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From the moment Chris Whitfield stepped into the CFO office at Mana Nutrition, it was clear to him that various snags in the organization\\u2019s information flows were keeping the not-for-profit\\u2019s board members on edge. To remedy the situation, Whitefield reformulated the not-for-profit\\u2019s approach to reporting, beginning with a beefier balance sheet instead of the slimmed down Statement of Financial Position on which Mana had relied to date.

\\u201cIt was clear to me that we had to begin reporting on our performance back to a pretty savvy board of directors just as any for-profit company would,\\u201d says Whitefield, who also sought to give the board greater visibility into the ebb and flow of the not-for profit\\u2019s working capital. \\u201cI realized that we could not behave like a not-for-profit that relied on giving and charitable donations, but instead had to rely on our own wits and ability to raise capital through beneficial investment or normal credit channels,\\u201d Whitefield explains.

After a few tense meetings\\u2013where some pointed questions lingered\\u2013Whitefield began to adopt the tools needed to routinely output the reports required to satisfy Mana\\u2019s board and at the same time draw the more capital-intensive parts of the organization closer to his finance team.

\\u201cWe now plan to routinely engage our operations management in the budgeting process,\\u201d explains Whitefield, who says that Mana\\u2019s operations people began collaborating more closely with finance a year ago, when the organization adopted a cost center reporting process.\\xa0\\u2013Jack Sweeney

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