In the nonprofit sector, the way you manage your finances matters. And yet, without the right tools, effective management can be a difficult and tedious task; variable funding, along with staff numbers, attrition, and geographic locations can make it difficult to plan future spending. Nonprofit organizations are also required to follow tight reporting guidelines to maintain grants and compliance—all while navigating limited resources and demonstrating continuous, measurable impact to donors and stakeholders.
Although they are in a different tax reporting class and other unique aspects, at the end of the day, nonprofits should be run as businesses.
To succeed in this challenging space, nonprofits must rely on powerful financial planning tools that help report and analyze data for smarter management decisions, while also saving time and optimizing resources.
This is where extended Financial Planning and Analysis (xFP&A) comes into play. Solver’s xFP&A Suite is specifically tailored for the nonprofit industry to address its unique pain points. It offers an integrated, data-driven approach to financial and operational management that streamlines processes, increases accountability, and enhances decision-making capabilities.
The Strategic Role of xFP&A in Nonprofits
Nonprofit organizations face a unique set of financial and operational challenges that demand more than traditional planning tools can deliver. Manual reporting processes, siloed data systems, and outdated tools often hinder timely decision-making, forcing CFOs, budget managers, controllers, and other leaders to be reactive rather than proactive. Meanwhile, donor expectations for transparency continue to grow, requiring detailed tracking of funds and outcomes across programs, grants, and operations.
Solver’s xFP&A approach empowers organizations to move past these hurdles by merging financial and operational data consolidation, planning, reporting, and analysis into a single, flexible platform. From Key Performance Indicator (KPI) dashboards to budgeting templates, Solver equips nonprofit leaders to overcome inefficiencies, reduce risk, and focus on what matters most: advancing their mission.
Centralizing Nonprofit Data through Consolidation
From financials and grant tracking, to donor contributions and operational expenses, nonprofits have an abundance of data to store, monitor, and analyze at any given moment. The process of consolidating this data manually, especially when it involves multiple sources, can be time-consuming and susceptible to errors.
Businesses that rely on Solver leave behind the traditionally complex, expensive, and risky planning and implementation of a “homegrown” data system, replacing it with the solution’s automated, high-performance Data Warehouse. Thanks to the QuickStart integration feature, the Solver Data Warehouse immediately combines financial and operational information from an unlimited number of sources, including an organization’s ERP, CRM, and fundraising systems.
Full import/export functionality allows for centralized views into data and provides business leaders and other team members with the single source of truth they need to make better business decisions—all without the disruption caused by logging into multiple data sources and using different reporting tools. Plus, the ability to enter and store any type of data provides the flexibility required to ensure nonprofits can accurately measure the efficiency, effectiveness, and impact of program delivery while adjusting as needed in real-time.
Reimagining Nonprofit Budgeting and Forecasting
Budgeting and forecasting in nonprofits are high-stakes endeavors, yet they’re often bogged down by inefficiency. In addition to the challenge of varying funding sources, including grants, donations, contributions, and fees, managers wrestle with manual data entry, version control issues, and rigid tools that can’t adapt to shifting priorities like grant cycles or fundraising campaigns. These obstacles lead to inaccurate forecasts and missed deadlines, not to mention frustration across departments.
Solver’s high-powered xFP&A solution revolutionizes these processes, offering automated workflow and real-time collaboration to streamline planning and keep nonprofits future-ready. The solution’s flexible input templates are especially helpful. Designed to pull in actuals, calculate variances, and support driver-based forecasting, Solver’s budgeting and forecasting templates ensure accuracy and accountability while enabling budget managers to plan with confidence.
Key budgeting and forecasting templates include:
- Revenue Auto Forecast for the Next 3 Months: When there’s a need to quickly forecast revenues for the upcoming months, this interactive forecast model efficiently pulls actual revenues up to the current month and allows users to automatically generate forecasts for the next three months based on three key drivers.
- Membership Forecast: This driver-based forecast form enables detailed member-related revenue and expense planning based on member count, renewals, retention and expiration metrics.
- Membership Enrollment: This example shows how users can enter key membership enrollment statistics such as members invoiced, retention, fees, adds and dues.
- Event Forecast: Using Event forecast forms like this example enables managers to enter detailed statistical and financial figures by event. The revenue and expense totals can automatically be transferred to the related General Ledger accounts.
- Long Term Strategic Planning: Nonprofit executives sometimes need to develop strategies for multiple years into the future, and this example shows a multi- year planning form to capture funding figures by program and initiative.
Monitoring Nonprofit Efficiency and Success with KPI Dashboards
In the nonprofit world, success isn’t just about financial health—it’s about delivering on a mission. KPIs are the compass that guides leaders toward this goal, offering a clear view of financial stability, operational efficiency, and program impact. Yet, many nonprofit leaders struggle to define and track the right KPIs, often hindered by traditional tools offering static reports that lack the flexibility to adapt to a nonprofit’s evolving needs.
