By Robin Berseth, Events and Technology Director, GMS, Inc.
 
We are happy to share this 3 part blog series as written by Steve Rizzo and featured on success.com. We are delighted that Mr. Rizzo will make a special appearance as the official keynote speaker of the GMS Summit 2017. Registration for the 2017 Summit will open on December 1, 2016. Please visit the summit website HERE to stay up-to-date on the 32nd Annual Premier Financial Management Conference for Nonprofits, taking place in beautiful San Diego, California, May 21 – 24, 2017.

"If You Want to Change Your Life, Change What You Think"
Steve Rizzo

I sometimes tend to think of life as a battlefield—albeit, a metaphorical one, very different from the horrors of war. Can anyone deny that bloodless battles rage around us every day, often fought against familiar enemies that loom from the past? The cause of these everyday battle wounds vary: a bitter divorce, the loss of a loved one, financial problems, unemployment, health issues, and the list goes on and on. However, one thing is certain; these emotional casualties sustained on the battlefield of everyday life can be as devastating to your long-term well-being.

​By Robin Berseth, Events and Technology Director, GMS, Inc.
 
We are happy to share this 3 part blog series as written by Steve Rizzo and featured on success.com. We are delighted that Mr. Rizzo will make a special appearance as the official keynote speaker of the GMS Summit 2017. Registration for the 2017 Summit will open on December 1, 2016. Please visit the summit website HERE to stay up-to-date on the 32nd Annual Premier Financial Management Conference for Nonprofits, taking place in beautiful San Diego, California, May 21 – 24, 2017.

“What Happy, Successful, Optimistic People Know About Life”
Steve Rizzo
 
The most important lesson I’ve learned from living on this planet is what any happy, successful, optimistic person knows about life: that we will all experience good times and bad times, that we will all have sad days and happy moments, that nothing in life is permanent, and that our success and happiness depends on our ability to ride these waves of change with composure. 

By Marilee Floener, Revolving Loan Servicing Software Director, GMS, Inc.

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Have you recently received a new computer and are now entering Loan Activity in your Grants Management Systems Revolving Loan Software and notice the Paid Thru Date and Next Payment Due Dates are appearing as invalid dates?  This can be easily remedied.  This indicates that your “Short date” is not set correctly within Windows.  Go to your Windows Control Panel and in the Search box enter “Short date”.  This will show you various date options.  

By Marilee Floener, Revolving Loan Servicing Software Director, GMS, Inc.

​When entering Loan Activity into your Grants Management Systems Revolving Loan Software, pay particular attention to the accuracy of the Next Payment Due field.  The date that is entered here determines the delinquency status of your loan.  It is used to determine if a late fee should be collected from the payment entered.  It is also utilized for delinquency purposes on the Aging Report, Payment Status Report, and Late Payment Notices.  

By Marilee Floener, Revolving Loan Servicing Software Director, GMS, Inc.

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​Are your reports taking a bit longer to appear on the screen than they previously have?  Does your software seem to be a little slower when you switch from one task to another?  Did someone exit the software in a non-standard manner?  When you are ready to make a backup of your database, is it substantially larger than normal?  All of these are reasons to perform a Compact and Repair of your Access database.

Grants Management Systems Revolving Loan Servicing Software has a utility available to assist you in doing this Compact and Repair.  If you do not have this icon on your desktop, please call or email service@gmsactg.com for instructions as to how to receive the GMS Utility.  You can also perform backups with this utility.  

By Marilee Floener, Revolving Loan Servicing Software Director, GMS, Inc.

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​One of the most important things you can do with regards to your data is to make regular backups.  You never know when something may happen to it.  Many things can go wrong such as it can become corrupted, mistakenly deleted, or the computer may get a virus, crash, or even be stolen or subject to some other catastrophe.  One never knows when this will occur and it can create a definite sinking feeling when it does!

By Era Williams, Director of Marketing

An unknown author said “Volunteering is the ultimate exercise in democracy. You vote in elections once a year, but when you volunteer, you vote every day about the kind of community you want to live in”.

As a software company that serves nonprofit organizations who give to and serve their communities 24/7, we get excited when our staff members give back through volunteering in their local communities.
 
This month, our Revolving Loan Director/Service and Support Specialist Marilee Floener took the opportunity to serve her community through participating in the John Ochs/Steve Cox Memorial Fund’s 9th Annual Opie-Coxie Open Fundraiser.

The John Ochs/Steve Cox Memorial Fund was established to pay tribute to John Ochs and Steve Cox, who were very involved in their community and events for youth, but both passed much too early in their lives.

By Robin Berseth, Events and Technology Director, GMS, Inc.

​A special component of the GMS Summit is to give back to the communities in which we are gathering (Corporate Social Responsibility). This aligns with our efforts of going green and caring for our planet. When conferences take place in communities around the United States, not only do attendees bring in a positive impact by stimulating the local economy, but also the impact of using the resources from within that community (water usage, trash disposal, etc.) In our efforts to bring more positivity to a community, we at GMS pride ourselves in leaving a little good behind each time. This type of responsibility also carries over into our annual staff meeting where as a team we do the same.

We want to thank our attendees for joining our Wednesday afternoon charity networking event during the GMS Summit last month. Participants assembled hygiene kits to be donated to Daystar Life Center in Pinellas County.

By Donald Cassady, President/CEO, GMS, Inc.

In the last blog we addressed the reports you could be providing to your Board of Directors. Now, we will be focusing on information you should be providing your Program Managers/Directors.

Although you can’t expect your program staff to be fiscal people or completely understand the chart of accounts structure to the extent a member of the finance department does, your Program Managers/Directors can play an important role in reviewing financial reports to help identify problems such as coding errors. In many cases they are more familiar with the day to day activity of their programs than a fiscal person may be. They can play an important part in helping to assure that the financial reports are accurate.

By Donald Cassady, President/CEO, GMS, Inc.

In addition to the obvious goal of having your nonprofit accounting software provide you with timely and accurate information, another just as important goal is to distribute this information in a format that is both easy for the recipient to understand as well as help them do their job or provide you with the service which was intended. The specific recipient of a financial report should drive the format of the report you are providing.

This is the first in a series of articles that will help you generate the appropriate reports(s) for your needs and also help assure you are using the GMS Nonprofit Accounting and Financial Management System or other software to its fullest extent. We will be talking about information provided to the Board of Directors, Executive Director, Program Staff, Funding Sources and Auditors, etc.