The NonProfit Times - January 1, 2009 - (Page 14) SPEC AL REPORT S P E C II A L R E P O R T Continued from page 13 restrictions, from a tax status and from a donor restriction status,” explained Floch. According to Andrew Payne, product line manager for The Financial Edge at software vendor Blackbaud, “The history has been prevailing GAAP, there’s pressing demand on the for-profit side, and the fact that the investment community is moving forward with buying equity in foreign entities without agreed upon financial standards has been a concern. These are the kinds of issues that will be addressed first. Protecting the investor is the primary focus; for good or for bad, U.S. nonprofits will have to wait.” BOTTOM LINE TRICKLE DOWN Nonprofit managers will have to get ready for financial reporting changes in three areas. The first change is watching and learning about the new standards and generally keeping it on the radar screen, particularly in concert with related changes to IRS Form 990. Secondly, there is a need to engage staff with financial management responsibilities and strategically engage them in preparing for and implementing the whole range of changes during the next several years.And finally, managers need to be ready to simultaneously learn from and educate stakeholders, particularly boards and funders, who may be on a different part of the learning curve. LEARNING TO INTERPRET One of the biggest differences between current international standards and GAAP is that IFRS is principles-based while GAAP is rules-based. Dealing with many countries, IASB puts more emphasis on interpretation and disclosure than the FASB, which has a precise rule for almost every situation. Steve Glauber, senior systems engineer at Serenic Software, thinks that “it’ll be a little scary at first. But for individual notfor-profits, rules or principles won’t be a big deal, but it will be for the auditors.The actual financials themselves will be a challenge for the auditors.” Blackbaud’s Payne added, “We’re moving in a less prescriptive way to a more theoretical view with respect to principals vs. rules, and it’s unclear what the implications are. It could mean more risk in terms of conflicts of interpretation between a nonprofit and its auditor.” Jeannie Huckstep, CPA, CITP, president and founder of Springfield, Mo.-based Huckstep & Associates, LLC, joked that convergence is “the accountant’s full employment act.” In terms of preparation, she said,“We’re just hearing little pieces in the accounting world. A lot of nonprofits haven’t heard anything about it, but it’s going to have a big impact. Things are going to be much more fuzzy, and it’s going to require a lot more critical thinking. I see a lot of differences in accounting processes and procedures and judgment.” Accounting transactions will have to be readily verifiable directly from accounting software. Glauber warned that “auditors no longer want to audit around the system. They now want to audit through the system and make sure that every transaction is what it should be and all of the controls are in place. The right system makes the audit easier. Being able to have fund accounting out of the box -- interfund transfers and a full statement of fi- nancial position in addition to reporting on revenue and expenses is critical.” Software publishers plan to be ready, so it will be important to have current versions, support agreements and to keep staff trained, he said. Huckstep added, “Without the regulation that GAAP gave us, where we didn’t have a lot of judgment, you knew what was a payable. But a payable only requires a GETTING STARTED COMPARING ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE AccuFund Inc. AccuFund Accounting Suite - Standard Single-user: $2,995; three-user: $6,495; add $895 for each additional user; AccuFund Accounting Suite – Professional Single-user: $6,595; three-user: $8,995; add $1,195 for each additional user; Additional modules range from $1,000 to $1,600. 781-433-0233 www.accufund.com Agilon Agilon Business Financials Starts at $27,000 for 1 – 4 users Starts at $42,000 for 5 – 10 users 319-739-0773 www.myagilon.com Blackbaud The Financial Edge, version 7.7 Starts at $2,100 for single-user 800-443-9441 Fundware (formally from Kintera) Starts at $1,295 for single-user 858-795-3000 www.blackbaud.com Cougar Mountain Software (CMS) CMS Professional 2009 Fund Single-user $2,247; Multi-user $4,647 CMS Professional 2009 FUND Suite Single-user $4,887; Multi-user $7,407 CMS Professional 2009 FUND Revenue Center Single-user $2,487; Multi-user $2,787 800-388-3038 www.cougarmtn.com Donor2/Campus Management Corp. Donor2 Accounting Starts at $2,655 per user 800-548-6708 www.donor2.com Executive Data Systems Nonprofit Starter Kit Single-user: $400; unlimited: $600; Fund Accounting Software Series Single-user: $1,000; unlimited: $1,500 800-548-6708 www.execdata.com Fund E-Z Development Corp. Fund E-Z Fund Accounting Starts at $695 for base system; add approximately $500 per additional user. 877-696-0900 www.fundez.com Intuit Inc. Quickbooks Premier for Nonprofits Single-user $399; Two users $749.95; Three users $1,099.95 Quickbooks Enterprise Solutions for Nonprofits Five users $3,000 866-676-9668 www.quickbooks.com Microsoft Corporation Microsoft Dynamics Estimated cost from $2,000 to $6,000, per concurrent user. 701-281-6500 www.microsoft.com Open Systems Inc. TRAVERSE for Not-For-Profit Approximately $1,000 per application and approximately $400 for each additional user 800-328-2276 www.osas.com Sage Software Sage MIP Fund Accounting Starts at $2,995 for single-user 800-811-0961 www.sagemip.com Sage Software (small business) Peachtree Premium for Nonprofits Single user $599.99 Five users $1,299.99 800-228-0068 www.peachtree.com Serenic Corporation Serenic Navigator Starts at $3,000 per user for basic Business Essentials suite to $6,000 per user for Advanced Management suite. 