There’s no doubt that starting a nonprofit—whether you’re just getting an idea off the ground or your organization is at a more mature stage—can be amazingly rewarding. You can devote your time and talent to something that makes a positive impact in the community and the world. But all of this inspiring goodness can become frustrating when it comes to money and budgetary matters.
As most every nonprofit leader soon learns, raising money is one of the biggest challenges in most nonprofits and can be quite time-consuming and exhausting for most executives, staff and volunteers. There are many misconceptions about how nonprofits really work when it comes to funding. I’ve heard them all through the years: So, here are the besr accounting softwares for small Nonprofits.
FRESHBOOKS
Nonprofit Accounting Software Overview
Freshbooks is built for small businesses but has enough functionality to accommodate nonprofit organizations as well. Their easy-to-use interface makes it easy to track and manage expenses and fundraising campaigns.
Their form builder tools allow you to create invoices customized for your nonprofit. Include your logo on the top of the invoices to create a professional appeal. You can also create customized thank you emails for donors with these tools, making it easy to maintain relations with your donors.
Why We Recommend It
Freshbooks is an incredibly helpful software solution for nonprofits focused on minimizing overhead costs and tracking internal operations. They offer time-tracking and management tools to make sure your team is on the same page.
With Freshbooks, your employees can click a timer when they begin working on a project and stop it once they’re done. This gives you an accurate perspective on the amount of time it takes to complete projects and tracks productivity.
Freshbooks’ project management tools allow your organization to assign tasks to individual employees and manage their time productively. Plus, you can manage your volunteers using these tools too!
Pricing
Freshbooks offers a tiered pricing system with a nonprofit discount. The nonprofit discount allows nonprofits to pay the price of the tier beneath their chosen solution. For instance, their lite plan is $15/month and plus plan is $25/month. As a nonprofit, you can pay $15 for the plus plan.
Breeze: Best For Church Management
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Make managing your church a breeze with Breeze Church Management Software. Breeze was designed specifically to be a functioning, affordable church management software option for small to medium-sized churches. Of all the church software we researched, Breeze offered the most modern UI, practical features, and affordable pricing. The software is also incredibly easy to use.
Since Breeze isn’t traditional accounting software, it lacks features such as expense tracking or payroll. However, Breeze does integrate with QuickBooks and Freshbooks. It also integrates with a number of other software and apps, including Slack and Toggl.
Pros
- Affordable
- Easy to use
- Supports unlimited users
Cons
- Not traditional accounting software
Breeze Features
Breeze offers great features that address the specific needs of churches very well. Here are some of the most notable features:
- Donation management
- Pledges
- Event management
- Event registration
- Children’s ministry check-in
- Contact management
- Volunteer management
- Contact groups
- Built-in emailing and texting
- Online giving
- Reports
- Year-end statements
- Print directories
- Custom forms
Breeze Pricing
Breeze has a simple pricing structure, with a single plan priced at just $50/month. This includes all features and supports unlimited users. There are no contracts or hidden fees. If you want to try before you buy, a demo is available on the company’s website.
Breeze is one of the best options for small to medium churches that you’ll find. It offers an impressive number of features that are beneficial to churches at one affordable price. And while it isn’t traditional accounting software, it does integrate with two of the top accounting software options on the market today, helping you manage your church and finances more effectively.
XERO
Nonprofit Accounting Software Overview
Xero was built for businesses but expanded to accommodate nonprofits. Xero for nonprofits kickstarts the accounting processes for organizations looking for their first software solution. It creates a simple solution that allows your organization to easily share critical financial information with donors, board members, and volunteers.
Nonprofits without financial professionals on staff are often overwhelmed by more complicated solutions. However, Xero has all the functionality needed by nonprofits on an easy-to-use platform. This frees up your nonprofit staff to spend less time on the computer worried about finances and more time focusing on your organization’s mission.
Why We Recommend It
Xero makes it easy to monitor and manage your accounting needs from a simple dashboard interface. You can monitor your expenses, your cash flow, checking and credit accounts, bills, and account watchlists directly from your dashboard screen.
The Xero mobile app makes it easy to record donations on the go. This is especially helpful for small nonprofits who want their staff members to spend as much time as possible out in the field helping their constituents.
Pricing
The tiered pricing system for Xero starts at $9/month for the Early plan, $30/month for Growing, and $60 for Established. Plus, nonprofits receive a 25% discount at the end of a free trial.
SMARTSIMPLE
Nonprofit Accounting Software Overview
SmartSimple is a grant management software that can help your nonprofit with various aspects of your accounting needs.
When it comes to managing your grants, SmartSimple can help you through every step of the grant application process. Once you receive grants, use SmartSimple to create budgets and ensure you’re using the funds appropriately. Their post-grant reporting features will help you report back to the funding organization with helpful and accurate reports.
