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Non-profits need accounting software to maximize their cash on hand and track where every dollar goes. These platforms can help.
To choose our picks for the best accounting software for non-profits, our team of finance and non-profit experts meticulously researched both spaces. We attended live demonstrations of leading accounting software platforms and took the time to test them out for ourselves. We examined pricing and plans to find the platforms that offered the most value per dollar for non-profit organizations. We also tested core accounting software features like expense reimbursement, payment processing, payroll management and financial reporting. We also gathered customer reviews and compared user feedback to see how it stacked up against our testing experience. Learn more about our methodology.
Accounting is a critical but underappreciated part of a nonprofit’s operations. From running payroll to reimbursing travel expenses in a timely manner to allocating contributions to the right programs, the right accounting system can simplify some of your most important and labor-intensive processes and provide your auditor with critical data. We reviewed some of the most popular accounting systems to help you make the best decision.
 | QuickBooks Online | FreshBooks Accounting | Zoho Books Accounting | Wave Financial | Sage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rating | 9.5/10 | 9.0/10 | 8.5/10 | 8.5/10 | 9.0/10 |
| Good For | Ease of Use | Organizations With Earned Income | Very Small Organizations | Free Option | Essentials Package |
| Price | Starts at $15/month | Starts at $17/month | For most organizations starts at $15/month | Basic plan is free | Starts at $10/month |
| Customer Service | Phone (varying hours based on plan), email, forums | Phone and Email, limited hours | Phone (24 hours, 5 days a week), email, live chat | Email only | Phone, email, forums |
| Tax Utility | Phone (varying hours based on plan), email, forums | No quarterly tax estimates | Only sales tax tools | Minimal tax tools | No significant tax tools |
| Unique Feature | Best reporting tools | Best invoicing tools | Easy to integrate with online payment systems | Offers bookkeeping services | Easiest payroll integration |
| Review Link |
More than 80 percent of small businesses use QuickBooks, so parent company Intuit must be doing something right. If you’re concerned about getting board approval of your decision, QuickBooks may be the right choice, as it will likely be familiar to the staff and board.
QuickBooks places an emphasis on making its tools easy to use. We found it easy to not only get up and running but also to automate processes. To cite one example, QuickBooks offers extensive templates for reports and it’s simple to designate the ones you use repeatedly so they pop up with a few clicks. These reports weren’t just time-savers, they were among the most well-designed and useful of any we explored.
If you have a larger financial team, QuickBooks becomes a bit more expensive, charging $100 per month for unlimited users. However, even at that price, we think that the functionality and ease of use are worth the price.
If you find yourself spending a lot of time chasing down payments, be they board pledges, consulting revenue, membership fees or subgrants, FreshBooks may be the right choice for you. Created as invoicing software, it now has a full range of accounting functionality. However, invoicing is still where FreshBooks shines.
The Lite FreshBooks subscription, which costs $17 per month, should be enough for most organizations unless you have more than five staff members who need to use it. If you do opt for the Plus plan at $50 per month, you’ll have up to 50 users and, critically, you can differentiate their roles, so that contractors or program staff have limited access while finance staff and leadership have access to more sensitive information.
Although FreshBooks combines your invoicing and accounting, you’ll likely still want it to align with your payroll, credit card processing and other software. With more than 100 integrations built-in, Freshbooks is up to the task.
Let’s say you’ve just been elected treasurer of a very small organization ― perhaps a parent-teacher association or a community sports team. The finances are a mess, you’re struggling to understand how much money you can spend and people are complaining that they don’t get reimbursed when they pay for things on the organization’s behalf. You get a flurry of donations once or twice a year, from a benefit party or annual dues and you want people to be able to pay simply and quickly with their credit cards.
Zoho Books might be the right option for you. You’ll be able to get its free option up and running quickly and we found that it had all of the tools that a small organization would likely need. If you want to send and track invoices for people’s annual dues or gifts, we found its invoicing system to be easy to use and it integrates well with credit card processing software. You’ll have this new project in control in no time.
If you’re feeling ambitious and want to grow the organization beyond its current size, Zoho Books is even better. Even its premium plans are reasonably priced and, unlike some other budget options, Zoho’s dashboard is well-suited for augmenting and updating rather than tearing down and starting over.
