Tag: blog

  • Enhancing Political Accounting Efficiency: The Power of ISPolitical’s Software

    Navigating the intricacies of political accounting, including campaign finance, compliance, and reporting, is a monumental task. Fundraisers, marketers, and treasurers alike have their work cut out for them. That’s where ISPolitical steps in, offering cutting-edge political accounting software designed to revolutionize the way campaigns and organizations manage their financial responsibilities. In this blog post, we explore how to improve political accounting using ISPolitical’s software to significantly enhance efficiency across various aspects of it.

    Regulation Compliance Made Simple

    Campaigns often grapple with a myriad of regulations, and ensuring compliance can be a daunting challenge. ISPolitical’s software streamlines the process by automating compliance checks and providing real-time updates on changing regulations. This proactive approach not only saves time but also mitigates the risk of regulatory violations.

    Transparent Financial Reporting

    Transparency is a cornerstone of accountable governance. ISPolitical’s software facilitates transparent financial reporting by generating detailed and easily understandable reports. This not only satisfies regulatory requirements but also fosters trust among stakeholders, donors, and the public.

    Empowering Treasurers

    Treasurers play a central role in managing campaign finances. ISPolitical’s software empowers treasurers by providing them with intuitive tools for budgeting, tracking expenditures, and forecasting financial needs. This ensures that treasurers can make informed decisions, contributing to overall financial health.

    Political Accounting Software Support

    A software solution is only as good as the support behind it. ISPolitical excels in providing responsive customer support. Whether users have questions about the software’s functionalities or need assistance with troubleshooting, ISPolitical’s support team is there to ensure a smooth experience.

    Political Accounting Software Security 

    Political campaigns handle sensitive information that demands the highest level of security. ISPolitical understands this and has implemented robust security measures to safeguard data. From encryption protocols to secure login procedures, the software ensures that campaign data remains confidential and protected from potential threats.

    Seamless Accounting Software Integration

    ISPolitical’s software is designed to seamlessly integrate with existing systems. This eliminates the need for manual data entry and reduces the risk of errors. Integration ensures that campaigns can efficiently manage their finances without disruptions to their established workflows.

    Better Campaign Time Efficiency Through Automation

    Automation is a key feature of ISPolitical’s software. Tasks that would traditionally consume significant time, such as data entry and compliance checks, are automated, freeing up valuable resources. This time efficiency allows campaign teams to focus on strategic planning and execution.

    What Does Your Political Accounting Software Do?

    In the complex world of policy and politics, efficiency is not just a convenience; it’s a necessity. ISPolitical’s software emerges as a game-changer, offering a comprehensive solution to the multifaceted challenges of political accounting. From ensuring regulatory compliance to providing robust security measures and responsive support, ISPolitical’s software empowers campaigns to operate with maximum efficiency, ultimately contributing to their success.

    Lastly, embracing ISPolitical’s software isn’t just an investment in technology; it’s an investment in the streamlined, transparent, and secure future of political accounting. If you have questions on how to improve political accounting or would like to level up with the best political accounting software, contact ISPolitical today!

  • ISP Grows as Competitors in Possible Collapse

    If you haven’t read this Politico piece about the “possible collapse”, don’t miss it. Brittany Gibson and Mandy Fernandez summarize the APAX acquisition, recent layoffs, technical issues, troubles of the company while citing unhappy former employees and important clients. It’s a terrifying picture for those who rely on last generation’s political tech behemoth. 

    Gibson and Fernandez recount the growing sentiment that “the Democratic Party has grown too dependent on a small handful of companies to carry the bulk of its campaign operations.”

    Even before the UK based private equity firm, Apax acquired NGP, problems arose. In the Politico article, Kenneth Pennington, partner at Democratic firm Middle Seat is quoted as saying, “There’s a pattern in Democratic software of creating a tool and then you stop updating it, you stop working on it, you stop developing and creating new releases for it.” My 20 years of experience in the political tech space screams “truth” in response to Pennington’s quote. 

    But what’s happening with existing firms isn’t just the normal death of a piece of political campaign technology.  NGP VAN’s destiny was mapped out in their press release: “By bringing these three companies together, we are well positioned to match non-profits looking for more donations and volunteers, with the philanthropists, foundations, companies, and employees working with CyberGrants, who are looking for more opportunities to donate and volunteer.”

    You can do so much better. Come get the love you deserve from us at ISP.

    We’re hearing about other ‘last generation’ political tech companies imploding. Professionals and consultants call us every day with horror stories from their interactions with the reliable vendors of the 2000s and early 2010s. 

    And in this mess, ISPolitical grows. 

