The way forward for nonprofit accounting is evaluation. Not bookkeeping.
A Director of Finance at a nonprofit shared this sentiment with us throughout our analysis on the worth of AI in fund accounting. At Blackbaud, we’ve seen the shift from guide knowledge entry to deeper evaluation first-hand. We’ve launched instruments like automated funds and Perception Designer to assist our purchasers get solutions to their questions sooner.
Now, AI-powered accounting performance is to the purpose of being greater than a shiny object. It could actually create actual worth—whenever you’ve taken precautions on how the software is educated.
AI in fund accounting has the facility to drive deeper evaluation and elevated effectivity throughout your nonprofit accounting group, with the appropriate safeguards for accuracy and privateness.
Right here is how Blackbaud is considering AI-enhanced performance for nonprofit accounting.
What Do Nonprofit Finance Professionals Need from AI?
You handle complicated and numerous monetary knowledge. You must guarantee compliance with varied requirements and rules. And also you want to have the ability to present your group monetary progress towards its strategic targets.
These finance capabilities require a excessive degree of accuracy, consideration to element, and analytical abilities. And they’re typically rife with time-intensive guide duties.
Based mostly on our analysis and discussions with nonprofit finance professionals, nonprofit organizations see the worth of AI to assist them transfer away from guide duties and time-consuming report era to allow them to deal with evaluation and data-driven decision-making.
They need AI-enhanced instruments to automate repetitive and tedious duties, akin to knowledge entry, bill processing, and reconciliation. They need it to offer sooner and smarter insights, akin to funds evaluation, money stream forecasting, and anomaly detection. They need to get vital data sooner, utilizing AI to floor data that may in any other case go unnoticed, or prioritize what they should know.
It Has to Be Correct and Safe
“Nearly” or “possibly” doesn’t work in nonprofit finance. For any AI-assisted processes to be useful for the finance group, it have to be correct, perceive the constraints of a nonprofit, and the info it makes use of have to be safe.
Earlier than adopting any AI-enhanced software, finance professionals ought to ask some important questions, akin to:
- Is it offering a holistic image? Is it contemplating every part I have to reply this query?
- Is it a closed mannequin and solely taking a look at my knowledge? How are you ensuring it’s not pulling from different sources?
- Is it conscious of GAAP and compliance requirements, so it received’t make options that don’t align with nonprofit accounting greatest practices?
- How is the AI mannequin being educated, and the way can I be sure it’s not being educated on confidential knowledge?
- Is that this a shiny object or will it present precise worth for my group by way of improved effectivity or accuracy?
- What’s the confidence degree of the mannequin for the info it’s understanding? Is it offering notifications for knowledge it doesn’t utterly perceive, akin to the whole quantity paid on a crumpled receipt submitted by a program supervisor?
These questions might help finance professionals assess the standard, reliability, and safety of AI instruments, and keep away from potential pitfalls, akin to inaccurate or deceptive outcomes, knowledge breaches, or compliance violations. Finance professionals must also search for AI instruments which have a human-in-the-loop strategy, that means that people can all the time assessment, override, or flip off the AI performance if wanted.
How Blackbaud Is Approaching AI in Nonprofit Accounting
At Blackbaud, we’ve got a protracted historical past and deep experience within the nonprofit sector. We perceive the distinctive wants and challenges of nonprofit finance professionals, and we’re dedicated to offering them with one of the best options doable.
That’s why we aren’t within the enterprise of making AI fashions from scratch. We’re being very selective and strategic in regards to the AI fashions we incorporate into our system, and we’re partnering with main AI suppliers to make sure the very best high quality and efficiency.
We’re additionally leveraging AI to create effectivity throughout Blackbaud merchandise, in order that finance professionals can entry and combine knowledge from varied sources, akin to fundraising, advertising and marketing, and companions. We’re engaged on methods for AI to boost our current performance, akin to automating bill creation, simplifying journal entry reclassification, and working steady reconciliation with the system notifying you of points.
These options are designed to assist finance professionals save time, enhance accuracy, and acquire insights, whereas additionally sustaining management and visibility over their knowledge and processes.
Utilizing Your Intelligence for Good
AI is doing greater than making your finance group sooner and extra strategic. There’s a bigger implication throughout all nonprofits, the communities you serve, and the bigger world. By utilizing AI, you may improve your mission and affect, and contribute to the higher good.
At Blackbaud, we’re obsessed with utilizing intelligence for good. We aren’t solely offering AI-enhanced instruments for fund accounting, but in addition for different areas of nonprofit administration, akin to fundraising, advertising and marketing, and analytics. We’re proud to be a part of a group of changemakers who’re utilizing AI to make the world a greater place.
AI in fund accounting just isn’t a distant future. It’s a current actuality. And it is a chance for nonprofit finance professionals to raise their position and affect. At Blackbaud, we’re right here that can assist you navigate the AI panorama and offer you one of the best instruments and sources to succeed.
In case you are involved in studying extra about how Blackbaud is approaching AI in fund accounting, and how one can profit from it, take a look at our most up-to-date Monetary Edge NXT Product Replace Briefing, the place we share extra particulars and examples of our AI-enhanced options.