If your organization needs baseline accounting software and is on a tight budget, Wave Financial may be right for you. We were impressed with its free option and how quickly we could get its dashboard set up and customized for our specific needs.
Wave is missing a few key features that other paid services have but none are essential, particularly for a smaller organization. Wave Financial may not have all the bells and whistles but its core accounting functionality, along with its mobile apps for inputting receipts and generating invoices, should be more than enough for many organizations.
If you’re intimidated by setting it up on your own, consider their $249 coaching option, which includes two hours of live support followed by 30 days of email support. This seemed to us like a reasonable price to set the system up efficiently and maximize its utility for your staff.
Many of Sage’s most compelling tools are focused on inventory management and creating quotes, which is not relevant for most nonprofits. Still, the software provides the functionality that most small or medium-sized organizations will need, starting at just $10 per month.
For reconciliation, expense and financial reporting and other core functions, we found Sage’s tools to be simple. If you have a payroll system you like, Sage will likely integrate well with it, particularly if you use Gusto.
Unlike many other options, Sage’s dashboard can’t be customized to include only the information and features that you need. If your accounting staff gets overwhelmed by technology, this could be a problem. However, Sage does offer some of the best help guides, which may help them bridge the gap.
Though the cost of accounting software can vary significantly, most are quite reasonable, particularly considering the time savings they can create for your team. Many of the most popular accounting software providers offer a free option or at least a free trial and all of the software we reviewed had a basic package for less than $20 per month.
However, these basic packages generally allow a limited number of users and don’t include all of the functionality. If multiple members of your team need to be using it or if you want elevated functionality, be ready to pay for a higher-tier option.
Before you sign a contract, talk to a representative from the company. They may be able to throw in additional functionality as a bonus or give you a price break based on prepaying for a full year or other possible discounts.
The right accounting software can do a lot for your nonprofit if you take advantage of all the features:
Selecting accounting software can be a daunting task. Here’s how to get it right.
Do you just need new software or do you need to hire a certified public accountant? Do you need an accountant or a bookkeeper? Do you have adequate accounting staff or do you want to pick a software company that also offers staffing? Before you can compare software, talk to your finance team, analyze your existing capacity and get a clear picture of what you need.
As you look for accounting software, you may encounter technical terms that seem over your head. While you don’t need to become a tech head to make this decision, there is some key technical language and some key accounting terms that you’ll need to know.
One of the biggest ways that accounting software can save you time is by integrating with your other systems, such as your customer relationship management, your credit card processing software and your employee reimbursement system. Have a list of all these systems and an assessment of whether you’re considering changing any of them so that you can select accounting software that integrates with them.
With a comprehensive understanding of your needs, use a guide like this one to consider the various options and select the best choice for you. Although it can be tempting to select software on price alone or based on the latest tech trends, remember that even modest gains in staff productivity will render price differences all but moot quickly and that transitioning again if you make the wrong decision can be expensive and time-consuming.
Once you subscribe to your software, make the most of it. Today’s accounting software is designed to be fully customizable, so make sure you have it set up properly based on whether you’re using cash or accrual accounting, if you’re using it to send invoices or for whatever other needs you have.
Accounting software can simplify payroll, make it easier to track your invoices and make tax and audit seasons less stressful:
Accounting software will simplify your financial operations, give you the tools to understand progress against annual budgets, correctly apply expenditures to the correct grant and ensure that you have the right information for audit and tax season easily.
Accounting software that is designed for for-profit companies can be customized for nonprofits’ needs. Though software that is marketed specifically to nonprofits may be slightly easier to integrate into your operations than general accounting software, you certainly don’t need to use dedicated software for nonprofits.
If anything, accounting software is even more important for a small team that is handling many different functions with limited capacity. Indeed, several of the leading accounting software providers offer specific products that are designed for small organizations.
Some accounting software includes payroll functionality and others can integrate with your existing payroll software. If your payroll is complex, with multiple consultants, contractors and part-timers, dedicated accounting software may make more sense. However, if it’s simple, you may be able to use software that does both.
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