“Because NPOs are not in business of making profits, they typically don’t see their financial management as a key priority — which is quite understandable. But at a certain point in their growth, they will need to upgrade the way they manage their finances to support growth and streamline how they report back to donors,” Maharajh says.

Some of the challenges faced by non-profit organisations include:

• Funding reduced or delayed due to COVID-19.
• Ability to gain accurate access to data and insights needed to attract more funding.
• Inefficient manual reporting processes which hinder staff productivity.
• Ensuring compliance and mitigating risk — globally and nationally.
• More than 40% of non-profit finance teams are frustrated by manual reporting.

To gain greater financial and operational insight it is necessary to ensure the following critical points are covered:

• Gain complete visibility and transparency with customisable dashboards.
• Define, track and report on every key organisational focus through unique, defined dimensions – for example, grants, funds, programmes, locations, etc).
• Operating dimensions that facilitate the acquisition of a quick holistic view of performance and outcome measures through statistical tracking and reporting must be implemented.
• It is necessary to build efficiency and accountability with a fund accounting framework.
• Multiple levels in the organisational hierarchy must be created through various stakeholder structures.
• Multiple ledgers — for example, accounts receivable (AR) and accounts payable (AP) order management, and cash management — must be created to process transactions independently without degrading general ledger (GL) performance. They must also reduce the time it takes to close books and report on financial results and outcome measures.
• Multiple books must be created which encompass simultaneously keeping books on an accrual and a cash basis — this will facilitate easy reporting of business results to multiple stakeholders based on their needs and report preferences.
• Efficient management of fund restrictions and grant requirements is required.
• It is also important to simplify grant, fund and donor accounting.
• Utilisation of spend management must be implemented to ensure commented expenses are captured in budget/expense comparisons.
• Multiple operating dimensions for all transactions by donor, programme, grant, location, and more, to achieve a ‘clean GL’ must be applied which will also serve to avoid creating multiple separate GL accounts for each location, programme, fund, etc.
• It is essential to slice-and-dice financial and operational data without having to use external reporting tools or modify charts of accounts.
• Stronger internal controls, tighter cash management are crucial to success.

Another key advantage of Sage Intacct is that it is cloud-based. With costs now falling under operational rather than capital expenses, NPOs have a much tighter control over their budgets, and can even apportion costs pro rata to specific grants. Cloud-based systems make it much easier to collaborate, especially if the NPO has more than one branch. Like most other cloud applications, too, Sage Intacct integrates easily with other leading software solutions, facilitating automated workflows and reporting.

“Automation is critical because it eliminates human error and frees up valuable employee or volunteer time,” Maharajh notes. “Perhaps even more important, NPO finance teams find manual bookkeeping and reporting frustrating — automation removes that frustration and thus boosts morale. Donors, too, increasingly demand accurate and detailed reporting to ensure good governance, and this can be extremely resource-intensive and prone to error if done manually.”

Growing and successful NPOs are as dependent as any business on their ability to strategise, perhaps more so because of the severe financial constraints under which they operate. Every effective strategy depends on clear visibility of the organisation’s financial situation, including its cash flows and a granular analysis of costs and income. Sage Intacct provides this visibility, giving the executive the integrated financial view it needs to plan effectively, and convince donors to support its projects.

“Financial management is vital for a growing NPO to ensure it can use donor funds effectively while reducing administrative overheads and potentially saving costs too,” Maharajh concludes. “Even better, as our NPO clients are already finding, moving to Sage Intacct makes them more effective when it comes to their core mission."

Maharajh confirms that choosing the right partner smooths the road to finance transformation success. “Sage Intacct is based on the things that matter most to dynamic non-profits, namely: automation, reporting, visibility, integration and collaboration. Sage Intacct has helped thousands of non-profits to successfully transform their finance operations.

“It is our mission at Alnet Technologies to help NPOs achieve their mission by automating financial management for greater efficiency and unleashing the power of real-time data to enhance visibility and insights into non-profit organisations,” Maharajh concludes.