How to Streamline Your Data Entry and Reconciliation Processes with Integrated Fundraising and Finance Solutions 

Who doesn’t love the last-minute scramble to locate missing invoices or track down uncashed checks so you can finish your month-end close?

A good reconciliation process keeps your financial records accurate and up to date. But without the right systems, this process can be mind-numbingly time-consuming and prone to errors. By integrating fundraising and finance systems, information flows easily from gift records to journal entries, saving time, reducing the risk of fraud, and simplifying audits.

Here’s how a connected fundraising and finance system can simplify reconciliation for nonprofit organizations, and what it would look like in practice.

Why Is Reconciliation So Challenging?

Reconciliation is the process of matching financial records from different sources, such as gift records, invoices, and bank feeds, to ensure consistency and accuracy. If gifts aren’t reconciled to the right program—or any program—it’s difficult to make sure you are adhering to donor intent.

For nonprofit organizations, reconciliation often involves matching invoices to bank records, formatting data in Excel, and ensuring that contributions are correctly recorded in both the fundraising and accounting systems. The reconciliation process can cause headaches for a variety of reasons, including:

Manual Processes

Many nonprofits still rely on manual processes for data entry and matching records. This not only increases the risk of human error but also requires significant time and effort.

Duplication of Efforts

Often, the same data needs to be entered into multiple systems, leading to duplication of efforts and increasing the likelihood of discrepancies.

Compromised Audit Trail

Without a clear and consistent audit trail, it can be challenging to trace transactions and ensure that all funds are accounted for. This can complicate audits, reduce transparency, and open the door to fraud.

Time-Consuming

Development teams can spend 30-40 hours per month getting gifts into the CRM and preparing data, while finance teams may spend 8-12 hours per month matching records and posting to the general ledger. Just imagine what you could do if you were able to cut that time in half.

How a Connected Fundraising and Fund Accounting System Simplifies Reconciliation

Integrating fundraising and finance systems can address many of the challenges associated with reconciliation.

Less Manual Data Entry

By connecting fundraising and finance systems, you enter data once and it is automatically shared between systems. This reduces the need for manual data entry, minimizes errors, and ensures more accurate data. You don’t need to decipher where the funds need to go when your systems are connected.

Automated Transactions

You can easily automate transactions so you can get contributions into the system quickly and easily, speeding up the process of going from funding to disbursement. The quicker you can get funds into your system, the faster they can be used to support your mission. And the automation also minimizes the burden on your staff.

Clear Paper Trail

A connected system provides a clear paper trail from the initial gift agreement to the paid invoice. This makes it easier to trace transactions and ensures transparency.

Systematized Internal Controls

When you connect your fundraising and finance systems, the systems pass data directly to each side without the need for reformatting or manipulating spreadsheets. The systems essentially mirror each other and there is a natural place for contributions to land in your fund accounting system. This ensures consistency and helps maintain internal controls.

What a Connected Reconciliation Process Looks Like

With a connected system, the reconciliation process becomes much more streamlined and efficient. Here’s what it looks like in practice:

Seamless Data Flow:

Data flows seamlessly from the development team to the finance team. Contributions are entered once in the fundraising CRM—such as Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT®—and are then “pushed” into the accounting system—such as Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT®. This creates a single source of truth that everyone can access.

Empowered Teams

Everyone in the organization has access to the information they need. This builds trust across teams because everyone can see that funds are used for their intended purpose.

Consistent User Interface

A consistent user interface across systems makes it easier for staff to use the technology and reduces the learning curve.

Automated Processes

Automatically batch recurring gifts so they flow directly to finance, eliminating manual processes and ensuring that no one accidentally misses recurring funding.

Streamlined Information Sharing

With a connected fundraising and finance system, your staff throughout the organization has more complete information on how and when funds are being used. Everyone is on the same page regarding the purpose of the funds—and can easily stay there. That clarity makes month- and year-end processes more efficient. There is nothing worse than finding an error after funds have been used and expensed.

Improved Audit Trail

With connected systems, the audit trail is clear and consistent. For example, clicking on the project ID in Financial Edge NXT from a journal entry that was pushed from Raiser’s Edge NXT will identify the matching record in the fundraising system. This makes it easier to track transactions and ensures that all funds are accounted for.

Getting Started with a Connected Fundraising and Fund Accounting System

A connected fundraising and finance system can significantly simplify reconciliation for nonprofit organizations. By reducing manual data entry, automating transactions, and providing a clear paper trail, these systems save time, reduce the risk of fraud, and make audits easier. As a result, nonprofit organizations can focus more on their mission and less on administrative tasks. If you’re looking to streamline your reconciliation processes, consider implementing a connected fundraising and finance system today.

See a connected system in action with a product tour featuring Raiser’s Edge NXT and Financial Edge NXT.