The Quick Guide to QuickBooks for NonProfits

Nonprofits will be happy with QuickBooks as an accounting solution. Not only does it deliver the sector-specific accountancy tools they need, it also offers some features that aren’t available at all from other small business accounting platforms, including detailed budget-tracking and its checking account app.

QuickBooks for Nonprofits also stands out for its specialist toolkit, while starting at the respectable entry price of $99 per month. All told, the platform outperforms the industry giants we’ve reviewed, from Xero to FreshBooks.

It’s not perfect, though: Users will have to pay extra for remote access and specialized online training, so QuickBooks for Nonprofits is best for in-person nonprofits, and less accessible for the rising number of smaller nonprofits with remote or hybrid teams.

As the rising cost of living reins in donor spending, finding a budget-friendly nonprofit accountancy software has never been more important. To help you find out if QuickBooks NonProfit is worth the investment, scroll down to learn more about its value offering, features, and limitations.

Alternatively, check out our comparison table to see how it stacks up against its competition.

In this guide:

• Quick Fact-File
• QuickBooks for Nonprofits Pricing
• Hands On Review and Key Features
• Benefits of QuickBooks for Nonprofits
• Drawbacks of QuickBooks for Nonprofits
• Alternative Accounting Software
• Our Methodology
• Our Verdict

QuickBooks for Nonprofits: Quick Fact File

Not sure if QuickBooks for Nonprofits is right for you? Take a look at some key deciding factors below:

• Price – QuickBooks for Nonprofits pricing packages start at $99 per month for the provider’s Plus plan. That’s notably pricier than competitors like FreshBooks and Xero, making it less suitable for nonprofits with limited funds.
• Free trial – Free trials are available for the QuickBooks for Nonprofits Plus and Advanced plan, but not for Enterprise for Nonprofits. And unlike Wave, no free versions are available.
• Help & Support – QuickBooks offers phone support 24/7, and has useful video tutorials and help articles, so we gave its support center a near-perfect 4.75/5 score in our research – ranking it above competitors like Xero and Wave.
• Donation features – Organizations can use the QuickBooks mobile app to collect and record donations on the go, but it doesn’t let you filter client information granularly like FreshBooks.
• Accountancy features – QuickBooks’ accounting tools are a cut above the rest. The provider offers a number of unique features like detailed budget tracking and streamlined expense reporting.
• Reporting features – QuickBooks reports let you monitor financial metrics through a customizable dashboard. The results are easily sharable too, which impressed our research team enough to grant it a perfect 5/5 score for its financial reporting features.
• Integrations – QuickBooks integrates with tons of industry-specific add-ons like Kindful and DonorPerfect, but these do come at a premium.

QuickBooks for Nonprofits Pricing

QuickBooks for Nonprofits offers two main pricing packages, Plus and Advanced. See how they weigh up below:

Both QuickBooks’ Nonprofit plans offer all the bookkeeping and accounting features you need to get by from invoicing and receipt capture to advanced financial tracking. However, QuickBooks’ Plus plan is limited to five users so will only be suitable for sole-member nonprofits or small teams. It also lacks a number of features included in the Advanced plan, like advanced analytics, workflow automation, and employee expenses – making it unsuitable for larger nonprofits or organizations with specific needs.

While both these plans offer unique and useful capabilities, QuickBooks’ entry price of $99 per month is much steeper than similar software like Xero and FreshBooks. If you manage remote teams or require up to 40 users, you’ll need to fork out an extra $180 a year for the provider’s Enterprise solution too. Due to these costly add-ons and pricing packages, we only gave QuickBooks a 3/5 for price — making it one of the more premium services we’ve reviewed.

Is there a free plan?

QuickBooks for Nonprofits doesn’t have a free plan, but it does offer a free trial for its Plus and Advanced plan. Unfortunately, users aren’t able to trial the provider’s Enterprise solution for free, so will need to enter monthly contracts to unlock features like remote access and online training.

If it’s free accountancy software you’re after, Wave’s always-free service is by far the best complimentary option out there. The market isn’t short of affordable solutions either, so check out our accounting comparison table for a simple breakdown of costs.

QuickBooks for Nonprofits Review: Key Features

QuickBooks’ impressive feature stack is hardly a secret, but how does the tool lend itself to nonprofit organizations? We break down some of QuickBooks’ for Nonprofit’s standout accountancy and sector-specific features below:

Invoicing

QuickBooks’ invoices features let nonprofits use pay-enabled invoices to accept payment instantly online, track their status, send out payment reminders, and match payments to invoices automatically. Non-business entities can even use the software to create custom invoices with their logos.

According to our research team, these advanced capabilities make QuickBooks much better suited to larger organizations than solutions with more stripped-back invoicing tools like Wave and Zoho Books. If you’re not running a large operation, however, check out our guide to small business invoicing software.

 QuickBooks NonProfit includes an income tracker that logs payments on a centralized sheet. Source: QuickBooks

Financial management

QuickBooks tries to make managing your cash flow as simple as possible. The platform lets you categorize revenue expenditures by fund or program, track budgets by fund or program, track tax deductions, and even forecast money-in and money-out up to 90 days in advance.

