The business version of Quicken is Quickbooks, and -- while I've never used it for PTO stuff -- I'd suggest that it could also be a good tool. The biggest difference between Quicken and Quickbooks (besides price -- QB is more expensive)is that QB allows for business-like tracking of expense categories and revenue categories. The program provides excellent reportig and auditing capabilities, as well. It's not tough to learn. Further, almost any accountant you might work with will be very familiar with it.
I believe our treasurer is using Quicken now, but we've simply used an Excel spreadsheet in the past.
Critter - on your old version of quicken... usually about now there are lots of offers for "free" copies of Quicken when purchasing a tax software package. (Actually, you have to buy it for about $29.95 and there's a $30 rebate). I don't use quicken, so I just ignore it myself. But if our PTO had needed a current version, I would have gladly picked one up and donated it. You might put the word out to your members (if they haven't already finished their taxes).
Right now we dont have a budget, but we don't have anything to budget yet either! We are in the process of our first fundraiser now. Nothing to much but at least we will have a few bucks to start with. We don't have any idea how much money we will have to spend, so a budget is hard to set up at this point. Thanks..
We have used Quicken for 5-6 years with good results. I have also heard that Microsoft Money is a good choice. Our version of Quicken is old, but the newer version probably has features I wished ours had like the ability to net income categories and related expense categories easily. Whatever software you select, I highly recommend you set up a budget with income and expense categories, so you can manage your money throughout the year. I believe we avoid potential conflicts over money because we have a budget which our members approve at the start of the year. Any deviations from that plan must be approved at a monthly meeting. Works well.
we are a new pto this year and I am treasurer. We are non-profit approved. Our bank account is almost empty (but hopefully not for long) and I need some suggestions for accounting before things get crazy. Does anyone use a good accounting program that will help us? We want to establish good bookkeeping proceedures right from the beginning. thanks for any help.
