New Legislation and a New Need for Grant Management Software

Utilizing a quality grant management solution is more important now than ever. Transparency and regulatory compliance has been the national mantra of late, and organizations reliant on grant funding are going to hear the echoes of this mantra—loudly.  The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act, or DATA Act, has been recently introduced to both the Senate and House and is likely to pass. This piece of legislation will transform the level of transparency and accountability of U.S. government spending. How will this affect institutions and organizations reliant on grants? The legislation makes the government accountable for their spending, hereby making most grantors accountable for their spending, in turn making your institution, hospital or university accountable for its spending—more accountable than ever before.

The DATA Act is only one piece of legislation that needs a grant management solution that tracks, reports and organizes to the new standards of regulatory efficiency and transparency. With the momentum of the DATA Act, the proposed 2014 Fiscal Budget by the current administration is also “tightening the reigns” on universities and non-profits. As stated previously, the accountability of the government translates into the accountability of the recipient of funding.  Not only will this “tightening” increase accountability for post-award activity, it will create more scrutiny during the pre-award process.

For example, under the new proposed budget and its inherent call for transparency, tax-exempt organizations are to expand into E-Filing, in which organizations and institutions would be required to file 990 tax information electronically. The IRS then releases the information to databases. The goal is for foundations and grantors to have access to organizational data that are in consideration for a grant. Grant management software with accounting and financial systems easily aids this process with detailed reporting. If this is a glimpse of new federal standards for grant allocation, a grant management solution is soon to be the only viable option for accurate, detailed and satisfactory financial reporting.

Grant Management Solutions in a Changing Political Landscape

With the new call for regulatory transparency and efficiency there is good news.  However, it only good if your organization is prepared for it. There are many benefits for organizations and institutions in this changing climate that will save time, money and bureaucratic red tape. For example, in the new proposed budget, with federal awards being more scrutinized, a prepared institution with the right resources is more apt to be reimbursed for their allowable non-direct costs faster than in the past.  There is also a proposed minimum rate and timeline proposed for this reimbursement. However, an organization or institution that does not have the resources or software for  time and effort tracking (quantifying, accounting and reporting) will be at huge disadvantage.

To put it plainly—instead of conducting frequent audits, the government, foundations and grantors are evolving into a process of preventing audits. In essence, they are applying their own form of macro-grant management software and are going to check their processes against your organization’s or institution’s processes.  Not only will your grant management solution make your grant cycles more efficient and compliant, you will be prepared for legislative and technological mandates that are sure to come in the near future.

IT Works’ grant management software is prepared for changes that occur in the grant landscape. With frequent updates and innovative technology, we ensure that your institution or organization is prepared. Contact an IT Works representative today to learn more about our grant management product suites.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2013

Receiving grants has become more complex and competitive than even before, while recipients are now held more accountable for the management of funds than ever before. When complexity increases and the rigidity of compliance and accountability increases, it can be a daunting scenario for even the most seasoned grant managing administration. The reason behind higher standards of compliance and accountability is simple—technology. When a governmental or private grantor offers funding, it is now generally accepted that an institution has the grant management software to allocate and manage funds, track effort, have detailed reporting capabilities and be prepared for an audit.

These aspects of managing grants were indeed simpler in the past. However, for research facilities, universities, hospitals and institutions that rely, in part, on grants to function, the idea of simple has been replaced with the idea of efficiency and technology, or grant management software. The notion of managing grants internally—fund allocation, tracking and reporting—without a grant management solution is scary enough. What about managing sub-recipients? Or the sub-recipients of the sub-recipients? This is when part and parcels of grant management becomes even more complicated, and compliance becomes increasingly dicey.

Tracking Sub-Recipient Activities with a Grant Management Solution

For all intents and purposes, let’s say you are part of the administration of the School of Arts at Gadzooks University. The School of Arts receives a grant for a research study.  Part of the work proposed is to be completed by the English Department at Shiptown University. Shiptown University becomes the sub-recipient. The English Department as part of the research study gives funds for three English students to visit Tangiers and study William S. Burroughs.  You, as the lead recipient of the School of Arts, have to be able to allocate funds, track, report, and be prepared for audit on behalf of these two tiers of sub-recipients. But how?

