Non Profit Software – The right program for your organisation:

Not for profit organisations really come in all shapes and sizes and all have different needs – it's an organisation or business or group that does not earn profits for its owners. All money that is earned is typicality used in pursuing the organisations goal and keeping it running. Non-profit organisations still do work the same as a normal business. Money comes in and goes out, employees need to be paid and regular day to day operations are carried out. All of these things and more need to be considered when searching for a software package.

Key Features of Non-profit organisation software

• Structured Outgoings: Not for profit organisations wont always know how much money is going to be available and when, so recording what expenses you will have and calculating the most you can afford to spend. Your organisation is set up to run as non-profit but the ability to make a budget will come in very handy.
• Record all Revenue: You will have many different sources of invoice, and each one will need to be recorded and accounted for. Some types of payments that organisations will receive are Pledges, donations, memberships, grants and more so a solution that can categorise all of these and create specific and entire reviews will allow you too easily see what money is expected and what you have.
• Volunteer time: Time is money and must be accounted for – this is especially true if it adds value to the organisations – as well as tracking for forecasting and other purposes.
• Communicate with donors: Keeping track of different donors and contacts who can help with fund raising events or volunteers and just general address book type software will help you in busy periods by easily finding people to call on.
• Scheduling: Tracking and planning for fund-raising events is a big part of most non-profits as a way to get donations and raise awareness. Software solutions will calendar or schedule capabilities will aid in streamlining this process and making sure the events run smoothly.
• Reporting: You probably want to track things like accounts, assets, liabilities and income and expense time lines to use in forecasting statistics. Some non-profit accounting software will let you do this and have the ability to display all of the relevant numbers easily.

Features

• Tools for Growth: You never know how quickly or how big your organisation may grow, so choosing software that has the ability to adapt and grow with you will help down the track. Things to look for are adding extra users or log in capabilities, additions that can be made to customise the software in ways that benefit you, and other features you might not need now but may in the future.
• Automate manual time consuming tasks: If you are running a non-profit in your spare time, you'll want software that can handle all the important tasks for you, preferably in the one place so that you can get more done in less time.
• Not paying tax: Not all non-profit organisations have to pay tax and if you are one then looking for a system that allows you to account for revenue and expenses without tax on transactions, or the ability to remove it where necessary is something to consider when purchasing.