The Best Accounting Software for Nonprofits [Comparison]
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Running a nonprofit organization is no easy task. This endeavor requires constant dedication and an unflinching commitment. Non-profits spend a lot of time filing tax returns and claiming grants.
These time-consuming tasks, as essential as they may be for funding your charitable activities, also take the focus away from more important actions. Hence why finding the best nonprofit accounting software could be of great help to your organization.
Let Appvizer guide you through the process of choosing the good accounting software for your nonprofit organization: our comparison highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the best accounting software for nonprofits.
What can accounting software do for your nonprofit?
Accounting software is mostly thought of as being used mainly by for-profit organizations. But registered charities also have many needs that can only be met by this kind of solution. Of course, their requirements and goals are not the same as traditional businesses. This is why dedicated charity accounting software exists.
These products are designed to help your nonprofit organization streamline most processes related to your finances, tax reports, gift aid, and more. Dedicated software solutions’ most useful features include
- Insightful dashboards and reports: track donations in real-time and run reports based on automated bank statement imports to analyze your financial data without painstaking data entry.
- Donor management systems: you can record various types of donations, sometimes complete with tools to make payments more accessible, for example with support for direct donations from a page on your website.
- Gift aid management: gift aid claims can be ready in no time, built-in features allow you to generate ready-to-use reports that simplify your grant claims.
- Lots of time-saving features: to save time, nonprofit accounting solutions allow you to process accounts receivable and accounts payable faster, prepare financial statements automatically, submit form 990 easily, and more.
How to choose the best nonprofit accounting software for your organization?
To select the most optimal solution for your nonprofit organization, you should consider your needs first and foremost. Ask yourself questions such as
- Do I need specific features? These could be payroll management if you manage employees or volunteers, or project management if you organize fundraising events.
- How flexible should this solution be? If you’re a growing nonprofit organization, you should think ahead and choose a solution that will be able to adapt and grow with your charity. Useful features could be add-ons or dedicated support for example.
Then, you will come across two major categories of software:
- Traditional accounting software.
- Online accounting software.
The latter is based on the SaaS model, meaning the software vendor is in charge of installing and maintaining the solution. This offers many advantages for nonprofits, such as:
- Reactive customer support,
- more flexibility,
- lower upfront costs,
- constant updates, etc.
Online software can be accessed anywhere and from any device with an internet connection. This reduces the need for costly infrastructure such as powerful laptops to run a professional desktop solution and the associated IT costs for nonprofits.
The best accounting software for nonprofit organizations
ACCOUNTS from Software4Nonprofits
ACCOUNTS is an easy-to-use, affordable, feature-rich fund accounting software best suited for nonprofit organizations. This fund management software offers a number of interesting features, including accounting, invoicing, etc. Simple and fun, this online solution allows you to manage the accounting of your structure.
This program includes features that let you:
- Maintain cash or commitment accounting (depending on the needs of the nonprofit association)
- Activate bank reconciliation for simplified management
- Download financial documents (balance sheet, general ledger, journal...) in the format of your choice
- Delegate and manage access to specific users
- Easily manage cash receipts and funds
👍 Pros
- It manages the members, registers the contributions, carries out mailings, follow-up of funds, and registers contacts.
- It lets you manage two bank accounts simultaneously, edit balance sheets by year, categories, events, and create provisional budgets.
- It manages material stock, users, and access rights.
- Data backup/restoration
👎 Cons
- The other plans aren’t online (except the OnDemand version)
- If you do not have accounting experience, you’ll have to take some time to learn how to use the software yourself because ACCOUNTS doesn't have a learning program.
💰 Pricing
- Standard: $95 per year for one user only
- On-demand/ Local network: $165 per year for 5 nonprofit organizations
- Upgrading: Customizable price
- Phone support: $25 per year (only available for users who paid up for email support)
ACCOUNTS
Aplos
Aplos is a fund accounting software solution designed to manage all your nonprofit’s accounting needs. Keep your financial records straight and up-to-date thanks to this easy-to-use yet powerful software.
- Enjoy fund accounting features specifically designed to suit the needs of small or large nonprofits. This accounting system is designed for charities and churches, not for regular businesses, making fund accounting easy.
- Create custom dashboards easily and share them with the relevant stakeholders via email or by exporting them to other formats. Powerful reporting features allow you to stay on top of your finances at all times.
- Get more things done with gift automation: receive online donations, including recurring gifts, and access a variety of tools to help you with your fundraising efforts.
- Build lasting relationships with your volunteers and donors with advanced CRM features and collaboration tools. You can leverage marketing and emailing solutions to send personalized messages.
👍 Pros
- This solution is designed from the ground up with nonprofit organizations and churches in mind. This means there will be no more workarounds or hassle trying to get business-oriented solutions to work for your specific needs.
- You can start accepting online donations and gifts and manage your teams and donors in one place.
- Make data-driven decisions with thorough reporting and analytics to maximize your return on investment.
- Organize events and launch targeted email campaigns to extend your reach and raise awareness.
👎 Cons
- The handy text-to-give feature isn’t available for the base version and is a separate add-on.
- This solution is complete but also on the more expensive side for very small charities, as it lacks more basic options.
💰 Pricing
- Apos Suite is available for $59 per month and includes most features.
- Text to give can be added for $20 a month to give you an easier way to process mobile donations.
- Aplos Suite + Advanced accounting starts at $159 per month for access to advanced financial management features, fixed asset tracking, and more.
The price tag is cut in half for the first 6 months and a 15-day free trial is available. Annual subscribers get a 10% price cut per year.
Aplos Accounting
Blackbaud
Blackbaud is one of the leading fund accounting software providers for nonprofit organizations. Its solutions are what you need if you’re looking for an end-to-end platform to manage your fundraising campaigns, file grant applications, and more.
- Accept payments easily and securely thanks to cutting-edge payment processing services: you can accept credit and debit card payments, including contactless, with pre-reconciliation features to simplify your bookkeeping.
- Supercharge your campaigns and leverage your donor base with powerful donor management features. Create crowdfunding or peer-to-peer donation campaigns, manage sponsorships, and more.
- Engage with volunteers and people with event management, email automation, and other innovative tools to host enticing online and offline charitable events and fundraisers.
- Keep track of your performance and boost the impact of your future actions thanks to insightful analytics. Let interactive dashboards drive your decisions to launch more effective campaigns.
👍 Pros
- A multifaceted, all-in-one platform where you can run your charity with confidence.
- An easy way for you to engage with your donors and leverage their collective power: marketing and engagement tools allow you to adopt a people-oriented approach while maximizing efficiency.
- A flexible and innovative way to manage fundraising: create crowdfunding initiatives and allow peer-to-peer donations to turn each and every one of your donors into potential advocates.
- Dedicated grantmaking tools to keep track of where your money is going and ensure the programs you support really make a difference.
👎 Cons
- Offers many financial tools and a diverse range of features that can be too much for smaller charities that are simply looking to get their accounting right.
- Does not offer many third-party integrations.
💰 Pricing
- Only available upon request. The final price will depend on the individual characteristics and needs of your nonprofit organization.
Blackbaud for Nonprofits
FastFund Accounting
FastFund Accounting by Araize is a well-known fund accounting solution that has been lending a helping hand to churches and nonprofits for a long time. This charity accounting software specializes in meeting the needs of nonprofit organizations to allow them to reach their full potential.
- This is a financial platform designed by nonprofit experts to help charities and small NGOs streamline their accounting, fundraising, and payroll management.
- This flexible fund accounting solution lets you create a custom chart of accounts to better adapt to the structure of your nonprofit organization. It provides an easy way to keep track of payables and receivables and sort all kinds of expenses.
- Generate FASB compliant financial statements and submit IRS forms 990 automatically to ensure compliance and save time on these time-consuming tasks.
- Leverage the power of its comprehensive donor management features to remove duplicates and process various forms of payment, including debit and credit cards. Define classes and codes for your donors to launch personalized fundraising campaigns.
👍 Pros
- You can count on this platform to adapt to your nonprofit, no matter your activity sector or industry: from education to religious nonprofit organizations, from arts to healthcare services, you are covered.
- The payroll management system allows you to file tax payments automatically and access customized reports to track your own set of KPIs and metrics.
- Stay in control of your finances by creating budgets for each of your programs or grants. You can set spending limits or earmark sums for specific purposes easily.
- Ensure high-security standards to protect your important information: individual permission and access tracking let you limit users to a read-only mode to prevent tampering or mistakes.
👎 Cons
- Each module has to be paid for separately, meaning the full set of features can be quite pricey.
- Each plan comes with a set limit of donors or employees that induces extra costs, or some features that require a premium version of the module.
💰 Pricing
- The Fund Accounting module starts at $42 a month and the premium version is $94 a month for accounts receivable and payable and direct cost allocations.
- The Fundraising module starts at $20 a month, and the Payroll module starts at $66 a month for 5 employees or less.
A free trial is available, and there are no engagement periods or setup fees. Free customer support is included with all plans.
FastFund Accounting
MoneyMinder
MoneyMinder is one of the pioneers in the field of nonprofit association fund management software. Available in a completely free version, this solution also has an accounting module. With its essential functionalities, it allows you to manage your accounts.
Designed for nonprofit associations with up to 40 members, this software allows you to:
- Manage up to two bank accounts
- Edit balance sheets by year, by category, and by event
- Create projected budgets
- Analyze financial health
👍 Pros
Used by more than 2,000 nonprofit organizations, this software offers various accounting features:
- Manual entry of financial transactions
- Import and export of accounting data
- Analytical accounting
- Assisted reconciliation
- Financial documents(income statement, balance sheet, etc.)
- Real-time financial monitoring
- And more.
Suitable for both novice treasurers and experienced accountants, this free accounting software for nonprofit associations is also easy to use.
👎 Cons
- However, the free version of accounting software for nonprofit associations like MoneyMinder has limited features, especially accounting
- Impossible to customize the fields to appear when you upload your bank transactions.
💰 Pricing
MoneyMinder has a free version with basic accounting features. The pro version costs $179/year.
MoneyMinder
Nonprofit+
Nonprofit+ is fund accounting software with many optional modules for nonprofits. It allows you to manage your treasury, to third-party invoicing monitoring (goods supplier or sales of the nonprofit association) and membership fees (which can be automatically converted into an invoice) as well as their payment.
Nonprofit+ has built-in training features to get you caught up and used to using the program. But it is limited to nonprofit bookkeeping; however, it doesn’t let you manage contributions or refund expenses.
Relatively complete, Nonprofit+ has an accounting module with various functionalities, including:
- Accounting entries & financial documents (invoices, expenses...) automatically
- Edit financial reports with ease
- And so on.
Moreover, nonprofits can install this solution on their workstation (Windows, Mac, and Linux). Otherwise, they can use it directly online.
👍 Pros
- Nonprofit+ automatically records transactions in the appropriate accounts: the nonprofit association must simply specify whether it is a revenue or an expense;
- It allows the detection of anomalies,
- It allows you to make tax returns,
- It allows you to automatically create the balance sheet and the income statement of the nonprofit association.
👎 Cons
- Many users confirmed that it is not easy to use Nonprofit+ because there are so many extra parts on the screen
- No tools for payroll management
- No upfront pricing
💰 Pricing
Nonprofit+ doesn't publicize its price because the price is customizable according to the needs of each nonprofit organization. You have to make a quote to demand the price.
Nonprofit+
Xero
Xero is an online fund accounting software for nonprofits that can automate much of your financial management. Xero helps you manage your nonprofit organization with a better analysis of your sales and expenses and will facilitate your daily reporting and your year-end accounting.
This software continues to grow in popular appeal and currently has a solid audience, thanks to a frequently updated look and new features introduced all the time, even during the coronavirus outbreak.
👍 Pros
Discover the pros of this software:
- Because it's an online service, Xero, of course, works as long as you have access to the Internet and are using one of the many popular web browsers. If you use the app-based versions of Xero, which are accessible for both iOS and Android smartphones.
- Xero also offers incredible connectivity with over 800 applications. Expand the feature set and allow you to add inventory management, invoicing, time tracking, costs, and other services not included in the original package.
- In terms of features, it's not only about the Xero dashboard but also about how Xero makes it simple to add new features to your online experience by pressing the "+" button on the right side of the screen. With just a few clicks, you can create invoices, bills, goods orders, and more.
👎 Cons
- You have to take time to learn how to use the software
- No built-in payroll management tool
- The software doesn't support Exchange Trade Products (ETPs).
💰 Pricing
- Early: $12/ month
- Growing: $34/ month
- Established: $65/ month
You can try the software for free by using the free trial.
Xero
Recap table: the best nonprofit accounting software
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| ACCOUNTS | Aplos Accounting | Blackbaud for Nonprofits | FastFund Accounting | MoneyMinder | Nonprofit+ | Xero |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| For all companies | For all companies | For all companies | For all companies | For all companies | For all companies | For companies with more than 1 employees |
| See software | See software | See software | See software | See software | See software | See software |
| Learn more about ACCOUNTS | Learn more about Aplos Accounting | Learn more about Blackbaud for Nonprofits | Learn more about FastFund Accounting | Learn more about MoneyMinder | Learn more about Nonprofit+ | Learn more about Xero |
Focus on making a change in the world with the right accounting software
You can’t change the world without the right tools. You can’t run a charity without ensuring compliance, managing donations and accurate financial reporting. Accounting software for nonprofits does all this and more: focus on what matters with the weight of paperwork lifted off your shoulders!
If you’ve not found the right fit yet, feel free to browse through our list of the best accounting software available for charities and churches. This comprehensive overview should help you compare solutions and choose the best one for your current and future needs.
Accomplish more with less thanks to the right tools! If you’re looking for ways to maximize your impact without losing time on repetitive tasks, Appvizer is the best place to start.