Allocation

Your grant management software needs to be able to budget and allocate funds to sub-recipients, which in the example given above, allows the sub-recipient to further allocate funds. Streamlining this process through one standard system prevents errors through the transparency of the tiered allocation. To meet many federal and private grantor guidelines, it is critical this allocation needs to be correct and transparent. The visibility across different departments allows flexibility because the accounting system easily reports any changes and tracks why the changes were made. Although grants can become complicated, especially the allocation of funds, grant management software ensures compliance is upheld through this visibility.

Reporting

In the example, both the School of Arts of Gadzooks U and the Shiptown University English Department (the sub-recipient) are responsible for different aspects of reporting. By having a standard financial and effort reporting tool, data entry and communication is more streamlined. Incorrect information and communication breakdowns are leading causes of non-compliance when an audit may occur. A departmental standard of IT system processes and tools prevent this. Grant management software prevents this.

Tracking

Tracking is the prerequisite to reporting, and the lead recipient needs to be able to analyze budget performance as it relates to effort and time tracking as needed. By utilizing standard tracking processes, the lead recipient is able to track sub-recipient performance effortlessly, because the tracking and the accounting are interwoven into the grant management IT system. When the recipient has to monitor multiple grants over multiple sub-recipients, the tools of a quality IT grant system becomes invaluable for internal grant performance, efficiency and external compliance.

Being Prepared for Audit

Since the grant management software is able to track all aspects of your grant and its many moving parts, you are prepared for any external audits as well as prepared to perform your own internal audits. This will commonly happen when an institution relies on grants. Retrieving information from different tools from different departments about different aspects of the grant, then analyzing and reporting findings is time-consuming and still does not guarantee the accuracy grant management software provides. Also, the many red flags the software indicates during the grant cycle means fixing problems during and not after. This reduces external audit costs, saves time and reduces the chances of paybacks.

For more information on how grant management software helps sub-recipient transparency and communication to greatly aid in compliant grant usage, contact an IT Works representative today.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2013

As with anything in life, a change will prompt questions about the particular change or if the change is really even necessary. The notion of changing your organization’s methods of managing its grants will, of course, prompt questions. It should. It’s a big deal. The right grant management software effectively makes processes easier, but questions will arise concerning the validity, the need, and the value of changing to a new IT system to manage your grants. The good news is that the right questions (and the right answers) usually validate the need for that change.

5 Great Questions on Implementing an IT Grant Management Solution

Our accounting system does an OK job managing grant funds, why would we need anything else?

Grant management software doesn’t need to replace your accounting system. It is designed to improve and work with it. Organizations that rely on grants, however, need a system that is specific to grant management. A transparent and reliable source of data for internal and reporting purposes is found in grant management software, not necessarily accounting. It’s not intended to replace the accounting system but to augment, simplify and improve it.  It can track, allocate and effort report for fiscal accountability.

We have an internal system and processes, why even need grant management software?

An internal system means different things to different organizations. In-house proprietary software usually means a cobbled together IT system that changes with the complexity, size, compliance and overall landscape of grant allocations. Even the best well-cobbled system cannot keep up with incremental improvements that need to regularly be made. Specifically made grant management software updates regularly and adjusts to organizational needs easily. It saves on time and resources.

What if new software doesn’t integrate with our other systems?

To simplify this answer, let’s say it does. The right grant management IT solution is just that–a solution, not a problem maker. The software integrates with existing programs to enhance their abilities, not to debase their use.

Not a question but…we can’t afford grant management software.

Like anything in business, investments are made. The question should be–is it a wise investment? The initial investment is temporary, but the time and energy saved from switching from inefficient processes will pay for itself over and over again. Knowing that data is readily available and compliance is assured also offers a peace of mind.

What if we don’t have time to learn a new system?

It depends on how you define saving time. Having one standard process for new users saves frustration, training and time in the grand scheme of things. Also, with ongoing support and onsite training from reputable professionals, your transition shouldn’t be as time-consuming as you would image. After an initial commitment and implementation, the purpose of the software developer is now to ensure you can use it optimally in a short period of time.

