For a successful NGO to flourish, staying compliant and reporting funds accurately for every transaction is crucial. This is especially true for those who receive funding from international agencies.
To successfully achieve your mission’s potential reach and scope, you must understand what to look for in nonprofit document management software. This software allows you to serve people in a more logical and organized manner and makes managing your workflow and business processes much more efficient.
Nonprofit organizations can benefit from a system that includes document management in these five valuable ways:
Inventory
Have you ever searched your office for pertinent, misplaced files? Having a system that provides document management and document control bypasses the hassle and time wasted by going on a treasure hunt to find important documents, and eliminates document misplacement.
Nonprofit document management software products make it possible to store board-related documents in a centralized, secure location. Having web-based software allows employees to access resources from any computer or mobile device with internet access. You won’t have to sift through hundreds of emails looking for your documents and information when you have a system that provides centralized document filing.
Legality and Compliance
A system with records management built into the software keeps your team member expectations on track and stays on top of governmental retention policies. This results in more public faith and additional donor and sponsor trust. A strong benefit of nonprofit document management software is that you are prepared for quality checks by the state and federal government. This system allows for less chance of error and makes the inventory of existing records easy to locate.
When you use a system that includes records management functionality and automatic audit trails, compliance won’t be left to guesswork. Instead, it follows a targeted strategy. Large for-profit corporations are able to throw money at their compliance issues, but your organization needs to think in a creative, targeted manner to accomplish the same goal.
For each company, guidelines for how long you must keep files on record varies, so consult your legal counsel for the exact time frame. However, by putting your files into an electronic system, you know the retention schedule times and are able to ensure your internal processes have systematic quality controls in place.
Confidentiality
Role-based access control gives members the ability to see only what they are authorized to view. Because NGOs have different groups and subcommittees, documents that only pertain to one part of the organization are only viewable to the appropriate party.
Cost
You won’t have to spend money on shipping costs and services. You work with minimal funds, to begin with, so the money you save on paper, printing, and shipping now goes toward your actual mission goals, instead of toward office expenses.
Quality Control
When it comes to reviewing your work, quality and accuracy are paramount. NGOs require procurement requests to be routed and reviewed to provide insight into team purchasing habits. Nonprofit document management software is able to store site visits, travel requests, field reports, audits, and any other documentation related to operations.
