Quickbooks?

[George K]

Mrs. George's church went through an audit today - everything is fine.

However, the auditor said that for a small congregation (<100) they don't need anything sophisticated in terms of accounting software. Currently they use something called "ServantKeeper." It keeps track of contributions, etc.

He suggested transitioning to Quickbooks. Anyone have any idea of what version they would use? Is that a good idea?

[Mik]

I took over as treasurer for my alumni association last September. The prior treasurer used QB. I hated it. It was massive overkill for what we were doing and his chart of accounts was horrible. I designed an Excel spreadsheet that does all we need faster and much more flexibly. In about an hour.

A church is probably more complicated as you might have capital and operating budgets which we don’t.

What I don’t like about QB is the same as healthcare software. It is intended to be all things to all users and you end up wading thru a lot of built in stuff that doesn’t apply to you. If you don’t know how to set up and maintain a chart of accounts it can get tricky fast.

If Servantkeeper does what is needed and is reliable I would keep it. I suspect the auditor would like you to use QB because he knows it really well as opposed to any real benefit accruing to the church.

[Axtremus]

QuickBooks is fine for many small businesses. But I share the sentiment that, if your current solution (ServantKeeper) is serving your purpose well, then there is no need to change.

[Loki]

https://www.capterra.com/fundraising-software/compare/49768-2681/QuickBooks-Non-Profit-vs-Servant-Keeper

I can’t see any QB advantage.

[George K]

@Loki thanks! I'll print that out and give it to Mrs. George.

[Mik]

@Loki said in Quickbooks?:

https://www.capterra.com/fundraising-software/compare/49768-2681/QuickBooks-Non-Profit-vs-Servant-Keeper

I can’t see any QB advantage.

Certainly nothing to justify the effort and expense to migrate to QB. I’m a believer in industry-specific software.

[George K]

The problem with ServantKeeper, from what I'm understanding, is that they're way behind in updates, and the cost to get up to the current version is substantial.

Also, unless you get a premier tier level, every call/service support request is expensive.

Like I said, it's a small congregation, and they don't need all the features that SK offers.

[xenon]

Take a look at a few of these.

https://blog.capterra.com/5-outstanding-nonprofit-accounting-software-solutions-worth-paying-for/

There are a bunch of cloud services now (e.g., Alpos does donor management). These will likely cost more in the long run (monthly cost) - but it'll always be up to date.

Quickbooks is a swiss army knife - it's used as a business's system of record until they get big enough to migrate to a proper ERP / ERM system. So, it'll be complicated.

[Mik]

If this is too much feature functionality for her church they might consider just using Excel. There are a lot of free templates out there for churches and nonprofits.

[George K]

@Mik said in Quickbooks?:

If this is too much feature functionality for her church they might consider just using Excel. There are a lot of free templates out there for churches and nonprofits.

Really? I'll look into those.