Proving the strength of your operations, no matter how modest they are right now, is often the cornerstone of any organization. Even if you’re just hoping to run a sports team, you want to prove to your prospective sponsors that you all show up for training on the dot, that you’re working on your weak points, that you’re putting in avenues of progression.
The same goes for any corporate entity no matter how fledgling, such as startups or non-profits hoping to make a difference. In order to prove what you’ve been doing (beyond doubt), you need the best possible reporting measures in place. This is especially true if you’ve been awarded money, for example, and in this case grant management measures that allow for perfect accounting can help those bodies you’re accountable to grow in trust.
This sounds great on the surface, but it means little without understanding the practical steps and principles behind that process. In this post, we’ll discuss how to achieve that outcome in the best possible terms:
Immediately Structure Your Documentation
It’s very much vital to set up your documentation system from day one, not after you’ve already been running things for months and realise you’re missing half the information you need. Depending on your organisation, it’s usually still best to apply folders for types of records, with clear naming conventions for files, and make sure everyone on your team knows where things go and how to label them properly.
Remember that financial records, meeting minutes, progress reports, correspondence with funders or partners, all of this needs a home where people can find it quickly, and they need to be created quickly too. If you set up templates for reports so everything looks consistent and professional and can be accessed quickly, that’s great. The earlier you get this organised, the less scrambling you’ll have to do when someone asks for proof of what you’ve been up to.
Invest In Good Training
Your team needs to understand why accurate record keeping matters and how to do it correctly. You can have the best systems in the world, but if people are entering incomplete information or skipping steps because they’re in a rush, your reporting will still be a mess when you need it most.
We’d suggest you run training sessions that cover your documentation procedures, show people how to use whatever software you’ve chosen, and explain what happens when records are incomplete or missing. Then make sure everyone understands that this part of their job matters just as much as the exciting project work they’d prefer to focus on.
Make Your Deadlines Clear
People almost always work better when they know exactly what’s expected and when. Post deadlines somewhere visible, send reminders about those (or even automate them), and if you’re training someone, break the larger reporting requirements into smaller chunks that feel manageable throughout the project cycle.
Then you can easily build in buffer time before your deadlines so you have room to catch mistakes or find any missing information without panicking. If you wait until the last minute to compile everything, you’ll inevitably find gaps in your records when you have no time left to fill them, and even if you’ve done everything right up to that point, it can look like bad practice.
With this advice, you’ll be certain to bake-in effective reporting into your plucky startup.