    Competitor political tech companies may be laying off hundreds, but we’re hiring. While their clients scour the web for new alternatives, we get flooded with calls from unhappy professionals irate about the lack of progress in their campaign technology, shoddy support, bad terms and service. 

    Why?

    Fundamentally, we view our best customers as partners. Being the hungry new kid on the block means we have to be that much better, that much faster, that much more resourceful and flexible. We have to adapt and provide a superior service at similar rates. 

    We out compete by listening to our clients. No group of clients will ever send ISP an open letter, begging us to do our basic job. ISP client Jonathan Brill (FL) said, “We grow together and you guys are a true partner, not just another software vendor.” 

    Combining vast years of expertise and experience in this industry with an agile development approach and a radical commitment to listening to clients creates a company whose bedrock is excellence in service.

  • ISPolitical: AI changing Accounting Software

    ISPolitical: AI changing Accounting Software

    In today’s world, upgrading and modernizing are par for the course and not keeping pace means becoming obsolete real quick.. Manufacturing is getting more efficient, computers are faster and smaller than ever, and information is shared at a breakneck pace. But the world of political accounting software hasn’t kept pace.

    At least, it didn’t. Until we came along.

    AI Political Accounting Software…Wait, is That a Thing?

    We just took a giant leap forward in making your life easier by being the first political accounting software company to introduce artificial intelligence. This is going to save you valuable and critical time, money, and effort. With our AI based accounting software, instead of leaving the office at midnight, red-eyed and caffeine addled, maybe you’ll start leaving a few hours sooner, and finish that last slice of pizza you ordered for the interns in the privacy of your own home (radical concept, we know).

    What’s AI All About Anyway?

    So what is this revolutionary technology? Before you go looking up AI on Wikipedia for a refresher course (or a plot synopsis of Terminator), let me try an analogy. We all have that one intern—they’re slightly slow, pretty inexperienced, but work harder than even some of your paid staff, right? They don’t know everything, but they get better as they go. That’s exactly what we created: the moderately intelligent intern, in computer form. Best of all, this one doesn’t need rides home, won’t quote the same three episodes of The West Wing endlessly, and you’ll never need to write it a letter of recommendation.

    How AI Can Help With Political Accounting

    So, how is artificial intelligence changing political accounting? AI@ISP does menial tasks, looking over repetitive data and performing some trivial actions, but far faster than you or your intern ever could. It saves you from the long, obnoxious parts of your job. Best of all, it gets better over time; AI really is intelligent and will learn how to do its job even more efficiently as it runs. But don’t be alarmed, this isn’t the start of the robot takeover. You definitely won’t have your job stolen by this AI based accounting software. Or, at least, not the fun parts. Unless you’re an intern. Then you should be scared.

    What, Specifically, Can AI do to Help With Political Accounting?

    Let’s get into the specifics of what AI@ISP does with some examples of where it thrives. AI combs through your filings so you don’t have to, looking for ways to improve, for things that won’t pass compliance, and even for target audiences who might be willing to do a little campaign donating. It excels at pouring over lists of data, looking for anomalies that would normally be your job. Why spend time scrutinizing a donor list or hunting for duplicates when AI can do it in seconds? All that time wasted trying to combine duplicate records can be saved. Better still, automated!

    Safety, It’s On Everyone’s Mind

    We also made it safe. If it comes across a duplicate situation that it isn’t sure about, it’ll defer to you. AI@ISP also imports online donations in your database, auto-combining with existing records and recording everything for you. If you have repeat donors, it’ll log those too, providing important metrics for your campaign. Further, it has automatic red flags that are meant to focus your attention on critical donations. There are triggers built in that notify you of possibly risky donations—monetary limits, type of donation, where it comes from, etc. It stays sharp even when you don’t. Our AI political accounting software is designed to help you make sure every donation taken is safe, streamlining your job and increasing the efficiency of the campaign you serve.

    AI: All That and a Bag of Chips

    This incredible tool isn’t a panacea, but we don’t think it should be! This is a 95% tool, something that does almost everything, but leaves the important calls to you. The last thing we want to do is make a mistake that will cause you trouble, so our robot will make sure big decisions are in the hands of people with authority. It recognizes that there are just some situations where it isn’t qualified to make a decision, just like a good intern should!

    We set out to build software that lives up to our company’s values: it needs to be responsive, smart, and useful. It needs to learn at all times, making sure it’s changing where necessary to be as helpful as possible. With our new AI, we met that mark on all counts. Its insistence on learning from the client is fundamental to its nature, just like ours.

    Do you have ideas about how AI@ISP could be even more helpful or questions regarding this or any of our other services, please don’t hesitate to contact us!

