In tough climate, NFP vendors scramble to meet client demand

Donor fatigue.

That's the term not-for-profit organizations are using to describe the environment of 2011. Where 2010 showed a rebound in both charitable giving and in volunteer activities, this year has seen another almost disastrous decline.

It is not just that donors have less to give. The demands being placed on charities have increased substantially, particularly for community charities. At the same time, government funding - the mainstay of the majority of non-charitable NFPs - has dried up. State budgets are being slashed, and federal grants have virtually evaporated in the second half of 2011.

In this environment, NFP executives have identified three core areas that software solution providers must address if their products are to continue to useful tools. The three are:

? Collaboration. Organizations have had to become much more innovative in the ways they work with donors, boards and other constituencies. A critical piece of this is the ability to communicate and collaborate, which in turn requires the use of better data, better presentations, and collaboration tools for publishing both on paper and on the Web.

? Accountability. Governments at every level are demanding greater transparency and greater accountability for the monies they invest in NFPs. This means more stringent reporting requirements, particularly in accounting and in measuring the effective use of funds.

? Budgeting. In times of uncertain funding, the ability to budget - and to build flexibility into the budget to anticipate both excesses and shortfalls -becomes the hallmark of effective leadership.

Software solutions need to be able to demonstrate their ability to support collaboration, accountability and budgeting support if they are to meet the needs of their NFP clients. Nine packages that meet these needs are surveyed in the 2011 roundup of Not-For-Profit Accounting software.

AccuFund/Non-Profits Version 3.09

AccuFund

(877) 872-2228

(781) 453-0460 Fax

www.accufund.com

Pricing: Core system begins at $2,995 for single user; $6,495 for three users

AccuFund For Non-Profits is a scalable fund accounting suite designed specifically for non-profits. It is designed to meld the simplicity of an off-the-shelf Windows solution to the accounting power needed to meet complex FASB reporting requirements.

Available in both a desktop and online SaaS solution, AccuFund includes a core accounting system of eight functions that can be substantially augmented and customized through a series of a dozen modular applications. The core products are the general ledger, accounts payable, cash receipts, bank reconciliation, financial reporting, budget reporting, user security, and a report and forms designer. Modules expand this core system with capabilities for accounts receivable, purchasing and inventory, electronic requisitions, payroll, human resources, employee time entry, allocation management, client accounting, budget development, grants management, fixed assets, loan management, and online requisitions.

Its account classification capabilities allow the development of reports for multiple purposes, including FASB 117, GASB 34, 990 formats and state required reports, from the same financial database. An additional template for completion of the Form 990 is scheduled for release in 2011. Other notable features are the report generation capabilities and the ability to easily import and export data to other programs and to spreadsheets.

Version 3.09 features enhancements to many of the system's core modules, email distribution for financial and other reports, and the addition of new modules for client invoicing and fully integrated loan management. Other enhancements include a new employee portal, improvements to the representative payee module for social services organizations, and a new management dashboard system released in September.

Denali Fund+Accounting 3.1

Cougar Mountain Software

(800) 388-3038

(800) 375-4539 Fax

www.cougarmtn.com

Pricing: Starts at $595

Denali Fund+Accounting is a SQL-based, flexible fund accounting system that includes general ledger, bank reconciliation, purchase order, accounts payable and accounts receivable modules with nonprofit-specific functions.

Other modules and options include budget management, fixed assets, inventory control, payroll, purchase orders, merchant services, multi-location inventory, an eCommerce solution, and conversion of documents to PDF and other formats.

The G/L enables accountants to copy charts of accounts from one fund to another, manage budgets and budget estimates for one or more accounts, export fund budgets for reporting purposes, adjust account segments, set up user-defined classifications for specialized reporting, and print FASB reports that include the statement of activities, statement of cash flow and statement of financial position. The budget management function allows the nonprofit to streamline the budgeting process, allowing for multiple funds across multiple years.

Also introduced this year is a new donor tracking capability through DonorExpress, a third party solution that integrates with Denali Fund+Accounting through the Universal Bridge feature. Transactions completed in DonorExpress are imported into the accounts receivable module, giving nonprofit organizations the tools to manage donor lists, track the status of fundraising efforts, and craft reports for management.

Coming this quarter with the release of Denali 3.2, are a number of enhancements that include an allocation code history that allows fund user to process allocations in the general ledger and track their history; an import/export feature for all or part of the chart of accounts, and additional reports for budgeting, budget performance, balance sheet, and revenue and expense reporting.

And an updated purge history feature that includes allocation and budget history.

CYMA Not-For-Profit Edition, Version 12.5

CYMA Systems

(800) 292-2962

(480) 303-2969 Fax

www.cyma.com

Pricing: Starts at $645 per module; $1,945 for three modules

CYMA's Not-For-Profit Edition Fund Accounting Software is a modular, configurable accounting system that provides the full range of accounting and nonprofit modules, including the capabilities to track funds, track grants and generate the federal and state reports.

