Intuit Inc. ‘ QuickBooks: Premier Nonprofit Edition 2004

As part of its ‘Right for My Business’ strategy, Intuit offers a number of industry-specific accounting software packages that are based on the company’s popular QuickBooks product. By applying industry-appropriate terminology, as well as specialized reports and functions, the familiar QuickBooks software is transformed into a product that targets a certain market ‘ in this case, nonprofit organizations.

EASE OF USE/FLEXIBILITY – 4 Stars
By default, the main screen work area provides a ‘Nonprofit Navigator’ window with a pictorial workflow diagram, with shortcut links to the most common accounting tasks, such as entering budgets, bills, checks, pledges (invoices), donations (sales receipts) and deposits. Other links on the navigator lead to related activities and memorized reports, particularly those that have been customized for nonprofit organizations. For other tasks, there is a standard Windows drop-down menu and toolbar. Use of the navigator screen is optional, and all tasks are accessible from the menu system.

Data-entry screens throughout the application are highly refined and very easy to use. Of course, anyone with experience with the standard QuickBooks product will be immediately at home. But even for new users, the program uses a friendly, unintimidating interface that is very forgiving. Key fields have lookup drop-down lists, and two find screens (simple and advanced) allow you to find any previously recorded transaction.

MODULES/SCALABILITY – 4 Stars
The application uses a fully integrated non-modular design that provides all the functions of GL, AR, AP, payroll and bank reconciliation. In order to provide fund accounting features, Intuit has modified some of the standard QuickBooks features for things like donor and grant tracking. More detail on these features is in the Features/ Functionality section of this review.

QuickBooks Nonprofit Edition is offered at two levels to suit the needs of a variety of organizations. The ‘Premier’ level is offered for smaller organizations (up to five users) with straightforward reporting and analysis needs. The ‘Enterprise’ level is designed for organizations with more than 20 employees and up to 10 simultaneous users. Both editions utilize a file/server arrangement that simply allows multiple users to access the same data files from a common network location. Files can be stored on either Windows or Novell servers.

FEATURES/FUNCTIONALITY – 4 Stars
A key feature that provides many of the specialized reports and functions in the Nonprofit Edition is the inclusion of a Unified Chart of Accounts (UCOA), developed by the California Association of Nonprofits and the National Center for Charitable Statistics. By using this prescribed chart of accounts, the organization can properly categorize transactions in a way that allows QuickBooks to produce an IRS Form 990 report and other nonprofit reports.

In QuickBooks terminology, Donors and Grants are both Customers. Similarly, donations are entered as sales receipts, and pledges are entered as invoices. Fund, program and project tracking is accomplished by using QuickBooks ‘classes,’ which is simply a label that is applied to individual transactions to mark them as belonging to a particular fund or department. Reports and queries can be run that total and compare transaction totals within any of the defined classes. These classes are also the basis of some of the nonprofit-specific reports, such as Programs/Projects Report, Budget vs. Actual by Programs/Projects, Profit & Loss by fund, and the Statement of Functional Expenses (990).

QuickBooks Nonprofit also provides tools for donation and pledge tracking with donation and pledge forms that allow donors to track their contribution detail. Also, the program can instantly dispatch thankyou notes as donations and pledges are entered, using contact information from the donor database. The Donors/Grants Report shows how much money was contributed by each donor or grant as well as how much of that money has been spent. Another customized report shows a sorted list of the biggest donors and grants.

REPORTING – 4 Stars
Even though the program does not provide a custom report writer, this is hardly a limitation with more than 100 reports, each of which can be modified in many, many ways. Items that can be modified on reports include date ranges, report basis (cash or accrual), columns total by, rows total by, transaction filters, header/footer options, fonts, and numeric presentation. Once you get the report the way that you like it, you can memorize the report so that it’s always available in that format.

One limitation to point out on the reporting side is that although QuickBooks does provide a procedure for determining fund balances at any given time, it cannot give you a Statement of Financial Position (balance sheet) by fund. It can, however, give you a Statement of Financial Income and Expense (profit and loss) report by fund, as well as a Statement of Functional Expense report that you can use to help categorize your income and expenses correctly to save time filling out IRS Form 990.

SUPPORT/HELP – 4 Stars
Besides the thorough online help, Intuit offers several self-service and live telephone support options. The company’s web site offers a free knowledgebase, frequently asked questions and user discussion area. Intuit also uses an Internet-based software update system to provide any patches or feature enhancements throughout the program’s support cycle.

RELATIVE VALUE – 5 Stars
This package is priced at a very affordable $500 for a single user, which includes all modules. A five-user value pack is available for $1,500. The Enterprise Edition includes a 10-user license for $3,500, along with additional features not covered in this review. This package is especially attractive for any organization that has already learned or used another QuickBooks version. The specialized tools bring a real value to the core product.

2004 OVERALL RATING:

To provide consistency, each review
takes into consideration six specific
areas that we believe are important
when considering an accounting package
for your nonprofit or governmental
organization. Most of the criteria
are self-explanatory. Ease of Use/Flexibility looks at the overall user

experience, and any special features that contribute
to a quick learning curve, modern
user interface and other setup features.
Modules/Scalability is generally a checklist of the modules that the

company offers, as well as a short summary of the underlying database technology, which

affects scalability or ability to serve a broad range of users.

Features/Functionality provides additional detail about the standard,

special or unusual capabilities offered by the package. The Reporting

section discusses the product’s built-in reporting capabilities, as well as any special

report writing tools available. Support/Help looks at the online help and

printed or electronic manuals available, as well as a summary of the company’s live

telephone support options. Relative Value is a category that takes all the

preceding categories and considers the overall pricing of the product relative to the

features it provides and audience it serves.

A number of the vendors offer very
informative materials to guide you
in your selection of an appropriate
not-for-profit accounting and reporting
solution. Take the time to look
carefully at the product’s
features, as well as request a demo
or even a reference for another
organization that may be similar
to yours.