QuickBooks For Nonprofits: The Complete Guide

For many, QuickBooks has become the gold standard for business accounting software. QuickBooks offers products for every business, from freelancers to larger enterprises.

If you run a not-for-profit organization and you’re looking for accounting software, you’re in luck. It should come as no surprise that Intuit also has accounting software designed for use by nonprofits.

While QuickBooks is a popular choice for businesses and nonprofits, the question is: is it the right choice for you? In this post, we’re going to help you answer that question. We’ll look at features, pricing, and more to help you determine if your organization will benefit from QuickBooks for Nonprofits. Keep reading to learn more!

What Types Of Nonprofits Does QuickBooks Support?

There are no limitations to what types of nonprofits use QuickBooks Desktop software. QuickBooks is extremely versatile and offers loads of features that are useful to organizations, including:

• Churches and religious organizations
• Schools
• Charitable organizations, including food banks, museums, and animal welfare organizations
• Social and rec clubs
• Fraternal societies and associations
• Trade and professional associations
• Foundations

QuickBooks for Nonprofits is a solid accounting solution for any organization that wants to keep its finances on track.

The Two Different QuickBooks Nonprofit Desktop Products

QuickBooks offers two products that are suitable for use by nonprofits: QuickBooks Premier for Nonprofits and QuickBooks Enterprise for Nonprofits. Let’s take a look at each software to help you decide which is best for your organization.

QuickBooks Premier For Nonprofits

QuickBooks Premier is locally-installed accounting software. It shares many similarities with QuickBooks Desktop Pro — the software most people think of when they hear the word “QuickBooks” — with a few key differences. Most notably, QuickBooks Premier has industry-specific editions, including a Nonprofit Edition. With QuickBooks Premier for Nonprofits, you’ll have access to additional users, features, and reports that are tailored to not-for-profit organizations.

Like other QuickBooks Desktop products, QuickBooks Premier has a pretty steep learning curve. However, there are numerous resources available to help you get up and running. You’ll find that while you have to devote some time to learning the software, the feature set that you have access to is truly unmatched.

QuickBooks Premier is best suited for small- to medium-sized businesses and organizations. The software supports up to five users, although your costs will rise as you add more users, so this is something to keep in mind.

QuickBooks Enterprise For Nonprofits

If QuickBooks Premier doesn’t seem to be the right fit for your larger organization, consider QuickBooks Enterprise. Like QuickBooks Premier, QuickBooks Enterprise also has industry-specific editions, including one for nonprofits.

QuickBooks Enterprise for Nonprofits offers hundreds of industry-specific reports, more users, customized user permissions, and online backups and data protection. Like other QuickBooks Desktop products, QuickBooks Enterprise can be difficult to use — especially for users with no prior accounting experience.

QuickBooks Enterprise is best suited for medium- to large-sized businesses and organizations.

QuickBooks Nonprofit Features

QuickBooks Nonprofit comes loaded with all the features you need to manage your nonprofit organization’s finances successfully. It has everything you would expect from strong invoicing, such as invoicing, expense tracking, time tracking, inventory management, and contact management. But the software also has a lot of great features specific to nonprofits that you won’t find with most accounting software, all organized under one easy-to-find tab.

Let’s take a look at the most notable features.

Pledges

You can create and manage pledges in QuickBooks Premier or Enterprise for Nonprofits. When creating a pledge, you can record the item, description, class, amount, and tax.

Donations

Donations your organization receives can easily be recorded in QuickBooks. You can record all donations made by check, echeck, credit card, debit card, or cash.

Programs/Products

With this tool, you can track your organization’s projects and programs.

Donor Letters

You can create, print, and send donor letters easily with QuickBooks Premier and Enterprise. You can use a preexisting template or customize a template to make it truly your own.

Customized Chart Of Accounts

QuickBooks Nonprofit Edition comes with a default chart of accounts specifically designed for nonprofits. You can customize this chart of accounts to fit your organization’s needs.

Nonprofit Reports

This is where QuickBooks Nonprofit Edition really shines. In addition to hundreds of other financial reports, there are also nine nonprofit-specific reports. These reports make it easy to prove financial accountability to your board of directors and donors, track finances, and create budgets for your organization.

The reports you can run for your nonprofit include:

• Biggest Donors/Grants
• Budget vs. Actual by Donors/Grants
• Donors/Grant Report
• Donor Contribution Summary
• Budget vs. Actual by Programs/Projects
• Program/Projects Report
• Statement of Financial Income and Expense
• Statement of Financial Position
• Statement of Functional Expenses (990)

How Much Does QuickBooks Nonprofit Cost?

