How To Stay Up To Date With Sage Nonprofit

May 9th, 2012

The team at Sage Nonprofit is constantly working to improve its nonprofit software to meet your organizations growing needs.  With constant software and news updates, it can be hard to keep your organization connected and up to date. For this reason, the McGovern Consulting Group has been working hard to stay up to date with Sage Nonprofit and bring the most important information to our clients attention. Here are the five best ways to stay up to date with Sage Nonprofit by connecting to the McGovern Consulting Group.

1. Facebook

We encourage you to connect to Sage Nonprofit on Facebook, but don’t forget about all of the other Sage pages on Facebook including Sage Summit, Sage North America and many more. Because we follow almost all of the Sage Software Solutions Pages, we are able to share the information on our fan page that will think will most benefit you. By connecting with us on Facebook you will find information from Sage all in one place.

2. Twitter

We strive to tweet about on upcoming events and newest blogposts on Twitter, but during down time we are sure to ReTweet (RT) news and links from Sage. They are constantly posting blog links, event updates and helpful information, but time moves fast on Twitter and you may not always be able to keep up. At the McGovern Consulting Group we are constantly keeping up with all things Sage, and do our best to share with our clients the most relevant information for their organizations.

3. Monthly Education Webinars

During the week we take part in Sage partner meetings, social media webinars, and research nonprofit news and updates. During our monthly educational webainars, Dennis McGovern, owner of the McGovern Consulting Group, LLC., presents information on the most relevant and time pressing topics according to our research. These events are free of charge to clients  and last 1 – 2 hours during select Wednesday’s each month.

4. Newsletters

Our monthly newsletters are filled with event information, news worthy topics and helpful blog posts for nonprofits. Anyone interest in learning more about Sage Software and how The McGovern Consulting Group should sign up for our newsletter immediately. This is just one of the many ways McGovern Consulting Group stays in touch with clients after software implementation is complete.

5. Sage Nonprofit Community

Joining the Sage Nonprofit Community is a great way to keep up to date with Sage Nonprofit Software Solutions. The Nonprofit Community allows you to connect, share and learn from other nonprofits. This resource offers blogs, webcasts, and free resources for nonprofit. Set it is quick and easy. Be sure to contact us today to help you sign up for The Sage Nonprofit Community!

 

Posted in Uncategorized |

Free Seminar for Nonprofits: Gaining Media Attention

April 9th, 2012

Thursday, April 12, 2012  from 8:30am -11 am IQnection Internet Services will be hosting its quarterly Nonprofit Summit in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.

During this quarter’s seminar, sponsored by IQnection Internet Services, Network Now, and McGovern Consulting Group, a  panel of speakers will share ideas and best practices for Gaining Media Attention. These ideas will help attendees support their nonprofit organization in hopes of increasing donors, supporters and volunteers.

Networking for Nonprofits will begin at 8:30am and last a half hour before a panel of speakers present their best practices for Gaining Media Attention. Speakers include; Leah Ludwig, Account Director for Furia Rubel; Robin Folkerts, Vice President of Development at the Heritage Conservancy; Dennis McGovern, McGovern Consulting Group; Eric Jacobson, Web Marketing Consultant  at IQnection Internet Services.

For more information on the featured speakers or to register for this event please click here.

Posted in Events, Preferred Partners |

Excel Tips and Tricks: Charts and Graphs

April 9th, 2012

Understanding the chart and graph functions in Excel can help you to illustrate worksheet data so that others can more easily decipher key information.  Luckily, the Chart Wizard in Excel makes it easy! In this course we will explore bar graphs, line graphs, conditioning or panel graphs, pie charts and much more. Dennis McGovern, will also discuss chart and customization tools during this exciting 2-hour webcast presentation.

