A study commission by software vendor AccuFund has concluded that users must spend too much time manipulating data outside of their non profit accounting systems. Seventy-three percent of those responding spend one to five hours weekly pulling reports for staff; for 17 percent that rises to six to 10 hours and more than 10 hours weekly for 10 percent.
The 2015-2016 Nonprofit Accounting Insights & Analysis Survey also indicated because 95 percent of the 298 respondents to the online survey had five or fewer accounting staff members "the reporting bottleneck can't be solved by manual intervention."
AccuFund commissioned Nonprofit Pro to survey its readership, specifically soliciting the opinion of those in roles such as executive director, CEO, president, finance manager, treasurer and comptroller, in industries that include human services, education, performing arts, youth servicing, social services and religious organizations.
Sixty percent of respondents reported their financial software does not store and report nonfinancial performance data. Fifty-one percent said their applications do not offer a dashboard with graphical analytics and 55 percent said dashboards in the software cannot be customized for individuals. Sixty percent did report users can get access financial and performance data.
Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards. Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that. A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind