2019 Review of QuickBooks Online – Nonprofit Edition

From the 2019 reviews of nonprofit accounting systems.

The QuickBooks Online Nonprofit Edition is best suited for smaller nonprofit organizations that don’t require complex fund accounting capability. QuickBooks Online for Nonprofits is available in four versions: Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, and Advanced, with each edition offering increased system functionality. 

To set up the nonprofit version of QuickBooks Online, users will need to choose ‘nonprofit’ as the business type to use during the setup process. This allows QuickBooks to install the appropriate chart of accounts information suitable for a nonprofit. Users can also choose to add additional accounts to the default chart of accounts if desired.

Though QuickBooks Online for Nonprofits is not a fund accounting program, users can create custom accounts to better track individual funds such as a grant or a program. This can be completed by setting up the initial account number, which can be up to seven numbers long, and then adding a sub-account number to that particular account.  QuickBooks Online can easily process a variety of transaction types including banking transactions, sales transactions such as invoices and new or recurring sales, donor and customer pledges, credit memos, voided transactions, and regular and recurring journal entries.   

Budget capability is only found in QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced versions, with users able to create a budget for a single fiscal year, or create a new budget based on a previous budget. Budgets can be created based on location, class, or customer, but users cannot currently combine budgets. Budget reporting options are also limited to a Budget Overview report and a Budget versus Actual report. Users can choose to export budgets to Microsoft Excel if further customization is desired.

QuickBooks Online for Nonprofits offers users the ability to easily record and track donations and pledges, which are tracked in the system as a cash receipt or accounts receivable transaction. The product also integrates with third-party donor software applications such as DonorPerfect or Fundly, which allows users to easily import donation data directly into QuickBooks Online. Employees can also accept donations using their mobile phone, recording the amount directly into the application. Tracking for individual grants or programs is limited in QuickBooks Online, though users can create sub-accounts to track grants, as mentioned earlier.  

QuickBooks Online allows administrators to invite potential users via email. Once an employee has been set up in the application, they will be placed in one of four user categories; Regular/Custom User, Company Administrator, Reports Only Access, or Time Tracking Only.  Once a category has been assigned, additional access levels can be assigned to each user, with available levels including All, None, or Limited. 

One of QuickBooks Online for Nonprofits strong points is their robust reporting capability, with a variety of financial and nonprofit specific reports available including Statement of Financial Position, Statement of Cash Flows, and Statement of Activities. System reports are categorized in QuickBooks Online, Reports are categorized in QuickBooks Online, with available categories including Business Overview, Who Owes You (AR), What You Owe (AP), Sales and Customers, Expenses and Vendors, and others. All reports can be easily customized, and placed into report groups for easy future access. All QuickBooks Online reports can be viewed on screen, emailed to the recipient, exported to Microsoft Excel for further customization, or saved as a PDF.

QuickBooks Online is a complete financial application, with all features designed to work together seamlessly. Users can easily import data such as customer, vendor, and donor lists from a variety of third-party applications using a CSV file format or as a Microsoft Excel document.

QuickBooks Online offers a variety of help and support options, including access to step-by-step tutorials, webinars, and training classes. There is also an extensive FAQ area along with numerous product articles including Getting Started, Account Management and Reports and Accounting. Users can sign into their account to obtain support or choose to access the QuickBooks Online users’ community or QuickBooks Pro Advisors to obtain assistance. 

QuickBooks Online’s Nonprofit Edition is well suited for smaller nonprofit organizations that do not require extensive program or grant management capability. QuickBooks Online is available in four versions; Simple Start (1-user), which is available for $10.00 a month; Essentials is $17.00 per month for up to 3 users, Plus runs $30.00 per month for up to 5 users, and Advanced is $60.00 per month and supports up to 25 users.  Users can sign up to try QuickBooks Online for 30 days without a credit card needed.

2019 Rating – 4.25 Stars