Product Reviews
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American FundWare

American FundWare has two configurations, the Pro Edition and the Enterprise Edition.  The Pro Edition is the version used by small to mid-sized organizations, and the Enterprise Edition is designed for large scale corporations.  Both are suited to serve multiple grants, projects, and other projects.  Modules can be purchased according to need, and the Pro Edition integrates with the Enterprise Edition, so upgrades can occur as a business grows.  The General Ledger module provides multi-year reporting, online budget control, advanced security and more than 60 standard reports.

Some of the major features of American FundWare include

• Standard features for General Ledger including drill down, customized databases and screens, cross fiscal years for managing grants and projects, account masking, user defined attribute functions, account inquiry by item, user-defined group profiles, user-specfic queues, importing third-party data, compliancy with FASB 116/117 and GASB 34 reporting requirements.
   

• Accounts Payable with purchase orders includes all of the standard features of a world-class AP package, plus a workflow approach to payables management.  Each transaction is assigned to a stage of the payables cycle, and then moved to the next stage as the obligation is fulfilled, until the actual check is written, cleared and reconciled.
  
  
   

• Alerts when budget limits have been exceeded.
   

• charge multiple bank accounts
   

• three levels of user-defined thresholds:  message, warning and full lock-out
   

• Full featured Payroll module including detailed cost accounting, labor cost distribution, employee compensation configuration, and time sheet cost codes.
   

• Budget preparation module includes importing/exporting from Microsoft Excel, budget by organization or department, multi-year grants, various periods and objectives, pull historical data, detailed comments, and custom distribution tables.
   

• Allocation Management module includes

  • indirect cost distribution

  • customized distribution formulas

  • monitor indirect cost limits

  • allowable expenses

  • allocate costs according to schedules

  • run historical allocations that redistribute previously recorded amounts based on new rules and assumptions

  • audit trail

  • allocate interest earned

  • allocate fund revenue

  • recalculate unit prices.
    
    

• The Project/Grant is the ledger used to track details concerning transactions including grants, projects, contracts and construction activities.  It can summerize information for grantor reporting requirements.

Blackbaud - Raiser's Edge                                                                     top

Blackbaud's solution for fund raiser's and non-profits is an accounting solution that includes a contact management system.  The Dashboard provides opportunity for viewing a series of on-screen panels that display data for many activities allowing you to know instantly about the performance of those activities, and gain insight into critical data. 

^{Blackbaud's compatibility with Microsoft Outlook provides convenient contact management}

Blackbaud's Raiser's Edge solution integrates with Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel, Power Point, and others.  Analyze data and use pivot tables to produce sophisticated reports.  Mail merges and document attachments can be performed quickly and easily. 

Custom views of constituent records can be created   Layout can include specified fields and colors.  Every user can create their own preferred layout and samples are available to help design the views.

Prospects and donors can be tracked using extensive biographical and demographical information.  View an individual's employment, education, relationships, affiliates, and miscellaneous information.  Links from constituent records to media objects can be created.

Gift processing is accomplished by recording and retaining detailed information for all types of gifts.  Gifts can be allocated to various accounts and can also be split among funds.  A section for noted is provided so that special information about the gift can be recorded.  Gifts can be entered into a customizabe spreadsheet-style data entry form.  Scannable bar code can be printed on various documents to expedite future data entry processes.   Gifts can also be processed through Electronic Funds Transfer which will process credit cards or direct debits.  Raiser's Edge provides tools to track the success and cost of any appeal.
 

The Blackbaud Raiser's Edge software can perform data analysis and reports using more than 100 standard reports.  Constituent profiles can be created for the volunteer solicitors.  Reports and profiles can be published to a web site or intranet using Raiser's Edge.

