How to Use QuickBooks for Nonprofits: Pricing, Features

Companies of all sizes use QuickBooks, an all-inclusive accounting program, to keep track of their finances and control their expenses and earnings. As an automated tool for managing personal, business, and tax-related finances, Intuit created QuickBooks Software in 1983. This online tool can be used for tasks like supplying online payments to customers, reporting, and auditing various taxes. Additionally, QuickBooks provides its services in a variety of variations, such as QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, etc., which you can tailor to your business needs.

QuickBooks is accounting software that can make it simple for you to manage the finances of your nonprofit. It has features created for both for-profit and nonprofit organizations, despite being popular among for-profit companies. Businesses and individuals may easily track their income and expenses using QuickBooks and maintain their financial health.

Among the features that QuickBooks offers to provide are accounting, payment management, invoicing, reporting, etc. Nonprofits, however, have specific financial requirements. In terms of financial transactions and assets, they must preserve transparency. Although QuickBooks does not currently have a specific feature set for nonprofit organizations, these businesses can nevertheless benefit from it.

You will learn about QuickBooks in this post, along with an explanation of how the QuickBooks for Nonprofits concept functions. Additionally, it will go over the several nonprofits that QuickBooks may assist. The post will also discuss the many QuickBooks versions along with their benefits and price plans for nonprofits.

Main Features of QuickBooks

Different features are available to QuickBooks users through its various products. However, QuickBooks generally provides the following features:

1. Sharing Data

With QuickBooks, you may send your clients a direct journal entry including your data. You may transfer your data without going through the hassle of printing documents or making PDFs. The journal entries can easily be sent as email attachments. Additionally, QuickBooks offers widgets that can identify typical mistakes and alert you to any issues or inconsistencies in any account.

2. Monitoring Your Finances

QuickBooks enables you to keep track of your income as well as costs like rent and payroll. You will always have a reliable assessment of your financial situation. Additionally, QuickBooks data integration from various accounts into a single platform automatically updates any Cash inflow or outflow related to your accounts.

3. Reporting

When it comes to reporting, QuickBooks excels over other accounting tools like spreadsheets. It is mainly because of QuickBooks makes it easy for you to create reports and graphs. A feature called QuickBooks Accountant is offered by QuickBooks and can automate the majority of reporting tasks, including maintaining cash flow statements, generating profit and loss statements, and maintaining balance sheets.

4. Billing

QuickBooks gives you the ability to create Quotes that include Discounts, Terms of Payment, and other crucial information. After entering the information, you may easily turn the quotation into an invoice with a single click. Additionally, you can alter your payment schedules so that there are no conflicts or misunderstandings when you receive your money.

Nonprofit Organizations That Use QuickBooks

The following nonprofits, out of the many ones now in operation, can gain from adopting QuickBooks for their financial management tasks:

1. Nonprofits Lacking a Centralized Office

Frequently, nonprofits lack a centralized office or a physical structure. In these circumstances, keeping data on a single user’s desktop increases the risk of security threats and system crashes. QuickBooks offers these institutions a cloud-based service. Therefore, with the help of QuickBooks, nonprofits can store their data in the Cloud and access it from various systems that are present anywhere. There are no infrastructure costs and their data is secure.

2. Nonprofits with UBTI and IRS Requirements

When it comes to controlling their income and expenses, nonprofit organizations must function transparently. When it comes to their Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Unrelated Business Taxable Income, this restriction makes the tax calculations more difficult (UBTI). It is a laborious and error-prone task to manually track all sources of income and different expenses in order to determine the total tax due to the IRS. You can quickly categorize all of the income from grants and fees using QuickBooks for Nonprofits. Additionally, you can track revenues and expenses for forms like the 990-T by using several classifications for UBTI. By using QuickBooks for Nonprofits, you may avoid opening a separate account to monitor the finances of various program services.

3. Nonprofits that Use Third-Party Accounting

In some circumstances, nonprofits use a third-party accountant to handle their financial needs. In such circumstances, the accountant must receive frequent updates from the nonprofits regarding their balance sheets and expenses. You can securely send a copy of your most recent data to your accountant using the QuickBooks Cloud version for Nonprofits. This copy is created automatically every quarter by the QuickBooks feature.

4. Old Institutions and New Businesses

By providing accounting in a form that is similar to Form 990, QuickBooks gives new nonprofits a huge boost. You can avoid realigning your account data to meet the requirements of the tax return form in this way. Furthermore, because it lets them customize their accounting systems, QuickBooks is ideal for established organizations like NGOs and churches. This protects them from having large data sets spread across multiple files, which could require more time and resources just for maintenance.

Versions of QuickBooks for Nonprofits

Although there isn’t a specific version of QuickBooks designed for nonprofit organizations, there are several QuickBooks solutions that can more than adequately meet their needs, particularly in terms of flexibility and affordability. The first thing you need to decide is whether you need to utilize QuickBooks as a desktop application or online. While QuickBooks Online operates online and stores your data in the cloud, QuickBooks Desktop is downloaded and installed on your computer. The primary distinction is accessibility because QuickBooks Online is not restricted to using a specific Desktop system.