Changes always come with questions—it’s called prudence. The important part about making a change to new grant management software is to ask questions and expect reasonable answers. At IT Works, we welcome any questions and concerns you may have. Contact an IT Works representative today with any questions you may have concerning making the switch to our state-of-the-art grant management software.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2013

For many organizations and institutions, optimizing new grant management software isn’t daunting in so far as allocating funds for it or training a staff to use it; it’s the fear of temporarily disrupting workflows and procedures already set in place. There is also not a pre-defined, one size fits all procedure in which organizations adhere to. In other words, effort tracking or HR management is going to have different procedures in a hospital setting than it would in a university. Point being, the transitional facilitation for new grant management software will be different for each particular organization. However, there are 3 simple steps that mitigate the disruption of workflow and procedures and will help any organization begin using their new grant management software effectively.

Easily Transitioning Into Your New Grant Management Solution

These steps work in a three-pronged approach for easing transition.

• To identify the functional need of each component of the software to help optimize procedures.
• To manage the initial implementation and usage of the grant management software–outside of the training and ongoing support from IT Works.
• To quickly demonstrate the benefits of the grant management software to garner initial internal support.

Together this helps mitigate disruptions in procedures and personnel but also helps to ease the minds of any anxious stakeholders.

1. Identifying Where and How To Implement

The new grant management software is intending to save money and time, right? The first step is to identify where and how. Should processes that involve repeated steps be automated? Probably. Implement this procedure into the new software. Is the right data being compiled into an easily accessible format ready for custom reports? Implement this process into the new grant management solution. Understanding and identifying where, initially, the software helps the most and implementing the solution will aid in procedural transition. As you become more familiar with the solution, you can increasingly begin customizing your software. Changing procedures effectively and carefully helps minimize the transition.

2. Organize Your Personnel to Introduce the Software

There are so many interconnected departments for organizations reliant on grant-funding. There are program managers, HR professionals, accountants, compliance monitors and a host of other responsible parties that need to be on the same page for procedural fluidity. When introducing your new grant management software, elect voices from each department to understand each one’s unique needs and challenges.  Where do processes seem to get backed up? And how can the new software address these challenges? Also, how is the initial change going to affect each department?

• Make sure each department voice charged with soliciting this feedback is also informed enough to communicate with their particular staff regarding the new software and address their staff’s concerns as well.

3. Celebrate a Small Success

The point of the initial transition from old procedures isn’t to change everything quickly. This doesn’t help to mitigate disruptions in workflow and procedures. Easing transition is framed better by a battery of small successes. For example, perhaps a small grant is managed by a small cross-functional team with a basic understanding of the new grant management software. Perhaps only a few people from different departments. If this team uses the software through the entire lifecycle of the grant and the process proves to be more time and monetarily efficient, naysayers and anxious stakeholders will be put at ease. A small success goes a long way to not only ease worry, but it also identifies and demonstrates new, organizational-specific procedures that should be used on a macro level. This also helps to train staff and solidify new procedures—without overtly disrupting workflow.

IT Works understands the hesitancy some organizations have about transitioning into new procedures. This is why we offer ongoing support and training to help to smooth the transition and ensure your optimizing your software. Contact an IT Works representative to learn more about what our grant management software can do for you.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2013

Reliance on Spreadsheets

Excel is amazing. It’s been called the most important piece of software of all time. But look at what happens when smart people, even Harvard economists, make mistakes. Now think about your own organization. Do you have a single specialist working on the implementation of data into spreadsheets? What happens if they leave the company, make a mistake, or take ill? Does their expertise scale if you are suddenly taking on more work? These are scary thoughts, but it happens all the time! Excel is an excellent tool for bootlegging solutions at small companies, but as complexity grows, the need for a true grant management software solution becomes more and more clear. Our grant management software integrates payroll, human resources and more to reduce administrative burdens.

Using Grant Management Software for Accounting

Some organizations make the mistake of importing all of their accounting and financial information into their grant management software. This is a mistake. Because of all the stakeholders involved in managing a grant, using this method can result in people viewing financials that they have no business seeing. Used correctly, a grant management system is not intended to replace an accounting system and can be strictly controlled by the fiscal office of your organization. Don’t make the mistake of exposing sensitive financial data to the wrong personnel!

