2011 Review of Sage Peachtree Premium Accounting for Nonprofits 2012

Sage Peachtree Premium Accounting for Nonprofits 2012
877-495-9904
www.peachtree.com 

From the November 2011 Review of Not-for-Profit Accounting Systems

Best Fit
Sage Peachtree would work well with smaller nonprofit organizations that place affordability equal to functionality, and it is optimally designed for the one- to 10-person organization.

Strengths

• Easy to install & easy to navigate
• Good nonprofit reporting capability and advanced Business Intelligence for custom reporting and analysis in Microsoft Excel
• Excellent integration with Microsoft Word for producing donor & fundraising letters
• Solid dashboards & cash flow management tools allow employees to see how the organization is performing

Potential Limitations

• Limited growth capability
• Limited fundraising capability, but vendor notes that it is working on integration with Fundraising Online

Sage Peachtree Premium Accounting for Nonprofits has continually provided small nonprofit organizations with a solid financial product designed specifically for their needs. The introduction of industry-specific solutions several years ago, along with the growing number of add-ons available, has made Sage Peachtree an even more valuable product line.

Basic System Functions - 4.75 Stars

Sage Peachtree Premium Accounting for Nonprofits installation continues to be problem free, with the product generally installing in minutes and with no IT experience needed. Navigational centers make it easy to find needed functions, and all data-entry screens are clutter free. Users can also opt to use the drop-down menus at the top of the screen to access any of the product’s features or functions. And function tabs (Vendors & Purchases, Banking, etc.), found easily on the main screen, make access to additional Sage Peachtree functions fast and easy from any location.

With the exception of Sage Peachtree First Accounting, all Sage Peachtree products offer a complete financial system, with GL, AP, AR functionality along with Payroll, Banking, Inventory and Purchasing functions. Industry-specific editions, such as the nonprofit edition reviewed here, also contain industry-specific chart of accounts options. As previously noted, Sage has a long list of add-on products that are designed to integrate with the Sage Peachtree line of accounting products. Sage also provides increased scalability with Sage Peachtree Quantum, which is designed for up to 40 users.

Core NFP/Fund Accounting Capabilities - 4.25 Stars

Sage Peachtree Premium for Nonprofits 2012 offers nonprofits the option of choosing between a standard nonprofit chart of accounts or using the United Way chart of accounts, which are both included. Users can choose to customize accounts to better reflect their nonprofit needs, and up to five segments can be designated as departments or specific funds. Sage Peachtree easily handles multiple transaction types, and the new Copy Transactions function allows for the creation of a new transaction based on an existing transaction. Users can also create recurring journal entries as well as auto-reversals. Multiple budgets can be set up based on specific departments and cost centers, and they can be easily tracked for accuracy or even exported to Microsoft Excel. What-if scenarios can be produced by playing with various financial outcomes to get the most accurate results from each budget.

Donors can be tracked as customers, and grant tracking is available by utilizing chart of account segments. Sage Peachtree also contains excellent audit trail functionality, keeping track of any and all system transactions, including valuable information such as system user, time and date of the transaction change. User password security has been enhanced in recent releases, with administrators able to set password expiration dates, block repeat passwords, and view anyone currently logged into the system. Users have the option to pay invoices electronically, email invoices to customers directly from the invoice screen, and retrieve banking information electronically for more accurate reconciliation. Sage Peachtree also provides a remote access option for anytime/anywhere access.