How do non-profits know when it's time to ditch QuickBooks?

What is the most obvious sign that your financial software is no longer up to the job? A few possibilities include:

• The application takes too long to run all of your reports at the end of each month, hindering your ability to update all your stakeholders.
• Or perhaps it traps you into a hamster wheel-esque upgrade cycle in which you have to migrate your data every two or three years for the new version of QuickBooks.
• Ultimately, maybe it just requires too many manual processes – a common issue with the typical QuickBooks implementation.

For example, having to constantly re-enter information in Excel sheets (for reporting purposes), switch between database files (because QuickBooks only allows one company to be associated with this kind of file) and update figures such as balance due to/due from accounts (since this is not automatically done in QuickBooks) are all time-wasting chores. Non-profit organizations cannot afford these delays.

QuickBooks has diminishing returns as it takes on more complex tasks.

What not-for-profits need in accounting – and why QuickBooks doesn't deliver

Today's non-profit firms have a lot on their plates, such as:

• Navigating tight budgets: The average non-profit spends 3.2 percent of its budget on technology and has only one IT person for every 30 employees, according to the 2014 Nonprofit Technology Staffing and Investments Report. Efficient software is a must for saving time and money in this context.
• Growing their operations: As organizations take on new projects, they risk getting bogged down by spreadsheet sprawl and the limited automation capabilities of QuickBooks. Cloud software such as Intacct is much more scalable and adaptable to changing requirements.
• Keeping everyone up to date: Non-profits must regularly update their boards of directors, donors and other stakeholders (including ones who have come over from the for-profit world) on organizational performance. Unfortunately, metrics tracking is ungainly and time-consuming in apps such as QuickBooks.

QuickBooks is not ideal for any of these tasks. Once a not-for-profit organization notices that it is spending lots of time putting together its reports, struggling to find a single version of the truth and succumbing to data entry errors, it is past time to move on to cloud financial software such as Intacct.

"QuickBooks is not ideal for many basic non-profit organization tasks."

Cloud accounting software: The ticket to success for non-profits

A cloud-based platform such as Intacct provides deep automation, so that not-for-profit entities can easily map their operations to their costs, take advantage of numerous integrations with utilities such as ExpenseCloud and eliminate the need for onerous spreadsheet-based processes. An Intacct Premier Partner such as RKL eSolutions can ensure that your non-profit gets access to all of these critical advantages.

It is not too late to move on from QuickBooks, even if you feel overwhelmed by it right now. The combination of Intacct's automation and RKL's industry-specific expertise can get you back on the track toward a sustainable future.