Watch out everybody…Jake is creeping out of the northeast and standing on top of his soapbox again.  The title may seem misleading at first, but bear with me.
Since November, KLIK Radio has been using QuickBooks Online Edition to manage our books.  Personally, I think it’s a great piece of software.  It has its drawbacks – for instance, I wish it was easier to manage fixed assets, and it’s a little but cumbersome working with restricted funds, but hey – what can you do?  For a piece of accounting software that was not designed for non-profit accounting and is designed for small, service-based, for-profit businesses…it works well.
The only problem with QuickBooks is the price tag.  In order to manage accounts receivable and accounts payable, you have to upgrade to a paid edition.  The free one doesn’t come with AP or AR.  In fact, even the mid-range edition is too stripped down for what we do, so we have to pay $35/month for the complete edition of QuickBooks Online.  The folks at Intuit are smart.  At $35/month, you’re paying $420/year, which is roughly equal to the cost of buying the desktop QuickBooks software.
Point being…$35/month is a hefty price tag for an organization our size.  We try to get any little possible thing we can donated to us – it all adds up to substantial savings over time.  So I went on a quest to find a nice piece of accounting software, preferably web-based, that was easy-to-use, had fixed asset management, preferably the ability to manage specific funds (i.e. our grants are sometimes equipment-only), and had built-in invoicing.  I was surprised to find what little there was.
Instead, I found several pieces of software that would work together to create a full-fledged (and very powerful) suite of accounting tools.  For instance, FreshBooks can be used with Xero to create an insanely easy invoicing platform and have fixed asset management (kudos to Xero for that capability).  But Xero is based out of New Zealand, and while the accounting concepts are the same…there are subtle differences in user interface and data entry that you just can’t get used to.  Then again, this is a matter of preference.
My entire search for an accounting package stemmed from FreshBooks.  Someday, Peter wants to break back into the musician recording scene, and using the time tracking feature built in to FreshBooks would be an excellent thing.  (On the flip side, QuickBooks also has built-in time tracking).  The difference: FreshBooks provides a user account to every single client, donor, vendor, etc., so that you can see everything about your relationship: how much you owe, past invoices, past purchase orders, etc.  That was the deal closer for me, not the fact that PayPal integration is built right in to FreshBooks.
FreshBooks, Wufoo, PayPal, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, SAM Broadcaster – every piece of technology and software we use to make KLIK happen as some sort of API (application programming interface) so it can be expanded.  FreshBooks had a fairly wide variety of web sites it would work with.  The problem is the cost.
In an ideal world, we’d collect our online Elitch Gardens ticket sales through Wufoo, which has an API interface directly into FreshBooks.  FreshBooks can then bill the donor, collect the money, and record all the transactions automatically in our accounting software.  But…which accounting software?  QuickBooks, Xero, Clarity Accounting…?  Each has its own cost.  But, in any situation, switching to a system based around FreshBooks would generally cost KLIK Radio more than it currently pays for QuickBooks alone.
There would be a few benefits – i.e. the direct PayPal integration (something QuickBooks doesn’t do), the logins and accounts, etc.  Overall, though, switching from QuickBooks to a new system would involve several hours of manual data entry and conversion in addition to excess money that we don’t have.
Simply put…while the whole idea of “talking to each other” and “working together” is a great one, someone needs to come in and clean up the mess that currently exists out there and get everything straightened out into something that can be easily understood.
Why am I talking so much about accounting?  Because KLIK’s account receivables are slower than ever.  If you’re a parent of a volunteer, please make sure that your kids are getting their dues paid on time.  If you’re a general community member, please help us out a little and send us a few dollars.  Or, be on the look-out for KLIK folks in the community selling $20 tickets to Elitch Gardens!
Very important P.S.! The good people at FreshBooks are willing to give us 50% off our purchase if we choose to switch systems, hence why I’m so eager to want to get on board.  If you run a small business or have any need to invoice, I would highly recommend the FreshBooks system.
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