Category: Career

As volunteer treasurer of a small association, and paid finance coordinator of a much larger one, am always on the lookout for useful and relevant finance tools. A couple I’ve find recently:

• Mango’s Guide to Financial Management for NGO’s UK-based but still relevant for NGO/NFP organisations here in Australia, would be useful for new treasurers and/or committee members trying to get their head around financial management. For me the section on budgeting was invaluable, provided some fundamentals that have not come up in my formal study
• Acclaim Software’s Cashbook Complete this is a free or low cost accounting system (depending on the version installed) developed here in Australia. I have just started using this for the small association I’m with and was blown away by the simplicity and flexibility of the system. I’m trialling the free (home) version, which is adequate for our needs because we aren’t registered for GST, it includes basic cashbook and budget modules.

The EBA meeting the other day did not have the hoped for outcome, although happily it did not degenerate into the shouting match some of us feared. Management laid it on the line apparently, but the QNU didn’t budge and are now encouraging their members to take industrial action.

There was a report about it in the local paper, complete with the usual misleading reporting that is apparent when you work behind the scenes. It published a comment from a nurse about money wasted on financial analysis. Where on earth did she get this from? Even if money had been spent on it, I think it would have been a pretty sensible investment in the circumstances, but the fact is the financial advice was from two qualified accountants who sit on the board, the honorary treasurer and chairperson. Maybe they forgot to send their bill?

After the meeting I saw a lot of long faces amongst the nurses, worried about the future. I think the QNU is doing really badly by them. One of the RNs confided to me that it seemed like any moderate, reasonable view is ignored. The union is backing a small handful of very vocal employees that are refusing to compromise on the pay issue regardless of what it might cost the organisation. You want to support the nurses, the work they do deserves to be rewarded but it is difficult to sympathise with this mentality.

In a wages comparison they don’t appear that badly off. They are paid above award, and well above the nurses at other community hospices (one in Toowoomba, one on the Gold Coast). They are paid marginally less than the local private hospital, but are demanding equal pay to the higher paid public sector. And I’ve been told that working conditions in a public hospital are much harder than those at the hospice.

Sadly it all begins to look like greed and self-interest, which is so wrong because many of the nurses are the most caring, intelligent and respectable people I’ve met.

It’s budget, love. (from the Budget Direct car insurance TV ads).

Always an interesting time, I’ve had 12 solid months in my role now and the new financial year coming up is an opportunity to streamline some of my work processes, including the design of operational and program budgets in a way that will make reporting easier.

Some principles to help me on my way:

• Three budget categories – administration, fundraising and program (community services). Applying direct and indirect budget allocations. Revenue by thirds – donations, fundraising, grants. From How to Create a Non-Profit Operating Budget
• Preliminary steps for making a budget, don’t panic about the numbers. From How to Make a Budget: Non-Profit Survival Skills
• Non-Profit Budget Tips for a Healthy New Year include match line items to chart of accounts; including indirect costs in program budgets; keep notes to document assumptions; add a “cushion”.
• Useful to prepare monthly budget that reflect timing of revenue and expenses, rather than divide by twelve. From Alliance for Non-Profit Management

It’s been a week of the walking wounded. Karen (admin and backup payroll person) announced that she is pregnant and has been getting all the usual symptoms of morning sickness; Alison (our fundraising/marketing person) has developed high blood pressure and having fainting spells; I put my back out from some weekend volunteer work; my volunteer offsider Jan has been visiting her husband in hospital and waiting for him to be assessed for a nursing home; and youngest nephew Wyatt nearly lost his thumb in a door jamming accident.

Today is going to be an interesting day at work, possibly very stressful. Management finally meeting with staff to try and resolve the impasse with our EBA. Past negotiations have been highly charged, there is a bit of nervousness about how the meeting will go. I’m not required to attend meeting, but I’m caught up in it of course. Not so much as Ros though. What a terrible strain it is for her.

Last couple of days at work have been a little nerve wracking, in lead up to our accreditation and visit from ACHS surveyors. A lot of prep work put in by Ros and Sharon, director and quality coordinator – amazing amount of work actually, Sharon especially invested so much effort she has not had an entire day away from work for many weeks.

Accreditation is all about benchmarking and quality improvement. It examines every aspect of the organisation, in particular the clinical operations. It is an ongoing process, although the organisation-wide review, with surveyors spending the day on site, only happens every four years. Achieving acceptable accreditation status has direct impact on our funding, so it is an important process.

The result today was promising. Surveyors will be recommending the highest rating for care of the dying, the first time this has been achieved. This is an enormous testament to the clinical team, very proud.

Last night for work I attended an industrial relations seminar covering the new Fair Work legislation. Part of this legislation is already in effect, some of it is not far away – 1 Jan 2010.

I guess in a way we are fortunate in that we have been working on our enterprise bargaining agreement and have already had to pay attention to the new legislation. We’ve got the jump on what is happening in the industrial relations arena. A lot of the other attendees were completely in the dark about it. There was uncertainty, fear and anger.

Despite that it was still a useful session, the presenter was very good and invited us to fire questions at her throughout the evening and although we were the only not-for-profit there I managed to find out a few things that affected us directly.

The message from the seminar was that if they don’t already have them, employers must have processes in place to systematically handle and document all employee conditions and work-related issues. It is ridiculously easy these days for an employee with a grievance to lodge a complaint with the ombudsman, it can be done via a website. If an employer does not have records or systems to back up its case in most instances the matter will be ruled in favour of the employee.

The industrial relations system seems very biased towards the employee, and most of the attendees were business owners – there was a lot of grumbling about the Labor government. Having worked for a large corporation years ago and experienced the full power of human resource management machinery in motion I had to bite my tongue a couple of times – my thoughts are that if you take on employees you take on the responsibility for properly managing them – to protect them and the business. No matter how small a business is, once you start to employ people you just have to know this stuff.

It was about five minutes past knock off time and as I was packing up the phone rang. It was our chairman, who had phoned to speak to someone else who’d already left for the day. When I mentioned the late hour he said why are you still there then, and started asking me about my workload and if I thought it would get easier now the annual reporting was done. In the next breath he was asking me about my holiday, barely listened to my reply before asking if I had the latest cashflow report done yet. I’d just had an intense day of payroll, and trying to get the books into order after a week off so it was very tempting at that point to hang up the phone. I’m afraid I finish very few conversations with this man without thinking him a fool, which is a shame really because I think his heart is in the right place, he gives so much to the organisation. Just crap when it comes to dealing with people.