877-737-3642 www.serenic.com commitment.You may have a commitment to buy a bus,but haven’t taken delivery,and under the new standards timing is different and the payable could be booked much sooner. And for assets, you had something that you paid $200,000 for, and a residual value of $20,000 and so you have $180,000 that you’re going to depreciate over its life. Under the new standard you have the choice to revalue each year, and that can impact on how you compare similar organizations counting things differently.” Huckstep continued, “The push for IFRS is from common reporting between countries, but we have questions about standards between organizations. It’s not necessarily bad. It requires more judgments in how to account for things as well as in looking at reporting. If I look at one set of financial statements and see one organiazation revaluing every year and another every six months, these will be disclosed in the financial statements, and the reader will have to be aware of this.” POSITIONING ACCOUNTING STAFF Huckstep predicted a significant impact on accounting staff. “Moving to a more principle-based approach will require big changes to audit standards, and this is going to further complicate the issues. I see big changes in how financial reporting staff in nonprofits operate - there will be less dependence on tick and tie people and more reliance on critical thinking skills,” she said. Glauber recommended,“If you can standardize things throughout the organization, do it now. People need to be reading and looking and not be afraid, because it’s coming. It’s not happening in a vacuum, being involved is critical.A lot of organizations don’t realize how much the 990 is changing,let alone international standards.” According to Payne, an important preparation is “keeping a very close watch on the Conceptual Framework Project (CFP); FASB and IASB are moving in a very methodical way to creating financial reporting standards, which will help staff to propose quality standards.” Glauber recommended that organizations “tighten up controls, and manage costs and assets and understand the current value.” Payne cautioned that change is “coming in phases, and nonprofits are in phase G, when they get done with high-level issues, they’ll move to nonprofit impact.” Huckstep’s firm specializes on implementing Sage MIP software. She pointed out,“When we’re doing a system implementation, the first thing we look at is the audit and try to build the system to provide the right information to the auditors. People have to look at their software and see that it’s flexible enough to classify and report.” EDUCATING STAKEHOLDERS Nonprofit board members from public companies actively involved in IFRS might Special Report, page 16 JANUARY 1, 2009 THE NONPROFIT TIMES www.nptimes.com http://www.fundez.com http://www.accufund.com http://www.quickbooks.com http://www.myagilon.com http://www.microsoft.com http://www.blackbaud.com http://www.osas.com http://www.sagemip.com http://www.cougarmtn.com http://www.donor2.com http://www.peachtree.com http://www.execdata.com http://www.serenic.com http://www.nptimes.com
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of The NonProfit Times - January 1, 2009 The NonProfit Times - January 1, 2009 Clothes Sense Office Web Use Tough To Control Fundraisers Are Going After States Contents Page 4 Diversity In Occupations Drives Successful Boards Princeton, Foundation Settle Donor Intent Case Pulling Out A Rabbit Igniting A Service Nation Evaluating The Evaluator What To Expect Special Report: Accounting Software Advertiser Index NPT Jobs Resource Directory The NonProfit Times - January 1, 2009 The NonProfit Times - January 1, 2009 - Fundraisers Are Going After States (Page 1) The NonProfit Times - January 1, 2009 - Fundraisers Are Going After States (Page 2) The NonProfit Times - January 1, 2009 - Contents (Page 3) The NonProfit Times - January 1, 2009 - Page 4 (Page 4) The NonProfit Times - January 1, 2009 - Page 4 (Page 5) The NonProfit Times - January 1, 2009 - Page 4 (Page 6) The NonProfit Times - January 1, 2009 - Page 4 (Page 7) The NonProfit Times - January 1, 2009 - Diversity In Occupations Drives Successful Boards (Page 8) The NonProfit Times - January 1, 2009 - Princeton, Foundation Settle Donor Intent Case (Page 9) The NonProfit Times - January 1, 2009 - Igniting A Service Nation (Page 10) The NonProfit Times - January 1, 2009 - Evaluating The Evaluator (Page 11) The NonProfit Times - January 1, 2009 - What To Expect (Page 12) The NonProfit Times - January 1, 2009 - Special Report: Accounting Software (Page 13) The NonProfit Times - January 1, 2009 - Special Report: Accounting Software (Page 14) The NonProfit Times - January 1, 2009 - Special Report: Accounting Software (Page 15) The NonProfit Times - January 1, 2009 - Special Report: Accounting Software (Page 16) The NonProfit Times - January 1, 2009 - Special Report: Accounting Software (Page 17) The NonProfit Times - January 1, 2009 - Special Report: Accounting Software (Page 18) The NonProfit Times - January 1, 2009 - NPT Jobs (Page 19) The NonProfit Times - January 1, 2009 - Resource Directory (Page 20) The NonProfit Times - January 1, 2009 - Resource Directory (Page 21) The NonProfit Times - January 1, 2009 - Resource Directory (Page 22) The NonProfit Times - January 1, 2009 - Resource Directory (Page 23) The NonProfit Times - January 1, 2009 - Resource Directory (Page 24)
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