Micro Information Products, Inc. (MIP)                                                top

MIP has comprised the Non-profit and Government Division of Best Software since 2001. MIP has been sold in the not-for-profit community for more than 20 years.  The company was founded in 1982 in Austin, Texas.  The MIP user base includes human services organizations, hospitals and health clinics, academic institutions, religious groups, Native American tribes and councils, public and private foundations, social and welfare service providers and all levels of government entities. The MIP mission statement is "Helping those who do good things do them even better." The company sells MIP through a reseller channel.

MIP’s NONPROFIT SOLUTIONS

MIP consists of several modules as follows:

MIP Fund Accounting

·        NPS Intro

·        NPS Pro

·        Advantage NonProfit Series

MIP Fundraising

·        Paradigm

·        Millennium

Government Solutions

·        Government Series Pro

·        Government Series Advantage

·        FAS Gov Suite (Best Software) – Fixed Assets Management

Summary of MIP’s NPS Intro Key Features:

• Relatively easy-to-use, affordable fund accounting system for smaller nonprofits with less than $1M in annual budget, 3 or fewer users.
   

• User-Defined Chart of Accounts Structure—set up in a table format of account codes and departments.  Each item in the table can be used with items in other segments' tables, such as grant or general ledger. This functionality is shown in the screen below:

• Individual Grant or Fund Tracking—Track funds from multiple sources. Track, manage and report on funds from multiple sources, across multiple budget periods.
   

• Efficient Transaction Entry—Save time and improve accuracy with transaction entry tools and shortcuts. Memorize Document and Recall Document (memorize and recall frequently entered transactions), Automated Offset (completing entries based on information you provide),  Transaction entry forms are consistent and easy to use—an entire transaction is visible on one form, making it easy to change or correct.
   

• User controls safeguard the system. System notification if a transaction exceeds the available budget. Built-in data integrity checks are available.
   

• Built-in Report Writer—Create, preview and save your own report formats or use FASB-compliant financial statements to produce complex reports in minutes.
   

• Cross-Fiscal Year Reporting—Report across fiscal years on any date range.
   

• Windows 2000 Stability and Performance—Increase productivity with faster transaction and report processing, fewer crashes and improved data integrity.
   

• Trade-in policy makes it affordable to trade-up to the higher-end NonProfit Series Pro (NPS Pro) and Advantage NonProfit Series (SQL Server 2000) systems as needs grow. MIP provides a data migration tool that makes it easy to transfer your transaction history into the new system. During and after the upgrade, there is limited downtime—the look and feel of NonProfit Series products are similar.
   

• Integrated with the General Ledger - NPS Intro modules may be purchased separately so you can buy the modules you need today and purchase additional modules in the future.  Modules available:

o       General Ledger                                                                                     top

o       Budget

o       Accounts Payable (shown below)

o       Bank Reconciliation

o       Accounts Receivable

o       Forms Designer (shown below)

• Payroll

• Data Import / Export

Summary of MIP’s NPS Pro Key Features:

·        Designed for mid-sized nonprofit and governmental organizations.

·        Microsoft MSDE database engine and Windows 2000 platform.

·        User-defined chart of accounts structure in a table-driven format.

·        Virtually unlimited number of characters for account codes.

·        Individual grant or fund tracking from multiple sources, across multiple budget periods.

·        Fully integrated budget reporting and monitoring.

·        Open multiple fiscal periods.

·        Built-in financial report writer with FASB-compliant report formats.

·        Cross-fiscal year reporting for grants or any account segment.

·        Table-driven chart of accounts is designed to handle high transaction volumes and complex accounting configurations. Can be customized to fit the unique recording and reporting needs of virtually any nonprofit organization.

·        Microsoft MSDE database technology is used by NPS Pro to perform transaction posting, report writing and database management with speed and reliability.

·        Combined with the Microsoft Windows 2000 operating system, NPS Pro offers unsurpassed stability and enhanced security. Through Microsoft’s Windows Terminal Services, users can securely connect to an organization’s database via the Internet using only a Web browser.

·        Reporting - Created specifically for nonprofits, the NPS Pro system includes a wide variety of pre-formatted reports, including the audit-ready FASB financial and accounting reports required by funding sources and auditors and financial reports for executive directors, program managers and board members.  An unlimited number of financial statement formats can be created.

