Many people don't realize how much work goes into running a senior living facility. There's a great deal more to it than providing medical care and a place to live. Residential care organizations must not only provide support to the people living there, but also to their families.
And that's not even getting into the operational side of things. A long-term care home must adhere to both HIPAA and state-level regulations, including required reporting. At the same time, the organization responsible for managing the home must also manage its employees, finances, and marketing.
All told, you're looking at coordinating potentially hundreds of staff across multiple teams, departments, and sites. To call that a complex undertaking would be putting it lightly. The good news is that the right technology can make things a great deal easier, which is where Sparkrock 365's Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution comes in.
Here are five ways Sparkrock can help assisted living organizations operate more efficiently and effectively.
Assisted living facilities are regulated at the state or provincial level. Unfortunately, every state and province has its own set of requirements for reporting and assessments. While that's not much of an issue for a smaller organization, operators at larger assisted living providers might find themselves having to juggle multiple sets of regulations.
Sparkrock makes government compliance reporting through a combination of paperless automation and access to a comprehensive list of reports and assessments directly out-of-the-box. Better yet, the platform integrates seamlessly with Power BI, which combines powerful data analysis with the ability to generate custom reports for improved accuracy, simpler auditing, and fewer errors.
Data silos often plague larger, more complex organizations. Not only does every department tend to have its own way of doing things, different locations may also have different approaches to data storage and data management. Accounting and human resources are two areas where these silos most frequently seem to manifest — and they're also where data silos can be the most damaging to operational efficiency and effective management.
Sparkrock provides a fully-integrated solution, allowing your organization to establish a single source of truth for critical operational data. Rather than having to deploy a patchwork of different solutions, your team can manage accounts payable, accounts receivable, income, attendance, payroll, and more, all within a single solution.
There are very few people who actually enjoy filling out paperwork. It's tedious, it's time-consuming, and in a world that's increasingly shifting toward digital media, it's arguably a waste of paper. This manual work also shifts attention away from other important tasks, either delaying them or requiring someone else to pick up the slack.
To make matters worse, we as humans don't tend to do well with menial repetition. Eventually, our attention will wander and our concentration will start to slip, making us more prone to mistakes. You can probably already guess why that's a bad thing in the context of assisted living.
Sparkrock's cloud-based ERP software improves both efficiency and productivity through a combination of smart automation, pre-built templates, auto-fill settings, and self-service capabilities for staff, residents and their families. It allows your organization to streamline both administrative tasks and workflows, freeing up valuable time that you can then direct elsewhere.
You'll also spend less money on office supplies such as paper and printer ink. Better yet, because Sparkrock connects directly with your organization's finances, it might even help you discover new cost efficiencies and opportunities. And it'll do all this while also reducing duplication, errors, and delays across the board.
One thing a lot of businesses tend to forget is that a software vendor's conduct is just as important as the solutions that vendor provides. As a result, they're frequently left to figure out onboarding on their own. In the worst case scenario, this leaves them saddled with complicated, expensive ERP software that they struggle to use effectively.
With Sparkrock, that's not an issue. We provide comprehensive training and support to ensure that your organization knows everything it needs to use our software. Better yet, our team is experienced in working with assisted living facilities and other human services organizations
In addition to providing easy access to our support team, we've developed a comprehensive online knowledge-base that includes guides, webinars, and more.
At the end of the day, your goal is to provide residents with the best quality of life you possibly can. One of the best ways to accomplish that is through close, personalized attention — especially if that includes proactively anticipating and fulfilling their needs. That's something else Sparkrock can help you with.
We already mentioned how our platform empowers managers and staff alike to focus on mission-critical tasks through smart automation. But that's not all it can do. Through integration with solutions like Power BI, it enables data-driven decision-making and helps you identify patterns you might otherwise miss, such as early warning signs that a resident might be experiencing health problems.
Interested in learning more about how our ERP software addresses the pain points of human services organizations? Book a demo today.
From professional associations and trade unions to clubs, all member organizations tend to share a common problem: Management. Keeping track of people and memberships is easy enough when you've only got a few dozen members. But as your organization grows, that job's going to get increasingly challenging and time-consuming until eventually doing everything by hand just isn't possible anymore.
Maybe you're here because you saw it coming. Maybe you've already hit that threshold. Either way, you've figured out that you need membership management software.
Let's talk about how you can find the right solution.
Could you go through the selection process and choose membership management software entirely by yourself? Probably. But should you?
Probably not.
You'd be better off working with a well-rounded team drawn from across your organization. Include people with expertise not just in communication and administration, but also event management, finance, and IT. That'll allow you to look at prospective software from a ton of different angles — and make it much less likely that you'll miss the mark with your choice.