  • Why We Don’t Call our Clients “Users”

    Why We Don’t Call our Clients “Users”

    It isn’t uncommon for software companies to call their clients “users,” since, well…they “use” their products. But that seems pretty robotic, doesn’t it? I mean, because you’re a person, not a user. You could be a mother, father, son, daughter, brother, sister, aunt, or even that crazy uncle most people only see at Thanksgiving. You’re human. You have emotions. You get angry. You get frustrated. You can be happy. You can be sad. You like and dislike things. When you walk through a park on a sunny day, you smell the grass, feel the sun gently heating your skin. You’re human. Guess what? We’re humans too! That’s a lot we have in common!

    Why Do Software Companies Call You a “User”?

    So why do other software companies call you a user? It’s easy. When you’re talking to a software developer, it’s simple to say the ‘user’ does this. They probably don’t know who Kelly, Natalie, Christina, Laura, Jason, Kevin, or Tom are. Because developers aren’t exactly expected to have “people skills,” they rarely talk to their clients. There’s a gap between you and the person building your software. The developers don’t know your name or who you are or how many kids you have. This gap creates a tremendous problem that will significantly set back all hopes of user-friendly software design.

    Even the staff charged with relaying your feedback to developers (assuming the company cares about your feedback) will call you ‘user’ instead of your name. At more abstract levels, when designing new functionality from scratch, a developer will use the vague concept of ‘user’ to map out the user interface. Since the developer doesn’t know his clients, doesn’t know their names, what else does he/she have to go by? They use a vague concept. They build software for ‘users’ instead of software for humans. Seems understandable enough, right?

    Why Software Developers Should Program For People

    What’s the big deal if a developer thinks of a user instead of a person? Many companies don’t see any issue with designing software for users. It gets the job done. The software performs the task required. But here’s the thing; it’s software for a user, not a person. And software made for a user tends to suck. It sucks because a user is not a person.

    A user is a vague concept. It’s bland, inhuman, humdrum, robotic, inorganic, and lifeless. A user performs a task. A user has no life, nothing else they’d rather do, nothing else they must do. A user has no other priorities than using the software, completing individual tasks as conceived of in the imagination of a developer.

    Think of it this way, a developer writes code for one little piece of the entire system at a time. If they write this code for a user, they will consider only how to accomplish it. Because a user is inanimate, they only care that something can get done. They don’t care how it gets done. And that is a big, big deal. Because a user won’t complain. A user won’t throw a computer out a window when the user has to click a completely useless button 500 times. A user won’t smile when something goes right. A user won’t dole out any social consequences (no frowns, no bad reviews, no crossed arms, no frustrated sighs, no angry remarks) or rewards (no smiles, no hugs, no ‘thank you’s, no excellent reviews, no referrals, and etc.).

    So there’s no social pressure on the developer to go the extra mile, to reduce friction, to make sure the task gets completed in the most efficient and pleasant way possible. When a developer builds software for a user, you get software built for a user. Humans rarely like this kind of software.

    Humans hate this kind of software precisely because it’s not designed for them. It’s a subtle point with staggering consequences. A person simply is not a user. You are vibrant, have feelings, are guided by them. You get impatient. You smile. You frown. You have a million ways of letting people know whether you’re happy or angry. A good support and development staff will remember these signals and get better at interpreting them over time. And the surest way to guarantee that is to use real names.

    A Rose by Any Other Name Would Smell as Sweet

    That’s why ISP uses names when we design our campaign software. Because the moment we do, a world of social pressures in an imaginary landscape emerges where we begin to envision your smile or frown. When we use your name, we have a better sense of what will make you happy or frustrated. We literally imagine you sitting in front of a desk for hours, plugging away at your work. We know you have kids to pick up from school, we know their names. We know you have fundraisers, campaign managers, and candidates who need reports. We know their names. We know the kind of pressure they put on you to hurry or to produce a different report type. We know you’re dreaming of getting out of the office and home to your family. We know you want to finish reports faster to take on more business, so you can buy a house. We know how happy you’ll be when you can.

    Software is Built to Help HUMANS

    This is the point: the goal of software isn’t to complete a task, it’s to get you what you want overall, to satisfy what you want as a person. In this mental landscape, your personal goals form a crushing pressure on our software and mold it into something more comprehensive than a bunch of discrete functions that complete individual tasks. You get software made for you; a person.

    That’s why ISP doesn’t say ‘user.’ We call you by your name. If you ask for something, we say you asked for it. Our developers know who our clients are. They see their feedback. They’ve learned about them. When they hear your name, they are no longer just completing a task. When they hear your name, they know they’re building for you. They know they’re building software for humans.

