I am a newbie financial manager at an NGO that has dosens of donors and projects. My line of work is not overly complex (I hold MA in Math and Passed 2 levels of CFA), and my big goal is to get financial matters of the company organized nicely.
I do not have formal financial/business education but I have been working in the field of investment services for more that 10 years before that.
However I struggle with keeping records of all things financial that are plenty. Transactions that are to be paid; Transactions that have already been paid; Salaries, utilities, expense invoices, income invoices, taxes, contracts, auditors, supporting documents, customs,...
My tools of choice are Excel sheets for financial calculations, outlook for communications and tree of folders inside folders inside folders for documents...
I also have an excel sheet called TO DO which contains things that I have to do. Problem is, I might still forget what it contains. Constant multitasking is a nightmare.
It has happened so that recently one of the financial managers (more experienced than I) has left so almost all of his load has been transferred to me. I feel overwhelmed in a sense that the number of things that need my attention has risen sharply. On the other hand, this is a chance to grow and gain experience.
What I want is to have a systematic approach to keeping records of all the things that need to be done. I thought of using bookkeeping software but I think it is too dry and formal to my needs. I am looking for someone to share their experience with managing finances of a small/midsizish company. How do financial managers keep records?
Hi TooOldToLearn, no, I never sleep and so I can respond to any lonely threads (like this one) at all hours of the night. Impressive, I know ;-)
You're welcome.
you should definitely invest in some software.
quickbooks is good for a small med sized business. its the most basic accounting software out there and you should learn to use it.
there are also some non profit specific accounting systems you could consider.
if you're truly unwilling to do these, then i would suggest hiring a part time bookkeeper or external accountant to do these for you. especially at a non profit, having proper financial records is going to be important for maintaining tax exempt status.
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