Does your organization still struggle with manual, repetitive tasks? The biggest opportunity of automation lies in reducing time wasted on repetitive work so you can allocate more of your valuable time to making a difference.

One of the biggest benefits of using a research grant management platform, in general, is improved organizational skills. With reliable and cutting-edge grant management software,  all of the information you need will be in one easy-to-access location, making your day-to-day tasks less tedious.

Valuable information may be spread across multiple documents or on various pieces of hardware, making coordination and planning much more difficult. Since you no longer have to store data across multiple documents or papers, you are much less likely to lose all of this information.

Here are 5 telltale signs that you need to automate your research grants process, stat:

You find it difficult to communicate and collaborate

With multiple people doing different tasks,  it’s difficult to communicate quickly and assign tasks to ensure you’re all on the same page.

If you’re struggling to connect your development office, grant office, research staff, and other stakeholders consider adopting a research grant management solution that’s paperless and cloud-based, so you can all use it simultaneously.

You have bottlenecks due to manual, redundant methods

Here’s a less-than-ideal scenario: Each staff member has their own system for filing and organizing grant documents. The team often handles the same spreadsheets, Word documents, and other source materials numerous times, checking for inaccuracies, proofreading, and managing revisions. Each member relies on their own methods to track deadlines and to-do lists.

This is a problem for several reasons. Not only does it waste time due to duplicate data entry, but it means there are lots of opportunities for errors to slip in, from typos to outdated information. Worst case, it exposes you to the risk of non-compliance.

Staying compliant is a struggle

Problem: Your organization has trouble managing compliance requirements and time-consuming reporting that documents the use of funds, especially when it comes to federal grants or highly regulated sectors.

Again, this opens you up to audit findings, fines, loss of funding, and other non-compliance penalties. It takes significant time to run reports, which can ultimately lead to missing out on other areas of opportunity your team should be focusing on. If you want to save time, keep your staff happily productive, and make compliance easier, research grant management software is a must.

Reporting is a long, frustrating process

If there’s no convenient way to report on the allocation of resources, you’ve got a problem. Without up-to-date reports on, for example, how much research funding is left on a certain grant, principal investigators may inadvertently overspend, and then you have to scramble to reallocate money and come up with the extra funds from somewhere else.

Eliminate those issues with reports that give you visibility into spending and assist you in making cost projections.

You can’t consolidate grant management

Is it an administrative nightmare when your organization gets more than one grant at once? Does your team often lose track of important information for reporting on each grant? Is it impossible to consolidate grants and keep each one organized separately, for easy reporting and risk reduction?

Those are all big red flags! If you want your research program to grow, it has to be able to scale. Multiple simultaneous grants shouldn’t plunge everyone into chaos. With software to manage the entire lifecycle of a grant, and support numerous grants, it’s so much easier to keep track of all the necessary details, simplify reporting, and be a responsible steward of even more funding.

Discover how we can help your organization get the best return on your research grant-making process.

Create a custom application process to fit your and your recipients’ needs

Create a process that’s polished and painless for everyone involved. Collect submissions, supporting documents, and create forms to calculate budget needs to aid in disbursing the most helpful amount of funding for the research project.

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Monitor your impact in real-time

Don’t be left in the dark. Access all your application and funding data in real-time with our Business Intelligence tool, and create powerful custom reports so that you can monitor your impact and ensure a seamless process every step of the way.

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Make a difference today. From technological advances to medical care, streamline your research grants process with CommunityForce. Collect, review, and fund the best applicants and team for your projects.