Ritu Jain, Partner

Monitoring finance is one of the primary aspects to be taken care of in any concern. Aria CFO Services LLP is involved in providing niche services to social enterprises. What makes them unique is the presence of 'homegrown' partners who have been involved in fieldwork for NGOs. It was incorporated with a vision to channelize the team’s finance and accounting expertise into something meaningful and valuable for the social sector. Ravi, while volunteering for Atma Education, conceived the idea in 2011. “It hit me that there was a huge gap in the services that were being provided and the need of the hour. We are a robust team of 4 Chartered Accountants plus semi-qualified staff with a collective experience of over 30 years in the areas of finance, budgeting, accounting, income tax - FCRA-GST compliances, internal control process management, international taxation, auditing, and certification,” says Ravi.

Overcoming Challenges

With the introduction of CSR as a mandatory compliance, social sector has gained a huge impetus. Hiring a full-time CFO is not a viable option for most charitable institutions.

We aim to free them [Founders and Entrepreneurs] from the responsibility of having to worry about the finance function

Aria is equipped to handle and assist scale any organisation. They are accessible to all kinds of not-for-profit concerns - right from nascent to well-established organisations, whether they do or do not have an indigenous finance department. “Our focus has always been to support the finance, accounting and legal requirements of social enterprises. The perception of charity is changing rapidly. Founders and entrepreneurs often ignore the need to strengthen their systems before scaling. We aim to free them from the responsibility of having to worry about the finance function,” says Ritu.

Aria has analysed the core problems that not-for-profit concerns encounter with reference to their financial management. First is the lack of understanding of the accounting rules and the ever-changing taxation laws. Next in line is the scarcity of experienced professionals with thorough knowledge of the sector and the relevant laws. With a wide array of services like donor and grant management, budgeting, FCRA compliances, cash flow management etc, Aria enables NGOs counter the aforementioned problems. They provide timely updates about changes in laws and regulations to their clients through

webinars, e-bulletins, and social media alerts.



Ravi Bagaria, Founder – Partner

Success Mantra

They use latest e-channels such as Slack, Asana, Clockify and Dropbox to create an effective working and communication network internally as well as with the clients. Equipped with experience of working with Big 4 and i-NGOs such as American Red Cross and Center for Economic Progress, both Ravi and Ritu believe in delivering ethical and highest quality services to their clients with a people-first approach. Aria is a partner of choice when it comes to CFO services for many NGOs, Tata Trusts, Foundation to Educate Girls Globally, Masoom, Reality Gives, Under the Mango Tree, Cuddles Foundation and No Nasties, to name a few. With regards to future endeavours, Ravi says, “We are in the prototyping phase of creating our own web app that will enable NGOs to scale up and manage their finances effectively. This will be a comprehensive platform specially catering to the needs of NGOs.”