Short-term recommendations:
- It is important to reach out to your audit firm and ask them for recommendations.
- Make a list of all anticipated payments, grants and other account receivables.
- Reach out to organizations that owe you money and send them instructions on how to pay electronically or wire. Get information from your bank, if you don’t have the information.
- If organizations have sent you payment via check to your office try to get those picked up. If you cannot do so, offer to reimburse any stop payment fees and ask them to make payment electronically.
- If your current process requires two signatures for checks, ask if it is an internal process or one required by the bank. When possible, use technology to document the second signer’s approval such as email/google doc/shared drives, etc.
- If your bank requires two signatures on checks, contact the bank and ask for a temporary change to the signature rules.
- Contact your regular vendors and ask them if you can make payment with credit cards.
- Create and document a plan on how to handle cash receipts, cash disbursements, and payroll. Ensure mechanisms are put in place to manage the execution of the plan.
Longer-term recommendations:
Invest in accounts payable technology like Bill.com or Mineral Tree. These have fantastic internal control procedures already built in, which are customizable to organizations of any size.