Accounting software is the second most important tool for nonprofit organizations. This is where you record income and expenses, create estimates, track donation history, generate financial statements, etc.
Every nonprofit organization has its own special requirements when it comes to accounting software. Each one is different. With the right tools, however, nonprofit organizations can improve efficiency, manage financial resources, and raise more money.
BEST FOR VOLUNTEER-LED ORGANIZATIONS
MoneyMinder
MoneyMinder is our top pick for volunteer-led organizations. It’s easy to use, so even if you have no bookkeeping experience, you can navigate the program and take advantage of its features to manage your organization’s finances.Pros
- Low annual fee
- Includes volunteer management tools
- Remote account access
Cons
- Add-ons, such as online stores, are an additional cost
- Does not have donor management tools
- Bank integration requires additional fees
MoneyMinder is powered by Nonprofit Central and was specifically created for volunteer-led nonprofit organizations who are often overwhelmed by complex accounting programs.
MoneyMinder is a simple and easy-to-use online program that you can access anywhere. If you’re the treasurer of an organization, you can use the program to manage budgets, handle bookkeeping duties, reconcile bank accounts, and generate detailed reports.
It includes volunteer management tools, allowing you to track volunteer hours and create reports by volunteer or event. Unfortunately, donor management tools are very limited with MoneyMinder.
The basic version of MoneyMinder is free, but MoneyMinder Pro is $159 per year and well worth the added cost. Unlike the free version, you can import PayPal transactions, print checks, and store documents.
MoneyMinder does offer additional services like bank integration and MyStore, which allows you to create an online store and accept online payments. However, these services have additional fees.
AccuFund Accounting Suite
AccuFund Accounting Suite is a cloud-based financial reporting and nonprofit accounting system. The tool provides advanced reporting capabilities and customized dashboards for tracking funds, managing cash receipts, and reconciling bank accounts.
AccuFund Accounting Suite also helps you allocate expenses, create invoices, and distribute budgets across different departments. It also provides a feature called budget development with which department managers can enter and develop budgets for fiscal and grant years.
Additionally, the tool features a payroll suite to manage employee salaries and help them with tax management.
Features:
- Tracking grant-related data, report due dates, contacts, contracts, and scheduled tasks.
- Program management and event hosting on one platform.
- Expense allocation, invoice creation, account reconciliations, and budget distribution.
Pricing:
- AccuFund users pay $2,995 as a one-time payment. It’s advisable to contact their sales team for additional information regarding the pricing.
MIP FUND ACCOUNTING
Nonprofit Accounting Software Overview
MIP Fund Accounting is a comprehensive, configurable fund accounting solution built with nonprofits in mind. It was designed to manage the unique reporting, budgeting, and security demands of nonprofit fund accounting.
The MIP Fund Accounting standard solution features include a general ledger, accounts payable, bank reconciliation, forms designer, and configurable reports. As your nonprofit grows, you can invest in other modules such as payroll, human resources, allocations, multicurrency, electronic requisitions, and more.
The available ledger and dashboards make it easy to find and evaluate the most relevant information to your nonprofit.
With MIP Fund Accounting, your nonprofit can make informed financial decisions based on your in-depth analysis of grant progress, fundraising campaigns, and past and current budgets.
Why We Recommend It
We recommend MIP Fund Accounting as the best nonprofit accounting software because of the customization options offered as a part of the solution.
Fifty-five percent of nonprofit finance professionals say that as their organization grows, it is somewhat to very difficult to make sure that technology will meet their expanding needs. MIP Fund Accounting takes this into consideration and has built a solution that grows with your organization.
The flexibility to choose add-on modules directly related to your needs enables your nonprofit to grow and expand software features as needed. Plus, their reports are built to be FASB compliant for easy auditing as your organization grows.
Pricing
Community Brands offers affordable subscription or perpetual license payment options for MIP Fund Accounting. Contact their team to discuss these pricing options for your organization.
INTUIT QUICKBOOKS
Nonprofit Accounting Software Overview
QuickBooks is trusted by small businesses everywhere to handle finances. Now, they expanded their software to handle fund accounting for nonprofit organizations.
With QuickBooks Online Plus, you can track your budget by programs or funds and manage your nonprofit’s bills. This nonprofit accounting software covers all of your basic needs, but you also have access to an add-on library for any additional functionality you find yourself in need of.
Why We Recommend It
The ease of use of Intuit QuickBooks is the reason it makes our list of the best accounting software for nonprofits. This is an affordable option to get nonprofits started with their fund accounting needs.
Plus, the QuickBooks mobile app enables employees or volunteers to record donations from anywhere. Therefore, your nonprofit can easily collect donations by credit card, debit card, bank transfer, cash, or check.
QuickBooks integrates with other key donation apps for nonprofits such as Fundly and DonorPerfect, further streamlining your finance data collection processes.
Pricing
Intuit QuickBooks has a variety of pricing options from SimpleStart to Advanced. We recommend starting with mid-tiered QuickBooks Online Plus option to access fund accounting needs. This option is regularly priced at $60/month. However, QuickBooks often provides discounts to get you started.
