ACCOUNTS

When I became the volunteer treasurer of our church we switched from Excel to a big name accounting software that cost several hundreds of dollars. For the first year I was miserable. It was not intuitive and support cost extra money, which we didn't have. When it came time to file our T1030 with the CRA, I was even more miserable. It took me 4 months to unravel 12 months of transactions and sort them into the appropriate CRA categories.

After working my Googlefu I found ACCOUNTS. I convinced our board to let me buy it and I've been a happy treasurer ever since. The ability to assign accounts to T1030 lines made my job so much simpler this year. When it came time to file, I was spending every day at my husband's bedside in hospital. I didn't have time to do all the work I had had to do last year. This time it took me all of maybe two days to double check everything, create my report and plug it into the T1030.

I can't speak highly enough of this software's ability to cater to the special needs of charity/non-profit accounting. When I have a question, I get a quick answer from Support. The only thing I would like to see that hopefully will be in future versions is an ability to drill down in reports to follow a transaction. Other than that, well done!

Pros: Entering cheques and deposits can be done in a window similar to a cheque book; sample chart of accounts available for churches; low cost; it is possible to recall a prior reconciliation; fund accounting a real help; simple program for a small organization.
Cons: Program design assumes the user has an understanding of bookkeeping and debit-credit balance sheets; would like some simplified reports showing main category totals.
Overall Impression: Our Unitarian Fellowship was using Quicken to keep track of our cheques & expenses, which was simple but not complete enough to keep track of different funds. We were already using the Donation software developed by the same company and were very happy with that program.

As treasurer of a small non-profit corporation in the U.S., I spent quite a bit of time searching for the best software to replace my old spreadsheet system. I had assumed that QuickBooks would be the solution, but soon realized that, in spite of its claim to support non-profit accounting, it really did not. I downloaded the 60-day free evaluation version of ACCOUNTS and tested it with several months of data to make sure it met our needs before purchasing the software.

ACCOUNTS is a solid accounting program with data entry screens and reports that are well thought out. One of its greatest features is ease of use. It has a built-in chart of accounts that can be easily adapted to suit the user's needs. Routine transactions are handled easily; the software remembers previous transactions to reduce entry time and transactions can easily be posted to multiple accounts. Reconciliations are a breeze. Reports are truly designed for non-profit.

Perhaps the best feature is the extraordinary customer support. I have never called because, on the rare occasion I needed help, I just sent an email and got very quick response. I also use the DONATION program from the same source and am very pleased with it as well.

This software is a bargain at twice the price.

Pros - Chart of accounts is well organized from an accounting point of view. Adjustments can be made on the fly without jeopardizing integrity of information.

Data entry is logical and done easily.

Good options for ready-made reports.

Imports data from other programs making transition less onerous.

Can't beat the price and the support!

Cons - Limited capabilities for payroll and for large corporations.