Dust off those financial statements and put them to work! Our team at Blue Fox created The Magical Nonprofit Financial Ratio Matrix to help your organization measure its financial health against industry standards. So, how do you measure up? What are the red flags for each ratio? Is your organization in a strong, healthy, sustainable position? Let’s start crunching those numbers!

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Nonprofits everywhere equate fundraising with tireless event planning, digital crowdfunding, relationship building, and writing grants. But we would offer that before your staff gets to work, the finance and development teams should have a solid understanding of the organization’s financial position. That information can help light a fire with the staff and board, shape your giving goals, and inform the messaging of your appeals. So, we put together this handy checklist to help you get your financial house in order before you launch your next fundraising initiative. We’re pretty sure this is the first list of its kind – so enjoy and let us know how we can help!

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Nonprofit organizations are famous for running lean when it comes to budget. But gone are the days of sacrificing service quality for cost. Here’s the secret (and it’s not so secret anymore). It’s outsourcing. A way for nonprofits to maintain control of costs AND benefit from high quality financial back office management.

With advanced cloud-based systems and virtual technology, outsourced financial services are more affordable and attainable than ever for nonprofits. It’s a win-win, especially if you partner with a company like Blue Fox (that’s us) that tailors service to the social impact sector. We employ experienced nonprofit gurus to get the job done – whether it’s virtual CFO service, controller-level oversight, bookkeeping, payroll, tax preparation, or financial coaching, outsourced service providers can provide you the insights and information you need at a fraction of the cost of an employee.

Here are 10 reasons you should consider outsourcing part or all of your nonprofit’s finance function.
(1) Expert Resources & Peace of Mind – Welcome aboard a team of skilled accountants to seamlessly handle your back office financial operations with an expert eye. Gain accuracy, insights, and the ability to make data-driven strategic decisions.
(2) Engage Your Board of Directors – Walk into your board room with confidence, accurate financials, and timely data. Engage your board members with dashboard style reports, improved financial understanding, and ultimate preparedness.
(3) Consistency & Redundancy – When you don’t have staff turnover in your financial team or bookkeeper position, your data is more consistent year to year. Outsourced providers typically assign a team to your account, so there’s built in redundancy.
(4) More Hours in Your Day – Yes, it’s possible! Outsourcing frees up time spent on data entry and pulling reports, fixes outdated time-wasting systems, and gives you more time to focus on the big picture.
(5) Scalability & Sustainability – Financial management tasks will no longer drag your team into the weeds during high-activity times. Professional services help your team focus on mission-related work. Just because your organization grows doesn’t mean you need to hire more staff.
(6) Process Improvement – Upgrade, professionalize, and standardize your financial processes with the latest and greatest technology. It’s time to revel in better efficiency and on-time data delivery.
(7) Lower Risk – Implementing a third-party audit trail will squash internal financial risks of all kinds. Strong checks and balances come standard with outsourced accounting services.
(8) Leaner & Greener – We’re talking about reducing your carbon footprint by adopting technology and virtual services. Say goodbye to piles of paperwork and chopping down happy healthy trees just to please your auditors.
(9) Access, Access, & More Access – Meet us in the cloud where you have full access to your financial data anywhere, anytime. Outsourced virtual accountants update your data in real-time, so when you have questions or need reports, we respond at a moment’s notice.
(10) Reduce Overhead Costs & Save Money – Outsourcing saves your organization money on: staffing and benefits, staff turnover and training, financial mistakes, software, hardware, and more!
So, when is the best time to make the change?

There is no better time than the present! Remember the 10 benefits of outsourcing we just talked about? They can be yours, just make the call. And, when you’re ready, our team at Blue Fox will hold your hand through the onboarding process for a seamless shift of duties. Let’s chat soon! Give us a call at (321) 233-3311 or email hello@yourbluefox.com to request a quote.

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Nonprofit leaders, can you relate?

You spend half a day anxiously preparing for your upcoming board meeting. Organizing financial information. Preparing board packets. Anticipating questions. Printing. Compiling. Binding. Documenting and reminding.

Then you sit at the head of the table and begin your meeting. It seems to be going okay. You’ve only had to pull one board member back on track so far. But, here comes the presentation of financials.

You look around the table as each member studies the income statement and balance sheet. What they heck are they thinking? You wonder if they are just playing mental sudoku with the numbers. Silence. And more silence. And then, someone asks, “So, how do you feel the organization is doing financially?”

You explain the details but are met with blank stares and generic questions about why last year’s gala made $700 more than this year’s gala.

There has to be a better way. A better way to guide financial conversations. A better way to present the data. A better way to tap into the knowledge, experience and leadership that sits around your board room table. And, a better way to show your board that you are in control of the ship.

Recently our CEO, Chantal Sheehan wrote a guest feature post for Bloomerang that provides real-world actionable advice on how to generate meaningful conversations about money with your board of directors.

