Not for Profits and social enterprises face enormous complexity and operational challenges. They may be running several siloed applications, working from multiple spreadsheets and struggling with time-intensive manual processes. And while there are an array of technology systems on the market, there is a real lack of applications that are affordable and purpose-built to meet their unique needs. 

The solution to these challenges, and more, comes from adopting an integrated ERP system such as NetSuite. Not only can NetSuite improve internal efficiencies and reduce IT and administrative costs, it has native features and capabilities that enable not for profits to better measure impact while improving transparency and accountability to donors and stakeholders. 

In this blog we take a look at what NetSuite can do for the modern not for profit and how adopting a system developed with not for profits can provide the essential foundation to support them to achieve their mission more effectively and efficiently than ever before. 

 

Bringing everything and everyone together 

Just as disconnected systems are a common problem in for profit businesses, not for profits also struggle working productively under a siloed mentality. With staff forced to spend countless hours collecting, moving and managing data across multiple systems and spreadsheets, the likelihood of data being inaccurate and out of date increases. Left uncorrected, this can lead to missed opportunities, incorrect reporting and ultimately, undermine their ability to achieve social impact.  

NetSuite streamlines operations by keeping accounting, fundraising, constituent relationship management, enterprise resource planning, inventory management and ecommerce in one place versus several places. The benefits are manifold. With a single version of truth not for profits gain real-time visibility into all facets of the organisation and achieve a 360-degree view of  donors and prospects, making it easier to deepen stakeholder relationships and guide leads to donate. They will have the tools needed to collect, analyse and mine meaningful, real-time insights from their data, supporting them to both make data-driven decisions with less risk and run successful fundraising campaigns.  

 

Generating trust, transparency and measuring outcomes 

Measuring social impact is notoriously difficult for social enterprises. At the same time, the expectations from donors to demonstrate social performance before they contribute is increasing. 

Without NetSuite, developing and measuring meaningful metrics has been almost impossible because traditional accounting systems lack the financial transparency and reporting capabilities needed to do so. NetSuite, however, provides a unified solution to automate back-office functions, going beyond siloes of fundraising software and accounting to capture more than just the money flowing through an organisation. This enables not for profits to correlate programs to financial data in ways that were once impossible. In fact, NetSuite can be configured complete with a variety of reports presented in real-time, right on their dashboards. This includes: 

 

  • Statement of Financial Position:  Modified Balance Sheet meets FASB financial reporting requirements. 
  • Statement of Functional Expenses: Reports all expenses, broken down by “Program Services,” “Management and General” and “Fundraising”. 
  • Statement of Cash Flow:  States cash flow from inflows and outflows resulting from net assets without donor restrictions. 
  • Statement of Activities:  Revenue Report for Restricted Funds to support Statement of Activity. Lists all revenue transactions by Account and Fund. 
  • Supporting FASB Activity Report by Program/Fund:  Revenue Report for Restricted Funds supports Statement of Activity. Lists all revenue transactions by Fund/Program segment. 
  • Grant Statement of Activity: A combined Statement of Revenues and Expenditures, which includes the Net Asset categorisations, can be filtered for a single grant or provide a comparative view of all grants. 

 

Ensuring security and compliance 

Ever-growing threats to data security and the need to adhere to legal and regulatory requirements has never been more important for not for profits. By bringing all parts of the business together, NetSuite ensures not for profits are well-positioned to meet their compliance obligations while protecting critical and sensitive data. 

 

Customising to unique business models 

Traditional on-premise business systems are generally inflexible or costly to customise. Cloud-first solutions like NetSuite are far more flexible and agile, allowing not for profits to have ownership over customising or configuring their solution to meet the unique needs of their programs and initiatives.  

 

Supporting a remote or hybrid workforce  

Cloud-based ERP solutions such as NetSuite provide staff with on-demand access to a centralised database wherever they happen to be working from. This flexibility minimises typical disruptions and helps raise the productivity, efficiency and collaborative power of the wider team.  

 

Would you like to learn more?  

See what three of Annexa’s APAC Not for Profit customers look like after migrating to the cloud. 

Annexa helps not-for-profit organisations to amplify their impact with custom NetSuite systems that enable sophisticated budget forecasting and planning, financial reporting, payroll solutions and customer relationship management.