Using a Donor Database as Grant Management Software

A donor database should be used for a single purpose: to manage donors. It is NOT designed to handle grants with those donors. Your donor database is an excellent tool for tracking gifts, sending updates and correspondence, and tracking the success of your campaigns. Much like using a grant management system as your accounting system, using your donor database as a grant management system simply doesn’t work. A donor database should be siloed, with access parceled out amongst senior employees of your organization. It’s not meant to be viewed by all. Grant management software is different. You control the data going in, but everyone can see it once it lives inside the software. Use the right tool for the right job, a donor database is a tool for a specific purpose, grant management software can act as your central data hub.

Conclusion

Avoiding these 3 mistakes will help your organization immensely. Have any other mistakes that you’ve seen? Let us know in the comments! If you’re ready to learn more about a central, organized grant management software solution, contact us today!

Stickball at the sandlot, ice cream cones in the summer, phones without cameras, TVs with two dimensions. Ah, simpler times. During these times, grant management may not have needed grant software. An institution received funding and, in due time, created simple spreadsheets or typed up detailed reports on typewriters. The allocation of funds was decided over warm morning coffee, bear claws and crullers, while yellow files rested neatly in shiny, metal file cabinets. Ah, simpler times.

Although it sounds nice, the truth is that simple times necessitate simple systems. For better or worse, now complex times dictate more complex systems. However, the right grant management software lassoes the moving parts and simplifies the increasingly complex process of grant recipients.

Seldom do grantors have deep pockets and lax reporting requirements. The federal government certainly doesn’t, and even if a grantor is private, they most likely necessitate detailed reporting for their end. In recent trends, grantors are now funding projects more than organizations, and they expect efficient fund allocation, exacting compliance protocol, detailed progress and summary reports, and host of other easily interpreted data. Grant software solutions not only simplify the process within your institute, it simplifies the complexity of reporting to grantors.

If you think of all the interwoven initiatives of multiple grant-funded projects in an organization—fiscal accounting, personnel management, space allocation, effort and time tracking—it forms such a delicate complexity, that the severity of a mistake can be overtly cost and time-consuming. The point of grant management software is to simplify the process, in an automated fashion, to significantly reduce the chance of mistakes. Bear claws, type writers and file cabinets may have worked as simple and efficient in the past, but it can’t work anymore. However, the point of harnessing complexity isn’t meeting it with complexity; it is meeting it with innovative tools to create simplicity.

Grant Management Solutions and Understanding Complexity

With grant processes needing to be monitored, analyzed, managed and reported over the disparate systems and departments of an organization, becoming out of sync is not an option. Grant requirements are becoming more complex, and institutions need to be able to manage the entire life cycle of a grant, from discovering funding sources to reporting detailed outcomes, such as time and effort tracking, internal funding allocation and sub-recipients, facility and asset usage, compliance protocol, and HR management. Grant management software not only reports, manages and analyzes these seemingly independent parts; the solution interconnects them and effectively streamlines the process between them.

An easy way to explain and better frame the nature of complexity is to consider an institution’s concern of its size. For example, an organization or institution expresses concern that they are too small for grant management software, while another believes they are too big, and departments function autonomous from one another. When it comes to simplifying complexity, both are wrong. Small spider webs and large spider webs are still webs, and grant-funding continues its weaving. Size doesn’t matter when it comes to complexity and efficient reporting, monitoring, analyzing and communication.

Size may not matter but perception does. A small staff may be looked over by a grantor because of the perception they have to stretch to maintain an efficient process with limited resources. A large organization may be looked over because of the perception the organization can’t move nimbly within large amount of resources and segmented departments.

Grant management solutions fix both of these problems because it addresses complexity, not size. Smaller institutions are supported with an IT grant solution that unburdens simple tasks and makes better use of resources, while grant management software streamlines processes and simplifies inter-department communication for larger departments. Also, grant management software can prove these claims are true within its own reporting function for grantors.

Simplicity for both the organization and the grantor is what is important. In today’s complex grant-funding landscape, an organization that has a simple, effective and streamlined process is what is sought-after by today’s grantors, and grant management software is today’s file cabinet, bear claw, typewriter and an increasingly powerful bargaining chip.