    Call it bedside manner or call it the human touch, at ISP, our coders and programmers have real people in mind when they are working their magic. They put themselves in the shoes of Holly, Josh, Thomas and Katherine….all working on reports and budgets, all with other things on their minds as well. This way, we can better understand your pain points and what you want out of an accounting software. Do you love being treated like a person even if you’re just “using” a program? We thought so!

  • 7 Ways to Make Filing Deadlines Painless

    We all have those horrible, awful days. Days where every single client you have turns their finance reports in at once-the January 31st kind of days. Days where you’re not sure if more caffeine will make your hands shake too much to type, and if that shaking is worth it to keep your eyes from shutting completely.

    Well, at least I did.

    That’s why I’ve put together a list of ideas for campaign filing deadlines to make your life much, much easier on those dreadful days-or at least less painless than the dentist’s office. Let’s take a look…

    1. Don’t do all of your data entry at once.

    Procrastinating or letting things pile up have the same ill-effect. By filing daily (or at least weekly), you create a more manageable filing schedule. You don’t want to be running around in panic at the filing deadline, doing work that could have been accomplished weeks ago. How do I know? I’ve been there. But think about how much less stress you’ll feel as the days tick toward a filing deadline without a backlog! Enter checks as they come in…you’ll thank my for it!

    2. Do your bank reconciliations monthly.

    This one hits home. The first campaign I ever worked on, I had to file three amendments to the FEC, all because I didn’t stay up on my reconciliations. Reconciliations are easy, and maybe even a little therapeutic-making everything match is not an issue you want to deal with while you’ve got other things going on.

    So, like keeping up with your filings to spread your workload out more evenly, the same goes for your reconciliations. Even more important: make sure you’re doing your bank reconciliations in the same software you use to generate your compliance reports. If you miss this critical point, doing reconciliations at all is useless! Luckily, we offer software that does both.

    3. Generate drafts of your report before the period has even closed.

    Creating drafts of your compliance reporting early and often is a real lifesaver. That’s why we built software that makes it incredibly easy to do! When you create a draft report with our software, it performs over 5,000 error checks to make sure all the kinks are ironed out. It looks for transcription errors, missing addresses, employers, misclassified entities-basically, whenever you generate a report, our software checks every aspect and makes it easy for you to fix it!

    If you run drafts early and often, when the filing deadline comes along, you should only have a few weeks of errors to fix (instead of a few months). It’s all about maintenance!

    4. Generate a draft report as soon as the period ends.

    Generating reports as soon as they are available adds a super fast and easy way to do some maintenance that saves time down the road. Get in there early to check that dates and amounts are correct, focusing specifically on starting and ending balances, so you can catch inconsistencies early on. Get a jump on the little things so you can relax while the rest of the companies are stressing.

    5. Save for filing-courtesy of yours truly.

    When you generate a report, you can save it into our system for later. This makes filing day a whole lot easier: you can pre-generate reports and keep them all in one place, saving as you go. If something bad happens (maybe something you can blame on the intern), it won’t affect your whole report, because you were smart enough to use software that corrects all the mistakes I used to make!

    We have a special tool just for consultants too. With this tool, you can update reports for every client you represent as filings come in, and keep them all in the same place. Every saved report appears on one screen, organizing all the reports you have to file, for all of your clients.

    Even better, on filing day you can submit all of your reports from that same screen, going down the screen, one-by-one, until your job is done! I know how hard it is to keep everything straight, which is why I built something that helps you do just that.

    6. Still-seriously-don’t wait until last minute!

    Our software is state of the art, responsive, and designed to work reliably and efficiently for you. The FEC’s is not.

    It’s tough to imagine, but filing agency employees are probably just as stressed out as we are come deadline time. And unfortunately, while you’re used to using software that’s the best of the best (cough ours), they’re probably still using decades old software loaded on floppy disks. This means their servers can run slow or even become unresponsive as the end of filing day approaches. Needless to say, that isn’t a headache you want to go through.

    Try and file in the morning, just in case. This will be easy if you use our software, and will help you avoid catastrophes.

    7. Have a cocktail at lunch

    This is the most important step! You did it. Now you get to sit back and laugh as other firms (who didn’t follow our advice, or use our software) struggle and worry throughout the day. Good job.

    Ready to Ditch Campaign Filing Deadline Headaches Forever?

    As you can see, a big part of reducing the pains of campaign filing deadlines is daily and monthly maintenance. The other part that makes that maintenance simple, fast, and easy, is using ISPolitical software. All the necessary checklist items are accounted for and at your fingertips. We help you to dot your i’s and cross your t’s…all you have to do is a little maintenance to stay on top!