Improve Financial Reporting & Break Down Association Data Silos
Are you tired of disparate technology systems, revenue leakage, decentralized reporting and lack of transparency in your association? Being an association with many different levels, moving data and dollars across your local, state or regional associations can be tough. You could be losing dollars and data in the process.
Chapters and affiliates all over the place giving you a headache? You may relate…
Reporting = Nonexistent
If you don’t know where the member payments are coming from or how much, it’s hard to report to your nationals and vice versa. With no real data, your reports are guesswork at best.
Timing is key
Even if your data is being collected, is it in real-time? Delayed data and funds can cause inaccurate records. You don’t want to be sending past due notices to a member that paid a week ago…or even to the wrong email address. Or worse, you don’t want to compromise member services based on incorrect information.
Financial Health
Not to mention, do you even have any idea how much chapters and locals are collecting? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a report that shows down to the penny how and where the funds are coming in while updating member information?
Integrated Systems = Full Visibility
Shouldn’t all your systems be integrated? With an up-to-date view of your entire organization’s financial health, you should be able to see:
- Cash account balances
- Invoicing & collection percentages
- Budget summaries
- Group-specific (e.g. chapters, local affiliates or lodges) reports and more
Tired of navigating the tricky layout of chapters and affiliates?
Break Down Association Data Silos
Nobody likes it when the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing, so maybe it’s time to break down those data silos and get your association rolling like a well-oiled machine. Managing member data as it flows into and out of your systems can be a burden.
- Have you thought about how your state and local affiliates handle data storage?
- Is it housed on the membership director’s hard drive?
- Is it imported and exported manually?
- Is it updated in real time or in weekly batches?
Do you even know the answers to these questions? (FYI – It’s ok if you don’t) If not, it might be time to reconsider what kind of support you need to provide your state and local affiliates, so they can securely store member data. Not to mention, are you currently able to share the data you’re collecting between national, state and local tiers? Bob Anzivino, Former Chief Technology Officer, at Billhighway said:
“Too often we see different affiliates sitting on their own individual islands of data. Building bridges that allow data to flow securely between departments creates efficiency for the whole association.”
Drawing from the same pool
One system of record can solve these issues. It’s most important to be sure all parties are drawing from the same pool of data for consistency and accuracy.
“Consider cloud-based and real-time features when evaluating your record system.”
Securing the access points
Once you have a single record system, you need to make sure that only the appropriate people have access to the data. It’s important to protect your staff and members against security breaches by setting technology standards and polices for employees.
“Consider educating your staff on up-to-date technology changes.”
With a centralized reporting system, lack of transparency can be a thing of the past. The easiest way to increase the quality of your data is to control and manage the source. This allows you to consolidate and avoid collecting unnecessary information, which may in turn prevent hacker breaches.
