How to define your requirements when considering new fund accounting software

If it’s time to consider changing your non-profit’s fund accounting software, evaluating all of your options will unlock invaluable insights about just what your organisation will need today and in the future.

If you feel your non-profit has outgrown its fund accounting solution, now is the time to define your requirements, document the issues and challenges you’ve experienced with your current system and prepare your strategy for a successful implementation.

As a rule of thumb, the 5 key questions you should ask to determine your needs are:

1. What do we want to achieve with our new system? Growth, greater accuracy, process automation?
2. What type of information does management need in order to make better decisions?
3. How do we want to access our data?
4. How many employees and/or stakeholders need to access the system?
5. What other applications are we using (fundraising, donor management/CRM, church management, grants management, etc.)? And does the accounting system need to integrate with these systems?

These straightforward questions play a vital role in the software evaluation stage and beyond.

For more in-depth advice on selecting the right fund accounting software for your non-profit organisation, take a look at our eBook. It provides a 7 step plan, covering:

1. Building an impact case
2. Selecting your software
3. Choosing your implementation partner
4. Conducting a business process review
5. Defining your change management process
6. What to expect from your implementation
7. Tips for launching your new system

Our eBook, 7 Practical steps to non-profit finance transformation, provides further detailed advice, download it here or to discuss your requirements with an NPO financial software specialist, contact us at info@cpio.co.uk