·        Transaction Entry - Special function keys, distribution codes and automatic offset entries are just a few of the timesaving options available.  The Account Combinations feature allows the user to specify both valid and invalid account combinations. System warnings notify the user of improper combinations for transaction entries. Other optional settings issue a warning when budgets are exceeded. NPS Pro includes additional nonprofit-specific features such as automatic allocation of expenses across several projects or accounting codes and tracking of restricted or unrestricted funds for projects or funding sources.  Posting of transactions to the general ledger in real time or batch mode.

·        Fully Integrated System that may be used with other third-party products, including donor tracking and fund-raising software.

·        NPS Pro modules, which operate around the General Ledger, may be purchased separately:

Summary of MIP’s Advantage Non-Profit Series Key Features:                    top

·        Designed for larger nonprofit and governmental organizations with 10 or more concurrent users, $10M or more in annual budget and high transaction volumes generating large databases or staff in remote locations needing access to accounting information over a wide area network (WAN).

·        Microsoft SQL 2000 database engine and Windows 2000 platform.

·        User-defined chart of accounts structure.

·        Virtually unlimited number of characters for account codes.

·        Individual grant or fund tracking.

·        Fully integrated budget reporting and monitoring.

·        Open multiple fiscal periods.

·        Built-in financial report writer with FASB-compliant report formats.

·        Cross-fiscal year reporting for grants or any account segment.

·        WAN access may be configured using a telephone dial-up line or over a public / private network including the Internet.

MODULES AVAILABLE:

Summary of MIP’s Paradigm Fundraising Key Features:                                 top

• Easy-to-use and affordable solution.

• Manage the full fundraising process, from consolidating donor lists to monitoring and reporting on campaign progress. 

• Manage gifts and pledges to multiple campaigns.

• Paradigm's easy-to-use, intuitive "index card" interface organizes information about prospects and constituents so that any piece of information is just a mouse click away.

• Selectively target individuals for campaigns based on contribution histories, activities and other demographics.

• Track proposals, events, memberships and volunteers.  Target solicitations and monitor campaign progress.

• Provide reports for all facets of development.

• Consolidate and centralize mailing lists.

•  Use email to increase Web traffic for your organization and increase online giving.

·        Executive directors and development staff can immediately access online status of campaign progress-without training.  Up-to-the-minute accounting of solicitations, campaigns and funds within a file folder and index card interface, and automatically calculates the cost-per-dollar raised and the net income of a particular solicitation.

·        Customize screens for viewing data.

·        Streamline gift processing with features such as Match Potential and Pledge Scheduling

·        Reporting system allows you to solicit donations, verify the accuracy of gifts entered, send acknowledgements to donors, review financial goals, compare performance to previous year or current goals, analyze response to direct mail, plan future campaigns and more.

• Integrates traditional fundraising with volunteer, membership, special events and proposal tracking capabilities.
   

• Maintain a single, centralized database for managing fundraising, processing memberships, tracking volunteer hours served and managing special events.
   

• Provides reports such as volunteer recognition, lists of attendees, membership renewal letters and a list of outstanding proposals.
   

• Integrates many capabilities including Event, Membership and Volunteer Management. Paradigm allows you to record Honor/Memorial gifts and provide notification to next of kin. Paradigm also comes complete with Quick Print, Quick Mail Merge, Quick Email features, Web site hypertext links, and constituent and gift import utilities. Getting Information from Paradigm to other PC applications like word processing, spreadsheets and accounting is easy with standard custom export utilities.
   

• Client/Server application composed of Sybase's Adaptive Server Anywhere 6.0 database engine and PowerBuilder front-end.  Installs easily and requires almost no on-going maintenance.  In server environments, portions of the application and the database are loaded onto a server. Other components are installed on each individual workstation.
   

• ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) compliant. This standard allows other applications such as report writers to connect to Paradigm.

