Charity Accounting - Software Recommendations

[Gregor Sinclair]

Hello

I am currently working for a small to a mid-size charity located in Scotland who have tasked me with looking for accounting software to help them keep organised with their finances, they all have very little experience with accountancy and finance and have been using a spreadsheet system up until this point, they have some criteria for their software:

● A simple process for recording all aspects of Refuweegee finances.

● Ability to attribute expenditure to specific grants or other funding sources.

● Ability to export detailed reports of income and expenditure by category.

● Ability to create projections and anticipate the future.

Additionally, they are looking for some optional features to help encompass their finances:

● A simple process for recording all aspects of Refuweegee finances.

● Ability to attribute expenditure to specific grants or other funding sources.

● Ability to export detailed reports of income and expenditure by category.

● Ability to create projections and anticipate the future.

I am fairly unfamiliar with most accounting software packages and was wondering if any of you had some recommendations.

 

[Scalloway]

I suspect a lot of that could be achieved by any system if you can tweak it to your requirements.

One charity I am treasurer of uses Quickbooks. It has lots of bells and whistles but is expensive compared to others.

Another charity I have been involved with setting up was recommended to use Free Agent but I have done nothing about this yet.

 

[UK Contractor Accountant]

https://paxtoncharities.co.uk/pricing/

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

Hello

I am currently working for a small to a mid-size charity located in Scotland who have tasked me with looking for accounting software to help them keep organised with their finances, they all have very little experience with accountancy and finance and have been using a spreadsheet system up until this point, they have some criteria for their software:

● A simple process for recording all aspects of Refuweegee finances.

● Ability to attribute expenditure to specific grants or other funding sources.

● Ability to export detailed reports of income and expenditure by category.

● Ability to create projections and anticipate the future.

Additionally, they are looking for some optional features to help encompass their finances:

● A simple process for recording all aspects of Refuweegee finances.

● Ability to attribute expenditure to specific grants or other funding sources.

● Ability to export detailed reports of income and expenditure by category.

● Ability to create projections and anticipate the future.

I am fairly unfamiliar with most accounting software packages and was wondering if any of you had some recommendations.

Charity accounting isn't something I deal with (you'll generally find accountants who specialise in accounting for charities) as suggested above you'll probably find you could use almost any software which is used by small businesses. Have you tried asking the accountants who look after the charity?

 

[The Byre]

Gnucash does all the above - and many things besides. And it's free.

https://www.gnucash.org/

 

[UK Contractor Accountant]

The software needs to be able to handle restricted funds, unrestricted funds and designated funds formats in order to comply with the Charities Accounts Rules.

Don't think the likes of Quick books, Free Agent, Sage are really set up for Charity Reporting.

If you know what you are doing you could shoehorn the Chart of Accounts to suit your needs but not ideal.

 

[The Byre]

Our accountants occasionally set up information sessions and guest speakers from various companies come to explain various topics. At one of these exactly this question came up and the woman from Xero had to admit that few if any of these SaaS companies offer the ability to track restricted funds in their basic packages as this is akin to dealing with a second currency - something they only 'allow' if you de-trouser a whacking £25 a month for their 'full' versions.

The whole objective of all SaaS is to pull the customer up a ladder of ever-increasing payments.