QuickBooks is depreciating the tags performance of their accounting software program beginning March 8. In case your nonprofit has chosen to make use of the tagging function in QuickBooks to assist establish your restricted income, this implies you can be juggling much more spreadsheets exterior of your software program.

There’s a higher means.

If dropping tags is placing you one step nearer to discovering a brand new fund accounting software program—or you might be simply scrambling to determine the right way to monitor restricted income in QuickBooks—listed here are some ideas for what you are able to do within the quick time period, and what that you must search for within the long-term.

The Worth of Tags for Nonprofits Utilizing QuickBooks

Many nonprofits used the tagging performance in QuickBooks to assist establish funding sources and donor intent, akin to particular grants and applications. Tags allowed these organizations to acknowledge funds that wanted to be tracked additional in an out of doors spreadsheet. This was a workaround that allowed a nonprofit to remain compliant with donor restrictions and grant necessities, despite the fact that it was exterior of their accounting resolution.

With out the tagging performance, nonprofits should now discover alternative routes to manage restricted revenue, probably including extra guide steps to an already cumbersome course of. This shift underscores the necessity for a extra strong accounting resolution designed particularly for the distinctive wants of nonprofit organizations.

Monitoring Restricted Income With out Tags

When your accounting software program is not built for nonprofits, it forces you to handle your grants and different restricted income in spreadsheets, which might introduce errors and extra danger. Managing monetary info throughout a number of applications can result in disjointed and unreliable reporting, undermining the credibility of your monetary knowledge.

Whenever you preserve monetary knowledge exterior of your accounting resolution, you introduce pointless danger into your financials. Whereas Excel is a robust software, info will be mis-keyed and formulation can get damaged. Retaining this info exterior your system requires impeccable spreadsheet administration and guide updates.

Listed here are some ideas for ensuring you mitigate danger till you possibly can swap to nonprofit accounting software.

• The very first thing it is best to do as a finance skilled is audit your spreadsheets since you don’t know the way adept your individuals, or predecessors, are at Excel. Confirm formulation are working the best way they need to, and knowledge matches what’s in your accounting software program.
• Use the hint precedent and hint dependents performance in Excel to seek out the place the numbers are coming from to feed the components and the place the numbers are going to all through your spreadsheet.
• Have a documented course of to be sure you are maintaining your Excel spreadsheet updated. Know who must be updating your spreadsheets and when. Use the “present modifications” performance or doc historical past to trace who has made modifications and what they modified.
• Crosstrain your workforce so others know what info is saved through which spreadsheet and the way to ensure the information is up to date. Keep away from being a bottleneck when your applications workforce want an replace on how a lot funds is left on a particular grant.
• Do a spreadsheet audit at the very least every year. Make time to evaluate each spreadsheet you utilize to handle your accounting to confirm the data is right and solely accredited workforce members have entry to the information.

Simplify Managing Restricted Income with Fund Accounting Software program

Don’t look forward to the final straw. You’re going to proceed to outgrow QuickBooks as a result of they aren’t targeted in your wants.

In contrast to normal accounting programs, nonprofit-specific options like Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT^® are designed to deal with the complexity of restricted income and grant administration. These programs present centralized documentation, making it simpler to maintain all monetary data in a single place and making certain correct, up-to-date info.

Built-in with instruments like Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT®, Monetary Edge NXT enhances your capacity to exactly monitor donor intent, making certain funds are used as supposed and sustaining donor belief. This stage of integration streamlines processes and saves time by decreasing guide knowledge entry and minimizing errors.

Nonprofit-specific accounting programs additionally include enhanced accountability and inner management options, simplifying the way you monitor expenditures and revenues. This ensures compliance with funder necessities and supplies clear audit trails and customizable stories. This transparency makes it simpler to show monetary integrity to stakeholders, auditors, and regulatory our bodies.

By adopting a nonprofit fund accounting resolution like Monetary Edge NXT, you possibly can enhance monetary reporting accuracy and operational effectivity, liberating up assets to focus in your mission. The specialised software program helps you navigate advanced monetary landscapes with confidence.

Select a Nonprofit Accounting System that Grows with You

 If you’re a rising nonprofit, QuickBooks just isn’t made for you. It was an awesome software to get you began. However now that you’re rising and it’s taking a number of spreadsheets—to not point out lunchbreaks and logging in after hours—to get the data you want, it’s apparent that industrial software program isn’t serving you.

If you’re able to see what true nonprofit accounting software program can do for you, be part of us for an on-demand product tour of Financial Edge NXT.