Here are some of the highlights from that article:
- Ask your board leadership what information they would like to see presented
- Conduct an anonymous survey to gauge financial understanding, before and after changes in presentation style
- Use dashboard style presentations for easy comprehension and comparison
- Make a FAQ sheet to prevent the same questions from being asked over and over
- Respond your leadership team’s financial concerns before the meeting to eliminate surprise questions

Read the full article for more tips and advice on how to proactively manage your board meetings, especially the conversations about financials! https://bloomerang.co/blog/how-to-wow-at-your-next-board-meeting-4-tips-for-meaningful-money-conversations/


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Why is kindness often seen as a weakness in business? Wouldn’t you prefer your professional acquaintances be kind and collaborative as opposed to pushy and aggressive? So, why are corporate environments typically filled with overly assertive or aggressive dynamics? It’s so old school.

No one wants to be bulldozed in business! So, let’s stop doing that to each other. Kindness is in! In fact, kindness actually leads to increased productivity and profits – plenty of research is out there to back that up.

Recently our CEO, Chantal Sheehan wrote a guest blog post for the productivity platform Hive on the benefits of kindness in business. (Side note: We use and love Hive!)

Here are just some of those benefits.
Kindness is proven to:
- Foster creativity
- Increase employee retention
- Breed collaboration and productivity
- Lower health care costs
- Build leadership influence

Read the full article for the research, evidence, and real-world examples that prove those benefits. You won’t be disappointed! https://hive.com/blog/kindness-improves-productivity/

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Did you know that most small businesses owners spend 10 hours per week balancing their books? That equates to about 25% of a 40-hour work week spent on non-revenue generating or mission-related tasks. We know social impact executives often work longer hours than most but still - 10 hours is probably 9 hours too many don’t you think?

But are you ready to outsource your accounting function?
How do you know when the time is right?
Ask yourself these questions:
- Do I have the time to learn and/or manage the bookkeeping system?
- Am I able to stay up-to-date on new tax laws in order to avoid legal troubles?
- Is my time best spent managing the accounting system?
- How much does my bookkeeper’s time (or my time) cost compared to accounting firm fees?
- Does staff turnover affect our back-office efficiency?
- Is the board of directors asking me to provide financial data beyond my ability? And a corollary: do I spend at least half a day before each meeting prepping financial reports?
- Wouldn’t it be nice to wow the board with some snazzy reports like financial dashboards?

Most nonprofit leaders were not born to be CFOs. Many social impact executives come from a marketing or fundraising background. The choice to hire an accounting firm can give marketing-minded executives piece of mind. It’s like bringing on the perfect business partner with complementary expertise. A ‘balanced’ partnership (accounting pun intended). ;)

So, what exactly can an outsourced accounting firm do for your organization?
- Analyze the financial big picture and offer strategic advice.
- Produce key financial documents and can help with annual tax filings
- Can act as a chief financial officer beyond tax season, to advise on financial strategies
- Perform day-to-day hands-on tasks like handling new hire paperwork and payroll, paying bills, submitting invoices, etc.
- Track company expenses accurately and maintain a healthy audit trail

Our team at Blue Fox offers all of those services and more! Blue Fox is an accounting firm specifically for nonprofits and social enterprises. Our team members have broad expertise in the social impact space, with backgrounds as nonprofit leaders, board members and volunteers. The entrepreneurial spirit runs deep on our team. This means we manage your back-office from the same perspective as you would.

If you think it may be time to hire an accounting firm, let’s have a chat and see how Blue Fox can help you reach your goals. Call us anytime at (321) 233-3311 or email hello@yourbluefox.com.

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We all like getting paid, but is your company paying too much to cut paychecks? There are a boatload of payroll processors out there so it can be hard to figure out the costs involved. Let’s break it down.

Most payroll processing companies charge fees either by:
- Percentage of gross payroll
- Per-employee fee (usually in addition to a base rate or larger annual fee)
- Per-pay period fee (meaning if you pay your employees weekly, you’ll pay more for processing)
- Paycheck delivery type (direct deposit vs manual paycheck)
- Some combination of the above

These fee structures are traditional and are meant to do one thing: keep the big payroll companies in business.

But for small businesses and nonprofits, the cost of these services is so high (think $200-500/month) that it may prevent leaders from establishing fair and just payroll offerings for their employees. Weekly pay, bonus payrolls, and even hiring for much needed help may be put on hold by management because of payroll processing fees that creep ever higher... that’s not okay in our book!

Payroll processing with Blue Fox is 100% different. We charge our clients a simple flat fee per month to process payroll. And, that’s it! Our payment structure saves your organization money and gives you better flexibility to pay employees as often as you like. You can even pay your employees weekly, give bonuses, and issue commissions at no extra cost.

Blue Fox believes in fair and transparent pricing. We receive wholesale and accountant-only discounts on the different platforms we use, and we happily pass those discounts along to clients who take advantage of our bundled services (accounting and payroll, for example). Why? Because that’s the right thing to do and because it just makes sense: if we are your virtual accounting team or CFO, we can run payroll and manage the related bookkeeping seamlessly. It’s a win-win for everyone.

Wouldn’t it be nice to rely on one team for all your back-office service needs? Contact us for a quote!

P.S. If you're thinking of making a change, please know it's best to change your payroll provider at month-end or quarter-end to avoid payroll tax filing headaches.

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