FIMS Hands On Training
These intensive one-week programs provide FIMS instruction along with the opportunity to network and exchange valuable information with other community foundations about best business practices and effective FIMS techniques.

Schedule
Basic Agenda
Advanced Agenda
Hands on Training Flyer (download)

Hands on Training Schedule

Basic FIMS Training
There is no FIMS Basic Training scheduled at this time. Please check back soon for information on upcoming sessions.
Details...

Advanced FIMS Training
There are three Advanced training sessions scheduled for 2006:

• June 19-23 , 2006: Indianapolis, IN
  Registration Deadline: May 17, 2006
• September 14-15 and 21-22: Boston, MA (two days before and two days after the Fall Conference for Community Foundations)
  
• November 6-10: Columbus, OH
  Registration Deadline: October 4, 2006
  
  Details...

General Information:

Price: $325 per day/per student. This fee includes the use of a computer loaded with FIMS and the Microsoft Office Suite, training documentation, lunch, and break refreshments. Participants will be billed after the training.

Class Size: Seating is limited. Register early!

Travel and Accommodations: Participants must make arrangements for their travel and accommodations. A list of accommodation suggestions and other information will be sent with your registration confirmation.

Register: To register for our regional hands-on training, please log into the Client Portal and submit the online registration form or call our training coordinator, Nola Frost at 603-224-6766.

Cancellation Policy: If you must cancel all or part of your registration, please call us at your earliest opportunity. You may cancel up to 11 business days before the start of the class at no charge. If you do not attend or cancel within 10 days of the event, you are subject to a 50% cancellation fee of the days registered for but not attended.

If you have questions, please contact our Training Coordinator, Nola Frost at 603-224-6766 or send an e-mail to fimstraining@microedge.com.

Hands on Training Agendas

Basic FIMS Training
There is no FIMS Basic Training scheduled at this time. Please check back soon for information on upcoming sessions.

Daily Schedule:
8:30 am: Class Start Time
12:00 pm: Lunch
4:00 PM: Class End Time
Note: The class end time may vary. Class will end at 3 PM on Friday

Who Should Attend:
Basic Training will focus on adding records, posting, running basic reports and exports, and becoming familiar with FIMS features. It is suitable for new FIMS users, those who have not had any formal training, those who know some basic information, but want to build on their current knowledge, and anyone who wants refresher training for the basics.

Basic FIMS Training Agenda:

Monday: FIMS Overview, Profiles, Basic Reporting - Understand the big picture in the FIMS Overview; learn the various FIMS modules and how information flows throughout the system; understand the relational database; learn navigating the system and finding records; adding and managing profiles; adding and managing all other related records such as contacts and tickles, relationships and profile grouping, affiliation codes and affiliation grouping, notes, alternate addresses, etc.; learn the basics for running canned reports and exports and get an introduction to ad hoc reporting with data grids.

Tuesday: Fund Management (Development Implications), Donor & Gift Management, Reports, and Mail Merging Gift Acknowledgements - Learn the basics for adding fund records and fund information (from the development aspect); searching for fund information; plus an overview of financial considerations of fund module (to be covered in more detail on Thursday). Learn the Donor and Gift Management module in detail and how to use FIMS for development purposes; adding the donor record; adding different types of gifts; automating gift acknowledgements; gift adjustments; promises; doing gift reports and exports.

Wednesday: Grants & Scholarship Management, Reports, Exporting for Communication and Committee Reports - Learn the Grantee and Grant Management module in detail; adding a grantee record; Fund module settings that affect the Grant module; adding different types of applications; exporting application data for reports or communication; grant cancellations; auto-creating grant applications; grant reports and exports. Learn the Scholarship module in detail; adding student records and tracking qualification data; adding fund scholarship records; adding applications; exporting application data for reports or communication; scholarship cancellations; auto-creating applications; reports and exports.

Thursday: Accounts Payable / Grants Payable Processing, Fund Management (Financial Implications), Administrative Fees, General Ledger Overview - Learn the Accounts Payable module in detail; adding vendor records; adding administrative vouchers; printing checks; doing hand checks; voiding checks; debit memos; processing grant vouchers; grant adjustments; reconciling the checking account. Learn the financial implications of the Fund Module; fund coding; default GL accounts; auto-building GL accounts; finding balance information; Available to Spend Calculation; calculating administrative fees; fund statement button. Get an introduction to fund accounting concepts and learn the integration of the outer modules to General Ledger; understand account type roll-up; single and multi-fund balance setups; building GL accounts, etc.

Friday: General Ledger, FACTS, and Spending Policy - Learn the General Ledger module in detail; general ledger implementation steps; entering manual journal entries; automatic entry routines for creating journal entries; end of year closing. Get an introduction to creating fund and financial statements. Learn the FACTS module in detail; setting up pools and accounts; reconciling statements; running reports. Get an overview of the Spending Policy module; setting up the codes; calculating; adjusting amounts; and creating journal entries.