BLACKBAUD FINANCIAL EDGE NXT
Nonprofit Accounting Software Overview
Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT is a complete financial solution designed for nonprofits. With this software solution, you can monitor and manage your financial planning, grant accounting, fundraising campaigns, and nonprofit expenses in a single solution.
The internal controls of Financial Edge allow your organization’s system administrators to allow or deny access to specific information within the software. This supports the confidentiality of your donors’ personal information, maintains security, and prevents financial fraud.
Why We Recommend It
One of the most prominent advantages of Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT is their ability to streamline information and nonprofit processes through the use of integrations with other Blackbaud products.
While Financial Edge has the ability to stand on its own, it is best employed when paired with other products like Raiser’s Edge, Luminate CRM, and more. Integrating these systems makes it easy for your organization to transfer donor information from donation pages to your CRM to your accounting ledger.
Integrations save your organization valuable time importing and exporting information from one solution to another. Plus, specialized Blackbaud consultants can help guide you through these integrations.
Pricing
Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT offers Starter, Essentials, and Pro packages for your nonprofit to choose from. Contact Blackbaud for a quote.
Adaptive Planning
Adaptive Planning by Workday is an enterprise tool for budgeting, planning, and reporting. The tool serves a wide variety of businesses including small companies and nonprofit organizations. The tool helps improve the alignment of resources, funding, and services and increases visibility into your organization’s expenses.
With Adaptive Planning, you can plan and forecast your budgeting by program, project, fund, grant, season, and even location. The tool also helps you track expenses and donor contributions efficiently.
With an easy-to-use reporting feature, you can generate balance sheets and annual financial statements to track the overall financial performance of your organization.
Features:
- Continuous forecast for predictable fund management.
- Real-time and efficient reporting on funds and projects.
- Donor contributions, personnel costs, and overhead modeling and analysis.
Pricing:
- Adaptive Planning offers customized pricing based on your requirements. You can contact their sales team to get a quote.
FUND EZ
Nonprofit Accounting Software Overview
Fund EZ software was written exclusively for nonprofits to automate functions for accounting, fundraising campaign, grant management, and more in real time. Menus and customized toolbars make it easy to navigate this software and quickly access the information your nonprofit needs.
Segmenting funds with Fund EZ helps your nonprofit financial advisor budget per segment, compare expenditures per fund, and create and print reports according to separate or consolidated sections.
Why We Recommend It
Fund EZ is a great software solution for small to medium nonprofits. It doesn’t matter whether you have a full-time financial professional on staff at your organization. The dashboard tools make it easy to create visual representations of important financial analytics for administrative staff to track for your nonprofit.
Protect your nonprofit’s financial information by setting up authorization controls to limit your organization’s employees who have access to certain data. This helps prevent fraud and creates a more accountable system for monitoring financial information.
Pricing
Sign up for a 30-day free trial of Fund EZ before you make your final purchase. Then, contact their product specialists to discuss the features of your nonprofit’s ideal solution and receive a custom quote based on your organization’s needs.
NONPROFIT PLUS
Nonprofit Accounting Software Overview
Nonprofit Plus offers full accounting, financial management, and procurement management suites that help your nonprofit track and budget for internal and external expenses and operations. This software solution is built for nonprofits to keep them accountable to their donors and legal fund reporting regulations.
The financial management suite offers tools such as a general ledger, accounts payable and receivable, cash management, currency management, fixed assets, and time and expense management.
Why We Recommend It
Nonprofit Plus allows your nonprofit to manage your one-off donations but also has functions to manage your recurring revenue. Because recurring donations provide a consistent revenue stream, the best accounting software solutions for nonprofits will take this into consideration while budgeting.
Plus, the enhanced audit trail in the nonprofit accounting suite prepares your nonprofit organization for audits now and into the future.
Pricing
Contact Nonprofit Plus for a quote.
ACCOUNTEDGE
Nonprofit Accounting Software Overview
AccountEdge was built for small businesses but expanded their services to serve nonprofit accounting needs. Their full-featured software advertises itself as being affordable for organizations of all sizes. While their main software solution is desktop-oriented, they offer an optional cloud app for your organization’s on-the-go needs.
AccountEdge provides all of the necessary accounting tools your nonprofit needs to succeed including accepting donations, providing donation receipts, recording expenses, and processing payroll.
Why We Recommend It
With AccountEdge, your nonprofit can easily manage your donor contacts and track your donation sources.
Track donors’ contact information such as their address, email, phone number, and other information on contact cards with AccountEdge. Then, if your donor has a donation agreement, you can attach that information to the card and set reminders to contact them on a specific date.
Your organization receives money from multiple locations. Therefore, the ability to track donation sources in your nonprofit accounting software helps you make future decisions about your fundraising and grant campaigns. For instance, if you see that your events aren’t doing as well as your other fundraising campaigns, you might choose to boost your event marketing.
Pricing
AccountEdge is determined to help nonprofits spend hundreds rather than thousands on accounting software. Therefore, their one-time payment starts at just $149 for the basic plan.
Conclusion
Accounting will play a critical role in helping you take the next big step. The delicate balance between finance and strategy can be tough, but free accounting software for nonprofits is here to help. If you are just getting started with your nonprofit organization, you’ve probably already seen how hard it is to manage the money.