CommunitySuite Fund Accounting

A unified system that delights both internal and external users

Kommentare: Overall, a great experience. The team at Foundant is very responsive and the software is easy to use.

Vorteile:

Unified solution, clean & simple interface, the dev team is very open to suggestions and using IdeaLab, users can submit and vote on desired features/functionality. Tech support and service is phenomenal. Going from a non-unified system to a unified system has been like night and day. Being able to offer our Fund Advisors an online portal where they have 24x7 access in a clean site has been a long-awaited feature for us.

Nachteile:

That we didn't have it implemented sooner. It has saved so much staff time.

Real Time Money Management for Nonprofits

Kommentare: I love that it integrates so well with the GLM and the SLM (Grant and Scholarship Management platforms) and that our accountant can send us the data reports we need instantaneously.

Vorteile:

I love all the data you can accumulate and process in Csuite. The reports are easy to create, they look nice and they are accurate. You can rely on them for new donors, investors and auditors.

Nachteile:

That they use Stripe as a processor. It is hard to get reports out of and takes a larger fee than our other processor.

It's a frustrating system that is missing so much compared to other options.

Vorteile:

It is cloud-based. Unlimited Users. The accounting system seems to work, though I am not an accountant so who knows.

Nachteile:

Donation pages are not customizable or user-friendly. There is no way to track the source of donations (even though the description says donation tracking). If you want to track ROI on your website, ads or communications, you can't. There's no integration with ANY other software(other than Stripe). They do not verify users by email address, so you constantly have to be on top of duplicate accounts from donations. The ticketing system is barebones and difficult to set up. There's no custom reporting.

Great for Community Foundations

Kommentare: We have been very happy with our CommunitySuite Fund Accounting purchase. It has facilitated more donor and fundholder engagement. It has also allowed us to move in the direction of a less paper office environment.

Vorteile:

The fund accounting features make it easy to track transactions, allocate investment income, and administer fees by fund. CommunitySuite Fund Accounting has the ability to create multiple allocation, fee, and cash management structures to meet the unique parameters of each fund.

Nachteile:

Features are constantly being improved based on user-feedback. These upgrades are often helpful in allowing more flexibility and efficiency in our processes. Sometimes the releases are not relevant to our foundation, and that's ok. Occasionally, releases cause more work - either learning a new process, or on rare occasions, feel like a step backwards in product development.

Almost 100% spot on

Vorteile:

SO much functionality in profiles and profile maintenance make it a dream for creating donor and other profile lists, and linking people, organizations, and funds together. Fund profile also has such incredible detail and linking.The ability to drill down on figures is also wonderful.

Nachteile:

The only thing I miss from FIMS was the Columnar Fund Balance report. Seems like the auditors like that, and it's very difficult to reproduce in CSuite.

Finally, A Modern Software Solution Catering Specifically to Community Foundation Needs!

Kommentare: We have what I would call "a beautiful relationship". Not only do we know our team at Foundant, we like them and enjoy hanging out with them. They are constantly seeking ways to improve their product and provide the best customer experience possible. They do that by seeking to better understand the way we function and anticipating industry trends. Additionally, they have made allowances for direct buy-in/investment from a number of community foundations, thus insuring that the company and the company's interests will remain true to community foundations for years to come. No other software provider in our field has taken that step so far as I am aware of.

Vorteile:

There are three things I like most about this software: 1) It is designed specifically for use by community foundations - they get "it"! 2) The customer service. Second to none. Responsive. Knowledgeable. Experienced. Resourceful. Caring. Oh, and they are a heckuva a lot of fun, too! 3) Migration. Rarely is the term "easy" used in close quarters with discussions of transitioning from one core software package to another. However, the good folks at Foundant specialize in this process. In fact, it may be the only company out there that has customers who consistently use the term "flawless" when describing their data migration (at least from FIMS to C-Suite). Basically, Foundant has built itself upon the idea that community foundations are their niche market. Make that "only market". Community foundations (CF's) are their only customers. What's more, a large portion of their staff have past personal work experience either with CF's or with the former industry-specific software, FIMS, from which the majority of community foundations have or are in-process of migrating from.

