During the years we spent interviewing service commissions and AmeriCorps program directors on what their ideal financial reporting and monitoring system would look and feel like, we heard common themes of pain and frustration when it came to tracking receipts and general ledgers review as a part of expense reports.
1. Smaller programs do not always have access to formal receipt management systems, leading those documents to be stored in boxes, envelopes or the like. Program staff would welcome an easy, secure place to maintain receipts across program years.
2. Both program staff and service commission program officers hate the process of collecting expense reports on one platform, and then having to request receipts, general ledgers, and the like through other means (via e-mail, fax, uploads to a central Salesforce system, SharePoint, Google Drive, etc.).
3. There are times when service commissions need to collect more documentation from some programs (EG, those deemed higher-risk), and less documentation from other programs. Nobody should be forced into a system that treats all programs the same, and program staff should never be asked to spend time on tasks that aren’t truly essential.
Just today, we launched features that solve each of the problems noted above.
Below, please find a quick video on just some of the ways the AmeriCorps Impact Suite now makes receipt- and general ledger-management and compliance a breeze for AmeriCorps programs, Volunteer Generation Fund subgrantees, and service commissions.