To address these challenges, Solver provides purpose-built, customizable KPI dashboards that deliver real-time insights, interactive analysis, and the ability to drill down into variances and trends. From interactive layouts that let managers explore metrics in depth to executive snapshots tailored for boardroom discussions, the bespoke solution ensures leaders have the data they need to make informed, mission-critical decisions quickly and confidently.
Key KPI Dashboards include:
- KPI–Interactive Dashboard: When a user selects a KPI from the dropdown menu in this dashboard, all charts and figures interactively display metrics, including variances and trends for the chosen KPI. This feature is ideal for managers who need to analyze all financial and operational KPIs within a single dashboard.
- KPI–Scorecard: This scorecard layout provides a tabular overview of all KPIs, with actual and budget comparisons for monthly and year-to- date figures.
- Executive Dashboard–Financial KPIs: This KPI report is specifically designed for executives who need a clear and concise snapshot of financial KPIs. It allows for customization, enabling users to replace any KPIs to ensure the most effective analysis.
- Executive Dashboard–Operational KPIs: This dashboard is tailored for executives seeking a clear and intuitive snapshot of operational nonprofit KPIs. It allows for customization, enabling users to replace any KPIs to ensure the most effective analysis.
- Dashboard–Nonprofit Benchmark Analysis: This dashboard is valuable for leaders who want to benchmark their organization against external entities, such as publicly traded organizations.
Boosting Nonprofit Decision-Making with Financial and Operational Reporting
Nonprofits rely on accurate financial and operational reporting to make better, smarter, and faster decisions for their organizations. Financial reporting is critical to ensuring compliance, meeting donor expectations, and providing leadership with actionable insights. Operational reporting is equally important; nonprofit operations hinge on the interplay of grants, members, donors, and volunteers, which requires organizations to track and analyze these areas carefully.
And yet with both financial and operational reporting, challenges abound. Many Office of Finance teams, for instance, wrestle with manual processes, error-prone spreadsheets, and fragmented systems that delay month-end closings, obscure critical trends, and ultimately drain resources. Disparate data sources along with inconsistent reporting formats can also negatively impact operational reporting, hampering grant compliance and risking the alienation of key stakeholders whose support sustains the mission.
Solver’s xFP&A approach streamlines the reporting process with a cloud-based platform that automates data consolidation while offering a full library of easy-to-use, highly customizable reporting templates. Paired with Solver’s KPI dashboards, the resulting financial and operational reports empower nonprofit leaders with the clarity and control they need to make the best decisions for their organizations.
Key financial reporting templates include:
- Statement of Activities–Variance: At the heart of nearly every month-end process is a Statement of Activities variance report. This template automatically generates rows based on account categories and displays monthly and year-to-date (YTD) actuals and budget amounts in the columns. Variances are shown as both amounts and percentages, with color-coded indicators—red for unfavorable and black for favorable—making it easy to identify performance differences.
- Statement of Financial Position–Multiple Entities: This Statement of Financial Position shows assets and liabilities on a monthly basis. Users can consolidate data from multiple entities by selecting the relevant organizations as parameters when running the report.
- Cash Flow Analysis–13 Month Rolling: This combo report features a dashboard at the top that provides immediate insights into trends in Net Surplus (Deficit), Net Cash from Operations and Financing Investment Activities, Net Increases in Cash, and Cash Balances. The bottom section presents a standard Cash Flow statement.
Key operational reporting templates include:
- Transaction Detail–Grants: This report allows users to track grant information with detailed insights. Each column displays a grant field, while a comprehensive grand total is presented at the bottom, providing a clear summary.
- Top 10 Report–Members: This visual report features three top ten lists, each represented by a pie chart: 1) Top members by payment amount, 2) Top members by total dues paid, and 3) Top member types (student, individual, family, corporate, etc.) by amount spent. The data table below the charts includes totals and the top members/types as a % of all payments.
- Comparative Report–Donors: This report allows managers to effortlessly compare donations by individual donor, donor status and type. It displays figures for both the current month and year-to-date, along with variances compared to the previous year.
Maximizing Nonprofit Potential with Solver
Achieving your mission requires careful planning, resource management, and financial oversight. Solver’s xFP&A solution helps nonprofits move beyond reactive decision-making by providing the tools needed for proactive, data-driven strategies. To do this, Solver revolutionizes the way nonprofits plan, report, and perform. From mastering KPIs to streamlining financial reporting, elevating operational insights, optimizing workforce strategies, and building robust budgets, Solver delivers a unified platform that empowers your Office of Finance and beyond. Its reusable templates, real-time data integration, and cloud-based flexibility address the unique challenges nonprofits face—turning complexity into clarity and potential into action. Whether you’re a CFO seeking precision, an executive driving strategy, or a manager aligning operations with mission, Solver is your partner in achieving excellence.
Transform Your Nonprofit Today
Nonprofit success depends on the ability to adapt, innovate, and demonstrate impact, and Solver equips you to do all three. Ready to see it in action? Discover how Solver can solve your specific challenges by reaching out for a personalized demo tailored to your organization’s needs.
