QuickBooks For Non-profits: The Complete Guide

Just because your business serves as a non-profit does not imply that you are not expected to manage your overall finances. As a matter of fact, a non-profit owner will understand it is immensely crucial to managing the respective finances quite meticulously. Non-profits are also expected to adhere to strict budgets and in-depth reporting of the spending. Moreover, due to the unique financial and legal setup of non-profit organizations, these agencies will face a challenging time going through a myriad of options for the best business accounting software solution.

In case you are in search of the best accounting software solution for your non-profit organization, you can consider the option of QuickBooks for non-profits. Eventually, QuickBooks serves to be one of the most popular and functional accounting solutions for a wide spectrum of businesses out there.

What is QuickBooks for Non-profits?

QuickBooks for non-profits serves to be an easy-to-use and powerful financial and accounting software that has been designed to meet the unique needs of non-profit organizations. It assists non-profit businesses in managing their respective finances more accurately and efficiently -right from the preparation of detailed account reports to tracking expenses and donations.

QuickBooks encompasses advanced features like reporting, forecasting, and budgeting capabilities that help non-profit units be organized as well as on top of the finances. The software solution is also aimed at helping organizations maximize their respective fundraising efforts while streamlining processes, managing staff and volunteers, and even tracking donations out of individuals.

With the help of QuickBooks for non-profits, all non-profit units out there can continue being focused on their respective mission while handling the varying complexities of the finances more efficiently. With a wide range of features of the accounting software solution, QuickBooks for non-profit organizations offers these organizations a comprehensive and user-friendly accounting package to help them manage their finances more accurately and efficiently.

Features Offered by QuickBooks for Non-profits

• Budgeting and Forecasting

Budgeting and forecasting with the help of QuickBooks for non-profit organizations is a seamless process. The accounting software offers organizations user-friendly, interactive tools to help non-profit organizations create, track, and manage overall budgets that are customized to specific needs.

Organizations are provided the ability to go through detailed financial reports in real time. This feature enables them to ensure informed decisions efficiently and quickly. QuickBooks for non-profit organizations also offers agencies reminders and alerts to help them stay on top of their budgeting goals.

• In-depth Reporting

As far as reporting is concerned, QuickBooks for non-profit organizations serves to be the ideal solution. The software offers you tailor-made reports enabling you to effectively track as well as monitor the overall performance over time.

With QuickBooks for non-profit organizations, you are capable of accessing financial data from multiple sources in a single place -saving you ample time and simplifying the entire reporting process. It is also possible to generate dedicated reports for particular date ranges. This functionality offers you a clear, in-depth picture of the finances of the organization. Moreover, QuickBooks also enables you to export data into different formats, like Excel, to ensure further analysis.

QuickBooks for non-profits also makes it simpler to share reports with stakeholders -like funders and board members. You can effectively create customized reports for a wide range of audiences while sending them out through email or attaching them to documents. This feature can assist you in clearly communicating the overall financial performance of the organization while offering stakeholders the necessary information they require for making informed decisions.

• Donor Management

Managing donation and donor-specific data is crucial for all non-profit organizations. However, it can be difficult and time-consuming to manage. QuickBooks for non-profit organizations helps simplify the process through the consolidation of all donor-specific information in a single place.

The software enables you to store all the contact information of the donor along with their preferences as well as donation history into a single accessible format. This makes it simpler to streamline and manage donor-centric information while quickly generating donation reports.

The software solution also helps streamline the entire donation process -enabling you to effectively collect donations from multiple sources -like bank accounts and credit cards. QuickBooks for non-profit organizations helps in automating payment processing while offering customizable receipts for donors.

Moreover, you can also leverage the reporting features of the software to evaluate donor-specific data while creating detailed reports. This can help in identifying trends in offerings that can inform the respective fundraising strategy.

• Staff & Volunteer Management

QuickBooks for non-profit organizations will make it simpler to manage volunteers and staff. The software offers access to tools to keep track of employee-centric information -like time-off requests, roles, and contact details.

Moreover, you can leverage the software solution to effectively track volunteer hours while managing tasks. The software solution also provides access to features -enabling team members to collaborate effectively on projects in real-time.

• Automated Payments

QuickBooks for non-profit agencies delivers access to multiple automated payment options that help in reducing manual errors and escalating payment processing times. This encompasses features like automated invoice reminders, automatic deposits, and payment schedules. This helps in ensuring that all financial transactions are timely and accurate.

How QuickBooks for Non-profits Function?

Like with all other QuickBooks products, QuickBooks for non-profit agencies will require users to enter information about transactions with the help of familiar-looking forms -including checks, bills, invoices, and so more. The accounting takes place in the background. It makes the process simpler for volunteers and employees who are not accountants to help the non-profit with bookkeeping practices.

On an overall basis, QuickBooks for non-profit organizations is highly effective as far as reporting and fund accounting are concerned. While the non-profit editions by QuickBooks function in a similar manner in comparison to other QuickBooks products, the backend setup for non-profit organizations makes sure that the books are kept. Reporting is executed in compliance with the best practices for non-profit agencies. You can look forward to customizing, saving, and automating the delivery of the dedicated reports as required by the donors and board of directors. Most importantly, it can help you in organizing the information required every year to file Form 990 -the document that helps in providing public financial information about the non-profit agency.

QuickBooks Discounts for Non-profit Organizations

QuickBooks has partnered effectively with a leading non-profit tech marketplace, TechSoup, to provide discounted software solutions and subscriptions to non-profit agencies.

Out of the available options, the feature of QuickBooks Online Plus is not available with a non-profit edition but can be utilized for non-profit operations, including:

• QuickBooks Online Plus
• QuickBooks Online Advanced
• QuickBooks Premier 2021
• QuickBooks Enterprise Non-profit

It is crucial to understand that, starting with the QuickBooks Premier Desktop 2022 series, Intuit has gone ahead with adopting a subscription-based model. A discounted-based subscription model for QuickBooks Premier is not made available with the help of TechSoup. Let us assume that your non-profit organization requires features beyond the concept of basic accounting, including customer support, data backups, and payroll, and if you wish to leverage a desktop variant of QuickBooks, the pricing can vary.

What are the Benefits of QuickBooks for Non-profit Organizations?

• Scalability: It is simple to start with a small-scale QuickBooks product -like QuickBooks Premier while converting to a highly robust product like QuickBooks Enterprise Non-profit as the non-profit organization continues growing. This helps you in effectively budgeting the technology dollars of the non-profit. You can also go ahead with customizing the fundraising and accounting functions of the non-profit with the help of multiple add-on applications available out there.

• Ease of Finding Support: Most professional bookkeeper accountants, along with most business owners, remain familiar with QuickBooks products. Therefore, whether you require assistance from an accountant or wish to enlist the support of the volunteer team for ensuring bookkeeping, you will most likely come across individuals who are capable of supporting you.

Conclusion

Ultimately, it is your final decision to analyze whether or not QuickBooks for non-profit organizations is right for your non-profit business. To ensure the decision, you are expected to consider the particular features of the accounting software solution you require, the budget you want to work with, and how any of the specific solutions by QuickBooks for non-profits will or will not meet the specific requirements.

The best aspect of QuickBooks for non-profit organizations is that there is a solution available for organizations of all scales and sizes. For medium-sized to small-scale organizations, QuickBooks Premier serves to be a great fit. QuickBooks Online serves to be a great choice in some cases -particularly if you do not have any prior accounting experience.