| AccuFund Software Review |
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| Written by Pam Baker, Contributing Editor | ||||
| Thursday, 30 August 2007 05:41 | ||||
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AccuFund is a flexible and expandable financial accounting suite designed to handle the needs of nonprofit entities. The company has been in the market in a variety of incarnations for about 12 years. The company started out creating add-in modules for accounting packages like Great Plains. This concentration led the company to develop its expertise in data import and export and connecting its own applications to host application databases.
What has emerged is a robust suite of applications used by over 1,100 customers. AccuFund says that its products abide by FASB and GASB guidelines, meaning you can rely on the results for audit purposes as well as simply providing accurate financial information.
I tried the software over a remote connection and liked what I saw. The user interface is clean and consistent, and all the functions were easy to identify and access.
Basic operation
AccuFund describes its program as 'client/server' since the program itself is installed on a network server and workstations attached to the server via the network can access the program and its data. That means that remote users need to use a program like Citrix to access the server. In today's increasingly distributed world, I would like to see more software companies deliver their applications as web based programs. Web based programs don't require special servers like Citrix, that cost extra dollars. I understand that for many, or maybe all software companies, a change from the client/server model to a web model will be a significant project. However I also think that the benefits to their users will be at least as significant in terms of the amount of use they can get from the program. My observation is not aimed only at AccuFund, and indeed, some of the advanced capabilities that AccuFund provides would require advanced programming to make them available as web applications. Still, the company or companies that offer these technologies will give their customers distinct advantages.
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About the Author: Kurt Martin is a Founder and Group Publisher of Progressive Media Group (PMG) and the Publisher of Nonprofit Technology News. During his 4 years as Publisher of The NonProfit Times, he grew the imprint from a single newspaper to a community of websites, online job boards, email newsletters and digital editions of the print editions. Prior to taking the role of Publisher he was the East Coast Sales Manager for Broad Daylight, Inc. a knowledgebase company. He also held management roles in advertising and ciruclation sales at American Banker/Bond Buyer (Thomson), Faulkner & Grey (Thomson) and SourceMedia (Investcorp.) Kurt graduated from Montclair State University with a B.A. in Political Science and Public Administration. |
