The Best Nonprofit Accounting Software Solution

In order to be able to draw conclusions about the organization’s current level of effectiveness and recommend new strategies, these leaders will need to take financials into account. Board members will come and go over time, and some of them will have more financial proficiency than others. Supporting Strategies can discuss the financials directly with your board as needed and can also handle the financial analysis needed for audits and donor reviews. You stand to benefit from the right software and ideally, a professional bookkeeper who is proficient in fund accounting. For over 15 years, Supporting Strategies’ locally owned and operated offices have served thousands of companies, helping them focus on their core business. Financial management is easy with QuickBooks fund accounting software.

• If your organization is larger, has hundreds of donors, or accepts a significant amount of online payments, you likely need a more robust program and will need to pay more money for accounting software.
• Track budgets by fund or program with donor and grant management, financial reporting, and bank reconciliations.
• In addition, as you build new global entities, you can seamlessly add them to the software.
• Access is locked out after multiple failed login attempts for the same user.
• Most systems let you create custom fields that meet the needs of your organization.
• That’s why nonprofits employ a type of accounting known as fund accounting.

Nonprofit accounting and bookkeeping revolve around representing an organization’s financial records in compliance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). Bookkeeping for a nonprofit is vital because it proves how an organization is spending its funds. Learning how to do nonprofit accounting and understanding which statements a nonprofit needs to prepare is crucial for anyone who wants to run a successful nonprofit.

Use an Experienced Nonprofit Bookkeeper

That’s why nonprofits employ a type of accounting known as fund accounting. Bookkeeping for a nonprofit, or nonprofit bookkeeping, represents a unique way a nonprofit organization plans, records, and reports its finances. It involves generally accepted accounting principles and other tasks all businesses employ when reporting finances, along with those specific to nonprofit organizations. Perhaps you have revenue coming into the organization from a myriad of different sources and need to be more effective at fund accounting. Fund accounting is required of all tax-exempt nonprofits by industry regulator Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). When you choose Supporting Strategies for this work, you gain a partner that is aware of the latest changes involving revenue recognition, presentation of financial data, and more.

• This means that every credit (income) has a corresponding debit (expense) that adds up to zero.
• Fund accounting is a system of accounting that allows organizations to separate their money into different categories, or “funds,” to stay organized.
• You should also hire a financial officer or a treasurer who knows how to do bookkeeping for a nonprofit and is familiar with specialized accounting software.
• Nonprofit accounting is the way a nonprofit’s financial transactions are planned for, recorded, and reported over time.
• Have reports created and emailed automatically, from a statement of financial position, statement of financial activities, budget versus actual, and more.

You can even get discounted accounting software for your nonprofit if you use certain software on this list. Instead of prioritizing sales, nonprofits must demonstrate an appropriate use of assets and resources for charitable purposes. Get our FREE guide to nonprofit financial reports, featuring illustrations, annotations, and insights to help you better understand your organization’s finances. Get our FREE GUIDE to nonprofit financial reports, featuring illustrations, annotations, and insights to help you better understand your organization’s finances. We’ve done our best to give you a crash course into nonprofit bookkeeping. But if you’re already falling behind in your books, you can’t rely on a google search or blog article to get you back on track.

Auditing Differs for Nonprofits

Unfortunately, ACCOUNTS was designed for Microsoft Windows and the desktop version is only available for that operating system. However, there is a cloud-based, browser version called OnDemand that works on most platforms including Mac. Under the standard version, only one user can do data entry at a time.

• When choosing accounting software, consider the needs of your organization and the experience of the person who will be handling accounting for your organization.
• Discover how your accounting software can help your business grow and save you time and money.
• In 2018, Sumac became part of Silent Partner Software Inc and is offered alongside other products like PartnerHR.
• The function of expenses refers to your organization’s programs, general and management expenses, and fundraising.
• You can use QuickBooks Enterprise Nonprofit to track expenses and donations, budget by program and compare to actuals, and create donor and grant reports.

Import transactions from apps like Fundly or DonorPerfect to QuickBooks easily so all your data is in one place. All grants and gifts are included in your total revenues if you run a non-profit. For example, tax reporting can be an extremely complex process that must be taken care of error-free.

How To Choose an Accounting Software for Your Nonprofit

Using a general accounting software program that does not have specific features for non-profit organizations can be cumbersome. These types of programs are made for for-profit accounting and have many features that are not necessary for non-profit organizations. https://simple-accounting.org/the-7-best-accounting-apps-for-independent/ differs from that of for-profit organizations; so why would you want to use the same software for each of them?

Essentially, the Form 990 is the IRS’s method of evaluation to make sure your nonprofit is financially honest and legitimate. Your nonprofit budget is the planning document used to predict expenses and allocate resources for your organization. It details both the costs that your organization will incur as well as the revenue you expect to receive over a set period Independent Contractor Agreement for Accountants and Bookkeepers of time, usually a year. Another aspect of nonprofit accounting that helps organizations stay accountable to their finances is the nondistribution constraint. Unlike for-profits, nonprofits are required not to distribute their net earnings to the leaders at the organization. Luckily, here at Jitasa, we don’t think nonprofit accounting is tedious at all!