MIP Fund Accounting

Pros

1. Configuration of chart of account. 2. Account code combinations to allow for control of account code usage. 3. Import/Export of data functions - We are able to import our 30,000+ lines of data for payroll entry each 2 weeks. 4. Accounts Payable EFT notifications - When we pay vendors via ACH, we set up the system so a notification is sent to the vendor each time we make a payment and it includes remittance details. 5. Administrative access controls. - Admins have the ability to control everything a user needs to see. 6. Customer support is always helpful

Cons

1. Although the import function is a huge plus, sometimes I wish we could speed up a the process for larger entries.

Pros

The best thing is the multi-dimentional logic built into the product, which enables it to track almost any measure (P&L, Balance Sheet) across various dimensions (company, department, program, grant, restriction type, etc.) This gives you almost total flexibility to manage your organization's finances in any way you want.

Cons

My only pet peeves - none of which are deal-breakers - are:
- Lack of drill-down capabilities straight from the reports. Say you run a P&L report and want to know the details behind a certain expense figure. In QuickBooks, you can just double-click on the figure and get a detailed report of the details behind it. In MIP you are forced to run a separate Transactions report. The information can still be obtained; it just takes longer.
- No "Balance Sheet by Month" report. This is another basic report that even Quickbooks has. It's very important when you're analyzing your historical results.
- The documentation is horrible. There are no examples whatsoever. You need to know the system already in order to understand what the manuals mean to say.
- Certain reports should give you the codes along with their names. For example, a Distribution Codes report tells you that code 1125 splits costs 40% to Program 254 and 60% to Program 350. But the report doesn't tell you that code 1125 is for employee "John Do", Program 254 is "Advocacy," and Program 350 is "Shelter". You need to run a separate Chart of Accounts report and then do vlookups. This should be a really easy thing to code into the package.

Pros

The Saas version makes it easy to implement and easy on the IT department (they don't have to do anything). It also makes it easy to access from anywhere. We moved from Blackbaud because their system was so clunky and I couldn't get financials out of it easily. With Abila, it's very easy to run a variety of financials that I can tailor to my needs. It's also very easy to drill down (not from the financial reports) to find the detail I'm looking for with links to supporting documents (i.e. invoices). The A/R, fixed asset and other modules let us keep accounting for everything in one place.

Cons

The financial reports are a bit limited in terms of showing groupings of departments without being able to show the total on the same report. It can't do monthly balance sheets on one report. And you can't enter operational/non-financial data for more comprehensive reporting.

The wait time for calling into their help center is still unacceptable (hold times of no less than 30 minutes). They know about this and, instead of fixing it, tell users to use their chat function. While their response time on chat is very fast, I hate having to type out my issues and responses. I just want to talk to a live person.

Pros

Multiple users can be on the program at one time. It is relatively user friendly as long as you have basic computer knowledge.

Cons

The time it took to go from one feature to another was frustrating when you are on the phone with a customer and needed to get to several different places quickly, however, that could have been due to the number of users we had on our server at a given time. If an older person, who has limited computer knowledge were to try and use this program, they may need a training course to become comfortable using it.

Pros

It is reliable and doesn't crash. Good suite of features that suit our essential needs, such as payroll, AP, AR, reports, budgets and fund management. Other tools are add ons that we do not currently use but had to contract with a few additional third parties to meet our needs.

Cons

Annual fee and need for annual updates. Normally these are not too cumbersome but occasionally they are more difficult to implement for our applications team and it takes up a good chunk of their time.