Whether motivated by a particular cause or serving a particular community, all nonprofits dedicate significant time towards attracting and retaining the funding that fuels their tangible, mission-driven work.
Although frequently overlooked, providing timely, accurate, and compelling reports to donors or grantmakers demonstrates the real-world impact of funding efforts. To ensure transparency with donors, nonprofits must draw a direct link between funds received and the concrete initiatives or actions their organization has taken to fulfill their stated goals.
The easiest and most streamlined way to produce these reports, while simultaneously improving in-house efficiency, is through the use of timekeeping software. For nonprofits, timekeeping software not only simplifies the generation of detailed donor reports, but also improves staffing, budgeting, and project planning, all of which improve the reputation and efficacy of your organization. In this article, we’ll explore the full range of benefits available to nonprofits (and their employees) when they use timekeeping software.
Attracting Funding: Accurate and Transparent Donor Reports
Nonprofits face a two-fold challenge: attracting new donors while ensuring that existing donors are satisfied with the ways their funds have been allocated. Understandably, both individual and institutional donors want to understand how their money is being spent to achieve the overriding goals of the nonprofit and make a positive impact in a given area or community. Having this information readily accessible and organized for reporting to donors is a must, and equally serves as a tool to boost your nonprofit’s standing, fundraising capacity, and viability in future appeals for funding.
Fortunately, timekeeping software can help you provide timely, accurate, itemized reports for donors and outside parties, including statements of functional expenses. By showcasing your nonprofit’s fiscal responsibility and demonstrating the ways that donors’ funds are making a concrete difference, you heighten donor satisfaction and increase word-of-mouth recommendations, which can lead to increased local or regional financial support.
This capacity to accurately report to donors affects your nonprofit on a broader scale, too. Namely, by using timekeeping software to justify and sustain financial support from your core donors, you secure your eligibility for larger federal grants that require matching funds. Additionally, since grantmakers generally require records of how employee time was/is spent, timekeeping software helps you provide the most accurate, transparent, and compelling reports possible.
On an operational level, timekeeping software provides you with historical data, which can be used to create more accurate budgets, timelines, and expectations as you plan for future projects or manage current ones. Whether it’s reviewing timesheet data to determine whether you need increased staffing, increased (or decreased) hours directed towards a specific activity, or increased funding to expand a particular program, timekeeping software provides the data and clarity your nonprofit needs to make your projects more streamlined and efficient.
Track Employee Hours: Improve Staffing, Budgets, & Timelines
Properly managing the in-house aspects of your nonprofit makes a pronounced impact on funding and community credibility. Timekeeping software allows you to closely monitor the hours worked by each of your team members, which helps you not only with evaluations of individual staff members, but also with budgeting for overtime, payroll costs, and unexpected costs.
With the ability to quickly identify extra (unanticipated) hours worked, you can better manage your staff, understand the true cost of particular activities, improve the accuracy of your program budgets, and gain a clearer perspective regarding how much time is required to fulfill the objectives of each project or initiative.
On a broader scale, the data you gain through timekeeping software gives you a much clearer perspective on the number (and types) of employees you need to keep your organization running, or to successfully complete a particular program or initiative. This is especially true if your organization has ambitions to expand.
For instance, if you’ve run a pilot program that has experienced initial success, or if you’d like to budget for future funding based on the need to add one or two additional employees, timekeeping software helps you gather the quantitative data necessary to prepare for these changes. It can also provide a clearer picture of the overall cost of the hiring/onboarding process – from the time required to fill a vacancy to the amount of time spent on training.
Improve PTO and Fringe Benefits Calculations
Timekeeping software ensures accurate payroll and staffing reports for in-house use (and for dissemination to donors), but it also assists with the management of fringe benefits like paid time off (PTO). With the right timekeeping software, the PTO that employees accrue through each pay period will be tracked and calculated using built-in leave management functions.
Employees can schedule or request PTO through the software and, if approved, deductions are automatically withdrawn from the employee’s overall PTO balance. Timekeeping software equally streamlines other fringe benefit processes like overtime, holiday pay, etc., granting nonprofit leadership and HR personnel more time to focus on their core tasks.
Accurately Track and Report Funding with Payday
To remain in good standing with existing donors, and to attract future grants and fundraising, timekeeping software is an indispensable tool for nonprofits. It also considerably helps with staffing, budgeting, and project management concerns. Payday’s Time and Attendance Software can help you streamline your payroll, monitor time and attendance, and create the reports you need to attract and retain the funding that keeps your organization thriving. Contact us today to start our collaboration.