A FASB 117-based fund accounting system developed specifically for nonprofit accounting, the NFP Edition includes modules for the general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, bank reconciliation, grant tracking, after-the-fact payroll, job costing, human resources, employee self-service, inventory control, payroll, sales order, and purchase order. In addition, there is the CYMA Alerts module, which offers five pre-configured alerts and the ability to create others, and CYMA Business Insights, a module to help in payroll financial reporting.

Version 12.5, introduced in May, represents a major upgrade to the software that focuses on payroll, human resources and employee self-service among hundreds of other fixes and enhancements. These are built around the Human Resources module introduced as part of version 12.

Specially designed for midsized non-profits but scalable to virtually any, CYMA NFP accounting software allows multiple net asset accounts and automatic inter-fund offset entries, providing the ability to track funds separately and to balance each fund within itself. Other features include interfaces with both Crystal Reports and the F9 Financial reporter, as well as integration with DonorExpress for management of donor lists and fundraising.

The Financial Edge

Blackbaud

(800) 443-9441

(843) 216-6100 Fax

www.blackbaud.com

Pricing: The Financial Edge for small offices, starts at $2,995; online subscription service at $299 per month

The Financial Edge is a comprehensive fund accounting solution aimed at midsized and larger non-profits. It provides the means to meet the requirements of donors, auditors, board members and other constituents with advanced reporting and audit trails, streamlined operations and support for effective decision-making.

The Financial Edge consists of 28 modules, each integrated seamlessly with the general ledger module at the core. It provides more than 100 industry-standard reports for data analysis, handles complex reporting requirements that include A-110 and A-133 audits and FASB 116/117 reporting, and offers sophisticated systems for project, endowment, and grant management. An on-screen Dashboard tool provides panels of summaries, lists, and graphs that efficiently compare and analyze data to give a snapshot of the organization's financial status. The Financial Edge also integrates smoothly with The Raiser's Edge for donor management and tracking.

Introduced this fall is a new, cloud-based online subscription service for The Financial Edge, which runs $299 per month with no upfront costs.

Other recent enhancements include the automation of grants reimbursements, support for Windows 7, and enhanced capabilities for international EFT Transactions.

The Financial Edge represents a upward migration from the company's more basic Fundware accounting system, with additional capabilities for reporting, grant management, and special project and audit capabilities for donors, donations and public accountability. Backed by an extensive support system that includes experts on call and a strong user community, Blackbaud offers some of the most comprehensive nonprofit resources in the accounting profession.

Fund E-Z 10.03.05

Fund E-Z Development Corp.

(877) 696-0900

fundez@fundez.com

Pricing: Fund E-Z Fund Accounting $1,995; E-Z Pro add-on $1,495

Fund E-Z Nonprofit Accounting is a table-driven, customizable NFP accounting system build on a chart of account structure with up to 10 segments and 100 characters. Fund E-Z uses the Microsoft Office 2007 menu styles for easier navigation and data entry. Its powerful built-in report-writer offers over 100 default reports that allow users to easily produce many general ledger reports and FAS 117-compliant financial statements, without having to resort to separate report-writing tools or spreadsheets to compile reports.

The system is designed to provide a wide range of accounting and application modules for one economical price. These include a general ledger, accounts payable, client billing with accounts receivable, bank reconciliation, Data import/export, budget management, purchase order, encumbrances, allocation management, advanced segment security, report writer.

Forced business rules maintain integrity of an organization's books at any user-defined balancing segment level, a feature of interest both to the non-profit and its accountants. Also, many built-in accounting controls help to support overall accounting data integrity.

Version 10 has over 200 enhancements, including segment-level security; a new, consolidated admin tool and enhanced audit tracks; new features in virtually all of the accounting modules; new transaction features; positive pay fraud detection; enhanced HIPAA 5010 electronic billing formats; and support for the F9 report writer.

QuickBooks: Premier Non-Profit Edition 2012

Intuit

(800) 964-6438

http://quickbooks.intuit.com/premier/

Pricing: From $399.95 for single user; $999.95 for three-user edition

QuickBooks: Premier Nonprofit Edition 2012 is a new version of QuickBooks pre-configured for the non-profit and government environments that features specific industry reporting and more than 150 sales, financial and tax reports, plus deeper, more tailored reports for non-profits.

With its own chart of accounts, templates and reports, and donor and vendor centers, the Non-Profit Edition is built on QuickBooks Premier and at organizations that need advanced tracking, forecasting and planning support. It is aimed at helping organizations to demonstrate financial accountability, manage fund-raising efforts and ensure the organization's financial stability. Included are capabilities to track the balance sheet by class, create an end-of-year donor report, and create the financial portions of the Form 990.

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions Nonprofit is geared toward organizations that have more than three concurrent users or those with multiple inventory locations. It offers the same tools and reports as QuickBooks Premier, plus additional tools such as greater control over what users can do and see in QuickBooks, enhanced reporting, more capacity to track donors, and more custom fields to track data unique to the non-profit. It also comes with support and upgrades included for 12 months.

