Looking For Info About Non Profit Bookkeeping Software?Non profit or not-for-profit organizations are described in The Random House College Dictionary as "not yielding a return; not entered into for profit." Word-net on the web says, "organization chartered for other than profit-making activities. Probably the best definition I have seen is one published by Case Western Reserve University graduate student, Kate Luckert; and is as follows, "A nonprofit organization is formed for the purpose of serving a public or mutual benefit other than the pursuit or accumulation of profits for owners or investors. 'The nonprofit sector is a collection of entities that are organizations; private as opposed to governmental; non-profit distributing; self-governing; voluntary; and of public benefit' (Solamon 10). The nonprofit sector is often referred to as the third sector, independent sector, voluntary sector, philanthropic sector, social sector, tax-exempt sector, or the charitable sector." Some good examples are charities, such as the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army and the YMCA; foundations, such as the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Ford Foundation and community foundations; Social Welfare or Advocacy Organizations, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a/k/a the NAACP, American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU, and the National Rifle Association; the professional/trade associations, e.g., the Chamber of Commerce and the American Medical Association; and last, but not least, Religious Organizations, which would be churches. All of these entities would be able to use non profit bookkeeping software. Upon searching the Internet for non profit bookkeeping software, I found a site entitled, computer-accounting-software-help, that stated, "Both of these programs include special features for nonprofit bookkeeping. In our accounting software review, we found Peachtree to have stronger nonprofit accounting, while QuickBooks offers better management of the fund raising campaign and donor pledges." This site goes on to explain that the Peachtree Premium product line adds nonprofit bookkeeping features to the basic Peachtree Complete package. Crystal Reports for Peachtree, has better and easier to use financial statements, advanced budgeting and company consolidation features. In addition, "...Crystal Reports help ensure that nonprofit bookkeeping data can be displayed in Peachtree without having to resort to external spread sheet programs..." (From website named computer-accounting-software-help). Don't confuse Crystal Reports with the Financial Statement Editor. The Financial Statement Editor comes as part of every copy of Peachtree and is a specialized report creation tool. It is only used to modify the Income Statement and the Balance Sheet within strict guidelines and cannot modify any other reports or forms. However, modifying or creating other reports is something Crystal Reports can handle. After you have designed any custom Crystal Reports, they will appear in the standard report menu. Peachtree Premium offers improved departmental tracking, which is important because the proper use of departmentalized financial statements permits each fund to be printed separately and each fund can have its own statement of income and expenses. |