With all that said, you'll also want to make sure there's one person on the team who has the final say. They'll be the point of contact for vendors. If you decide not to step into the role yourself, choose someone who's both organized and skilled at communication, then make sure they've a solid understanding of what you're looking for.
Next, you need to figure out how much you're able to spend on your software. More importantly, you need to make sure whatever budget you come up with is realistic. Unfortunately, this is where things get a little complicated, as the price structure for association management software isn't always cut-and-dry.
There are a few different factors that can impact cost.
First, how many people will be using your software? How many members does your organization currently have, and how fast is it likely to grow? While some vendors charge based on membership volume, others might bill you at a flat rate or only charge you for internal seats.
You'll also need to think about implementation. Are you going to need to update any of your existing infrastructure? How difficult is the software to deploy and configure, and does the vendor charge for installation?
Finally, there's operating costs. These could include support fees, additional licensing fees, and hosting expenses.
Now it's time to think about what you need your membership management software to do. Working with your team, put together a list of high-priority features and characteristics. You'll want to consider:
For example, a small trade association that regularly hosts events will probably want to look for something with robust event management functionality but baseline member management. On the other hand, a global professional association that works with multiple industries is going to need something with a great deal more flexibility and customizability.
In addition to managing memberships and dues, association management software can also help with:
Once you've brainstormed a list of features, separate them into two categories: "Must-haves" and "nice-to-haves." The former is what you absolutely need the software to do, your deal-makers and deal-breakers. The latter category includes features that you can live without, even if ideally you'd like to find a vendor that offers them..
With your feature-list in mind and your needs established, it's time to start looking for a vendor. While you'll probably cast a wide net initially, eventually you'll want to narrow things down to no more than five or six vendors. In that regard, there are a few questions you can ask:
Once you've put together your shortlist, you can start scheduling sales demos with each vendor. Make sure you come prepared with any questions you might want to ask, features you want to see, and concerns you have about the software. More importantly, don't commit to any of your prospective vendors until you've seen demos from all of them — just because one vendor wows you, it doesn't mean it's the only one that fits.
Once you've seen all the demos, it's time to confer with your team again. Your goal now will be to figure out which vendor offers the best value at their price point. Ideally, you'll also want to choose a vendor that regularly innovates and updates their software, both to keep with changing market trends and improve their product.
There's a lot that goes into running a membership organization. It can be challenging to find the right software, especially if you need to manage multiple programs and fee structures. Sparkrock can help.
We offer the only SaaS-based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software specifically designed to help associations not only manage their memberships, but also simplify purchasing, reporting, budgeting, and scheduling. Sparkrock combines intuitive financial, inventory, and project management with member engagement so that it's easier than ever to help your organization grow and thrive. Here are a few ways our purpose-built ERP solution helps membership organizations:
Is it time to upgrade your association management software? Book a demo today, and we'll show you exactly what we can do.
First Nations Tribal Councils often rely on grant funding from a variety of sources to sustain their communities. In addition to economic development, grant programs may support everything from critical infrastructure to healthcare, education, housing, and other community services. In addition to improving quality of life for tribal members, grant programs are also used for cultural preservation and wildlife conservation.
As you've probably guessed, managing the intricacies of applying for and complying with grant programs tends to be extremely complex. They tend to be uniquely challenging even for someone experienced in grant management. Adding to this issue, many tribes have limited resources or operate out of smaller communities — meaning they have access to fewer people who understand the intricacies of the various grant programs.
As a result, they may encounter roadblocks that impede or even prevent access to grant funding. We're going to go over a few of these roadblocks before explaining how best to overcome them.
When a tribe receives funding, it's crucial to not only allocate the funds correctly but also ensure proper documentation and record-keeping. At the same time, the council must maintain awareness of and adhere to the grant program's criteria. This can be challenging for several reasons.
Regulatory standards in both Canada and the United States are not only complicated but also have a tendency to change from year to year. Even if you've managed to get a handle on how grants work this year, there's no guarantee you won't have to relearn things next year. Case in point: The processes and criteria for Federal funding in the United States have, until fairly recently, prevented many governments from accessing funding altogether.
Even those governments that did qualify were often overwhelmed by the grant's administrative burden.
Legacy software is a better alternative than manual grant management — but only just barely. Frustrating and cumbersome interfaces aside, older software often lacks the necessary reporting capabilities for efficient and effective grant management. What's more, integrating these legacy solutions with modern systems can be a logistical nightmare in its own right.
Effective grant management also requires that your government be able to communicate effectively not just with internal stakeholders, but also with third parties such as government representatives and auditors. This requires a clear division of roles — there should be no doubt as to each stakeholder's responsibilities in the grant process. Moreover, you need a standardized approach that'll allow you to maintain comprehensive records of all communication.