Summary of MIP’s Millennium Fundraising Key Features:                              top

·        Designed for larger organizations with more sophisticated fundraising needs.

·        Can be set up as an Internet or intranet application.

·        Web-centric fundraising application.

·        Customizable browser and Windows interfaces.

·        Prospect and campaign management.

·        Point-and-click report writing.

·        Executive tools for interactive online data analysis.

·        Security for data entry and reporting.

·        “The Worlds of Millennium” organize all of the system's features for easy access:

• The Profiles World - access, view and maintain data about each constituent in database. Collect information about constituents, including biographical information, corporate and foundation profiles, gift processing, membership and flexible campaign management.

• The Events World - plan and manage special events including overall activity, activities within the event and each constituent's participation.

• The Reporting World - select, format and publish data extracted from the database for a total FASB-compliant reporting solution.

• The Bookmarks World - access prospects or favorite reports for viewing or execution.

• The Tools World - control of various tasks critical for maintaining and managing Millennium.

• The Agents World - monitor critical database events for alerts as soon as something important happens.

·    Technology — Millennium's database engines, either Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle, contained within a Windows NT or Unix operating environment, are designed to support multiple processors and servers for an organization’s specific performance levels.

·    Security —With Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle database engines, the entire suite of security services available under the DBMS provides complete access and reporting security. These services include the ability to invoke various levels of security by field within a record, by value of a field within the record or even by the value of a field in a related record.

·    Millennium training programs include self-instruction, classroom training, on-site training, eLearning and customized consultations focusing on our users' needs and job responsibilities.

Summary of MIP’s Government Series Pro Key Features:                                top

• Mid-size solution for up to 10 users with $1-10 million in annual budget.

• Individual Fund and Grant Tracking and reporting on multiple funds, across multiple budget periods.

• System Safeguards Keep Data Secure— Control access to tasks and menu items; perform data integrity checks.

• Microsoft MSDE database engine and Windows 2000 platform.

• User-defined chart of accounts structure. 

• Virtually unlimited number of characters for account codes.

•  Integrated budget reporting and monitoring.

• Open multiple fiscal periods.

• Cross-fiscal year reporting for grants or any account segment.

• Table-driven chart of accounts designed to handle high transaction volumes and complex accounting configurations.  Can be customized to fit the unique recording and reporting needs of virtually any government organization.

·    Built-in financial report writer with GASB / FASB-compliant report formats.  An unlimited number of financial statement formats can be created. Reporting capabilities that address specific GASB requirements include:

• Statement of Activities

• Statement of Cash Flows

• Statement of Net Assets

• Budget Reporting

• Statement of Revenues, Expenses and Changes in Fund Net Assets

• Net Assets including Infrastructure Reporting

·    Transaction Entry - Special function keys, distribution codes and automatic offset entries are available. Automatically distribute amounts to the correct accounts and line items by dollars, percentages and /or units; the Automatic Offset feature balances transactions and completes the entry simply and efficiently. The Memorize Document and Recall Document features allow the user to instantly memorize and recall frequently entered transactions.  Specify both valid and invalid account combinations, ensuring that transactions are recorded correctly with system warnings to notify of improper combinations for transaction entries.

·    Through Microsoft's Windows Terminal Services, users can securely connect to an organization's database via the Internet using only a Web browser.

Summary of MIP’s Government Series Advantage Key Features:                 top

·        High-end SQL Server 2000 solution for 10 or more users with $10 million or more in annual budget.

·        Built-in financial report writer with GASB / FASB-compliant report formats.

·        User-defined chart of accounts structure.

·        Virtually unlimited number of characters for account codes.

·        Individual grant or fund tracking.

·        Integrated budget reporting and monitoring.

·        Open multiple fiscal periods.

·        Cross-fiscal year reporting for grants or any account segment.

·        High performance using Microsoft SQL Server 2000 database engine. Enhanced speed and transaction volume capabilities.

