NP Solutions NonProfit Blog

Exciting news from the land of NP Solutions and Sage.  We've just returned from the annual conference where we go the low down on changes in upcoming releases.  We can tell you a few things so check back soon as we get our notes together and start letting you know what's coming.

Sage MIP Fund Accounting version 10 has started shipping.  The big news here is the Visual Analyzer, a dashboard that you can set up by user to display charts, graphs, gauges and other controls that are live, real time visual indicators of performance and status.  Stay tuned for more details and screen shots.

Authorized by Section 1404 of SAFETEA-LU (the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users), the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Program came into effect in August 2005. Some expected outcomes of the program include:

• Increased bicycle, pedestrian, and traffic safety around schools
• More children walking and bicycling to and from schools
• Decreased traffic congestion around schools
• Reduced childhood obesity
• Improved air quality, community safety and security, community involvement
• Improved partnerships among schools, local agencies, parents, community groups, non-profit organizations

This new federal funding program is intended to improve conditions for
children in kindergarten through eighth grade, to safely walk and
bicycle to school. Physical improvements must be located within a
two-mile radius of a school. Applications that have the best chance of
being selected for funding are those that are developed with community
participation and incorporate key elements referred to as the five E’s
–education, encouragement, engineering, enforcement and evaluation.

The next call for projects from this federally funded program is February 2008.  One of our clients was recently awarded $500,000 and will be using the proceeds to hire a Safe Routes coordinator, provide families with maps of safe walking routes to each school, offer training in bicycle/pedestrian safety to the community and explore creating a volunteer crossing guard program.

There is a lot of money out there to fund your projects if you just know where to look.

In June 2005, Independent Sector released suggestions from the
Panel on the Nonprofit Sector about how to increase accountability and
nonprofit governance. Key recommendations followed by many nonprofits
included:

• External Audits or Reviews – 501(c)(3)
  organizations with greater than $1 million annual revenues should have
  financial records audited. Organizations with $250,000 to $1 million in
  revenues should have an independent accountant review financial
  statements.
• Audit Committees – Organizations
  should ensure their boards of directors include individuals with
  financial literacy skills, and should establish separate, independent
  audit committees if financial statements are audited or reviewed
  externally.
• Full Review Every 5 Years
  – The board should fully review organizational and governing
  instruments, key financial transactions, and compensation policies and
  practices once every five years to ensure tax exempt status is
  appropriate and can be maintained.
• Transparency – Provide
  detailed information about programs, measured outcomes, and financial
  management to the public via annual reports, Websites, and other means.
• Executive Compensation - Organizations
  should have written policies requiring the full board to approve CEO
  compensation annually, and in advance.
• Conflict of Interest – Organizations should write policies concerning conflict of interest and whistleblower protection.

It's a brand new year and a fresh start for everyone.  Hopefully we're all energized after the lethargy of two weeks of holidays.

Here at NPS we're busy helping our clients remember how to do those year end things we all only do once a year, W-2s and 1099s.  With MIP it's easy, but the steps aren't always recallable from the dark recess of the accounting mind.  Just remember that the Print icon on the toolbar produces a list of selected entries, it's clicking OK that actually runs the 1099 process.

If you're on Fund Accounting V9, you have Aatrix available to produce all your forms.  They even have a service level that will print and mail the W-2s to your employees, how convenient is that?

Feel free to let us know what you think or if you need any help; we're here for you.

We got our copy of MIP V9 delivered today.  We've been working with the various beta releases over the past few weeks and did find a few things that needed to be fixed.  We'll be reviewing this official release over the next week or so and comparing it to our notes on the items we and other Sage partners found during our testing.

We're pretty excited about this release as it adds some functionality without any major new models so the installationa and upgrade should go pretty smoothly.  The biggest news is the streamlined navigation and enhanced user interface.  The new Process Manager is a pretty neat feature, replacing the Report Manager Favorites panel and the task icon bar.  Now all your screen selections and reports can be placed in one place for simple navigation.

A link to Aatrix is now included so ALL government forms, payroll, 1099's, etc are available, both federal and state.  About time too.

Other changes include the additiona of true Recurring and Reversing entries in most modules as well as updated list selection, enhancements to Fixed Assets and stronger audit controls.

Web sites are a great way to get information about your organization to both consituents and your client base as well as a place to get some donations. But how do you get people to see it? We've been struggling with this as much as you have. I'm sure we've all heard the radio and seen the television ads where a company directs you to their web site. But most of us don't have the resources to spend on that kind of advertising. We have a couple of suggestions for you.

Press releases are a great way to get the word out about your organization. Sites such as PRWeb will help you produce and distribute your press release; much better than the old way of sending print copies to local newspapers. Be sure your web site is prominent in the release and you may get some clicks.

Are you coming up on web searches? Go to a search engine like Google or Yahoo and put in your organization name or some key words about what you do and see the results. "Click through" advertising can be purchased or move you up in the rankings. And if you're not coming to the top of the list, look into Search Engine Optimization services. There are several companies out there that specialize in doing just that, such as DeviateMedia.

And once folks get to your web site, be sure to give them the opportunity to donate once they get there. With the release of Sage Fundraising 50 version 9, Donate Now, integrated with Sage Payment Solutions, gives you the ability to process the donations on line and download the information directly into FR50. If you already have a donation link, we can help you bring that data into your fundraising program.

Sage announced last week that the latest version of FR50 will begin
shipping this week. We've had the opportunity to beta test this version
and it seems rock solid. There are no major changes to the program but
the hyperlinks to tables have been increased as well as the export and
reporting fields. Additionally, the type to Donate Now, Sage Payment
Solution's on-line donations processing is now a seamless integration.
We'll have more information as soon as we have our hands on the
production release.