This also applies to performance measurement. Many governments lack an effective means of determining the return on investment (ROI) of their grants. In addition to making it more difficult to properly allocate funds, this also makes it more challenging to know if you've received enough funding and to identify areas where a grant may have fallen short.
Ideally, your grant portfolio should be stored in a central location, fully digitized and accessible only to authorized stakeholders. In practice, this is often easier said than done. Many Tribal governments are forced to combine virtual and physical record-keeping, increasing their already considerable administrative load while also increasing the potential for mistakes or inaccuracies.
The grant management process becomes even more complicated when one accounts for how many different types of grants and programs exist. To make matters worse, many of these programs are limited in both category and scope, making it difficult to discern which ones are the best fit for a community and its needs. In Canada, for instance, Tribal Council Funding is divided into three separate tiers based on member nations, on-reserve population, and the number of ongoing programs.
In addition to Tribal Council Funding, there are more than thirty different programs, services, and initiatives geared toward Indigenous communities, each one falling under one of the following categories:
Complicating things even further, many Tribal Councils already have ongoing grant programs with which they must comply.
Between changing regulations, the huge variety of available programs, and the sheer complexity of documentation, adhering to each grant's criteria can make it difficult to actually use those grants. You can't really maximize the positive impact of your grant money if you spend all your time making sure you receive it, after all.
A modern ERP platform like Sparkrock provides the necessary technology to more effectively manage not only grants, but also your entire community. Accessible from within a secure, cloud-based government, Sparkrock is designed specifically to meet the needs of Tribal Governments. To that end, it includes tools for both pre-award and post-award grant management.
For pre-award management, Sparkrock 365 allows your organization to set up its grant cycle stages, with extensive tracking at each stage and a clear overview of the full funding pipeline. This is further augmented by comprehensive data analysis that enables more strategic decision-making. Sparkrock also offers a specialized project and grant accounting module that helps maintain compliance, particularly when managing the intricacies of multi-year grants.
A few other ways our purpose-built ERP helps include:
Is it time to upgrade how you manage your grant programs? Book a demo today to see how Sparkrock can help you do so.
Canadian nonprofits are under “immense pressure to reduce programming, diversify funding sources, or, in the worst cases, close their doors." Faced with shrinking budgets and increasing operational costs, CFOs of nonprofits need tactics and tools to weather the storm.
This guide explores five strategies to help CFOs sustain their nonprofits using data-ready Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions.
CFOs can't have hindsight that's 20/20; they need proactive intuition that anticipates future challenges and opportunities. They adapt strategies in real-time to guide their organization through financial instability. They're visionaries who foresee risk and do what they can to mitigate it.
By staying current on trends and the economy, CFOs have the advantage of making more accurate, forward-looking decisions that align with their nonprofit's goals, but that can only take them so far. Internal, accurate data supplies CFOs with real-time analytics needed to make informed financial decisions, optimize resource allocation, and strategically drive the company's growth and profitability. Sparkrock 365's ERP offers comprehensive forecasting tools, like cash flow forecasting, that allow CFOs to analyze historical data, predict future trends, and plan accordingly.
Previously burdened by an outdated and labor-intensive ERP system, the Canadian Museum of History faced significant challenges in generating timely and accurate reports. The old system was not user-friendly and required extensive manual labor to transfer data into usable formats for analysis.
With the implementation of Sparkrock, CMH experienced a seismic shift in its forecasting capabilities:
The time it takes to generate quarterly reports has drastically reduced from days to minutes which gives CFOs the speed and accuracy of data available for forecasting.
With more accessible and timely data, the museum's management can now make informed decisions quickly based on the most current financial insights.
The integration of Sparkrock provided end-to-end visibility from procurement to payment. This visibility supported precise budget management and forecasting accuracy.
CFOs must grasp the nuances of their organization's financial structure, particularly in managing diverse revenue streams that may be unrestricted or restricted based on donor stipulations.
Right to Play faced significant challenges in managing donor data and harmonizing funds across their global operations. They implemented Sparkrock 365's ERP due to its customized reporting capabilities. The ERP system aligned donor intentions with organizational needs for transparent and optimized fund allocation. This integration demonstrates the tangible impact of donations and supports strategic decision-making in fund management.
Sparkrock 365's ERP supports CFOs with detailed financial reports and dashboards. These tools help streamline the analysis of unrestricted vs. restricted funds which ultimately improve financial oversight and strategic planning. For nonprofits like Right to Play, proper management of unrestricted and restricted revenue enables the nonprofit to sustain their operations and expand their impact.
