From the of Not-for-Profit Accounting ProgramsQuickBooks prides itself in being user friendly. From the menus to sharp graphicalworkflows of the customizable Home Page, QuickBooks is easy to navigate andperforms the functions needed.EASE OF USE/FLEXIBILITY - 5 StarsThe QuickBooks Centers offer great flexibility. They allow quick access to customer,vendor and employee databases with their history and the ability to launch newtransactions from the same screen. Users have great flexibility to customizehow they use the system with icons at the top of the main screen and individualentry tools in the Preference screens. Popular options include using Tab vs.Enter key, auto decimal placement, spell checking and startup options.For organizations with business operations, the basic functions are builtinto QuickBooks without additional modules necessary. Additions available forQuick-Books include Point of Sale, Intuit Merchant Services (credit card andbilling services), online Time Tracker and Enhanced Payroll. QuickBooks relieson third-party applications to expand the offerings to integrate with managementsoftware with hundreds of options available.MODULES/SCALABILITY - 4 StarsQuickBooks for Nonprofits offers small business accounting software adaptedto the nonprofit sector.
There is no direct support of grant management, fundaccounting or cost allocations per se, but, as accounting software, all thetools are there if you know how to use them. As QuickBooks is designed for thosewithout accounting knowledge, the vendor has made an effort to provide guidance.The Help system, coupled with its New Live Community gives opportunities fordirection if needed.As a packaged system, QuickBooks Accounting Premier Nonprofit offers functionalityfor GL, AP, AR, Security, Audit Trail, Inventory and Purchase Orders, Time Tracking,Payroll, Customizable Reports, forms and statements, and Bank Reconciliation.Budgeting and forecasting tools are also available, although hidden in the Companymenu.
Free one-year subscriptions are included for remote access and Intuitwebsites.Tight integration with Microsoft Office allows mail merge capabilities withWord, exporting reports and data to Excel and contact information with Outlook.QuickBooks also allows e-mailing of reports and forms as well as a ShippingManager to integrate with UPS and FedEx. For those that need more, Intuit offersQuickBooks Enterprise Solutions. It’s the same user-friendly interfaceover a much larger database, and it expands up to 30 users with customizableaccount/report-level security. Additional operational functionality makes QuickBooksEnterprise Nonprofit Edition a solid competitor for the mid-sized organization.FEATURES/FUNCTIONALITY - 4 StarsWith the Nonprofit Edition, if an organization uses the Easy Step Interviewto create its agency, it can choose from general nonprofit, member associationor faith-based organization structure with options to use the unified chartof accounts. QuickBooks provides for fund or restriction management on the incomestatement with the class function.
Program or fund-ing source tracking can beaccomplished by using the Job Costing features built into the product. The Helpsystem points users to these adaptations to nonprofit needs.Budget and forecast setups are easy in spreadsheet-like tools. QuickBooksNonprofit offers one budget per fiscal year for the entire chart of accounts(profit & loss and balance sheet separately), each class, or individualprogram (job). Budget setups are limited to the organization’s fiscalyear, but reporting can span unlimited date ranges, effectively allowing multiple-periodprogram and grant budgets.QuickBooks encourages users to work with a professional for accounting guidancewith tools like the Accountant’s Copy.
This special archived file allowsusers to continue work while the accountant makes corrections to their fileand then incorporates the changes. This feature was greatly improved in 2008,allow-ing most functions in QuickBooks to be corrected. New this year is theCompany Snapshot, a dashboard view of important financial data.
Upgrades toOnline Banking features and list filtering capabilities were also made. Alsonew to 2009 is customer requested Multi-Currency support as well as QuickBooksMessenger, which provides communication between users via instant message.REPORTING - 4.5 StarsQuickBooks Accounting Pre-mier Nonprofit Edition offers reports for FASB 117compliance as well as hundreds of business analysis reports. However, financialstatements are not in traditional GAAP format but can be exported to Excel forquick formatting changes. For integrated reporting capabilities, nonprofit organizationsmay want to consider the Accountant Edition of QuickBooks. New in the 2009 AccountantEdition, QuickBooks introduced an add-on Intuit Statement Writer with GAAP templatesand functionality in-cluded. QuickBooks Accountant Edition also includes theFixed Asset Manager at no additional charge. Coupled with additional industryreports and functionality, the Accountant Edition may be the right fit for somenonprofit agencies.QuickBooks reports and forms can be customized, memorized and grouped forefficient production. Gorillaz the fall vinyl.
Reports can also be ex-ported, e-mailed and saved in PDFformat. Users can be set up to access reports only for board and managementpurposes. All reports offer drill-down capabilities to analyze back to originaltransactions.SUPPORT/HELP - 5 StarsIn-product Help offers nonprofit-specific assistance in many areas. Revampedin 2009, the Help system dynamically adapts to current activities and offerslive access to the New Live Community online forum. This lively online userforum is available to all QuickBooks users and has many active nonprofit threads.The QuickBooks support website is also very useful with a large knowledgebaseavailable of FAQs, error message resolution and product guidance.QuickBooks offers technical support packages with 24/7 tele-phone assistancefor technical and product questions. First-year plans are $349 and $299 subsequently.Annual support plans include downloadable guides, installation and setup support,and online backup service. Monthly plans and pay-as-you-go support are alsoavailable.
Intuit has developed a vast network of accounting and consultingprofessionals (ProAdvisors) to provide local support, training and consulting.RELATIVE VALUE - 5 StarsQuickBooks Accounting Pre-mier Nonprofit Edition 2009 is a technology bargainfor $399.95 (single user), $749.95 (two users), and a three-user package at$1,099.95. For those with needs beyond five concurrent users, QuickBooks EnterpriseSolutions (Nonprofit Edition) starts at $3,000 for five users and $5,000 for10 users (Enterprise pricing includes Intuit’s Full Service Plan). Forsmall and growing organizations, QuickBooks is easy to customize to your specificneeds if you are willing to do a little research. For a nonprofit organizationthat knows the ropes and is operating on a tight budget, QuickBooks NonprofitEdition is an excellent option.2009 OVERALL RATING.