Nachteile:

There is no perfect solution (yet) for community foundations. While Foundant comes fairly close by providing a ready-made solution, it is not as customizable as our particular organization would prefer. While it appears to be able to handle all of our required needs, we will be employing a few work-arounds and changes to our processes to make it fit those needs. Ideally, a software solution would allow the client to change the program to suit its workflow. Not exactly so with C-Suite. That said, it is a HUGE improvement in terms of integration and report generation over FIMS. It also increases functionality at least 10 fold. Not looking to purchase an additional CRM solution (cough...Salesforce...Raisers Edge...cough)? C-Suite is still a huge upgrade over FIMS.

Promote transparency, ease of reporting, and accurate donation history with C-Suite

Kommentare: We shifted from Quick Books and many spreadsheets to C-Suite in 2015, and have never looked back. The transparency for fund managers and staff alike has been wonderful over the years.

Vorteile:

Cloud based, ease of use, great integration of CRM with accounting and event management, and excellent history tracking for funds--C-Suite delivers.

Nachteile:

A recent change to no linked chart of accounts when making vendor payments and other entries is the sole annoying feature of this program.

Community Foundation recommendation

Kommentare: Overall, we have had a terrific experience with this software and have no regrets at our organization for making the switch back in 2021.

Vorteile:

The feature that our organization liked the most was the ease of use for the software. We apprecaite having the sandbox feature to "test" before submitting in the live system.

Nachteile:

The feature that our organization likes the least would be the balance swap process. Still needing further understanding of this process.

CommunitySuite is Perfect for Community Foundations

Kommentare: I am very happy with CommunitySuite. I'm a professional accountant and have worked in nonprofit accounting for 22 years. This is BY FAR the best software for fund accounting, tracking and reporting to donors and other stakeholders.

Vorteile:

This software is exactly what we need to track our funds, donors, and operations. Tech support is always quick to respond and willing to work through problems to help us learn.

Nachteile:

The only thing I would add that would make it 100 for me as the accountant/CFO would be a payroll module.

CCCF-Csuite

Kommentare: I like how community suite has a help page, tutorials, constant updates, and how they take suggestions from its consumers in order to better their platform. I'd rate my overall experience a 10 compared to the last software we used to use.

Vorteile:

I love how we can use one platform to manage funds, donations, grants, and scholarships.

Nachteile:

A feature I would like to be incorporated is to be able to send payment confirmation emails for electronic/ach (like we do for grant payments) for the voucher payments. We have to manually send these emails currently.

Interacting with CommunitySuite Fund Accounting

Vorteile:

It was easy but challenging at the same time, navigating is pretty easy but functionality are challenging. Everything was not shown during the implementation and hard to discuss if was the first time use.

Nachteile:

Some of the functions could be explained better and for a non profit organization in ways to utilize the application to benefit staff for an easy workflow. Our processes are implementing new ways to use CommunitySuite Fund Accounting.

Fund Accounting Software That Works!

Kommentare: The software and the Foundant support team has helped streamline our processes and increased productivity. The fear of changing accounting software was quickly eliminated by a wonderful team that helped every step of the way.

Vorteile:

CommunitySuite is user friendly and intuitive. The initial struggle of learning to do customized reports ended with a powerful feature to get the information I need. Customer service has been outstanding throughout our time with Foundant as a whole. The Sandbox feature where you can practice with real information and try new processes/ideas has been invaluable.

Nachteile:

The summary pages are not organized in a way that is useful for me. Some of the date features are a struggle for our controller because they are not the way we process.

Always Improving

Kommentare: I found it was easy to navigate when learning, and there are great tutorials to help you get familiar with the software. The support during integration was amazing. As the software goes through upgrades, Foundant provides easy-to-follow webinars.

Vorteile:

We have been using Foundant for five years and they are always improving. They have different levels of support that are very helpful and quick.

Nachteile:

The custom reporting takes quite a bit of practice to learn.

Best tech decision we made!

Kommentare: CSuite has been a game-changer for us - we are now able to generate more robust reports and dig deep into our data. This software will enable our Foundation to grow at an exponential rate.

Vorteile:

We had been using Quickbooks and spreadsheets to do fund accounting. The transition to CSuite has been transformational for our office!

Nachteile:

The software isn't the most inuitive and reporting functions are somewhat difficult to learn, however, Foundant has a great support team that is able to assist us as needed.

It has been a real improvement

Kommentare: It has been a welcome addition to the operation of our Foundation and we really can't imagine life without it now!