New in the 2012 version are a calendar view, which provides access to an organized, calendar view of appointments and key business tasks; an Excel Integration Refresh that simplifies the export of information to Excel worksheets; and a contributed reports feature with a library of more than 1,000 reports contributed by QuickBooks users.

Sage Fund Accounting Version 11

Sage Software Nonprofit Solutions

(800) 811-0961

Email: nps.solutions@sage.com

www.sagefundaccounting.com

Pricing: Varies by module, starts at $895; single user package starts at $2,995

Sage Fund Accounting (formerly MIP) is a modular system of 26 modules designed to help non-profits and governments alike track and report on multiple funds across multiple budget periods to help managers stay within budget, track grants, demonstrate strong stewardship and comply with FASB, GASB and other reporting requirements.

Key features include a flexible, built-in report writer; an interface that can be customized to fit the firm's workflow; and it is built to easily integrate with Sage Fundraising and enterprise level solutions, such as Sage Abra HRMS, Sage FAS Nonprofit, and Sage FAS Government for fixed asset tracking. Several hosting options allow secure and remote access to the application(s) from a SAS 70 data center.

Sage Grant Management was introduced last year as a web-based grant receiving product that helps nonprofit and government organizations maximize their funding potential by tracking grants and providing transparency at the organization, program, and grant level. Two other modules - Sage Fund Accounting Human Resources and Sage Fund Accounting Employee Web Services - provide fully integrated HR, employee self-service (ESS), payroll, and tax compliance capabilities to small and midsized nonprofits and government agencies who use the Sage Fund Accounting nonprofit financial management software.

Sage Fund Accounting version 11, released as this review went to press, offers improved integration between Sage Grant Management and the core fund accounting system and Sage Auto Updates for all future tax, compliance and product feature deliveries. In addition, AR Billing now includes a one-time billing engine for sales order entry. It includes the ability to fulfill, pick, pack, and ship orders, all while pushing them into either cash registers or through the accounts receivable system invoicing process.

And the general ledger now includes more detailed grants administration tracking for all customers, so they can better show grant details on their financial statements and other key reports.

Serenic Navigator 2012

Serenic Corp.

(877) 737-3642

(303) 980-6069 Fax

www.serenic.com

Pricing: Starts at $3,500 per user license for Business Essentials version

Serenic Navigator is a Microsoft Dynamics NAV-based fund accounting system that offers enhanced functionality to meet the unique needs of non-profits, international NGOs, the public sector, and educational institutions.

Functional areas addressed by Serenic Navigator include core financials, advanced allocations, fixed assets, inventory, purchase orders, sales orders, and purchase requisitions. Its capabilities include multi-language and multicurrency operations, multiple reporting tools, workflow management with approvals, integration with Microsoft Office, real-time budget administration with BudgetVision, and full life-cycle grant management with AwardVision.

Additional modules extend the functionality of the accounting core. BudgetVision, introduced in May of this year, is a tool for budget preparation and monitoring that replaces spreadsheets. It includes a Budget Center Portal that facilitates workflow by allowing remote staff to enter and track available funds versus budgets and forecasts via the Web. Other modules include AwardVision, DonorVision, Community Care, MinistryView, and Human Resources/Payroll, deposits and loans, and portals.

Serenic Navigator Online is a streamlined SaaS version of Serenic's financial management system introduced last year. Navigator Online is designed for small- and midsized nonprofit and public sector organizations, enabling employees to work remotely with reduced IT and startup costs.

Traverse Not-For-Profit Version 11

Open Systems

(800) 328-2276

(952) 496-2495

www.osas.com

Pricing: Starts at $2,100 for single user license and scales to 100 users for $100,000, not including installation

Traverse NFP is a modular accounting system for non-profits with the ability to drill down to source documents and transactions, commonly-used NFP reports that include FASB 117, grant tracking, and cross-fiscal year reporting.

Comprised of more than 40 modules built on an open-source platform, but with strong integration to Microsoft products and analytics for management decision support, Traverse also supports Microsoft Pivot Tables, allowing for differing data views for NFP audiences.

Import capabilities allow the program to easily interact with data from ADP Payroll; Raiser's Edge fundraising software; Donor Perfect; Paradigm Fundraising software; and various Point of Sale and software applications.

The new version 11 of Traverse is certified to run on Microsoft Windows 7/Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2. Because of this compatibility, Traverse Version 11 offers customers a flexible user interface that includes Design Studio applications to assist in adding fields to screens, changing forms and other customization.

The interface also include Interactive Views, configurable screens that allow users to sort, group and output information in customized reports. Also updated in Not-For-Profit Version 11 are tools to keep connected to data stored on the Internet.

Other new enhancements in V. 11 include advanced graphic hardware acceleration, full support for multi-core processing, sophisticated management features and flexible access to improve mobile computing.

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