The following information will be presented:

  • Creating Range Names in a SERIES formula
  • Using OFFSET and Count functions for charting purposes
  • Self Expanding Charts
  • Displaying the last x number of datapoints
  • Selecting a beginning and ending point for a dataseries
  • Creating and using Spinners
  • Linking a Chart Title to a Cell
During this interactive course, time will be allotted for attendees to test out what their learning after each “tip or trick” is presented. This allows users to ask questions, and receive assistance to insure they understand the information before applying what they’ve learned at work or at home. Course materials, including a reference sheet and powerpoint will be distributed upon sign up. Room is limited so please sign up today!

Posted in Events |

Positive Pay Tool for Sage 100 Fund Accounting (Formally MIP)

March 6th, 2012

According to stopcheckfraud.com: “71% of organizations experienced attempted or actual payments fraud in 2010.”  Because of this statistic, and many similar statistics, The McGovern Consulting Group has been working hard to develop a Fraud Protection Plan for nonprofit clients, by developing an application called the Positive Pay Tool.

Generally speaking, the Positive Pay Tool works like this:

1. A positive pay file is created, which includes a record of each check’s issue date, amount, check number/account and payee name.

2. When a check reaches the bank for payment, the bank compares the check against the positive pay file. Any discrepancies in a check’s information trigger a flag that the check in question may have been altered.

3. The bank notifies its corporate customer that the discrepancy has been noted and asks the company to verify the authenticity of that check.

To learn more about check fraud statistics,  and the Positive Pay Tool please view our slide show.
Positive Pay 

This process benefits nonprofits by stream lining the check deposit process, while protecting your organizations assets.  This tool works with:

  • Accounts Payable System Generated Checks
  • Write Checks
  • Cash Disbursements
  • Manual Accounts Payable Checks

 

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Posted in News, Products, Services, Uncategorized |

Excel Tips and Tricks

March 1st, 2012

At the McGovern Consulting Group we recognize the importance of continuing education, which is why our staff members often engage in webinars and training sessions online. This February, one of our staff members had the opportunity to take an Online Excel Class in order to increase her skills and continue her education. During this one-hour webinar she learned the following text functions:

  • Remove extra spaces from data
  • Divide Employee name into first and last
  • Concatenate the names back into one column
  • Create an email in the format: first initial, last name @ website (Ex. jdoe@gmail.com)
  • Get the first initial of each person
  • Get the last name of each person
  • Transpose a row
  • Transfer Text Files

 

During the session, our staff member was able to learn shortcuts, command keys and formulas to decrease time it takes to complete tasks within excel.  Here are some of the helpful tips she learned during this one-hour webinar:

  • The function: “=PROPER(Cell #)” changes the words in the selected cell,  from lowercase to uppercase.
  • Double clicking the fill handle is an easy way to copy the formula throughout the column
  • After formulating a column, it is important to remember to use “Paste Value” to remove the formula (Copy the column and then Paste>Paste Values)
  • Using the function:  ”=CONCATENATE(Cell#)” allows users to take information from a number of cells and put it into one cell. For example: If first name is in cell A1, and last name is in cell A2, you can put the two together by using this function in C2: =CONCATENATE(A1,” “,B1,)  Note: The ” ” are used to designate a space.
  • =CLEAN(TRIM(Cell Number))  Allows users to remove spaces within their excel spreadsheet
  • Find and replace tool call be used to remove text within a cell. Example, remove http:// from website address and replace with a blank space
  • To get the first letter of a word use the =LEFT(Cell number, 1) formula. The number one lets excel know that you want to first letter in the cell number you chose.

 

Microsoft Office courses are great for nonprofits and local governments looking to increase their knowledge base and improve their skills.  The McGovern Consulting Group will be offering a free Microsoft Office Training webinar on March 21, and will continue to do so in the future.  Please check our main page for news, dates and sign up information. To sign up for the March 21, excel webinar please email us at pr@mcgoverncg.com.

Have specific questions about the information above?

Looking to learn more about the text functions, and cant wait until our March 21, webinar? That’s okay! We are making ourselves available to answer any of your Excel Office questions. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us with your questions, we would love to share our Excel knowledge with you.  Contact us now!

