How to manage Accounts & Finances in NGOs – A Manual for developing NGO Financial Management Policy

October 22, 2012 By Manab Chakraborty

About Manab Chakraborty

Mr. Manab Chakraborty has a generalist background in development program management, administration and training, and has specialized in natural resource management and micro enterprise development since 1994. Practical project management experience has been obtained from work in South Asia, China, South East Asia, East Africa, Southern Africa, for Oxfam, UNDP, UNEP, World Bank, IFAD, ADB, SIDA, USAID, DFID, GIZ, PLAN and various consultancy companies and microfinance institutions. Manab’s endeavor is to build institutions which are customer-centric attending to their expectations of cost and high quality, develop employees who embrace continuous improvements and where systems and processes support and drive growth.

According to the local laws and regulations of most countries, all registered NGOs are required to maintain a system for recording and submitting all types of financial transactions made by them for the purposes of implementing projects and running their organization. Since finances are a crucial part of organizationalmanagement, it is always a better idea to maintain a ‘Financial Policy’ for following procedures to keep the accounting system effective, transparent and easily manageable.

Following a systematic procedure and maintaining a policy on managing of NGO finances is a strong indicator of the good health of an organization. Even donor agencies would be most happy to render immediate funding support to such NGOs which have systematic policies in place for effective financial management. Operational or administrative manuals on conducting day-to-day financial transactions can be strong tools to demonstrate the good governance, transparency and systematic management of an NGO. Besides, such systems also enable in keeping a track of NGO expenditures.

But how can NGOs develop such manual for accounting and financial management? What are the various procedures for managing finances in an NGO? What are different types of systems to be followed for accounts management in NGOs? Is there a sample policy on NGO financial management?

We are providing a detailed explanation of how financial systems work in NGOs and how NGOs can make use of this guidance material to develop their own financial policy for effective organizational management, fulfillment of local statutory requirements and better mobilization of funding for the organization.

Sample Forms

Comments

GEOFF. says:

November 8, 2012 at 10:19 am

All these are helpfull,but wat about these like me who dont always have access to the inter-net,if only we could get hard copys insted.
jill says:

November 1, 2012 at 3:14 pm

These are all very helpful but i hope somebody can consolidate and put it on pdf document for easier downloading. thank you and great effort!
director says:

November 1, 2012 at 9:51 am

PLease put all this info into a .pdf document. It is tedious and slow to have to download each page separately. Thank you
Teshome says:

November 1, 2012 at 8:32 am

The financial guide and sample documents are very supportive
Mr Yusuf lare says:

October 26, 2012 at 9:21 am

i need partnership activity

thanks
Mr Yusuf
Ally Omari says:

October 22, 2012 at 7:22 pm

Keep us update pal! this gonna work a lot!