2017 Review of QuickBooks Online Nonprofit Version

From the July 2017 Reviews of Nonprofit and Fund Accounting Systems.

QuickBooks Online offers a nonprofit version of its software that is best suited for smaller nonprofits with less complicated needs. QuickBooks Online offers four editions of the software: Self-Employed, Simple Start, Essentials and Plus, with each edition offering additional functionality.

QuickBooks Online offers the same functionality across multiple business types, so users would need to choose ‘nonprofit’ when setting up QuickBooks Online in order to create the correct default chart of accounts, which includes accounts such as Pledges/Donations Receivable, Gift-in-Kind, Membership Dues, etc. Additional accounts can be added in QuickBooks Online if desired.

Not a true fund accounting system, users can create custom accounts if they need to track a fund or two, but the program would quickly become cumbersome if more complex tracking were required. Like all QuickBooks products, multiple transaction types such as bill payment, receivables tracking, donor/customer pledges, vendor management, and regular journal entries are easily processed.

Budgeting capability is only available in the Plus version of QuickBooks Online, with users able to create budgets based on class, location, or customer, with only one option available per budget. Only single year budgets can be created, and budget reporting options are limited to two budget reports. Budget forecasting is also not available. Users cannot combine budgets, but can separately export budgets to Excel, where they can be combined manually. Users can create a new budget and still maintain the existing budget, and existing budgets can be copied to create a new budget.

Donations can be tracked using the customer management portion of the application, where users can create a customer (donor) and then choose the option they wish to deploy which includes Create Receipt, Create Pledge, Create Charge, etc. There is no fundraising or donor management capability in the application. Grant tracking and management capability is limited to creating a separate class for each grant tracked, and managing all expenses or income against that particular class.

System administrators can easily add additional system users, with the ability to invite the users you wish to add via email. Users can belong to one of four categories; Regular or Custom User, Company Administrator, Reports Only, or Time Tracking Only. Once a category is chosen, administrators can then choose the level of access rights, which includes All, None, or Limited. QuickBooks Online offers decent reporting capability, with users able to process nonprofit specific reports such as Statement of Activity, Statement of Financial Position, and Statement of Cash Flows. Report categories available include Manage AR, Manage AP, Business Overview, Review Expenditures and Purchases, and Accountant Reports. Reports have a professional presentation, and users can customize any report in the system and save the newly created report for future use, though customization capability is limited. All reports can be previewed on screen, emailed to recipients, exported to Microsoft Excel or saved as a PDF.

QuickBooks Online, like all QuickBooks products, is an all-inclusive financial application, with all features designed to work well together. Import and export options are available in QuickBooks Online, with users able to import customer/donor, vendor, account or products and services from another application. All files must be in a CSV or Excel format for both importing and exporting. One additional stipulation for data exporting from QuickBooks Online is that it can only be completed if users sign in to the application using Internet Explorer.

QuickBooks Online users can access the Help function by simply clicking on the question mark at the top right hand side of the user interface. Here users can type in a brief description of what they need assistance with. A contact support link is also available that takes users to QuickBooks Learn and Support page, where they can access support information. Support is available during extended business hours, and users can access contact a Pro Advisor for support. A community forum is also available that offers access to fellow users as well as QuickBooks experts. Support is free during the 30-day trial, and is included in the cost of the subscription.

QuickBooks Online for Nonprofits is best suited for small nonprofit organizations that do not have complex fund tracking and budgeting requirements. QuickBooks Online is available in four versions; Self-Employed (1-user), which is available for $5.00 a month; Simple Start is $10.00 per month, Essentials $21.00 per month, and Plus $35.00 per month. Both Essentials and Plus versions support multiple users.

2017 Rating: 4.25 Stars