I do not have a green thumb but it hasn’t stopped me from attempting to garden.  About ten years ago, I decided it would be wonderful to have a lemon and lime tree.  While that doesn’t sound terribly complicated, I do live in Maine so my potted trees have to spend much of the time inside and they do require some shuffling around which isn’t that easy especially now that they’ve grown in size.  But, they are still alive and I have been able to make key lime pie – once.  Unfortunately, I really don’t invest the time and energy I should to help them thrive.  I think we often treat our software investments the same way.  We keep them “alive” and know how to do enough to get by but they’re not thriving.  For that we need to invest time and money to help us optimize our use of the system and with everything else on our plates it’s not something we do as often as we should.

Taking the time to sit in on a class, or learning how to use a new area of the software, can really help you maximize your software investment.  Soft Trac offers a variety of classes both on-site and remote as well as customized training for more specialized needs.   Please visit our training catalog: http://www.softtrac.com/training_catalog.asp to see the range of classes that we offer.

And for those of you who are new to the Sage 100 Fund Accounting software, please join us for one of our monthly free orientation webinars.  Our next one is scheduled for Thursday, June 13, 2013: http://www.softtrac.com/View_Class.asp?ClassID=845

We want you to thrive with your software.  I know if I took the time and invested more in my trees I might be able to enjoy key lime pie more often.

Here are my top five take-a-ways from my first experience representing Soft Trac at the New England Community Action Conference:

1. Our customers are awesome. I already knew this one but I loved the opportunity to meet many of our customers in person. It was a nice chance to introduce myself and talk to them about how things are going with their software. It’s always fun to meet people you’ve only talked to by phone previously. They never look like what you expect. And, I’m sure they thought the same about me.

2. People are friendly. I found the crowd to be engaged and interested in hearing about Sage Fund Accounting, Intacct, Sage Fundraising and Orange Leap. I enjoyed the chance to hear their stories and learn of opportunities for Soft Trac to help them achieve their mission.

3. Rush hour is hectic. Because our time with the participants was mainly during specific slots around their training sessions, our booth had super “busy times” and keeping up was challenging. I’m counting on my scrawled notes to trigger my memory so I can do all the promised follow up.

4. It’s a big group. It can seem small when you’re having one on one conversations but sitting in the banquet hall for lunch listening to the keynote speaker, David Bradley, Executive Director of National Community Action Foundation, with the entire group of conference attendees was eye opening.

5. Bring more candy!! While I did splurge on the warehouse club size bag of candy, I should have gone for two bags. My stash didn’t last until the end of the conference.

Thank you to all those participants who took the time to come by the Soft Trac booth and say hello. I enjoyed meeting you all!

It’s been a crazy busy week, but a good one. I had the opportunity to call many of our customers about our recent F9 webinar. I always enjoy the opportunity to talk to our existing customers to see how things are going with their software and discuss additional ways that Soft Trac can help them achieve their goals.

I’m going to have another opportunity next week to meet both existing customers and potential new ones. This opportunity will be in person and will be a new experience for me. I will be representing Soft Trac at the New England Community Action Conference. If you’re going to be attending the conference, please stop by our booth and introduce yourself. Most of my contact is through phone and e-mail so it will be a nice change of pace to meet people face to face. I’m excited for the conference and hope to see you there!

If you’d like more information on the New England Community Action Conference, please visit this link: http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e74pduyb8ed23116&llr=dkuq6geab

I love my CRM. It’s not the specific CRM that I use that I hold in such high affection, it’s the ability it gives me to keep in touch with you, our customers to follow up as promised on the various requests and information you need from us to keep your organization running efficiently. We all need our productivity tools and for nonprofit organizations one that allows you to keep in touch with donors, past and future, on a consistent basis can make things run more smoothly. The right e-mail marketing program can really streamline staying connected with donors by automating your communications. And, with predefined templates as well as the ability to quickly import your own designs, getting up and going with e-marketing is a breeze.