Vorteile:

The fact that everything transfers over seemlessly from other CSuite platforms (GLM and SLM) to CSuite for payments and profiles. It makes everything so much more simpler.

Nachteile:

It did take a bit of set-up time, but that has paid off ten-fold with the ease of operating.

Love CSuite

Kommentare: I'm so glad we made the switch. Much better and understands the nuances of community foundations.

Vorteile:

The newest updates to profiles puts everything at your finger tips.

Nachteile:

It takes a while to learn the intricacies of the system and the new terminology but support is available every step of the way.

Una gran opción en el mercado.

Kommentare: Mi experiencia de us fue muy buena debido a que desdel primer uso te das cuenta que lo que es capaz esta herramienta comienzas a ver el manejo de la contabilidad mucho mas facil estan completa que puedes realizar muchos fondos financieros con multiples tipos de fonfo.

Vorteile:

Me gusta ya que me da una muy buena experiencia de uso ya que e ayuda con la administración de las entidades a las que laboro, Echo con esta herramienta puedo Transferir saldos entre cuentas y fondos puedo administrar el efectivo dentro del sistema.

Nachteile:

No tengo ninguna pega a esta herramienta me gusta porque es excelente es una gran opción de a que es económica su versatilidad es muy básica.

Worth the switch!

Kommentare: Our overall experience has been extremely positive and I would not hesitate to recommend the software.

Vorteile:

The best part of this software is it replaced the need for us to triple enter data! I also have to say the team that assisted us with migration and training were fantastic!! As well, the support they offer after implementation and their online help database has made this move so worth the hard work we had to put in to get where we are today.

Nachteile:

The implementation and training process I found very challenging and there were days I thought I would never get it. However, their constant support and the extra training we arranged for to make sure we had the processes down right, made it all worth it in the end.

Hello Foundant Goodbye FIMS

Kommentare: Our overall experience has been nothing but positive. The employees at CommunitySuite are smart problem solvers and with this software, we have been able to grow over 200%. Our efforts now go into donors and grantees instead of spreadsheets.

Vorteile:

Foundant is very flexible. We have several users with different levels of computer knowledge all can navigate in Foundant. The training is great and the programmers are always looking to make the software more user-friendly. The time we save using this software allows us to spend more time in donor and community development.

Nachteile:

There is not much that I don't like about Foundant. The only thing is new releases and it's really not a negative. It's just that so many good things get implemented that I don't always keep up.

CommunitySuite is a lifesaver

Kommentare: Before migrating to CommunitySuite, my organization had to use two separate solutions - a fund accounting software and a CRM software - and staff had to duplicate work to get data out of and in to each system. The fund accounting software was antiquated and not user friendly, and the CRM software was great for donor management but terrible for accounting. Plus, the customer service was impersonal and not always helpful. CommunitySuite brings it all together in one package, which has streamlined our operations and allowed staff to spend more time on more productive tasks and projects. And, we feel like we personally know the folks at Foundant and can rely on them anytime for anything. We are planning to eventually purchase two other solutions that Foundant Technologies offers to have complete integration of our operations.

Vorteile:

Fund accounting is unique even by accounting standards. Using other solutions that weren't made to do what we needed them to in order to cobble together our operations was a nightmare. CommunitySuite brings it all together in one easy-to-use solution that is constantly being improved - and they take customer feedback to heart when making improvements. Additionally, the personalized training and the absolutely stellar customer service Foundant Technologies provides, coupled with the opportunities to meet and work with their team one-on-one, makes purchasing CommunitySuite a no-brainer!

Nachteile:

CommunitySuite is great for fund accounting, but it's lacking a little on the CRM side. It works, but not as well as some other solutions (but those solutions don't have the robust fund accounting capabilities, which was the priority for my organization). However, Foundant Technologies is constantly working to make improvements on the CRM side, and I am confident that it will only get better and better!

Purpose-built, incredible, responsive customer service make this an easy decision to buy

Kommentare: We needed a fully integrated suite without trying to cobble together multiple packages like QuickBooks and Salesforce. I have worked in ERP/Financial software for over 20 years with Tier 1 firms (BaaN, Infor) as an implementation consultant. NONE of these firms can touch CommunitySuite for responsiveness, rapid development of new features, ease of use and support. I have direct links at the VP Product level and feel that the corporate culture is first-rate. Community Suite (and the GLM module we also license) are growing with us and we look to adding SLM as well. Cannot imagine how we would have handled hundreds of business, nonprofit and individual grants during COVID-19 without this product and their team.

