Table of Contents
Onboarding kickoff
Updated
by Max Dana
Onboarding for new members kicks off with an intensive (but fun!) work session either at ArtsPool’s offices in Brooklyn or online. The session is generally scheduled for 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM but the schedule can vary depending on your organization's needs and the complexity of the onboarding process.
Who should attend
During the session, we'll work with you to map your chart of accounts and budgets into ArtsPool's format, get you set up in certain of our systems, gather some additional information, and explain next steps. Anyone on your staff who makes decisions about or has deep context on your company’s financial operations and workforce administration should attend the kickoff.
Agenda
The kickoff session typically runs as follows, though we can move specific sessions around as needed:
- Introduction to ArtsPool (30 min)
- Finance setup, chart of accounts + tracking categories (1 hour 30 min)
- Break (30 min)
- Payroll and workforce setup, if applicable (1 hour)
- Password manager and tech setup (1 hour 30 min)
- Questions and next steps (30 min)
What to prepare
- If you use Quickbooks online, please grant us access as a Standard User at least one week prior to your kickoff date. This is very important for us to pull reports that we need to prepare for the kickoff session.
- Think about how you would like to categorize your programs and activities in your books and budgets. Programs are the primary columns in your budget and change relatively infrequently. Activities (in ArtsPool-speak) are subclassifications that make up programs and are often more prone to change. For example, you may have a program called "Production" that is consistent year-to-year, but also have activity level tracking in your budget and books for a specific show.
- Review your employee roster in your payroll system to confirm it is up to date. You do not need to complete this step if you are not using ArtsPool's Workforce Administration services.
- If your organization does not use Google Workspace (Google Docs, Google Drive, etc), have anyone who will be working with ArtsPool during onboarding set up a Google Account associated with their work email to facilitate collaboration in Google documents and Google Drive. See Setting up a Google account for instructions.
- Prepare the following materials to bring with you to the kickoff, unless you have provided them previously. You can bring the items on a USB thumb drive or by uploading to your onboarding folder on Google Drive (see the email you received prior to the kickoff meeting for a link to this folder).
Passwords
During the onboarding kickoff, we will enter passwords for key systems into our password management system. The easiest way to do this is to download this template as a CSV file, fill it out in a program such as Excel/Numbers/Open Office, and bring it to us on a USB flash drive or on your computer. Sharing passwords via email is not secure, so we ask that you bring this file physically to the kickoff session.
If you are using an existing password manager such as 1Password, LastPass, etc. we should be able to directly import data into our system, so there is no need to prepare a separate CSV. We provide instructions for migrating between your existing system and our system during the kickoff session.
- Payroll system (if applicable)
- Bank accounts
- Credit cards
- Retirement plan administrator site (if applicable)
- Payment processor and e-commerce systems (e.g. PayPal, Square, Stripe, WePay, WooCommerce, etc.)
- Online insurance services (Workers Comp, Disability, Paid Family Leave, corporate, etc)
- Investment accounts
- NYS Dept. of Tax & Finance
- FSA administrator site (if applicable)
- Logins for benefit plans, such as Commuter Benefits, FSA, or HSA
- Recurring vendors paid through online billing
- IRS EFTPS
- NYC.ID (used for Department of Cultural Affairs, HHS Accelerator, NYC PASSPort, etc.)
- New York State Council on the Arts
- Donor management database (if any)
- Program-specific databases (e.g. Salesforce)
- Any other systems related to your organization's financial life that you think ArtsPool will need to access
General financial information
To convert your books and budget to ArtsPool’s system, we will need detailed financial information. Please come prepared with the following materials:
- An updated copy of your books (unless your accounting system is online)
- Bank statements and reconciliations for all active accounts from the beginning of your most recently completed fiscal year to the current month
- Bank statements and reconciliations for any bank accounts CLOSED between the beginning of your most recently completed fiscal year to the current month
- Two prior board approved budgets.
- Your most recently completed fiscal year budget vs. actuals.
- Your current fiscal year budget vs. actuals, and any relevant worksheets or data related to this budget.
- Your depreciation schedule (if applicable)
- Your financial statements, tax filing, and CHAR500 from your most recently completed fiscal year (if not already provided).
- If an audit/review has been completed since your initial info submission, your financial statements, tax filing and CHAR500 for that year.
- A voided specimen of your check stock.
Grant materials
To be ready for upcoming grant reporting and budget requirements, we will need support materials for current grants, and deadlines for upcoming grants. Please come prepared with the following materials:
- All contracts, award letters, budgets, applications, and work papers for all awarded grants from the prior fiscal year
- All contracts, award letters, budgets, applications, and work papers for all pending grants from the current fiscal year
- A list of potential funders and deadlines for the current fiscal year
- All information on scope revisions for active grants for which a final report has not been submitted
- Scans of W9s for all contractors paid in the current calendar year to date
Workforce materials
Only applicable if using ArtsPool's Workforce Administration Services.
To convert your payroll to ArtsPool’s system and prepare to support your workforce administration, we need certain information and authorization. The easiest way to gather personnel information is to enter it directly in the Payroll Conversion Template located in your onboarding folder so that sensitive data is not shared outside of ArtsPool and the member staff. Please come prepared with the following materials:
- Complete the Employee Roster and Payroll Deduction tabs in the Payroll Conversion Template located in your onboarding folder before the kickoff meeting
- Employee contracts, offer letters, or letters of agreement for current employees
- Employee Handbook and/or Paid Time Off Policy and time off balances for current employees
- Unemployment insurance rate notice from the NY State Department of Labor
- Current insurance policies for Workers’ Comp, Disability/Paid Family Leave
- IRS 941 filings for the current calendar year through the most recently closed quarter
- NYS-45 filings for the current calendar year through the most recently closed quarter
- Employer copies of W2s for the most recently closed calendar year
- Plan document for your 401k plan or other retirement plan (if applicable)
- Materials for benefit plans, such as Commuter Benefits, FSA, or HSA
- Outstanding unemployment insurance claims (if any)
