To prepare for their future growth, in January 2020 they legally and operationally separated out their non-profit activities into a new entity. With the support of prior AfID volunteers they created a new chart of accounts and improved financial processes, keeping them parallel across the organisations including two separate QuickBooks Online accounts.

These processes were designed for a new startup non-profit which needed high levels of centralised control in order to ensure several years of clean audits which would unlock access to larger grants and fundraising. These policies have served them well for the past few years, but with their growth and expansion they have now become a constraint.

Specifically, they are seeking a volunteer to provide support in the following two area:

Review and re-validate their standard operating procedures and finance manual

Make any recommendations for improved, updated finance and operations protocols that maintain controls while delegating authority. Work with the team to create an updated finance manual with supportive scripts and aids. Evaluate budgetary planning and work with senior leadership to create budgets and migrate them into QuickBooks for regular budget-to-actuals variance analysis.

Review and refine systems to facilitate monthly management reports and dashboards

Examine data collection and how it leads up to management and board reports and decision-making, before making recommendations for improvements, developing the templates for monthly, quarterly and annual management reports, and introducing automated management dashboards.

This longstanding AfID partner are seeking a dedicated volunteer to support their Growth Fund. Since the fund was established, they extended funds/investments to around 9 businesses, but do not feel that the venture has been as successful as they hoped; they have non-performing loans of around 40%.

They are seeking someone to support them in strengthening their due diligence, tackling repayments, reviewing the performance of past investors and providing advice on how they engage investors going forwards.

As the first AfID volunteer to support this partner, the initial task will be to undertake a review of their financial management controls, processes and systems, before making and implementing recommendations to strengthen them. Although they have been running for some time, they have had challenges around building proper financial systems and controls.

They started off as a small organisation, with paper-based records. They now have a hybrid of a paper-based and a computer-based accounting system using Excel spreadsheets. Part of the assessment would be to see how they can transition to a computerised accounting system and whether an accounting software would beneficial, and if so, what might suit based on the complexity (or lack of) in accounting, resources available to them (including electricity and internet connectivity), and skillset of local staff.

Depending on what is decided and the duration of the placement, there might be scope to set up the new accounting system, creating a chart of accounts, and coaching staff in its use.

They would also benefit from support in reviewing their financial management tools – programmes and organisational budgets, management accounting tools, cashflow forecasts. Specifically, they would benefit from understanding how much it costs to run the organisation and all the programmes. At the moment, they receive funding from multiple donors, and they have to manage how they are able to recover the core administrative costs (staff salaries, office running costs). Depending on the outcome of this exercise, they would appreciate the volunteer reviewing donor agreements.

Having become a larger and more complex organisation over the last several years, they are seeking the support of a volunteer to review their current financial management processes and policies and to help build the financial management capacity of both their Accountant and Programme Manager.

They would be seeking a report outlining recommendations for strengthening their systems, potentially including advice on which accounting software to use. This remote project is likely to be followed by an in-person placement, to help implement the new system.

Experience of reviewing the financial processes of small overseas NGOs, as well as experience of accounting using MSExcel and software such as QuickBooks would be highly valuable.

Your role, as the third AfID volunteer, will be to focus on strengthening the Executive Director’s financial oversight and analysis as they grow as an organisation. She has self-taught and has advanced her management skills but would benefit from the support of an experienced financial professional to guide her and mentor her in the following areas:

• Financial oversight skills and understanding of internal control mechanisms. You will understand the Executive Director’s current challenges with financial oversight and identify opportunities for improvement.
• You will identify with the Executive Director the type of financial metrics and information that she needs to have for different stakeholders (board members, donors, partners) and brainstorm different ways that this information could be presented.
• Finance & accounting terminology, methods, and systems; for example in the questions asked by donors/partners in grant applications & reports. 
• Develop metrics to track efficiency in the context of making a case on the “value for money” of its comprehensive sexuality education program.

They have grown considerably over the last few years from a team of 8 in 2019 to 16 in 2022. They now manage multiple grants to deliver new projects. As they have grown, they have realised the need for an improvement in their financial systems to be able to effectively manage and report on the external funding they have received.

Having received a AfID in-person in early 2023, they now require a follow up placement where a volunteer will provide support in the following areas:

• Review their use of Quickbooks, supporting them in making any accounting corrections, and also in making the most of the software.
• Coach them in undertaking bank reconciliations, and in undertaking old bank reconciliations, bringing these up to date. 
• They have requested support in taking the lead on consolidating the accounts of the three entities so that management can get a complete picture of the finances and financial health of the whole organisation. Part of your work will also be to develop templates/tools to help them manage this process themselves going forward.
• They are looking to decentralise finance responsibilities, and are keen on more involvement from Project Officers. They would like coaching for them to understand the importance of proper record keeping, project budgeting and reporting.
• Undertake a review of their grant systems and support improvements to improve accuracy of grant reporting.

You will be the second AfID volunteer to visit this partner, and you will primarily be working with the accountant who received training from our previous volunteer. He is using Quickbooks confidently, albeit only as a bookkeeping tool, and your first task will be to review its use and progress since the previous placement.

They would also like to receive support in a number of additional areas:

• Creating a simple bookkeeping process for the restaurant; they do not have the funds to install an electronic till, and therefore all transactions in the restaurant and bar are recorded by hand. They would like to review how this is being done, and suggest how it might be improved to reduce errors.

• Assistance with putting together an annual budget. They currently do not have an organisational budget, and putting one together either on Excel or QuickBooks (depending on the skill set) will help them get better visibility on how much it costs to run the organisation.

• Assistance in creating monthly income & expenditure reports for individual projects, the bar, restaurant & conference centre, and the organisation overall. As part of this, they would benefit from a review of any grants compliance and reporting requirements, to see that they are meeting this.