Why We Recommend It
SmartSimple offers robust budgeting tools that help automate post-award grant activities. You can create payment schedules, PRI repayment schedules, reports, and outcomes.
Plus, they provide a variety of documentation templates for your organization to use. These templates span from meeting dockets to GDPR-compliant applications.
Pricing
SmartSimple offers a tiered software plan, each with a different implementation fee, starting at $5,000.
The majority of nonprofits plan on expanding their services. Be sure you’re ready to handle the additional financial demands by investing in the best nonprofit accounting software now.
Additional Resources
Check out our other pages to learn more about nonprofit software and how it can help elevate your organization:
- Fundraising Software: 11 Types Your Nonprofit Must Know. Fundraising plays a huge role for nonprofits and their budgeting processes. Check out these top 11 fundraising software to see how they can bring your fundraising efforts to the next level.
- Top 9 Donor Prospect Research Software for Smart Fundraising. Prospect research is necessary to reach out to potential major donors. These 9 donor prospect research software solutions will simplify this process for your nonprofit.
- The Best 13 Software for Nonprofits [Rated & Reviewed]. If you’re not sure what software will fulfill which need for your nonprofit, no worries! Read this article featuring the top 13 software solutions for nonprofits and their functions.
FastFund Software Suite
FastFund is a comprehensive nonprofit accounting, fundraising, and payroll software solution. With this tool, you can record cash, pledge, and in-kind donations; send acknowledgment letters; and pledge receivable statements.
The tool helps you track all the stakeholders you deal with, whether they are donors, members, alumni, vendors, or employees. FastFund accounting also provides a campaign management facility that helps your organization keep a track of all its fund-raising activities.
Additionally, the software solution generates comprehensive reports detailing donations and the impact of events throughout the fiscal year.
Features:
- Cash, pledge, and in-kind donation management.
- Membership management.
- Automated receipts and report generation.
Pricing:
- FastFund Accounting starts at $42 per month, FastFund Fundraising starts at $20 per month, and FastFund Payroll starts at $66 per month.
Fund EZ
Fund EZ is an accounting software made for nonprofits that have a limited budget. Its features include general ledger, bank reconciliation, budgeting, accounts payable and receivable, fund allocation, and secure data storage.
Fund EZ offers an easy-to-use interface to simplify bookkeeping and create helpful reports that help audit and finance teams identify potential fraud and theft.
The tool also offers an add-on called Fund EZ PRO that features a nonprofit chart of accounts that tracks programs, funding sources, grants, sites, and departments, helping your team to better organize clients and donors.
Features:
- User-definable chart of accounts.
- Custom reporting.
- Company and department consolidation.
Pricing:
- Fund EZ starts at $170 per user, per month. For add-ons, you can contact the Fund EZ sales team to get a customized quote. You can also visit their website and schedule a demo.
Account management in Fund EZ (Source)
MIP Fund Accounting
MIP Fund Accounting is a fund accounting solution designed to meet the needs of nonprofit organizations. The tool helps drive donor engagement, generate greater returns, and make your nonprofit accounting team more efficient.
The nonprofit accounting solution offers features such as fund accounting, online fundraising, event fundraising, and donor management. It helps your nonprofit organization with overall financial management.
The software tool also features a donor management system that enables you to understand your donors, build relationships, and effectively tailor offline and online communication to obtain more donations.
Features:
- Fund accounting.
- Online and event fundraising.
- Donor management.
Pricing:
- MIP Fund Accounting offers customized pricing based on your requirements. You can visit the vendor website to contact the sales team to get a quote for the software solution.
Creating a budget worksheet in MIP Fund Accounting (Source)
QuickBooks Online Advanced
QuickBooks Online Advanced is an accounting solution that helps you organize bookkeeping, prioritize and complete budgeting tasks, and stay on top of your organization’s cash flow.
The software solution features a cash flow dashboard that provides clear financial insights into where each penny goes. You can also create user roles to manage access to your nonprofit’s sensitive information.
QuickBooks Online Advanced also provides a smart reporting feature that analyzes KPIs that matter the most to your grant and fund management requirements.
Features:
- Chart of accounts for greater visibility.
- Expenses and transactions dashboard.
- Reporting and insights into every organization and individual activity.
Pricing:
- Pricing for QuickBooks Online Advanced starts at $25 per month. They also offer a 30-day free trial.
Conclusion
Whether you are a small business that has just begun to take shape, or you are an established organization that is well off, keeping your finances in order can be extremely challenging. Just because you know how to record your income and expenses doesn’t mean you can handle the task on your own. There are certain instances where it is wise to hire the services of an accountant even if you don’t have much funding to spend.