Whether you are a small business, large corporation, or an up-starting nonprofit, the success of your endeavors begins and ends with security. Let’s face it, these days it’s important to keep meticulous records of all your organizations transactions, especially when money exchanges hands often. Having an integrated accounting or point-of-sale system with multi-tiered security settings is a must.
Without tight software integration most businesses are forced to make multiple entries in multiple systems--a time consuming process that leaves you open to potential errors, and makes it difficult to find and correct mistakes during an audit. This can also effect your operations from the outside. Imagine the problems when incorrect information is sent out to vendors and donors. This can lead to a loss of revenue and goodwill toward your organization.
 Security starts with integration—the common thread in all Cougar Mountain’s FUND software. Nonprofit owners and managers usually don’t find errors until some time after transactions are completed when either the ledgers don’t match or the revenue doesn’t reflect the amount of goods sold. Of course by that time the specifics relating to the amounts are untraceable. From a CPA’s standpoint, an integrated system frees up time to analyze the information and provide consulting, as well as audit services that allows nonprofit managers to be more effective.
In addition, an integrated system prevents theft. An integrated system means that once a change or transaction is entered in one ledger or module, its effect on the business or inventory is automatically entered in any other related modules or ledgers. For example if that sale of a single item is entered into one module, the deduction of that item automatically occurs in the inventory module at the same time. This system of automatic checks and balances not only creates a trail for you to later retrace your business’ transactions, it makes it difficult to for would-be thieves to erase their fingerprints.
Integration also makes it easier for nonprofits to allocate funds across different ledgers when a sale is complete or a donation is handed over. Once the cost allocation needs of your organization are designated in a Cougar Mountain FUND program, the software automatically portions the percentages of each transaction into the designated funds at the completion of the transaction.
Integration combined with the right security settings can make your setup even more foolproof. At the basic level, Cougar Mountain users can restrict access to any module. But this arrangement doesn’t always work well with the management of businesses. Some may have the need to grant their employees access to certain functions of the software to facilitate business—just not all of the functions. This is where multi-tiered security settings come into play.
Cougar Mountain Software allows you to define how much or how little your employees are allowed access to certain functions of the software. This means you decide which components within the modules are accessible and which ones should remain off-limits depending on which licensed user is accessing the software. And, because you can assign identification codes to each user, it’s easy to trace the transaction history of anyone using the system should a problem arise.
In addition, many nonprofits occupy retail space to increase revenues and provide services to their community, so it’s important to have a system that provides tight security and tracking of financial information. The ability to track money back to the original person who entered the transaction is a great control tool and helps catch and correct mistakes when they happen.
With the trend towards electronic payments increasing, credit card and identity theft is a major concern and is the focus for many of the large credit card processors. Fines and penalties are extremely high for failing to properly protect credit card data. Cougar Mountain believes nonprofits should embrace the trend towards electronic payments; it’s a great way to receive donations. That’s why our software allows you to restrict access to sensitive data and encrypts any card or pin numbers.
Of course not all nonprofits are the same. Some rely strictly on donations. In order to help nonprofits find the right fit for their organization, Cougar Mountain offers three FUND software packages, each designed with the highest standards of functionality and security in mind. For those that need a more customized system we also offer several additional modules to help with things like job costs or tax updates.
If you don’t think the security of your organization is at risk, ask yourself this question: Is your accounting software integrated or just interfacing? For 25 years Cougar Mountain Software has been a leading developer of nonprofit accounting software that has helped hundreds of nonprofits make important management decisions, increase efficiency, and save money. Your accounting software should do more than help you allocate funds and balance your ledgers—it should give you peace of mind.
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