QuickBooks for Nonprofits users can even open a QuickBooks Checking account for free, allowing them to make custom forecasts, receive instant deposits, and even earn 1.75% APY by storing their spare cash in envelopes.

Donor management

QuickBooks makes it easy to keep track of donations no matter which forms they take: It handles cash, check, e-check, credit card, or debit card.

The provider also offers a mobile app that lets users record money directly through their mobile devices. This feature isn’t offered by similar software, which makes QuickBooks one of the most useful tools for recording charitable contributions.

Fund accounting

Like Xero and FreshBooks, QuickBooks has fund accounting software that helps non-business entities record the journey of their finances easily so they’re able to function efficiently and comply with legal standards. The platform even lets you use Class location to track each fund separately and sub-accounts to keep tabs to keep tabs on them from your Chart of Accounts.

Financial reports

Insufficient funding is a top five reason why nonprofits fail. For organizations looking to become more financially efficient, QuickBooks for Nonprofits gives users access to powerful sales and profitability reporting software. QuickBooks even lets organizations build customizable reports based on their distinct needs — a benefit that you’ll miss if you opt for solutions like Wave or FreeAgent.

Advanced users can even use QuickBooks’ to track revenue streams, cash flow, expenses, and more. These stand-out features earned it a perfect score (5/5) for financial reporting in our research, the only provider except for Xero that was able to achieve this feat.

Each QuickBooks dashboard can be edited to include custom, up-to-date charts and graphs. Source: QuickBooks

Integrations

If QuickBooks is lacking features your nonprofit needs, you’re also able to use its app store to integrate with over 120 third-party apps including fundraising solutions like KindFul and LittleGreenLight and donation management tools like Method:Donor, and Donor Receipts. Premium integrations like LeanLaw, Docusign, and HubSpot are available too, but only for organizations willing to pay a little more for QuickBooks’ Advanced plan.

Benefits of QuickBooks for Nonprofits

Here’s our quick at-a-glance summary of the advantages that this platform offers when compared to other accounting solutions.

• Versatility – QuickBooks lets you track finances, create reports and manage donations from one platform – saving nonprofits from needing to invest in separate software.
• Quality of features – QuickBooks doesn’t sacrifice quality for quantity. Our researchers gave it a score of 4.5/5 for advanced features due in part to its impressive accounting toolkit.
• Ability to import donations – You’ll be able to integrate popular donation apps including Fundly or DonorPerfect, so all nonprofit transactions can be centralized.
• Excellent support – For new non-business entities new to accounting software, QuickBooks’ 24/7 phone support and expansive knowledge base make resolving queries easy.
• Scalability – Charities can upgrade the service or pay for add-ons as they grow, helping the service to scale alongside them.

For a taste of how you might find it to set up Quickbooks for your nonprofit, read our guide on How to Use Quickbooks Online, a very similar product offered by Quickbooks.

Drawbacks of QuickBooks for Nonprofits

• Entry price – QuickBooks for Nonprofits’ entry price of $99 per month excludes small nonprofits with more limited funds to invest.
• No free version – Unlike accounting software like Wave and Zoho Books, charitable organizations can’t use QuickBooks for Nonprofits for free. Check out our guide to free accounting software, if this is a key factor for you.
• Remote access costs extra – If your team isn’t based in a single location, you’ll need to spend an extra $130 a year, bumping up the price of the software even further.

Should You Use an Alternative Accounting Software?

QuickBooks is a one-size-fits-all accountancy tool, but it won’t be the number one choice for every nonprofit.

Wave is a solid free option for nonprofits with basic accounting needs, while Xero nearly matches QuickBooks for advanced features, offering advanced capabilities – like in-depth reports that can easily be shared with donors and volunteers – but for a smaller price tag. Zoho Books is another low-cost alternative with excellent bookkeeping features, although it doesn’t offer as many nonprofit-specific tools as QuickBooks.

If you’re looking to take full control over your finances, but aren’t able to front QuickBooks’ pricey plans, FreshBooks offers advanced tools like automated bank imports and business health reports for as little as $17 per month. FreshBooks also offers tailored software to Churches, making it more adept than QuickBooks at meeting the needs of religious organizations.

Every accounting provider has its own unique benefits, though. Check out our QuickBooks alternatives guide here, see our pricing guide for the main QuickBooks Online platform, or take a look at our table to see how it weighs up against its rivals:

Our Methodology

When researching the best accounting tools, we work alongside our insights team to make sure we only reach the most accurate, informed verdicts possible. Leaning on their nine years of research experience, we zone in on eight core categories of interest, including criteria like financial features, help & support, and pricing factors. We then award each provider a score out of five for each of these categories and use these scores to create a clearer picture of their strengths, weaknesses, and USPs.

When reviewing sector-specific software like QuickBooks for Nonprofits, we also consider its unique feature set and price point, as well as how it stands up to its competition. But this is still only half of the story – you can learn more about our research here.