Vorteile:

CommunitySuite combines solid financials with good CRM/donor management and tightly integrated grant and scholarship management modules, if needed (extra cost). Extremely easy to implement and use. With excellent support from Customer Success Manager team, we were trained on key functionality and brought foundation from spreadsheets to state of the art systems in less than two months. That support has never waivered and after 2 years of use , they only keep getting better, with more features .

Nachteile:

Donor management and integration with third party payers (Stripe) may not be quite as robust as a standalone boutique module, but it is steadily getting more robust. Newly enhanced custom reporting tools are also filling a gap that existed two years ago.

Community Suite Lite for the Win!

Kommentare: Overall it has been a great experience and we are very satisfied. There is not another vendor on the market right now that we could consider!

Vorteile:

This software is intuitive. I came into my role with zero training. Our foundation was in the process of switching from FIMS to Foundant. I am so grateful they decided to make this change. I had to do very little work in FIMS before we were up in running in Foundant. With no one to help me, FIMS was so hard to navigate and understand. I immediately felt comfortable in Foundant and through their available online trainings easily taught myself the program.

Nachteile:

My one complaint with the program is financial statements. They are great within the software, but when it comes to preparing reports for donors or board meetings I have not found a style I like. I have made my own in Excel for the time being. It's not that they do not have the capability to do reports; it's the look of them that I do not like.

Community Suite Software

Kommentare: Overall, our transition to Community Suite created informational transparency in the organization resulting in increased efficiency.

Vorteile:

The product is intuitive and comprehensive. My entire organization can use the same platform for grantmaking, accounting and customer relationship management. The accounting software allows for easy reporting and analysis. What I truly like best, and what separates Community Suite from other software products I have used, is the Customer Service. Their team walked us through implementation and provides both technical and real world help in a timely manner. And, Community Suite is constantly working on upgrades, some suggested by users, that make it a real world tool for success.

Nachteile:

An area for improvement, which is being mitigated by Community Suite's communication that changes are in process, would be in traditional financial reporting i.e., having a financial report that looks like financial statements. Such reports can be made currently but they lose some of the functionality that makes Community Suite so powerful. To be clear, all the information is available but I find myself using Excel more than I would like. I expect that these concerns to be addressed in the next few quarters.

CommunitySuite provides platform to grow our foundation

Kommentare: CommunitySuite allowed our Community Foundation to fully automate our operations relatively early in our growth as a Community Foundation with very limited resources. It set the stage for the rapid growth that we've experienced and was definitely worth the investment.

Vorteile:

CommunitySuite provides an integrated platform to run our Community Foundation at a price that is affordable for even a very small Community Foundation. The support and training provided through the implementation process made it possible to implement the software with very limited staff. Once implemented, the simplified fund accounting process made it possible to offer more options to our donors, including the introduction of non-endowed funds and multiple investment portfolios. These increased options have helped us to more than double the size of our foundation in less than two years. We could not have accomplished what we have without CommunitySuite.

Nachteile:

The campaign process is my least favorite part of the software. While it is nice to have an integrated system to manage events, mailing lists, etc., those who are accustomed to using dedicated event management systems may find the features somewhat limited. It works fine, just without a lot of bells and whistles. Since we generally don't need bells and whistles, and we appreciate the integrated aspects of campaigns, we happily use the features provided. It is simply an area that has room for improvement.

Instant Friends

Kommentare: CS has a robust reports feature that has helped make my job as director much easier.

Vorteile:

The product is amazing and the company is always open to ideas that could make it even better. I was seriously impressed with the training process. BEFORE we could begin to implement, we HAD to go through a series of training modules that introduced all facets of the software. What a great way to make sure that we were aware of everything available on our new purchase. So many times, I've worked with software that may have had capabilities that we were unaware of. Not so with Foundant's products. You do your homework before you implement so you KNOW what it can do. Great way to get all of us on the same page! And, the people who work for this company are top notch, down-to-earth, very wonderful people. You gotta love people who feature their dogs on their calendar!

Nachteile:

I truly don't have anything that I view negatively with the software.