[software] NPO software: where we need to go

[Jim Brandt]

Josh Berkus wrote:

> 
>> The other problem with accounting in nonprofits is that many
>> nonprofits are bound by what software their auditors are willing to
>> use.  And that means QuickBooks.  I believe that getting nonprofits
>> to use free accounting software will be a huge challenge for this
>> reason alone
> 
> *shrug* If they use it, they use it.  I need an accounting system for *me*,
> and Quickbooks is not adequate for my needs.
> 
>> Summary: I think our free software resources would be best spent
>> building up a general purpose accounting system based on client-
>> server database technology (two or three tier, doesn't matter).

We're also on Quickbooks and got agreement from our accountants to use 
something else, but we need that something else. I showed them a demo of 
LedgerSMB and they thought it would be sufficient, but there are issues 
with that package too.

My hope is that the donor.com financial package might be brought up to 
speed quicker than estimated, largely because I'm guessing the 
integration should work well with their other software. If much of the 
work is in the interface, maybe the backend can be running before all of 
the work is done. It's too bad that we're not in a place where we might 
be able to offer resources to get it running quicker.

Jim


-- 
Jim Brandt
The Perl Foundation
email: cbrandt at perlfoundation.org