Both QuickBooks Premier and QuickBooks Enterprise are loaded with great features that you can use to manage your not-for-profit organization. Unfortunately, those features do come at a pretty steep cost. The good news is that QuickBooks frequently offers discounts for new customers, so make sure to check out the QuickBooks website for any current deals.

QuickBooks Premier

There are three options for purchasing QuickBooks Premier. One option is you can buy a subscription to QuickBooks Premier Plus for $499.99/year. Your subscription includes the industry-specific desktop software of your choice, unlimited customer support, and automatic data backups and recovery. Payroll, additional users, and Remote Access via Hosting are available as add-ons.

You can also purchase a subscription to QuickBooks Premier Plus 2021 + Payroll for $999.99/year. The subscription includes everything from QuickBooks Premier Plus as well as Enhanced Payroll.  Note that this pricing is for a single user. You can add additional users or Remote Access via Hosting for an additional cost.

You can also purchase the software for a one-time cost of $649.99. You will receive your industry-specific edition of choice. While this may seem to be the more affordable option, there are a few things to keep in mind. Unlimited support is an add-on that costs an additional fee. You also won’t have automatic recovery and backups. Additionally, QuickBooks will end support for the product after three years, at which time you may need to upgrade, depending on your organization’s needs.

The $649.99 price is for a single user; you can add more users, unlimited support, and payroll for additional fees.

QuickBooks Enterprise

QuickBooks Enterprise offers several pricing plans to fit your nonprofit’s needs best. You can choose a local-only subscription that stores data on the computers at your organization. This data cannot be accessed remotely. There are three pricing tiers starting at $1,655/year for a single user.

Another option is to sign up for a QuickBooks Enterprise with the Hosting plan. These plans allow you to access your account data remotely from any device. There are three pricing tiers available, starting at $180/month for a single user. Additional users can be added to any local or remote access plan for an additional charge.

Can I Use QuickBooks Online As A Nonprofit?

Many business owners prefer to use QuickBooks Online (QBO), a cloud-based accounting solution that doesn’t have the same steep learning curve as QuickBooks Desktop software. But as a nonprofit, will this software work for your organization?

Yes, it is possible for nonprofits to use QuickBooks Online, but there are a few things to keep in mind. First, there is not a nonprofit-specific edition of QuickBooks Online. When you set up your account, you will simply select Nonprofit as your organization type. However, there is no difference between QBO for for-profit businesses and QBO for nonprofits.

You will find, though, that QuickBooks Online has the tools you need to manage your organization’s finances. You can track donations and pledges, create budgets, run reports, and perform other basic accounting tasks, such as write checks, run payroll, and manage employees and contacts.

You can also customize QBO by using integrations. QuickBooks Online has over 450 integrations, allowing you to connect easily to other business software and apps. There are a number of great integrations that are useful to nonprofit organizations, including DonorPath, Kindful, and NeonCRM.

QuickBooks Online may be a good choice for your organization if you prefer cloud-based software or if you’re new to accounting and want easy-to-use software.

The Bottom Line: QuickBooks Nonprofit Is Great For Organizations Of All Sizes

The nice thing about QuickBooks Desktop is that there is a solution for organizations of any size. For smaller to medium-sized nonprofits, QuickBooks Premier is an excellent fit. QuickBooks Online may even be a solid choice in some cases, especially if you have no prior accounting experience.

QuickBooks Enterprise has a great selection of features and integrations for larger organizations, supports up to 40 users, and lets you customize user permissions to fit your organization best.

In addition to standard accounting features, you’ll also have nonprofit-specific features right at your fingertips. The nine nonprofit reports are especially useful, and you can also access hundreds of other reports through the software when you need them.

There are a few downsides to consider before signing up for QuickBooks. QuickBooks Desktop and Premier have a learning curve, so if you’re new to accounting, you must have the time to learn the software to get the most out of your investment. Speaking of investments, the software can get pricey — especially if you add multiple users — but many businesses and nonprofits find the features available on the software to be well worth the cost.

If you’re still on the fence, consider taking the software for a test run. QuickBooks Premier does not offer a free trial, but you can sign up for a 30-day trial of QuickBooks Enterprise to get a feel for the software.

If you still want to explore your options before you commit, be sure to check out our 10 Best Nonprofit Accounting Software Apps. Good luck!

QuickBooks Nonprofit FAQs