Reporting on the work you do is critical for understanding the outcomes of your efforts and telling the story of those outcomes to funders and your community. Yet so many organizations struggle to capture, interpret and utilize meaningful data. These woes are often caused by outdated reporting practices. Here are four common mistakes to avoid:
Using the wrong tools
Many organizations rely on manual, time-consuming processes to gather and input their data. By upgrading to a solution with built-in reporting abilities, you can solve many of the problems associated with using the wrong tools.
Reporting from scratch
Often, organizations dedicate countless hours and resources to generate just one single data set when a report is needed. But it’s not necessary to reinvent the wheel each time. With case management software, you can build and save report templates for future use.
Risking data disasters
Unfortunately, manual entry processes are error-prone, which puts data integrity at risk. To improve data quality, limit input values to a specific pick list or required characteristics as often as possible.
Fixing data errors
When data or reporting errors do occur, manual processes make them difficult, or even impossible, to catch, which immediately compromises data integrity. Systems designed for multiple users often provide user audits—a virtual breadcrumb trail of what each user has done and when.