·        Staff in remote locations have faster access to accounting information over a wide area network (WAN) configured using a telephone dial-up line or over a public / private network including the Internet.

·        Role-based security, account-level security and menu-level security.

Government Series Pro and Government Series Advantage are integrated systems that may be used with other third-party products, including donor tracking and fund-raising software.  Modules, which operate around the General Ledger, may be purchased separately.  Detailed Descriptions of each module are available on the website and are not included here.

Features (included)

 Modules (additional)

* Advantage Only

FAS Gov Suite– Fixed Assets Management                                                     top

FAS Gov Suite™ from Best Software is an easy-to-use, integrated fixed asset management solution perfectly suited for organizations of any size, including those requiring the power of a Microsoft SQL Server infrastructure.

PRICING

MIP Fund Accounting - NPS Intro

MIP Fund Accounting - NPS Pro

Advantage NonProfit Series - MIP Fundraising – Paradigm

Navision with the Serenic Non-Profit add-on                                   top
 

Serenic is a full featured accounting software package for mid-sized businesses.  It is equipped to handle all accounting aspects of donor procedures from an accounting standpoint and includes:

• Comprehensive Fund Accounting feature set
  
• Complete procurement solution with client/server and web-based requisitions
  
• User-definable business rules for validating GL dimension combinations, controlling user access/update functions, budget control and transaction approvals
  
• Advanced tools and technology foundation for customizing or adding new tables, forms and reports
  
• Breadth of business management applications with Sales Orders, Job Cost,
• Inventory, HR/Payroll, Fixed Assets and Donor Management (June Qtr ’03)
  
• High performance on MS SQL Server 2000
  
• Foreign Currency

All functional areas are organized into five major categories:  Master Records (Cards), Transaction Entry, Reporting Entry, Reporting/Data Access and Setup.  The General Ledger contains some of the core functionality of the Serenic solution.

Serenic can manage transactions that cross funds by applying the desired fund number to the individual transaction line during general journal entry.  Cash fund balances are also automatically balanced in this way using the same form.  The GL has the ability to account dimensions and up to 110 total alphanumeric characters. 

Rules and Permissions

Business Rules can be defined and attached to the GL Account, Security, Dimension Validation, Approvals and Budget Control and are based on business objects such as the combination of GL dimensions or inventory items.  Controls can be set for budgets as well.  You can set as many budgeting rules as deem necessary and can incorporate checking against multiple levels in your account structure at varying threshold percentages.  Notification alarm emails can be invoked when budget limits have been reached or exceeded.

User cards track user information.  The User Cards classify users and are used to set permissions to individuals.  An approval code can be applied based upon the transaction posting rules.

Fund Tracking

The Chart of Accounts option offers a multi-line view of the accounts.  The only dimension displayed in this view is the object code, which alleviates the need to setup entire GL account strings.  Budgets, commitments, encumbrances and actual balances are displayed in real-time and include drill down capabilities.

Fund Cards allow users to define all funds using separate balance sheets or separate Net Asset classifications.  Additional characteristics that define how transactions are tracked and reported to meet SFAS 116, 117 and GASB 34 requirements.  Additional information regarding the revenue recognition spending rules associated with the fund can be retained.  The posting clearly defines what funds have amounts that are due to the account and from the account.  Statistics and restrictions can be applied to any fund.

Allocations can be defined to perform at a fixed percentage, derived percentage, or fixed amount.  Allocations can be applied to transaction lines throughout the application including General Journal lines, Purchase Order lines, Purchase Requisition lines, Payable Invoice lines, Receivables Invoice lines, and others.  Accounts can be set to a schedule in order to generate SFAS 117 compliant reports, or other reports with specific requirements.

Other capabilities included in the Serenic solution are Donor Management, Purchases and Payables management, Purchase requisitions, Web-based purchase requisitions, Sales and Receivables, Cash Receipt Journal, Inventory management, Job Costing, Human Resources management, and Fixed Assets.