At IT Works, our powerful grant management solutions can bring simplicity back into your grant cycles. Contact a representative today to learn more.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2013

Grant management is a complex process with a lot of moving parts, many times demanding the managerial precision of a Swiss watch maker. Needless to say, grant professionals—as the breadwinners of research facilities, hospitals and universities—cannot fail in this oversight precision of finance management, time equity and compliance monitoring. In this article, we address 4 areas of concern and how grant management software alleviates potential problems without introducing new ones.

IT solutions are streamlining processes across all sectors of our world. To some, this new technological landscape is foreboding, but necessity breeds change, and change allows for innovation. By implementing grant management software, you are not moving into a scary new world, you are actually freeing up opportunity for grant process innovation.

Grant Management Solutions Are Solutions Not Problems

1. Funding

Receiving funding is always a reason for concern. (You must get funding, of course.) However, receiving funding is not necessarily the scary thought here. The scary thought is not correctly allocating and, in essence, managing funds as efficiently as possible. To ensure you are not playing a money grab in a wind machine, IT grant management solutions go beyond what a finance ledger ever could. Why? Because they are specifically augmented to serve grants not money. There is a subtle difference.

In a report released in 2008, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported that in 2006 around $1 billion in funds remained in expired grant accounts. Interestingly enough, in 2006 grant management software was available, yet many institutions were not taking advantage of them. How could they have been? Unlike a finance ledger, implementing a grant management solution incorporates extension deadlines and allocating funds to the right places at the right time. What’s the difference between grants and money? Grants have the responsibility to be allocating for the betterment of their intended use. Money has no intention. Money can be left on the table or in a spreadsheet. A grant cannot.

2. The Audit

With recent changes in grant allocation compliance, the responsibility of supplying pertinent information if an audit occurs is now in the lap of the receiving institution, not of third-party regulators. Many times grants are remarkably complex with sub-recipients and highly detailed reporting requirements. At times, an audit would be tumultuous for even the most seasoned grant management professional.

Grant management software creates an organized and transparent system in which all relevant grant data is readily available when an audit does occur. Not only does this make an audit painless, it also relieves the stress of the “what if’s” about a potential audit. Your compliance of time, effort and financial allocations are documented, organized and readily available.

3. Change, Disruption and Adaptation

Wow, 3 of the scariest words in the Good King’s English. Change is a scary word because it has the power to cause disruption and necessitate adaptation. The truth is a little less scary. Implementing a proven grant management solution does not change the grant management process, and a quality solution has the capability to be fully integrating with existing systems. In the past, resourceful professionals cobbled together grant management processes. It was always a lesson in adaptability of minor grant management disruptions.  Not anymore.

As grants become more complex, and less available with more competition, institutions with a streamlined, transparent and efficient managerial process will have a distinct advantage at receiving funding. Grant management software, with regular updates, offers a change that isn’t a disruption but a proactive resolution for the future of the grant process.  Furthermore, a crystalline process that acts as the internal standard for the institution out weights the time and effort needed for a quick learning curve. In the long-run, this standard saves time and effort.

4. Being the Decider to Invest in Grant Management Software

It’s not easy saying, “Hey, you guys like doing it this way? Well, stop. We’re going to do something different.” But someone in that position does have that responsibility. If there is a more cost-effective, user-intuitive, efficient and transparent way to manage grants, it is the responsibility for this professional to seek out that solution. Technology is not going away, and every process is being streamlined into the most efficient and organized methods. This process is grant management software.

Those early to adopt new methods are reaping the benefits now, and those playing catch-up will have an uphill battle in the future. Honestly, it shouldn’t be about having a fear of this responsibility. Rather, it should incite an excitement of introducing your organization and your colleagues to a better process. Efficiency does not translate into loss of jobs, either. As stated before, change offers the freedom of future innovation. You may find that by unburdening simple tasks onto grant management software, your institution’s time and effort is being used in more innovative ways.

It comes down to doing your homework, getting all the facts, checking references and track records, and experiencing the software through demonstrations. At IT-Works, we value our customers’ insight into our products before making a purchase. Not only do we want our customers to make informed decisions, we want our product to work for their specific needs in an optimal way.

Contact us today with any questions and concerns, and we will help alleviate some of your not so scary thoughts about grant management software.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2013