Managing Multiple Business Units (multi-company), Managing Multiple Associations and Managing Multiple Entities are powerful features within netFORUM that enable associations to better manage their business. Each of these features can be used independently of one another or in any combination. The Abila implementation and consulting teams can help guide users through the decision process on which will best meet their unique needs.
netFORUM supports multiple business units. There is no limit to the number of business units that can be tracked.
For each business unit, netFORUM will track a separate chart of accounts as well as fiscal year and periods, payment methods, and invoice terms codes. Additionally, when a product, event, membership, or anything with a fee is set up in netFORUM, it will be linked to a business unit.
When transactions are created, they will be entered into a batch. Each batch will be linked to a business unit. That business unit will limit the payment methods to only those of the batch's business unit. Products from any business unit can be entered into any batch.
If a batch contains payments that are made against products of other business units, netFORUM has the ability to create the reconciling journal entries. For each combination of business units, netFORUM will create the due to and due from entries.
netFORUM supports multiple associations. There is no limit to the number of associations that can be tracked. Each association has its own business units.
Each association set up in netFORUM has its own membership setup. Different associations and even different member types within an association can be configured independent of each other. netFORUM can configure each association, as well as each member type, to be anniversary or calendar based in addition to many other business rules.
Customers can be members of multiple associations. There is logic built into netFORUM to allow or block a member from joining the same association multiple times with different member types based on the association's business rules.
Each association can also have an unlimited number of chapters. Each chapter tracks the same business rules as an association and can be defined with the same or different rules. Members can be members of the national, chapter or both. They can also be members of multiple chapters.
The netFORUM multi-entity functionality allows for the segmenting of data based on entity. An entity can be assigned to the national office as well as chapters or foundation data residing in the netFORUM database. Each netFORUM named user (iWeb licensed user) can be associated to one or multiple entities. Users are not allowed to have no entity assigned; the entity will be required if the functionality is enabled. If a user is not in an entity, they will receive an error upon login. See Entity for more.
Important! Implementing a multi-entity system in netFORUM is a major undertaking that will require a lot of work. Do not do this without checking with Abila first. If a client wants to use this functionality, it will require some design sessions and also data conversion might be needed.