I just finished a Sage Fundraising Online training class and was especially intrigued with the peer to peer fundraising option. What a great way to empower those who are passionate about your cause and turn them into fundraisers for your organization. It’s definitely had an influence on my own giving in recent years.

In the past I’ve had multiple friends reach out to me to support the organizations with which they are involved. Sometimes it’s been to support them in a fundraising walk or 5K; other times it has been to respond to an e-mail campaign or a personal letter. A few of them had deep personal connections to the organizations they were supporting because of a significant life event. For others, the connection may have been more casual for example someone close to them had been impacted by the organization and they too wanted to support a friend. Whatever the connection, I wanted to support not only the organization they were raising funds for but my friends themselves. Everybody wins.

As I write this, the lake has finally thawed and it’s raining not snowing outside my window so I know the warm days will start outnumbering the cold ones. And with spring comes opportunities to move fundraising events outside. It has never been more important for nonprofit organizations to have multiple tools in their fundraising arsenal and it’s critical to go beyond the “donate now” button and reach donors in new and creative ways. Organizations that reach out to donors through events and campaigns have considerably greater success in generating support. I’m curious as to what types of outdoor events your organization hosts. My brother is always looking for a reason to head to the golf course.

Karen joined Soft Trac in 2011 as an Administrative Sales Assistant.
As Account Manager at Soft Trac, Karen’s responsibilities will include developing new business for the company as well as supporting Soft Trac’s current customer base.

“I am looking forward to maintaining positive relationships with both potential and existing customers and continuing Soft Trac’s tradition of exceptional customer service.”

After receiving her MBA from Suffolk University, Karen worked in information technology in implementation roles before moving into quality assurance. She took time off from the work force to stay home with her daughters and recently returned to the software industry.

Karen lives in Windham with her husband and two daughters.

I’m a closet story teller. I’m not going to share my personal moments with the world but I love to scrapbook and write my stories down to share with my friends and family. My children look over my scrapbooks with great pleasure. It speaks to the joy of reading something personal and helps highlight how important it is for nonprofit organizations to tell a compelling story about their mission. Your passion is what inspires others and sharing individual stories of your cause in action helps to personalize your mission and drive supporters to your organization. The only difference is that your stories do need to be shared with the world.

Maine Association of Nonprofits has a SkillBuilders event “Finding and Telling our Stories: Bringing our Mission and Vision to Life” scheduled for next Thursday, April 11, 2013. Here is a link to their website with more details: http://www.nonprofitmaine.org/skillbuilder_detail.asp?event=1176

The payment of vendors by credit card will require a clearing account with a Cash (CSH) type account, the use of Cash Disbursements to record receipts as expenses for vendors and finally recording AP invoices to vendors offsetting the credit card clearing account.

Set up Credit Card Clearing Account
1. From the Navigator select Accounting Setup.
2. From the Task Window select Chart of Accounts.

3. Click on New to create the new account.
4. Make sure the Segment is GL, Account Type is Cash and the Designation is APO.

Record cash receipts as expenses for vendors
To record the credit card receipts as expenses for your vendors you will need to use a manual Cash Disbursement (Transactions>Enter Cash Disbursements) session. This transaction will act as pseudo AP invoice by associating the vendor with the expense. In the cash disbursement transaction select the appropriate Vendor for Payee ID, debit the appropriate expense and credit the new Cash type Credit Card clearing account. When the credit card statement is received, you will record the Accounts Payable Invoices to the appropriate vendors, debit the Credit Card clearing account and crediting the expense.
1. From the Navigator select Basic Transactions.
2. From the Task Window select Enter Cash Disbursements.

3. Create a new session selecting the Credit Card Cash Account.

4. Record the document information including the appropriate vendor. Debit the expense and credit the Credit Card Cash Account.

When the credit card statement is received, record the vendor invoice in Accounts Payable. Debit the credit card clearing account and credit the appropriate accounts payable account.

You can then pay your credit card company with a check and you will be able to track your expenses by vendor using the Vendor Activity Report.