MIP Fund Accounting vs. QuickBooks Desktop Premier

MIP Fund Accounting works very well for general fundraising. The form creation process is easy and allows you to set parameters and add fees, quantities, images, etc. This process is smooth on the customer (forward-facing) side as well. Reports are generated once the transactions have gone through, making tracking and reconciliation with accounting easy.

Incentivized

QuickBooks Desktop is an easy-to-use software with good services. Their invoicing, employment, and vendor sections are all wonderful. These sections allow efficient tracking and instant business summaries and reporting. However, the pricing for additional services and upgrades and lack of good customer service makes it a less attractive software for small businesses.

Incentivized

• General Ledger processing, including journal entries and reports
• Ability to download all reports directly to Excel and PDF formats
• Use of Grant codes to enable grant reporting by month/quarter/year
• Ability to have multiple departments and consolidate into groups for reporting
• Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable cannot be out of balance
• Multiple ways to use the product including Cloud and Classic options, Visual menu or Standard (Top of screen) menus to select processes, many options we are not using in our simple organization

Incentivized

• QuickBooks Premier is easy to use, yet flexible and powerful enough to handle some complicated accounting scenarios.
• QuickBooks Premier offers a wide array of canned reports. Custom reports can be easily created.
• QuickBooks Premier with Enhanced Payroll gives us the tools to handle complex payrolls with multiple variables.

Incentivized

• With the payroll process, if there is an error in sending the stubs through email, there is no option to resend without a restore. That really needs to change.
• Being able to void encumbrance at the same time as a PO would be an incredible time saver.
• When processing W2 the system deletes info.

Incentivized

• I would like to be able to choose how i want to view accounts receivable aging. I would like some flexibility to sort and choose how to present the data.
• For a seasoned accountant, I would like to see some of the restrictive controls that are in place for novices to be able to be relaxed so that I can easily make some entries and adjust some balances that ordinarily a regular user would not be able to do.
• I would like to see an easy way to clear old outstanding checks that need to be reversed without affecting prior balances/history.

Incentivized

I give MIP a 10 because Our organization use MIP Fund Accounting ever since I've been there and that's been for over 20 plus years for all of our accounting and payroll. MIP has stayed on the cutting edge of technology, ever evolving to meet the needs of the times, especially post pandemic, while many are working remotely! MIP support staff are very knowledgeable and efficient. Even new users can get up to speed quickly with MIP Fund Accounting.

Incentivized

Because we have been extremely happy with the product and our organization tends to be creatures of habit. We rarely leave a product that works this well for the latest and greatest. Typically we follow the "if it's not broken, don't fix it rule". While QB does make changes we typically just roll with it. If we do find something we don't like we work through it until we fully understand its functionality.

Incentivized

I don't know what it would be like in the for-profit arena, but for the non-profit arena, it is an excellent product. I love how you don't actually have to close years and are able to get information that spans over the year-end. And the grant tracking is excellent too. It is just an excellent accounting system.

Incentivized

We switched to a more "robust" software program with the hiring of a new CFO. The migration of historical data and ancillary information has been cumbersome and riddle with errors and issues. In hindsight much of what the new software program was touted to accomplish is not come to fruition. QB Desktop Premier was sufficient for the organization needs

Incentivized

I have rarely encountered any issues accessing MIP Fund Accounting over the years. On the rare occasions when availability was interrupted, the reasons were always found in-house when using the on-premises version. Since we have migrated to the MIP cloud, we have had no issues with availability. Any maintenance or updates are always communicated to us and are usually done outside of business hours.

Incentivized

This is very reliable software, the desktop version is fast. If there is a problem, it is most likely on your own hardware!

Incentivized

MIP Fund Accounting is an important asset for performing search queries. If I had to do a historical search query without MIP Fund Accounting, I very well might have to pull data from three different programs, turn each piece into like-data myself, and then consolidate it all down into interpretive data. MIP Fund Accounting does it all by itself and has a wide array of ways to filter down as specifically or broadly as you want for any given query.

Incentivized

It takes forever to load.

Incentivized

I have not reached out to MIP for technical support; however, their website offers great help resources so I can solve an issue on my own. Another team member reached out to MIP for support and was helped quickly. The transition process took longer than expected due to a lag in communication.

Incentivized

This is where QuickBooks falls short. Many times my staff has had questions that have not been able to get resolved easily with a chat or call. I personally have had more general questions that have not been answered easily as well. I think QuickBooks needs to provide the resources of having readily accessible help in order to make it simpler to get solutions.

Incentivized

There are no specifics on what happens if you make one choice or another to know which is the best selection. This is true for JVs and AP. In training we were not given specifics of what happens when one possibility is selected over another.

Incentivized

The training with Laura was amazing. She had answered all our questions and customized the training to our needs that we are working with and trying to address using MIP accounting. The only thing I wish that could come out of the trainings was to have permanent access to the recordings of our paid trainings we received. They recordings of the training only last for a short time before it goes away which makes it hard to go back and re-watch and learn.

Incentivized

Again, I was not directly involved with the planning and setup of the software. However, I was involved in training my staff during the implementation phase. As with any software implementation, consistency of training is key and a willingness to seek out help from Customer Support helps tremendously to insure accuracy of information and training.

Incentivized

It is important to do your research. There are tutorial videos online that could help new user of this accounting system. These tutorials are straightforward and easily understandable.

Incentivized

I've utilized other ERP accounting software like Infor, NetSuite, and MS Dynamics, to name a few. MIP Fund Accounting offers flexibility and room for growth while not being overly heavy on your team to maintain it. And, we're now learning more about the add-on's and more advanced capabilities to leverage with our team.

Incentivized

We've used QuickBooks Desktop Premier for many, many years. We've not reviewed any other accounting products internally - but have a handful of the customers that use Cyma (mentioned above). While I've never had occasion to functionally use Cyma, I have had to install and troubleshoot problems with it. Put simply... not impressed. I found installation a bit confusing, and once started up, I wasn't able to easily find anything I would have wanted to find - where conversely, QuickBooks Desktop Premier excels on both of these fronts.

Incentivized

MIP is easy to install and use on my work laptop. I can still use the software when travelling for work or when working from home. It is always reliable and effective. This applies to other people on our organization as well. Employees who need access to the MIP database are able to access it from their desktop computers or laptops

Incentivized

They're getting better. Still room for improvement.

Incentivized

• When used, it also visibility to how we are using our allotted Government funds. It allows us to make sure we are being efficient with those dollars.
• MIP Fund Accounting allows us to be more accurate in posting expenses. It allows us to be sure of which accounts are we are posting to. We can pull those accounts in real time and make sure that our entries are having the desired effect on the accounts involved.
• MIP Fund Accounting allows accountability in that we can see who posted what, when they posted, and to which accounts they posted.

Incentivized

• Most of our business clients use QuickBooks which makes it efficient for us to work on clients that use the program. We can import QuickBooks data into our software which adds efficiencies to our tax practice.
• Having staff that are familiar with the software enables our firm to provide quality service to the clients that use QuickBooks.
• We receive referrals from satisfied QuickBooks clients.

Incentivized