.org-Filter: What's a good free financial management platform for a non-profit startup?

October 24, 2006 11:33 AM

Seeking open-source (free) financial management software for a not-for-profit start up. Has anyone used something they were pleased with?

The company is promoting Improvisational Comedy in the Kansas City area, if that matters at all. We are also officially a 501(c)3 status company so we actually are not-for-profit, meaning we can accept tax write-off-able donations and such.

Thanks for looking.

The organizations website can be found at City3.org.

posted by wmeredith to Work & Money (6 answers total)

Would you settle for very, very cheap?

TechSoup will sell software for pennies on the dollar to eligible non-profits. Head on over and see what you might be able to use.
posted by anastasiav at 11:48 AM on October 24, 2006

I'll second Techsoup. Here is a direct link to their Accounting Software Category

We use the QuickBooks Premier 2005 Nonprofit Edition and quite happy with it. It is a little complicated so for a start-up it might be too much, but it is pretty much the industry standard. Unfortunately, it seems to be Out of Stock currently (they only get a limited number of discounted licenses every year).

The Microsoft Small Business Accounting 2006 seems to be still available for only $6, so you might want to give it a shot.

I also would strongly recommend signing up to their newsletter so that you get notified when they get new licenses. A couple times now they've handed out free spam fighting software (Mailshell Desktop Edition), and I expect they'll do the same regularly.
posted by tuxster at 12:36 PM on October 24, 2006

You don't mention what OS you're on but if you're on Linux consider GNUCash. I use it for my own personal expenses and it handles them quite well.
posted by PenDevil at 12:38 PM on October 24, 2006

We are finally getting away from the disaster that is QuickBooks. We are moving to APPGEN's MyBooks program. They have a 30 day trail and support multiple platforms.
posted by chrisroberts at 3:17 PM on October 24, 2006

Just thought I would add some others, mostly for Linux (but not all):

Quasar
SQL-Ledger
Compiere
Kapital
Moneydance
Pronto-Xi
FoxOnLinux
Free Accounting
posted by chrisroberts at 3:38 PM on October 24, 2006

You must, must, listen to anastasiav and get a TechSoup account.

It'll blow your mind what you can get for, like, twenty bucks.

There are lots of limitations (like you generally get one big order per year) but it's still unquestionably an awesome place for non-profits to get good tech deals.
posted by bcwinters at 4:32 PM on October 24, 2006