QuickBooks Premier Nonprofit is a desktop version of QuickBooks that can fit the needs of small to midsize nonprofits and churches. It comes with a unified chart of accounts for nonprofit accounting and class tracking to help nonprofits keep track of revenue and expenses by program service. QuickBooks Premier is one of our choices for best small business accounting software and is a flexible choice for churches and other nonprofits that need robust accounting features. Pricing for QuickBooks Premier starts at $549.99 for one user or $1,049 if you add payroll.
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QuickBooks Premier Nonprofit Is Especially Good For
Unlike QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Premier Nonprofit is already customized for use by nonprofits and churches. Because it requires little additional customization, it’s great for bookkeepers of simple charities that want to get up and running quickly:
- Nonprofits required to file IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ: Nonprofits have among the most complicated IRS filing requirements of any type of entity. QuickBooks Premier Nonprofit can help you separate all grants, revenues, and expenses not only by function but also by program service. You can explore other accounting software for nonprofits in our best nonprofit accounting software guide.
- Nonprofits with multiple program services: Classes and subclasses can be created to separate income and expenses into multiple program services. Churches can use class tracking for activities like regular worship services, Sunday school, child day care, outreach activities, fundraising, and others.
- Startup nonprofits or nonprofits looking for better reporting: You can download the Unified Chart of Accounts (UCOA) for nonprofits, which is designed around the required Form 990 reporting. This gives new nonprofits a huge head start but is also valuable to any nonprofit that’s willing to take the time to upgrade their chart of accounts to comply more easily with the Form 990 requirements.
- Nonprofits with unrelated business taxable income (UBTI): You can create a separate class for unrelated business taxable income to track income and expenses for Form 990-T.
- Churches that want customizable accounting software: Experienced bookkeepers can customize QuickBooks Premier Nonprofit to provide a huge array of information not available in simpler-to-use church software. Read our guide to the best church accounting software to learn more about other options.
QuickBooks Premier Nonprofit Is Not a Good Fit For
- Nonprofits and churches without a central office: The program must be installed on a desktop computer, which might be problematic for extremely small nonprofits that don’t have an office. Think carefully about whether you want the nonprofit’s books to be housed on an employee’s or volunteer’s personal computer. A cloud-based program, like QuickBooks Online, might make more sense. You can read our comparison of QuickBooks Online vs Desktop for more information on the differences between the programs.
- Nonprofits and churches with a bookkeeper that require assistance: As a desktop program, QuickBooks Nonprofit Edition isn’t as easy to share with an external accountant. The program has an accountant’s copy feature that works fine to provide your external accountant a copy of your books on a quarterly basis, but it’s not something you want to deal with on a daily or weekly basis. We suggest considering QuickBooks Online, our choice for overall best small business accounting software. In QBO, you can add an accountant and they won’t be considered as an additional user.
- Users looking for church management features: QuickBooks Premier Nonprofit only deals with the accounting side of managing your church. Aplos Accounting is an excellent software application that combines accounting with church management features such as receiving donations online, communicating with your congregation, and building a church website.
- Large nonprofits that require restricted fund management: NonProfit+ is a powerful application for the sophisticated fund accounting required by large nonprofit organizations, including restricted funds management, encumbrance accounting, and budget management.
QuickBooks Premier Nonprofit Pros & Cons
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QuickBooks Premier Nonprofit Pricing
QuickBooks Premier can be purchased annually on a subscription basis. The subscription comes with unlimited customer support and product updates.
QuickBooks Premier Nonprofit Accounting Features
QuickBooks Premier Nonprofit is a special edition of the QuickBooks Desktop Premier product. When you buy QuickBooks Premier, don’t forget to select Nonprofit as your industry before downloading the program. The Nonprofit Edition of QuickBooks Premier contains all accounting features in QuickBooks Premier plus nonprofit-specific features. You can also check out our comparison of different QuickBooks Desktop versions to know which version matches your needs.
We reviewed QuickBooks Premier using an internally developed case study. We tested QuickBooks Premier across 11 key areas that must be present in small business accounting software. Read our review of QuickBooks Desktop Premier for an in-depth analysis. In the meantime, here are the general accounting features that we’d like to highlight:
Accounts Payable
QuickBooks Premier’s accounts payable (A/P) module has features similar to those found in QuickBooks Online. In the A/P module, you can create recurring expenses, convert orders into bills, and create service items. Nonprofits and churches can use the A/P module to keep track of accrued expenses like telecommunication bills, utility bills, and other payables. You can also use purchase orders if your nonprofit or church orders office supplies, church supplies, or inventories for sale.
Accounts Receivable
QuickBooks Premier’s accounts receivable (A/R) module has invoice creation and invoice tracking features. With QuickBooks Premier, you can create customized invoices, unlike other church accounting software products that only provide a generic invoice layout. If your church offers services like renting facilities, special services like weddings or funerals, or columbarium spaces, the A/R module can help you keep track of receivables from church members. Nonprofits can also use the A/R module to record receivables from nonprofit products and services. For example, nonprofits who offer financial products can use the A/R module to record customer information, track payments, and create aging schedules.
Inventory
Inventory management is one of QuickBooks Premier’s best features because it can track inventory quantities and the average cost of inventory items. The inventory features are integrated into A/R and A/P, so it’s easy to add inventory items in invoices and bills. More importantly, QuickBooks computes cost of goods sold (COGS) and cost of ending inventory automatically. If your nonprofit organization has a gift shop, you can use the inventory module to stay on top of stock levels and monitor costs.
Nonprofit Chart of Accounts
Good accounting at any organization starts with a good chart of accounts, and nonprofits should use the UCOA. The custom-designed chart of accounts aligns with the reporting requirements of both the IRS and generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).
Custom classes and subclasses
QuickBooks Premier Nonprofit has class tracking features that can be customized based on your needs. Nonprofits can use class tracking to track income and expenses from nonprofit activities like fundraisers, charity work, donation drives, community outreach, and other promotions. You can even create an income statement by class to see net contributions or donations after deducting necessary expenses.
Create Receipts for Donations
Create receipts and track total donations received by donors for year-end letters. Individual receipts can be printed or emailed to donors.
Record and Track Donor Pledges
Donor pledges can be recorded as receivables and tracked until paid.
Generate Year-end Letters to Donors
Annual letters can be generated to donors with their total annual donations to substantiate the tax deduction on their tax returns.
Reports
QuickBooks Premier Nonprofit comes with nonprofit-specific reports like basic financial statements and other management reports. You can generate a statement of financial position, statement of activities, or statement of functional income and expense, and a cash flow statement. You can also generate an income statement per class, donor contribution summaries, balance per class, and much more.
QuickBooks Premier Nonprofit Edition Alternatives
We rated QuickBooks Premier Nonprofit Edition as one of our picks for the best nonprofit accounting software. However, if QuickBooks Premier Nonprofit isn’t suitable for your organization, there are some other good alternatives.
Bottom Line
QuickBooks Premier Nonprofit is one of QuickBooks Premier’s industry-specific editions. It offers the full accounting features of QuickBooks Premier plus nonprofit features. The downside of QuickBooks Premier is that it’s difficult to use and lacks church management features.
If you purchase QuickBooks Premier, don’t forget to select “Nonprofit” to get features like nonprofit-specific reports and chart of accounts.
