Beyond Excel: Why Nonprofit Organizations Should Upgrade To QuickBooks

Nonprofit organizations hold a unique place in our society. While most organizations work for generating sales, nonprofits work for creating funds. Thus, they get a special status where they get certain tax benefits. They follow different norms for filing taxes, and their financial reporting requirements also differ from traditional businesses.

However, most nonprofits still use Microsoft Excel for their accounting needs. It looks like a perfect accounting tool. But Excel is not a pure accounting software; it is a tool that helps with accounting. A better alternative is to buy a complete accounting solution such as QuickBooks.

Limitations of Excel and How QuickBooks Overcomes Them

Hidden Costs

Microsoft Excel costs $129.99, whereas the hidden costs involved are way more than a few hundred dollars.

Accounting and bookkeeping are time-taking tasks. So, if a person gets $55,000 a year and devotes 120 hours to accounting every year, that’s 15 working days. This means that you’re paying approximately $2300 just for accounting every year. What if the same time was spent on marketing, sales, or other business operations that generate revenue? It adds to the hidden costs even more.

If you choose to use QuickBooks for your accounting needs, the software will ensure that you spend minimum time on tedious accounting tasks, eventually lowering the time-value cost.

Inconsistency

One of the significant drawbacks of Excel is that it is very inconsistent, and the inconsistencies do not come to notice until the bullet has left the gun. This happens because Excel is not an accounting software and does not serve as a central accounting hub. Every small change in data needs to be done manually.

When it comes to a need to change or update the data, every change becomes complex because the related data should be changed as well. Also, it is complicated to spot inconsistencies in Excel.

However, QuickBooks is your go-to tool for all your accounting needs. It is an accounting tool and is very consistent in all its tasks. 

Inaccuracy

Improper cashflow management is the reason behind the failure of most businesses. It is not that their companies are not profitable; they generate a significant amount of revenue. But they fail when it comes to cashflow forecasting. One small error can cause a chain of mistakes, and the company can lose millions of dollars.

QuickBooks is a tool that is built for business forecasting and similar purposes. In fact, QuickBooks is not merely an accounting tool; it is a complete business management application.

If nonprofits worry about such small things, how will they put in their best efforts to generate funding? They need a solution like QuickBooks Enterprise that takes care of all their accounting needs.

What Does QuickBooks Offer to Nonprofits?

Wondering how exactly QuickBooks is beneficial for nonprofits? QuickBooks is packed with features that help nonprofits. 

Find a Company File Search

Searching for the right company file is a pain and can consume a lot of time if not done correctly. With this feature, type a part of the file name (from the No Company Open window) to scan for the desired company file in the local drives, network, and removable media. 

Collapse Columns on Reports

As a nonprofit, you need to create classes to track the incoming and outgoing of funds successfully. Once you create multiple categories and subclasses, the reports become cumbersome, which makes it challenging to keep track of the financial data. The Collapse Columns button displays only the parent classes. 

Invoice History

As a nonprofit, generation of donation invoices is common. Thus, this feature is useful to see the history of such invoices – its creation date, whether it was emailed or not, and when it was seen or paid. This feature also tracks the date and time of the sent reminders and highlights the due date until the invoice is not paid – worry less about tracking the details of every invoice.

Add Customer PO to the Subject Line on Emails

Purchase Orders (PO) are common in for-profit organizations. When you talk about nonprofits, think of PO as a Grant Number. This feature is handy when a single donor makes more than one grant – you can easily track each donation with the help of the Grant Number. 

Combine Multiple Invoices

If you receive multiple grants from a single donor, sending an email for each donation is a tedious task.You can combine and ship multiple invoices in a single email through the Send Forms option.

QuickBooks Hosting for Nonprofits

With QuickBooks cloud hosting, nonprofits can enjoy the comfort of their desktop software and the benefits of cloud computing, such as remote access, better data security, scalability, and the like. You can also opt for the services of accounting volunteers (even if they are present at a different location).

Wish to know about how QuickBooks software can help your nonprofit organization? Get in touch with our Solutions Consultant at 855-264-8722.