Three Reasons Cloud Accounting is Right for Nonprofit Organizations

Running the finances at a nonprofit is a challenge. With strict budgets, additional reporting needs, and fewer staff members, the prospect of doing something as simple as closing the books or generating an ad hoc report for a donor could send chills down your spine. Naturally, however, the only thing that seems more painful than closing the books is the thought of moving away from your current solution.

It’s a common quandary: too big for one option yet seemingly too busy to change to another.

However, there are good reasons you should not only start looking for new ERP software, and better ones why you should consider deploying it in the cloud. For instance, did you know that thanks to modern cloud technology, you can be up and running in about half the time it takes to implement most on-premises solutions?

Today, we explore some of the top reasons nonprofit organizations are moving to the cloud, why 72% wished they had made the move earlier, and where to begin your search.

Lower Upfront Costs

If the reason you are looking to upgrade is because your server has reached the end of its useful life (or if you’re looking to move past entry-level, desktop accounting software and don’t know which way to turn), know this: The cloud has made it possible to break free from the the server room.

What does this mean? No licensing costs, no expensive hardware (whether that’s on year one or at the end of the server’s useful life), and more rapid implementation. All this and more results in much lower day one costs, replaced by a much more transparent, much more easy-to-budget monthly subscription price.

For nonprofit organizations on a strict budget, this means you won’t be stuck with rigid software pricing that is built too big or too small for you, you can stop worrying about maintenance bills, and you can even reduce finance’s need to call IT for major (or minor concerns), meaning you can put your focuses on what matters, helping your nonprofit organization toward accomplishing its mission.

Rapid Payback

Not only are the upfront implementation and ongoing maintenance costs lower than your average on-premises software, the productivity gains, reduced reliance on IT, and removal of manual processes and outdated systems means that nonprofit organizations can see their software pay for itself within the first year.

With an average payback period of just over six months and a return on investment on average of 250%, this will allow you to put money back into the organization through cost savings and increased productivity nearly immediately.

Better Security at Lower Costs

Even if your nonprofit organization has a lower budget than a comparatively sized for-profit organization, it doesn’t mean it should have lower expectations of security, privacy, or attention to detail. Cloud providers like Intacct designed the product to meet the needs of any organization—for-profit or not—so that finance (and IT) leaders can rest easy knowing their data is safe.

As many of the most innovative cloud providers rely on the transparent, monthly pricing model, they have to earn your trust month in and month out. It’s why companies like Intacct will pay back up to 50% of your subscription cost for each percentage point below their 99.8% guarantee (don’t get too excited, their 12-month rolling average was 99.984%, or 7 minutes each month).

Additionally, Intacct has taken steps to protect, maintain and back up data, employing data protection tactics afforded only by giant, Fortune 100 companies.

They spend millions protecting and backing up your data (transaction log backups occur every half hour and sent to disaster recovery data center every 2-4 hours—at worst, you lose 4 hours of work).
Data is backed up to tape and offsite locations daily.
They use multiple redundant data centers so that even if one were destroyed, your data is still safe.
They employ white hat hackers and bounty programs to point out potential weak spots, fixing them immediately.
Your data is completely isolated from email threats.
They maintain a 24/7/365 watch of armed guards, as well as biometric security and intrusion detection methods to ensure no unauthorized persons can physically access your data.

Best of all, the data is yours and always will be. This is all part of the Buy with Confidence Guarantee, one of the strongest, most customer focused guarantees in the industry.

Next Steps

If you feel that you don’t have the time or budget to make the move, take a second to ask yourself how much longer you can handle the growing burden of completing basic tasks at your organization. Ask yourself how much it would cost to hire a new accountant, and how long one extra person on your staff would suffice before you would need to hire another.

If you’ve got more to do than time to do it, maybe it’s time to start plotting your next steps.

We invite you to learn about some of the upcoming regulations and standards you will need to address (and whether your current software can handle the changes), and watch the following video from Intacct Success Story DonorsChoose: