Top-Rated Accounting Software for Nonprofits in 2024

Cloud systems streamline finance processes like consolidations and automate procurement, allocations, grant management, and compliance reporting. The cloud eliminates the limitations of single-user systems and management by spreadsheets. On-premises solutions involve licensing financial software and running it on the organization’s own servers. While this option provides full control, it also demands substantial investment in hardware and IT resources. Furthermore, Sage Business Cloud Accounting offers two free licenses to nonprofits.

• If you’re a new nonprofit or on the smaller side, it’s tempting to choose the cheap option that works well for small organizations.
• It’s easy for that complexity to spill over into accounting software, leaving you with a tool that requires a textbook to understand.
• Best of all, some of the listed products have special pricing for nonprofits.
• A company can track interactions, segment contacts, and manage relationships based on a variety of criteria.

Find the provider and plan that most closely matches the list of features your organization needs. While Wave offers free plans, its payroll (tax services), transactions and bookkeeping and accounting support cost extra. Payroll services start at $20 per month and bookkeeping support starts at $149 per month. To process a transaction via credit card, you must pay a fee of at least 2.9% plus $0.60 per transaction. With a less overwhelming set of features compared to some competitors and award-winning customer support, Realm offers churches an easy platform for managing donors and their donations.

High ROI and Rapid Payback

Platforms like LinkedIn and review sites can offer a wealth of information and opinions from users who have hands-on experience with the software. Choose a vendor with a proven track record of successful implementations with nonprofit organizations. You also need to continue receiving donations from your patrons and other supporters. You can do online fundraisers using online giving platforms to augment your income and ensure you can continue helping your constituents. Zoho Invoice is available in a variety of pricing plans, starting at $9/organization per month.

Other services, like online donation acceptance, website management, and course registration require additional fees. With Sumac’s fundraising program, staff can access critical data from anywhere, and they can view databases at the same time, so they always have the most up-to-date information. The program allows you to create customizable donor profiles so you can adjust fields to meet your organization’s needs. Financial Edge also integrates with Blackbaud’s Raiser’s Edge, the gold-standard program for donor management and fundraising, so you can make sure your organization’s efforts are cohesive. First, find out which considered software offers a free trial or a version you can use to try the software before buying.

And while the tool itself provides security for various workflow processes, it also tightens the security measure around your signatures and documents. It has 256-bit SSL encryption that prevents unsanctioned access or editing of files. Aside from the abovementioned, Rossum also comes with an analytics and reporting system. With this, you can easily access audit trails and keep tabs on who has access to your accounting files. With a little research, it is possible to find free software that will help a nonprofit stay organized and efficient.

The best nonprofit accounting software should include all the core accounting features and functionality all businesses need, such as the ability to send invoices and track spending. It should also offer nonprofit-specific accounting functionality, such as the ability to receive donations, manage restricted funds and file Form 990. Forbes Advisor selected these solutions based on features, pricing, reputation and more. QuickBooks also includes features for fund accounting including the ability to monitor grants, funds, and budgets. It enables nonprofits to assign income and expenses to specific projects and programs, while facilitating accurate reporting and total transparency.

• It will take time for nonprofits to recover, but accounting software will be there to keep tabs on all incoming and outgoing funds.
• The program likewise stores all information relevant to transactions, which further assists nonprofits in complying with standards.
• To achieve this, nonprofit organizations need robust accounting software tailored to their unique needs.
• While it’s desirable to have a full-time professional bookkeeper or compliance officer on premises for emerging or rapidly expanding businesses, this isn’t always realistic for nonprofits.
• Remember to consider factors like your company size, budget, integration needs, reporting requirements, and the specific features required.
• You can get your software up and running within a day, and multiple users can use the software at once, making it an ideal cloud-based program.

People spend years in higher education institutions to earn degrees that focus on it. It’s easy for that complexity to spill over into accounting software, leaving you with a tool that requires a textbook to understand. Still, Zoho Books offers 15% off its starting price for registered nonprofits, which helps lighten some of the fiscal load.

CenterPoint Fund Accounting for Nonprofits

If you’re interested in text-to-donate capabilities, you can upgrade to Aplos Core at $139 a month. And if you own a larger nonprofit with multiple ongoing projects, Aplos’s customized solutions start at $189 a month. But if you want to accept donations (which you undoubtedly do) you can’t just sign up for Zoho Books. Zoho Checkout is free as long as you accept only 50 donations—ever, not per month. Clients that need unlimited donations in multiple currencies will need to add a $9 a month Zoho Checkout plan to their existing Zoho Books plan.

How We Evaluated Nonprofit Accounting Software

Consider monthly fees, training, configuration, customization, hardware, IT personnel, and more. Moving to the cloud with Sage Intacct increased finance efficiency by 50-60% and productivity by 30-40%. Time previously spent https://accounting-services.net/20-best-accounting-software-for-nonprofits-in-2023/ on basic information retrieval is now used for better analysis and reporting. Cloud-based financial systems offer world-class infrastructure, 24×365 operations, continuous backups, disaster recovery, and superior security.

Xero also integrates with Xero Me for payroll, Xero Expenses for employee reimbursement, and Xero Projects for project management and cost/time tracking. Plus, there are hundreds of additional app integrations for pretty much any function a nonprofit would need. This article will guide you in understanding the importance of leveraging the right nonprofit accounting software and maximizing its benefits. But before that, let’s talk about the distinctive nature of nonprofit organizations in accounting. Aplos is a fund accounting software solution designed to manage all your nonprofit’s accounting needs.

How To Choose a Free Tax Software Service

Should your software ever crash or freeze up on you, having reliable technical or customer support you can turn to is critical. I looked for software that has support that is easy to reach and has a reputation for being helpful. Form 990 is a tax form that tax-exempt organizations—which include most nonprofits—must submit to the IRS every year. The form details your organization and its aims, and shows where your funds came from and were distributed during the tax year.

Free tax software can help you file your taxes easily and maximize your return, all with an accuracy guarantee. However, if you have a complicated tax situation, you might need to upgrade to a paid service. These services ease tax filing with user-friendly interfaces that help you find any credits or deductions you qualify for and accurately input your information. Claire is a senior editor at Newsweek focused on credit cards, loans and banking. Her top priority is providing unbiased, in-depth personal finance content to ensure readers are well-equipped with knowledge when making financial decisions. Emily is a freelance personal finance journalist and contributor to Newsweek.

Wave Pricing

Many NPOs instead look to adopt new nonprofit accounting software solutions that work out of the box. You can use QuickBooks Enterprise Nonprofit to track expenses and donations, budget by program and compare to actuals, and create donor and grant reports. This version of QuickBooks allows you to accept donations and securely store donor information in your database.