IRIS Financials could be a very powerful tool for you, says Stroke Association

The Stroke Association provides specialist support, funds critical research and campaigns to make sure people affected by stroke get the very best care and support to rebuild their lives.

We spoke to the Associate Director Financial Control, Peter Hayward, to get some of his tips for charities and not-for-profit organisations looking to get better insight of their financial information.

“Before you start using IRIS Financials, my main tip would be to get a clear understanding of how you want your structure to sit within the software.

Grab a pen and paper and draw it out. Ask yourself, how do we want to budget? How do we want to manage our funds? What sort of complexities do we have with our funds? How do we want to map income with spend? If you have all of that laid out before you begin, IRIS Financials will be a very powerful tool for you.”

The Stroke Association began using IRIS Financials back in 2018, previously using another financial system but needing software that could cope with its complexities and tiered levels of reporting. Peter moved to The Stroke Association shortly after IRIS Financials was implemented, and though he was familiar with IRIS Financials from his previous work in a not-for-profit organisation, he has since become more of a super-user!

He told us, “Because of our complicated levels of reporting at the Stroke Association, it would be easy to view IRIS Financials as a complicated system. But it’s actually a very clever tool and when you’ve got your head around it, there’s a lot it can do for your organisation. We know we could be getting more from it, in particular with our fund management, and we’re looking forward to working more closely with the team at IRIS to make that happen.”

Also using Purchasing and IRIS Expenses, the Stroke Association has around 600 people accessing this software to claim expenses or raise a Purchase Order. PS Purchasing is an online tool which means staff can access it on any web browser on any device, making the process accessible and easy.

IRIS Financials has allowed The Stroke Association to automate repetitive processes and streamline its accounting, for effective financial management - working smarter, saving time and ensuring compliance.

“IRIS Financials is a tool my team use all day, every day, and we’re very reliant on it. We’d certainly recommend it to other charities, but again, make sure you have that structure thought out beforehand!”

To donate to The Stroke Association, please click here. To see the full story, click here. (Download PDF) or click here to find out how our software could help your organisation.