Bill Chinn is the CEO of the Dallas Entrepreneur Center Network. He credits PlotPath for understanding their unique needs as a nonprofit organization and organizing their finances.
“PlotPath gave us tools to manage the organization in a way we never had before,” Chinn said. “They provided good advice for how to structure our future plans.”
A small 12-person team (plus a network of awesome volunteers and board members) means everyone’s doing a lot, and they need to run a tight ship. The organization faces unique bookkeeping challenges as a non-profit, from financial red tape to compliance and documentation. With all that plus over $1.3 million in annual donations and grants to manage, there’s plenty to keep track of – and mistakes could cost them their nonprofit license.
Bill Chinn is the CEO of the Dallas Entrepreneur Center Network. He credits PlotPath for understanding their unique needs as a nonprofit organization and organizing their finances.
“PlotPath gave us tools to manage the organization in a way we never had before,” Chinn said. “They provided good advice for how to structure our future plans.”
A small 12-person team (plus a network of awesome volunteers and board members) means everyone’s doing a lot, and they need to run a tight ship. The organization faces unique bookkeeping challenges as a non-profit, from financial red tape to compliance and documentation. With all that plus over $1.3 million in annual donations and grants to manage, there’s plenty to keep track of – and mistakes could cost them their nonprofit license.d.
Nonprofits often receive what’s known as a “pass-through payment.” Pass-through payments or funds are gifts that are spoken for. The organization receives funds expecting to be passed on to particular recipients or used for certain programs. To keep things running smoothly, the team must always know how much of their cash flow is restricted versus what’s currently available.
The center was using class tracking for PnL reporting. While that would seem to make sense for keeping up with diverse funding sources, they ended up with a spreadsheet with 50 classes – not easy to work with. The PnL was simply too large to be useful for decision-making.
What was worse, the Audit & Finance Committee couldn’t easily tell from reports how much of the money in their accounts was earmarked for designated purposes. They often found themselves asking, “How much cash is truly ours to spend vs already committed based on grant guidelines”? And figuring it out meant hours of tedious calculations.
Like all nonprofits, Dallas Entrepreneur Center exists to fulfill a larger mission – but accounting stress was getting in the way.
The DEC came to PlotPath for help. They needed a solution that would meet their unique challenges and allow them to focus on the top priority – helping entrepreneurs thrive.
EVERYTHING IN ITS PROPER BASKET: These days, financial tracking is a breeze. The Audit & Finance Committee can see (in seconds, not hours) where everything belongs – including which funds are temporarily restricted and which are part of the general operating budget.
They did away with “spreadsheet bookkeeping” and moved completely to online reporting in Quickbooks. Things are more accurate and efficient, not to mention the countless hours and headaches saved.
PART OF THE TEAM: Overall, beyond just the organizing of information, PlotPath provided the experience DEC needed to succeed.
“They were very good at researching everything to get it right. Nonprofits have some unique complexities, and they stepped up to the challenge,” he said. “The quality of their personnel is very consistent. They feel like they are part of the internal team. Our team loves our partners at PlotPath.”
By having the unrestricted cash balance visible on reporting, DEC can easily calculate its cash runway to ensure the business remains in a healthy cash position.
This allows them to quickly see where they are and where they should go. With PlotPath on their team, they have a clear picture of what is going on in the organization.
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