Unit4’s FP&A Nonprofit model can help nonprofits with an integrated approach to planning
People count on nonprofits to help tackle inequality and positively impact the communities they support.
When nonprofits have greater visibility of all their data – across finance, HR, and projects - they can easily strategize, collaborate, and operate with the productivity they need to make a meaningful impact.
The challenge most nonprofits face is meeting the growing demand for their services with the same or, in some cases, fewer resources, in a challenging financial environment.
Nonprofits are tasked with an increasing need to strategize and anticipate future demand, while also dealing with reductions in funding from donations and grants.
With uncertainty at an all-time high, focusing on reliable and comprehensive budgeting and planning can help you deliver greater impact to those who count on you, regardless of the pressures you face – but this relies on a single source of truth for your data.
Keep reading to learn how, with integrated data in the Unit4 Cloud, nonprofits can have a clearer view of financials, operations, and resources, allowing you to build an agile strategy to achieve your mission.
Click to read Helping nonprofits deliver on their mission with FP&A and HCM Gated
The current outlook
The big question for most nonprofits today is how do you get data you can trust, to support actionable and insightful strategies for the future?
When your nonprofit organization relies on a tangle of unconnected applications, and data siloes, this becomes more challenging. Most nonprofits rely on disparate and fragmented legacy systems, including multiple Excel spreadsheets, and trying to gain insight and visibility across these data siloes is tough and prevents true collaboration.
Managing data related to donor management, fund management, grant management, volunteers, and more, makes undertaking any organizational or operational planning near impossible. Nonprofits need to form strategies that focus on productivity, as well as cost savings.
Disparate and unconnected systems mean that people struggle to access data or complete tasks they need to do their daily work, especially when working remotely.
Because of this, 60% of nonprofits have now made connecting “labor-intensive and disjointed manual processes” their top priority. With 48% of nonprofits maintaining or increasing their spending on SaaS to get there.
Read our whitepaper ‘The Road to Transformation’ to learn more about those nonprofits digitally transforming.
Investing in an integrated ERP suite is key for modern FP&A processes
After what we've learned from recent events, and the likelihood that disruption is becoming part and parcel with daily operations, now is the time to invest in sophisticated planning tools that help your nonprofit make the best possible decisions, informed by accurate data, so that you can plan confidently for any eventuality or opportunity.
Some applications will feel mission-critical, due to the data they collect and how they support your everyday work, but this data can be underutilized when it is contained within a single application.
An integrated financial planning solution ensures that other applications and teams can use this data productively as well, not just boosting collaboration among your teams but ensuring your data has the highest utilization within a single source of truth.
A centralized ERP that seamlessly integrates with your financial planning & analysis software, and other key functions, means you can analyze, report, strategize, and optimize with confidence, with refined processes that are led by a single source of truth, not fragmented data with multiple versions of truth.
The good news is that modern ERP and FP&A tools do just that. Unlike on-premises systems, SaaS solutions deliver the collaboration and connectivity needed to transform your whole operation.
How can Unit4 FP&A transform your nonprofit’s mission impact?
Unit4’s integrated and Cloud-powered FP&A solution takes financial planning and analysis to the next level, made with nonprofits in mind, to enable you to go beyond traditional financial planning. Our solution empowers you to be proactive, adaptive, and agile in your decision-making, ensuring your nonprofit remains at the forefront of change.
Unit4 FP&A supports your nonprofit’s organizational strategy through quarterly, mid-term, and annual planning. But your HR data is integrated too, so staffing is easier, enabling you to identify the relevant skills and availability to ensure you can meet demand, manage grants, flexibly plan, budget, forecast for the future, and adapt to uncertainty.
You can dive into the details per project, month, region, and industry. Unit4 FP&A helps with scenario planning and shows utilization forecasts on a weekly and monthly basis, and according to roles, teams, and individuals.
To learn more about Unit4 FP&A and its nonprofit model, read our executive brief on the capabilities of these tools, and how they can help your nonprofit make impactful decisions that enable you to deliver your mission without back-office obstacles.
