Раздел 4. Менеджмент.

Тема 18. Финансовый менеджмент.

Text A. Basic Guide to Non-Profit Financial Management

New nonprofit leaders and mangers have to develop at least basic skills in financial management. Expecting others in the organization to manage finances is clearly asking for trouble. Basic skills in financial management start in the critical areas of cash management and bookkeeping, which should be done according to certain financial controls to ensure integrity in the bookkeeping process. New leaders and managers should soon go on to learn how to generate financial statements and analyze those statements to really understand the financial condition of the business. Financial analysis shows the “reality” of the situation of a business – seen as such, financial management is one of the most important practices in management.

Critical activities in yearly accounting cycle:

Budgeting (Financial Forecasting) and Cash Management

Managing Operating Budgets

A budget depicts what you expect to spend (expenses) and earn (revenue) over a time period. They are useful for projecting how much money you’ll need for a major initiative, for example, buying a facility, hiring a new employee, etc. They also help track whether you’re on plan or not. There are yearly (or annual or operating) budgets, cash budgets, capital budgets (for major assets, such as equipment, buildings, etc.) and proposal budgets (for fundraising), etc.

Managing Cash Flow

As a new or small nonprofit, your biggest challenge is likely to be managing your cash flow – probably the most important financial statement for a new business is the cash flow statement. The overall purpose of managing your cash flow is to make sure that you have enough cash to pay current bills. Businesses can manage cash flow by examining a cash flow statement and cash flow projection. Basically, the cash flow statement includes total cash received minus total cash spent. Cash management looks primarily at actual cash transactions.

Managing Your Bank Account

For a new nonprofit, your check register very likely will be your primary means to record and track cash. Whether yours is a new nonprofit or an established nonprofit, you’ll need to know how to manage your bank account.

Credit and Collections

Matters of credit and collections are similar between for-profit and nonprofit organizations, other than that nonprofits obviously grant free services much more than for-profit organizations. Consequently, nonprofits are not nearly as likely to utilize credit and collections procedures.

Budget Deviation Analysis

Budget deviation analysis regularly compares what you expected, or planned, to earn and spend with what you actually spent and earned. The budget deviation analysis can help greatly when detecting how well you’re tracking your plans, how much to accurately budget in the future, where there may be upcoming problems in spending, etc. A budget deviation analysis report might include columns with titles:

Planned for Month

Actual for Month

Difference (planned minus actual)

% Deviation (Difference)