The following QuickBooks products can be used to implement QuickBooks for Nonprofit:

QuickBooks Desktop for Nonprofits

For computers, there is an accounting program called QuickBooks Desktop. QB Desktop is the best option for you if you require a secure environment with more control over your accounting data. The information pertaining to your various accounts will only be stored on the drives of your system because you must download and install this version of QuickBooks on your desktop. Therefore, no user from a third party can access your files. Furthermore, your internet speed is not a factor in how well your QuickBooks Desktop functions.

You cannot check your data or make changes to it unless you are physically close to your system because QuickBooks Desktop is only accessible from your desktop. Furthermore, when it comes to storing data in your accounts, QuickBooks Desktop even necessitates manual efforts as it does not support a mobile application. The following plans include access to QuickBooks Desktop for Nonprofits:

• QuickBooks Premier: QuickBooks Premier has a one-time fee of $649.99, while Premier Plus, it’s more sophisticated version, has an annual subscription fee of $499.99. This QuickBooks for nonprofits alternative will offer up to 5 users, issuing income orders, tracking inventory, managing donor donations, etc. in addition to Premier’s features. If you choose QuickBooks Premier Plus, you’ll receive all the benefits of Premier along with additional perks like unlimited customer assistance, automatic data backup, and seamless software upgrades.
• QuickBooks Pro: For a one-time fee of $399.99, you can download and install QuickBooks Pro. At this price, you’ll have access to features that let you track sales and expenses, accept payments and donations, track income tax, sync debts owed to nonprofit financial institutions, and more. Furthermore, you can purchase QuickBooks Pro Plus for an additional annual fee of $299.99 if you want services like Automatic Backup, readily available Customer Support, and frequent Feature Updates.

QuickBooks Online for Nonprofits

Due to its cloud-based architecture, QuickBooks Online Plus provides mobile accessibility, which the QuickBooks Desktop application does not. This tool is useful for small to medium-sized nonprofits because it makes the accounting and expense tracking procedures simpler. Additionally, it enables you to track the finances of individual projects and then combine that information in one location. As a result, this tool can be most useful to nonprofits that create and market products.

You can set up your account as QuickBooks for Nonprofits usage in all versions of the QuickBooks Online tool. By doing so, you can adjust QuickBooks’ default settings so that they meet the demands of your particular sector. Additionally, you will be able to use the fund accounting and control settings for donations, pledges, payment dues, etc. It is simple to combine the QuickBooks Online tool with a variety of third-party applications that are common among nonprofits. The following plans are offered with QuickBooks Online for Nonprofits:

• Simple Start: Simple Start is the simplest and least expensive QuickBooks for Nonprofits option. It costs at least $12.50 for the first quarter and $25 per month for the following three quarters. You receive a single-user online account with this free version of QuickBooks Online. Numerous features, such as Revenue Tracking, Cost Tracking, Real-time Receipts, Members and Donors Lists, Tax Calculations, etc., are available with the Simple Start plan.
• Essentials: The Essentials subscription is available through QuickBooks Online for $50 per month. You can access your account for up to three users and use all the features available in the Simple Start version of QuickBooks for Nonprofits using this tool. Additionally, you can easily track the time of your employees and manage your bills through the subscription at no additional cost.
• Plus: When it comes to nonprofits, this is the version of QuickBooks Online that is most widely used. It costs $40 per month for the first quarter, then $80 per month for the following three. Along with all the advantages of the Essentials subscription, this plan also allows you to track your inventory and create custom reports for different stakeholders.
• Advanced: This edition, which costs $75 per month, is appropriate for big nonprofits that need advanced data analytics. This plan offers all the functionality of QuickBooks Online Plus in addition to additional features that guarantee quicker and more reliable accounting. The majority of your financial duties, such as tracking finances, classifying invoices, and organizing accounts are automated.

The Advantages of QuickBooks for Nonprofits

The following are some ways nonprofit organizations can utilize QuickBooks and gain from it:

1. Reporting

Nonprofits must provide information to many different parties, including the public, the board of directors, the management staff, and the trustees. There are now various levels of detail in the reports depending on the type of stakeholders. With the aid of QuickBooks for Nonprofits, you can quickly and easily share customized reports with each group of stakeholders.

2. Accounting Requirements

Nonprofits, like all other organizations, must keep organized accounts. This entails keeping an eye on the costs of various programs and the revenue received from various sources. Since QuickBooks for Nonprofits automates this kind of work, it is the perfect accounting tool. In this way, you can easily divide the income and expenses associated with various accounts.

3. Integrations

When it comes to creating enduring connections, using QuickBooks for Nonprofits has many benefits. For your communication requirements, you can integrate QuickBooks with well-known Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software tools. This will allow you to customize your emails and create the best communication strategies possible, which will help you, keep donors and expand your nonprofit.

4. Tracking of Donations and Grants

Donations and grants account for a sizable portion of Nonprofits’ income. They frequently host fundraising events, and the money they make from them serves as their main source of funding. The statistics from these donations and grants can be consolidated and managed with the help of QuickBooks features. Additionally, QuickBooks integrates with well-known fundraising websites with ease and gets your data directly from these sites.

Conclusion:

You learned about QuickBooks in this article, which also provided a list of the various nonprofit organizations that can use its services. The article went into more detail about the various QuickBooks for Nonprofits versions and how Nonprofits can use QuickBooks. If you still need any clarity, you can simply contact our professionals who are ready to help you round the clock.

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