Getting a spending request through a committee so that its approved can be a long, and difficult process at times. This is especially true if you work for a small to mid-sized nonprofit that really doesn’t have the budget and resources to support purchases for new, but necessary, equipment and supplies.

The following tips can help you get the green light to upgrade to newer, more efficient software.

Explain Why Keeping Your Current Software is Costlier Than Upgrading

Many individuals take the proverbial “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it” attitude towards spending on improvements, even if the upgrade creates greater efficiency than existing ones. For many members, approving expenditure comes down to the bottom line.

If you want to get your committee on board with your planned software upgrade, you will need to explain why it will cost them more money to keep things as they are now.

One way to increase the chance that your request will be successful is to create a formal presentation that demonstrates how your current software is costing your organisation money and other resources. Explain how older, less automated bookkeeping software increases the time and effort it takes to perform tasks like recording transactions, creating invoices and reconciling statements.

Other details to include would be an explanation of how these processes not only cost time, but, increase the chance for errors to creep in. This could lead your nonprofit to fail in its financial responsibilities and fall out of compliance with various regulations.

You could also point out that older software might make it more difficult to secure your NFP’s data and other sensitive information. Remind your committee that keeping things as they are is leaving your organisation open to potential liability should the data be compromised due to theft, fraud, or other loss.

Be prepared to back up your claims with visuals like images and charts that explain these facts. Include examples of what has happened to other nonprofits when these types of losses have occurred.

Highlight the Benefits of the New Software

Your presentation should also include an explanation of how specific features of the new software will benefit your NFP. Admin Bandit’s bookkeeping software, for example, is designed to meet the special needs of volunteer treasurers. Its fast and easy to set up, and most processes are automated, which saves time, and decreases the chance that you might make a mistake when posting transactions.

The software walks you through each step of calculating and lodging GST and creating other reports so that there’s less of a chance you will miss a critical filing deadline or other responsibility. It’s also more secure since everything is saved in the cloud. There aren’t any hard, physical copies of records to store in an office, or to keep virtually on a local computer, where they could be lost, tampered with, or stolen.

Best of all, the software comes with a free 55-day trial so that users can use the software and see how easy it is to operate before they invest. The software can be customised with specific add-ons to ensure that there’s an Admin Bandit that fits your organisation’s needs and budget.