While securing funding is necessary for nonprofit survival, CFOs should guard against the allure of conforming to every funding opportunity. Not all funds are created equal, and the most accessible or lucrative offer might not align with the organization's mission. An adept CFO understands the value for money but also recognizes that the bidding process can sometimes favor those who excel at making appealing proposals over those best suited for project execution.
Enhancing Vendor and Funding Management with ERP Features:
To manage different funding sources and maintain strategic alignment, CFOs can use advanced ERP functionalities for the following:
With Sparkrock 365, CFOs can set up and manage comprehensive vendor records in one place. This includes multiple addresses, bank accounts, preferred items, and payment terms. Centralizing all this information streamlines procurement processes and aligns financial commitments with the nonprofit's goals and compliance requirements.
Easily track and manage multiple contacts for each vendor, complete with notes and comments. This feature enhances communication and collaboration, which is important for maintaining strong relationships with donors and funding partners who are aligned with the nonprofit's mission.
Automated workflows and real-time visibility into vendor activities allows CFOs to maintain tight control over financial operations. Every dollar spent or received advances the organization's objectives and supports sustainable growth.
There's a persistent myth in nonprofits that lower overhead costs are always better. However, this sentiment stifles genuine progress. The default expectation that expenses will exceed revenue, and it's the organization's responsibility to bridge this gap, often leads nonprofits to neglect essential infrastructure—overhead costs like administrative salaries, office space, and utilities—which are necessary for sustained operations. After all, can a doctor do their work without an office, electricity, insurance, receptionist, or accounting staff? The same can be said for the nonprofit space–overhead is operational.
Investing in overhead should be viewed not as a necessary evil but as an investment in the organization's capacity to deliver on its social purpose. CFOs should advocate for this understanding among their donors and stakeholders, helping them recognize that a well-funded infrastructure supports long-term success and impact. Accenture's latest findings show that "organizations with an advanced digital core, investments in strategic innovation, and a balanced approach to their technical debt achieved 60% higher revenue growth rate and 40% higher profits."
Action Group's experience echoes the necessity of re-evaluating operational strategies. Before Sparkrock 365, they struggled with disconnected systems between finance and human resources. Payroll processing and employee scheduling were as disjointed as they were time-consuming. By integrating their processes into Sparkrock 365, Action Group
An ERP system simplifies financial management so CFOs can accurately track and justify overhead costs. With sophisticated analytics and reporting capabilities, ERP systems provide a clear picture of how these investments contribute to the organization's efficiency.
Effective internal controls are not just a regulatory necessity—they maintain a nonprofit's accountability. Internal controls support financial checks and balances to uphold procedures and protect assets.
The Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) previously struggled with disjointed systems. It hindered their ability to oversee financial operations. The adoption of Sparkrock 365 marked a turning point. The ERP system enabled SACOG to:
Features such as electronic approval workflows and contract attachments in Sparkrock 365 have notably improved transparency and accountability to manage public funds. The ERP system also supports and monitors internal controls by providing automated checks, like spending limits and vendor verification, to prevent fraud and errors. Its comprehensive reporting features also allow for ongoing oversight and detailed internal audits of all financial activities.
There is no shortage of challenges for CFOs of nonprofits. That's why leveraging a digital, centralized hub like Sparkrock gives CFOs the advantage during mounting financial pressures. Sparkrock 365 supports CFOs with the tools they need.
| ERP Features | How It Supports CFOs |
| General Ledger & Dimensions | Manage data with a dimensional structure for entries, inquiries, and reporting to align with funding-based account structures. |
| Financial Reporting | Gain rich insights with easy-to-use interfaces and flexible report structures for financial statements and government compliance. |
| Fund Accounting | Maintain balanced financial statements by fund, for accurate inter-fund entries and compliance with fund accounting requirements. |
| Commitments & Encumbrances | Integrated with purchase orders and budget checks, automatically adjusting encumbrances to streamline financial commitments. |
| Requisition Management | Enhance control over procurement with real-time budget checks, authorized vendor interactions, and streamlined requisition approvals. |
| Vendor Management | Manage vendor relations comprehensively, from price negotiation to contract management, enhancing operational control. |
| Cash Management | Manage bank accounts and transactions efficiently, with features like EFT, cash flow forecasting, and bank reconciliations. |
| Cash Flow Forecasting | Predict liquidity with greater accuracy, integrating expected receipts and disbursements to optimize financial planning. |
As your organization looks towards sustaining and expanding its impact, consider how an integrated ERP system can benefit your financial management practices. Surviving current challenges isn’t viable. Pave the way for future success. Schedule a demo to see how Sparkrock 365 can be tailored to meet your nonprofit's unique needs.