Tracking/billing memberships in an Non-Profit Organization

Yes, your members are "customers". Include all known info (e-mail, address, etc) in their profile so that you can take advantage of the built in letter writing features that QB has.

Use the categories in Quicken to create the P &L section of your Chart of Accounts. Add your bank accounts and any other assets the NPO has to your balance sheet.

Create an invoice for each member's annual dues that are owed. As they pay their dues use the Receive Payment task to clear their invoice from A/R. Put the payments into Undeposited Funds and then use the Banking>>Make deposits to group the checks to line up with your actual bank deposits. This will help simplify your bank recs tremendously.

If you need to track the year of dues then I would use Classes instead of Jobs. Think of Jobs as a sub customer. A good example of job would be a family is the customer with each child in the family setup as jobs.

If you need to distinquish members from mailing list only you could setup a customer type and enter that info in the "additional info" tab.

I found a link to a NFP website that you might look at for more help: NFPAccountingHelp.org

Hope this gives you some ideas to play with. I would also suggest that you find a Pro advisor that can help you directly.

Thanks Laura for the quick reply - Is there an easy way within QB Pro to simply set up the membership so that upon some expiration date (job end date?) the invoice is automatically 'created' for the new year? The use of 'customers' to keep track of members seems somewhat of a kludge to me....I think I saw some NPO add on product that might handle this in more of a straightforward method?

I really have been quite happy using quicken and excel (since 2001) to manage the club's books and membership list. I am giving QB a try since, as you know from the Quicken forum, I got this copy of QB 'free'. If there's a LOT of hassle trying to cram what I'm used to using in the past, then it isn't worth it. To me, having the membership list integrated into the accounting system is what was attractive to me, but I don't want to go to contortions to do it.

You can "memorize" a transaction such as an annual invoice for the dues. With each member, enter the first invoice. Then select Edit>>memorize Invoice. You can specify here how often you want the transaction to be posted.

You might check this 3rd party tool:

to see if this might help mechanize the invoice creation. To get your customers into QB look under File>>utilities>>import>>excel files. There are options here to copy/paste your customer information into a excel template.

The initial setup might take some time but I think you'll find it nicer to use than Quicken for tracking your NPO.

Wow your being so sweet I'm getting a cavity reading this post. The OP will use any excuse to stay with Quicken so why waste your time. Anyone who is familiar with both products knows QB is far better suited for the task. I'm only guessing, but I bet the OP does not get paid for handing the books and next year someone else will take over the job. It just may not be worth his time learning a new product.

If he didn't get QB for free we would not be having this thread.

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Gee Haskel,do I know you? I must, because I can't believe you'd possibly know exactly what is going on in my mind to assume you know everything that is motivating me in this. I know Laura from the Quicken forum, and wouldn't waste her time (or this group's) if I didn't have a bonefide interest in the subject. Why would I possibly spent the time playing with QB on Christmas (of all days) if I didn't intend to use it?

The club I am the treasurer of is a small NPO social/exercise club, and of course I don't get paid for it. Everything I do for it (and I've been an officer for 8 years in various capacities) is volunteer, and if I find a module that handles members easier that what I see I might have to do with QB it would be out of my own pocket.

I am honestly trying to give QB a fair shake here. Quicken has been fine for our purposes - we only have a bank account of some $1500 (on a good day) and if I write more than 4 checks a month, I'm busy. We get a "Bill" from someone maybe twice a month - usually in the form of a receipt for someone buying soda and cookies for our social time after a walk or bike ride.

Before you cast aspersions on honest posts, sit back, take a deep breath, and reflect before hitting the send key.

Good comeback. I see you have met the group cynic. Don't pay too much attention to him.

Don't be afraid to ask questions here.

Well, 'cynic' is not the word that came to mind when I read his post, but I'll leave it at that.

Just got back from Barnes and Nobles perusing two books for two hours on the subject Laura! Probably will have to buy one of the two of them at some point. Learned a little about 'items' that apparently I need to do. What I think I'm planning is to take our books from the beginning of our fiscal year 7/31/2008 and enter and learn transactions while continuing to track in Quicken and Excel and see what happens. If I get 'stuck', I'll let you know. After all, I don't ever want to be accused of doing anything "Bernie Madoff" like.

Ruffling through two books for hours and getting spiddle and god knows what ever else on them plus not buying either one says alot. I can only hope you paid for coffee or a piece of cake while you read for free.

Oh my, how little you know about Haskel. All I want for Chrismas is QB

2009.

There you go again, giving another good reason to stay with Quicken.

Not casting any aspersions but simply making an observation and commenting on it.

But you see, I do want to use QB. What you also don't know about me is that I treat the use of financial software (and the industry infrastructure in general as a hobby) and moving out to QB (as long as I can still do my job as Treasurer without screwing things up) is my idea of "fun"! (Sad, yes, I know.)

So do bear with me Mr. LaPort while I figure all this out. Peace.

You were sure a lot more polite than I would have been on your response. Actually, your questions are right up my alley. I am the treasurer (unpaid) of a low vision Not-for-Profit group as well and have been trying to convert from spreadsheets and quicken P&B.

Your questions are quite timely and thank you Laura for your answers. Mike