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Posted in Events, News, Services, Uncategorized |

IQnection Nonprofit Summit

January 25th, 2012

On January 19, at 9 a.m IQnection Internet Services held its quarterly Nonprofit Summit. Four speakers shared fundraising ideas for nonprofits during the fundraising themed event entitled: “Raising Bucks – Fundraising ideas for the New Year.”

Networking began at 8:30 a.m., at IQnection’s Marketing and Hosting Department Building on 28 East Oakland Avenue in Doylestown, PA where over a dozen attendees gathered for the morning Nonprofit Summit.

At 9 a.m. Bob Campbell started the event by sharing information about IQnections social donation campaign.  Mr. Campbell also spoke about Casino Games Plus, and the perks of hosting a casino night fundraising event. This was one of three fundraising ideas for nonprofits that was discussed during the day.

The second fundraising idea for nonprofits was shared by Greg Glemser, co-owner of the Doylestown Gold Exchange. During the presentation Mr. Glemser informed attendees about his family owned and operated business located in Doylestown, PA and presented information on precious metal fundraising events or “gold parties,”  where organizations raise money based on the amount of gold (silver, platinum, or coins) brought to the party.

Dennis McGovern also took the time to present during this quarters Nonprofit Summit. He spoke on the topic of credit card transactions using Square Up. Square Up is a square-shaped card reader that can plug into any mobile smart phone, which will allow event staff to take credit card transactions from donors at any nonprofit fundraising event. For more information on the Square  Card Reader visit: https://squareup.com/

Finally, Mike Whelan and Christine Byers, from BC Sports shared information on fundraising with sports memorabilia also known as a “charity auction.”  This nonprofit fundraising option allows nonprofits to auction off consignment sports memorabilia for a profit. Once the items are auctioned off the nonprofit organization profits from all of the money made above the initial asking price. BC Sports is also able to schedule a professional athlete to attend an event, which can attract  a large number of attendees.

To see images from the Nonprofit Summit please visit our Facebook Page.

Don’t miss the next nonprofit summit in April 2012 at IQnection.
Events Sponsored By: IQnection Internet Services, Network Now, and McGovern Consulting Group

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Posted in Events, Preferred Partners |

Familiarization Session: 1099 Process Through Sage Fund Accounting

January 24th, 2012

The McGovern Consulting Group is excited to introduce and offer free educational webcasts to our Sage Nonprofit Solutions clients using Sage Fund Accounting, Sage Fundraising 50 and Sage Grant Management solutions. Our free educational webcasts will take place each month, and will focus on important topics impacting our nonprofit clients. These webcasts will feature nonprofit sector updates and information, news from the McGovern Consulting Group, as well as how-to’s and tutorials on various topics and challenges our nonprofit clients are facing. We are excited to give back to the nonprofit community and hope that you find our free educational webcasts helpful and informative.

Our first conference call of the New Year drew a great attendance last Wednesday, January 18. This call was especially timely due to its subject: Processing 1099’s through Sage Fund Accounting. The 1099 process is a task every organization must partake in annually and therefore an important subject for anyone facing issues or looking for clarification how to process 1099s though Sage Fund Accounting. Dennis McGovern demonstrated how to validate amounts and box numbers, how to make adjustments, and how to process 1099’s through Aatrix using the wizard. Dennis, also provided to our clients a step-by-step tutorial on how to processes 1099s through Sage Fund Accounting at no cost.
To review the slides we presented please scroll though the images below:

Sage Fund Accounting 1099 Processing by the McGovern Consulting Group

We would like to thank all of our attendees for joining this month’s educational webcast and hope to speak with you on our next free educational webcast and monthly client call. Please see our website home page for event details and easy registration.

 

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Posted in Client Calls, News |

Welcome to McGovern Consulting Group

October 28th, 2011

McGovern Consulting Group is an Authorized Sage Software reseller and a Sage Select Business Partner that works exclusively with nonprofit organizations and governmental agencies. By offering Sage MIP Fund Accounting Software and Sage Fundraising Software, McGovern Consulting Group is able to help organizations reach their financial goals through the use of technology. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in News |