One of the most effective ways we can address this is with our centralized accounting system. The development of uniform policy and procedures for chapter treasury operations reduces risk for the overall organization and addresses many of the issues identified in the OIG Audit released April 2019. The system will also improve insights into financials of the organization to better support accounting and fundraising. In addition, centralizing accounting nationwide reduces the burden on SCORE chapter chairs and treasurers moving forward, related to reporting requirements and bookkeeping and clerical duties.
As tough as the timing may seem, with everyone gearing up for NLC, moving all chapters onto the system sooner mitigates many of the risks that were identified in the audit. This is the right solution, and our stakeholders have verified that this move is the right move to fix a lot of the issues.
Because the Form 3 is a key component to moving your chapter on to the new accounting system, and because each chapter is required to do one at the end of the fiscal year, we believe that moving the remaining chapters on to the new system starting FY2019 year-end provides us with an economies of scale we won't have at any other point during the year. The timing of the form submission coupled with the urgency of moving chapters on to the system faster makes moving the remaining chapters the most ideal timeframe. We anticipate this taking a few months to transition all chapters to the system.
We have shifted our staff resources so that each chapter continues to have the support that they need to work through the checklist, which is a step-by-step guide to the transition. There will be one SCORE staff person assigned to your chapter.
We will address the rollout, support plan and next steps at the National Leadership Conference. There will also be kick-off calls on Wednesday, August 28, details to be sent out after NLC.
