The Alternative Facts of Intacct’s Chart of Accounts

Intacct is a cloud-based financial software provider. Their products range across various accounting and financial needs and industries, including nonprofits.

However, their nonprofit-focused accounting products, specifically Chart of Accounts, leave something to be desired.

Below we’ll examine a few alternative facts regarding Intacct’s Chart of Accounts:

Alternative Fact #1: The Intacct Chart of Account is the first nonprofit accounting system using transaction dimensions

Actual Fact: Actually, Blackbaud was the first to introduce transaction dimensions over 15 years ago. Their Transaction Attributes, transaction dimensions, were created to provide in-depth reporting and tracking for Financial Edge. However, despite introducing Transaction Attributes, Blackbaud knew that it still limited nonprofits.

That’s where Blackbaud’s Chart of Accounts comes in. Their Chart of Accounts structure uses chart segments for projects and grants, allowing nonprofits to capture additional detail within their General Ledger.

The following are difficult or not available within Intacct’s Chart of Accounts:

• Proposed vs. actual budget – To find your proposed vs. actual budget within Intacct’s Chart of Accounts, you’ll have to run multiple reports. The information is not readily available. However with Blackbaud, this data is available on screen, by account, with ending and beginning net asset balances.
• Inability to add information to your accounts – Being able to add information like headcounts or funding types can be extremely helpful for reporting – but this isn’t possible when using Intacct’s Chart of Accounts.
• Reimbursable expense management – This feature is not available within Intacct’s Chart of Accounts.
  Controlling coding errors – Controlling coding errors can be difficult in Intacct’s Chart of Accounts because it’s hard to direct both valid and invalid coding combinations.

Alternative Fact #2: Intacct is designed for nonprofit use

Actual Fact: Intacct is not designed specifically for nonprofit organizations. It is actually a broad use accounting platform, helping various industries with their financial needs.

Blackbaud’s Financial Edge software was designed with nonprofits in mind, especially when it comes to reporting, budgeting and fund balancing.

Reporting: True nonprofit fund accounting software will allow reporting in multiple formats to appease various stakeholders, including management and board of directors. With Intacct, users will have to developer various reports and manual Excel manipulations to create the necessary reports.

Budgeting: Budgeting is critical for nonprofit organizations. Financial managers are constantly making sure their grant monies are spent accordingly. And despite Intacct’s addition of ‘Spend Control’, the feature does little to help nonprofit financial managers.

Fund balancing: Probably the most important function to nonprofit accounting software: fund balancing. Intacct’s Chart of Accounts limits fund balancing, as the software is not designed for nonprofits. It modifies the software, but still doesn’t give financial managers easy access to the information they need. Blackbaud’s Financial Edge does however, providing more insight into where funds, programs, and grants currently stand.

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Take the time to choose a fund accounting software that fits your nonprofit. Don’t be swayed by buzzwords or marketing fluff. Learn just how the software is going to simplify your current accounting process, make you and your colleagues more efficient, and help you spend more time focusing on the mission.