Budget Season & Easing Up on Association Financial Management

It’s already October (goodness!), which means a lot of associations and chambers are heading toward the “most wonderful time of year” – budget season!

As you approach quality time with your budget (and, therefore, your board), we know your staff would appreciate some tips for making financial management a little easier. Here are a few ways your membership management system should help lighten the load all year long:

Sending Automatic Notifications
How does your system handle email communications for dues renewals, invoices, and receipts? See if you can set up notifications that will automatically go out at regularly scheduled times (30/60/90+ days out, etc.) or as soon as a payment is made. Members will appreciate reminders and the instant notifications, while your staff enjoys having one less thing to handle!

Utilizing Reporting Options
We encourage you to really dig into your software to see just what reporting options are available. The more thoroughly you can parse your data, the better you, your staff, and your board will understand your financial status. This means better visibility into what is making an impact on your financial health, which leads to better decision-making overall.

Saving Member Information
Seriously – how much time would you save by being able to house a member’s payment information right in your software?? By doing so, and setting up an automatically recurring bill date for their dues, your staff will have one less member to go after around renewal time. (And bonus, the member will feel less pressure!)

Separating Revenue Streams
Of course, your organization likely has more than dues payments coming in the door. A truly robust solution will be able to easily separate dues from non-dues items (like event registrations, donations, online courses, etc.) with a simple code. That way, nothing is lost when you transfer details from your membership management software – aka, your transactional system of record – to your accounting program of choice.

Simply put, the right membership management software can make your accounting tasks (reconciliation, matching of accounts, reporting, etc.) a seamless process for everyone involved. For more ways to make financial management easier on both staff and members, take a look at our free download: The Ultimate Guide to Financial Management.