Advanced FIMS Training
There are three Advanced training sessions scheduled for 2006:

• June 19-23 , 2006: Indianapolis, IN
• September 14-15 and 21-22: Boston, MA (two days before and two days after the Fall Conference for Community Foundations)
• November 6-10: Columbus, OH

Daily Schedule:
8:30 am: Class Start Time
12:00 PM: Lunch
4:00 PM: Class End Time
Note: The class end time may vary. Class will end at 3 PM on Friday

Who Should Attend:
Advanced training is suitable for those who already know the basics including how to add records, how to post, how to run basic reports and exports, and how to get around the system. Attendees should be familiar with the basics in Word and Excel and understand basic mail merging in Word. Advanced training will allow trainees to focus on specific processes or difficult issues in greater detail than time allows in basic training, and more time will be spent on reporting and exporting. Trainees will review important features and learn advanced user tips that will build on their current knowledge. This will allow them to work smarter and more efficiently in FIMS so they can fully utilize the system according to their organization's needs.

Advanced FIMS Training Agenda:

Monday: Advanced Topics for General FIMS and Profile Management - Important features you should know about, default settings and information integration, and advanced user and reporting tips. Specific topics include popular user options; emailing features; electronic document management; creating data grid views for easier data management, adding calculated fields to data grids, and creating ad-hoc reports and exports from data grids; managing purposefully duplicate profiles; benefits of tracking relationships and grouping profiles; combining profiles; identifying and deleting dormant profiles; customizing and rebuilding salutations; mass adding, deleting, and grouping affiliation codes; alternate address, notepad, and fund association tips; managing contacts and tickles, event management using affiliation codes and contacts; Important FIMS reporting features, Profile Report tips, using FIMS data in MS Office applications including modifying reports in Word and Excel, exporting data to create labels, letters, and reports.

Tuesday: Advanced Topics for Donor and Gift Management - Important features you should know about, default settings and information integration, and advanced user and reporting tips. Specific topics include strategies for coding your development efforts; Fund module donor and gift-related features and data integration; tracking donor interests, using Promises to track bequests or pledges; tips on entering memorial, matching, interfund, in-kind, insurance, stock gifts, CRTs, and non-gifts; streamlining acknowledgement letter creation with advanced merging techniques and electronic document management; analyzing your development efforts in reports focusing on gift and fund detail reports, summary reports, and analyzing trends, using FIMS data in MS Office applications, plus using data grids for easier data management and ad hoc reporting.

Wednesday: Advanced Topics for Grantee and Grant Management and Scholarship Management - Important features you should know about, default settings and information integration, and advanced user and reporting tips. Specific topics include strategies for coding your grant-making efforts; Fund module grant-related features and data integration; condition and follow-up features; interfund grants; multi-year grant issues; streamlining communication with grantees and fund-reps and creation of grant summary sheets and other reports for board or committee presentations with advanced merging techniques and electronic document management; analyzing your grant-making efforts in reports and exports, using FIMS data in MS Office applications, plus using data grids for easier data management and ad hoc reporting. Scholarship Management includes important features, default settings and information integration, and advanced user and reporting tips. Specific topics include tracking qualifying data for scholarships, renewing, auto-building, and purging scholarships.

Thursday: Advanced Topics for Accounts Payable, Keeping FIMS Outer Modules in Synch with General Ledger, Proper Way to do Any Type of Adjustment or Correction, Reports for the Auditor-Accounts Payable: Important features you should know about, default settings and information integration, and advanced user and reporting tips. Specific topics include creating and applying credit memos, writing a check to transfer money, correcting check numbers in history, tips for paying special project expenses, correcting mistakes and adjusting administrative vouchers with debit memos (increasing, decreasing, eliminating, changing funds, or accounts). Learn everything about doing grant adjustments from the Grant Module through Accounts Payable and General Ledger. Understand the proper way to do Gift and Pledge adjustments and understand issues involved with changing Fund codes. Understand how adjustments affect Fund Statements. Understand options for Interfund Gifts/Grants and how they are reflected on Fund Statements. Get reporting tips including creating data grid views for easier data management and ad hoc reporting, reports you should run on a regular basis to keep your outer modules and GL in synch, and reports to run for the IRS and your auditor.

Friday: Advanced Topics for Funds, General Ledger, Spending Policy, and FACTS - Important features you should know about, default settings and information integration, and advanced user and reporting tips. Funds, General Ledger, and Spending Policy: Specific topics include using the Fund module to lookup specific GL account balances, Fund Module data grid views that include GL data, introduction to creating instant fund statements, options in administrative fee calculation routine, additional default accounts, review of proper General Ledger design, tracking Available to Spend, Automatic Entry Routines, cash management, introduction to Asset Rebalancing, Spending Policy implementation, and complying with UMIFA in a down market. FACTS: You’ll learn how journal key code control can help reconciliation, adding or closing investment accounts, retiring a fund vs. closing a fund in a pool, accrued interest, and more. Also, get reporting tips and creating data grid views for easier data management and ad hoc reporting.