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Set up a new organisation

Nine steps, in the order that saves rework: each one gives the next what it needs. Most organisations finish in a week with one person per department. The Administration overview in Civora shows a checklist of what is left.

1. 1

   Describe the organisation

   Administrator

   Currency, financial year and registration details are used by every report.

   • Fill in the organisation profile: name, PBO registration number, currency, first month of the financial year.
   • Add the locations you work in: counties, sub-counties, sites.

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2. 2

   Set up your departments

   Administrator

   Departments decide who reports to whom and which workspace each team runs.

   • Build your structure under Administration → Departments, with a lead for each.
   • Link each department to the workspace it runs (Programmes, Finance & Accounting, Grants & Funding, Human Resources, MEL, Procurement & Logistics, Executive Office & Governance).

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3. 3

   Bring your people in

   HR officer

   Adding a person through HR creates their account, role, file, contract and onboarding in one step.

   • Add each person in Human Resources, or import a spreadsheet in Import data.
   • Give each the right role (see Roles and what they can do) and their supervisor.
   • Choose which roles must use two-step sign-in in Security.

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4. 4

   Set the money rules

   Finance manager

   Budget categories and approval policies decide how every request is coded and who approves it.

   • Check the budget categories.
   • Create approval policies by amount, type and grant.
   • Run Set up accounting in Finance: accounts, bank and M-Pesa, opening balances and grant funds brought forward.

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5. 5

   Record donors and grants

   Grants lead

   Grants fund projects and budgets, and their rules are checked on every request.

   • Add donors and each grant award with its payment schedule, reporting deadlines and donor rules.
   • Add the opportunities you are working on to the pipeline and set your fundraising targets.

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6. 6

   Set up projects and budgets

   Programme managers with finance

   Every request, activity and report is coded to a project and a budget line.

   • Create each project, link its grants and team.
   • Add budget lines by grant, project and category.
   • Plan the activities.

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7. 7

   Prepare monitoring and field reporting

   M&E officer

   Results only count when they come from validated reports against defined indicators.

   • Build each project's results framework with indicators and targets.
   • Design the report templates field staff will use.

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8. 8

   Set HR, procurement and governance rules

   Each department lead

   Leave, payroll, buying thresholds and the board's risk appetite are your organisation's own.

   • HR: leave, holidays and payroll rates.
   • Procurement: thresholds and methods and the supplier register.
   • Governance: the board, risk appetite and compliance calendar.

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9. 9

   Go live

   Administrator

   Clear out training data and make sure everyone can sign in.

   • If you tried Civora with the demo organisation, remove it before real data goes in.
   • Check the Administration overview: its set-up checklist shows what is left.
   • Send everyone their sign-in details and this Guide; ask field staff to add Civora to their phone's home screen.

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